mymediamusings

Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now

Remember when blank CDs cost a few bucks a pop? Now, of course, their almost free. Combine that with the fact that more people are downloading music than ever before and it isn’t surprising to see CDs simply being given away by bands for promotional purposes.

Of course, there is still the issue of distribution. Distribution of hard goods is expensive. No way around that. Unless, of course, you piggyback on an existing platform.

That’s just what rising UK band McFly has done, partnering with a big paper in the UK to put a free copy of their album in every issue of the paper. Not only can the paper offer a free gift, but the band reaches thousands of potential new fans.

As TechDirt said:

“As we’ve noted in the past, this is a fantastic strategy for both newspapers and musicians. It helps both sides quite a bit, which is exactly what the band sees, noting that they just want to get more fans, and are hoping more will come see them on their latest tour.”

Cool.