The Right Way Of Marketing
Dec 12, 02:41 by Stefan KoopmanschapThere are of course by now numerous download systems on the Internet for music distribution. As most people know, I oppose DRM, though mostly because of the fact that there are near to no DRM systems that are compatible with my main operating system, Linux. For this reason, I prefer legal download systems which provide the music in MP3 or OGG format. There are several. For the more popular music, there is of course www.eMusic.com which is an excellent way to get music, which has mainstream artists as well as a lot of independent music. Then there are systems that allow artists and labels to sell their own music on their own website, such as 1-2-3 Music Store which works quite well. But I recently encountered another system.
The system is a venture of a commercial organization, and the quite well-known Frauenhofer is one of the partners of this organization. The system is called Potato System and combines a regular MP3 distribution system with one of the most powerful ways of promoting music: word of mouth. It uses this word of mouth in a very powerful way by rewarding fans of the music for referring other people to the music: for each person that buys the album after being referred by a fan, the fan gets a certain amount of money from the sales.
Obviously, these kinds of systems can trigger people to start spamming, and so it is important to keep a close eye on what happens with such a system, however as long as you can keep the spamming to a minimum, I think this is one of the better ways of promoting independent music.
Word of mouth is a very strong, if not the strongest, method of promoting music, especially lesser-known music, and this system uses that power to the fullest. Everyone gains. The artist gets more exposure and more income. The label gets more exposure and more income. The fans get great music, and can actually earn money by sharing their opinion. And it prevents illegal distribution of music, because if a fan distributes the MP3’s illegally, he/she doesn’t earn any money on it! This sounds like quite a good deal to me!
I don’t expect the bigger labels to start using these kinds of methods, but for smaller labels and independent artists, this is definitely a good way of distributing and promoting their music catalog. As such, I definitely hope that more labels will start using this method of distribution, as I’d definitely be interested in using it.
Stefan Koopmanschap is always frustrated by the fact that he is willing to pay for downloads, but most download systems won’t allow him to because he doesn’t use the operating system with the biggest marketshare. Sometimes, he encounters good alternatives though.
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