Record Label Sells Sponsorship Of P2P Downloads

from the change? dept

Mon, Jul 9th 2007 2:37pm — Carlo Longino

Nathan Wilhoft was the first of several people to submit the story about Sprint "sponsoring" the P2P download of 16 million copies of a song by the artist Plies. Sprint is paying a "substantial six-figure" sum to embed its logo in the song (apparently as the cover art), so that when users play the downloaded track on their computer or MP3 player, it will be displayed. It's an interesting tactic, both in terms of an advertising strategy, but also on the part of the artist and record label. While the label is still focused on selling the music, this is another small step in investigating some alternative business models. What's slightly odd, though, is that MediaDefender is in on the deal. It sounds like it's the middleman here, hooking up the record label with advertisers, then also uploading the tracks onto the P2P networks. MediaDefender is best known for uploading spoof tracks to P2P networks on behalf of labels to thwart file-sharers -- so perhaps they do know a thing or two about uploading. But that company's involvement could also be taken as another sign that things are starting to change, and that the music industry realizes it needs to evolve to survive. But before getting too carried away, plenty of questions remain. Perhaps the biggest has to do with that 16 million downloads figure -- after all, once a track's onto P2P networks, how will the label control how many times its downloaded? Will users be allowed to actually upload and share the track on their own, with no fear of retribution from the label?

Filed Under: p2p, sponsorship
Companies: sprint

8 Comments

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Marc Cohen, 9 Jul 2007 @ 2:43pm

Sprint/Plies deal is great
This is a great move for the artist, the listner and the sponsor. The cost to produce and display the ad is nearly zero and this is revenue for the artist that he never would have realized. Check out the Ad-Supported Music Central blog: http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2007 @ 4:21pm

i wonder how the RIAA will react to that!!!

are we gonna see an article on techdirt soon about how RIAA is suing sprint and or MediaDefender
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2007 @ 5:29pm

Ok, so does this mean that the song is free to download because it supported by ads? Or do I just get the priviledge of seeing ads including in the price?
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- Slartibartfast, 9 Jul 2007 @ 7:23pm
  
  Re:
  Precisely. I could put up with ads if I'm getting the thing for "free" but if I'm expected to pay for it AND get ads I'd be looking for ways to delete the ad out of the product.
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Some One, 9 Jul 2007 @ 7:34pm

Or it could mean that mediadefender is just trying another method of entrapment and getting a bunch of IP's of people moronic enough to fall for this.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2007 @ 8:17pm

How many free root kits are included?
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colin, 10 Jul 2007 @ 6:55am

its not entrapment. its a movement to an advertising supported model for the music industry. the song remains free, but in exchange for getting the song for free, there is a small sprint ad (static, not pop up or anything) that appears in itunes, or on your cell/portable mediaplayer.

the reason mediadefender is involved is because they have the technology infrastructure to operate on the peer to peers.
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Big moo GH, 5 Apr 2012 @ 10:05am

Local song
Can i upload song from any part of the world?
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