EMI Brings Newspaper Free Music Giveaway To The US

from the but-what-will-retailers-think... dept

You may recall last summer that Prince made some news by giving away his latest CD to every subscriber to a UK newspaper. The newspaper paid Prince for the promotion, suggesting interesting new business models that could help two industries at once: both the newspaper industry and the recording industry should benefit from such deals. The newspaper pays some money to the musician, but does so in order to get the promotional benefit -- making both sides better off. Of course, music retailers were upset, threatening to boycott Prince, but that seems like a fairly minor concern. The success of the promotion appears to have gotten the attention of at least one of the major record labels. EMI, who is under new management and seems to recognize how it needs to change, is doing a deal with the NY Daily News to give subscribers access to three free downloads. There will be an access code in the paper, and if you punch it in to the Daily News' website, you'll get to pick from a large list of songs (including at least one unreleased track). Again, this seems like a perfectly reasonable strategy, helping two separate industries in one shot -- though, again, it's likely that music retailers aren't going to be thrilled.
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Filed Under: free music, music, newspaper
Companies: daily news, emi


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  • identicon
    fat Tony, 30 Jan 2008 @ 4:44am

    Adapt

    The brick and mortar retailers are going to have to realize that as soon as the entertainment industry gets thier collective heads removed (probably forcibly) from thier collective rectums that a new business model is in order. They will still have a place in the world, but that place is going to be drawn to a different scale. Perhaps having all your eggs in one basket isn't so safe after all...
    For the major distribution companies to adapt may require them to modify what market they are truly in. Making media available can come in many forms. Say...fast network connectivity to a legal download server array hosted by ye old record label?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RE Huff, 30 Jan 2008 @ 6:06am

    Free Music in newspapers

    I think it is a great idea, however, put it into an national newspaper like USA Today. I am not a USA Today advocate, as a matter of fact, I hardly ever buy it. I would be more likely to purchase it or even subscribe if it gave me more of what I like.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2008 @ 6:15am

    Hey, I have an idea, why don't movie studio's start making toys out of some of their movie characters and start selling them in stores? Maybe they could work out a deal with McDonalds to give toys to kids when they get a meal. You could call it a "Satisfied Meal" or something like that.

    So many articles on free, and it really isn't new. This has been around for a long time, even before the Internet.

    Nothing new at all here.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    chris (profile), 30 Jan 2008 @ 6:29am

    BRILLAINT!!

    it's a great new idea, kind of like a partnership between the titanic and the hindenburg: your ticket stub from the shipwreck can be used as a discount coupon for a seat to the explosion.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2008 @ 7:05am

      Re: BRILLAINT!!

      Wow, chris, you should be a standup comdedian. Seriously. That is the funniest thing I have ever heard and I have heard a lot of funny things. Do you stay up at night dreaming out your material or does it just come to you? I am fascinated. Heck, I think I might be in love with you. This is incredible. I think I have found the one. I cannot wait to read your blog. I bet it is so funny. Who wants to bet me that chris' blog is really funny? Who knew that comedic genius existed right here on techdirt? It is amazing. Just amazing.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    shanoboy (profile), 30 Jan 2008 @ 7:24am

    Retail locations suck

    I was at the mall the other day and went in a FYE (cd/dvd) store. They were asking nearly $20 for a CD!

    Have they not learned anything? If they're so inflexable with their pricing while it is so easy to simply go somewhere else for a cheaper digital version of their product then why shouldn't they go out of business?

    Instead of being mad at the innovators for killing their out dated business model they should be looking for ways to innovate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    censored, 30 Jan 2008 @ 7:55am

    Censored

    Apparently, you think you need to censor people. That is sad. I thought you were about the freedom of ideas and not suppressing them, Mike. Oh well, you are truly pathetic if you are censoring people.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 30 Jan 2008 @ 10:31am

      Re: Censored

      Apparently, you think you need to censor people. That is sad. I thought you were about the freedom of ideas and not suppressing them, Mike. Oh well, you are truly pathetic if you are censoring people.

      Huh? What censorship? We DO NOT, HAVE NOT and WILL NOT censor people. We DO have a comment spam filter, powered by Akismet, which sometimes catches some false positives (but, considering it catches about 5000 comments per day as spam and only about 5 false positives, it's pretty good.

      We check the filter every few hours for false positives, so even if there was one, it should have showed up within a few hours.

      We do not censor.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tony, 30 Jan 2008 @ 8:32am

    Good for them!

    It's nice to hear a voice of reason coming from that industry.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Marc Cohen, 30 Jan 2008 @ 9:04am

    Pepsi (Amazonmp3) Lite

    This is the same thing that Pepsi and Amazon will be doing on Super Bowl Sunday but on a much smaller scale. I think that using free tracks as a sales promotion tool is a good idea. In regards to the Pepsi promotion I have written on my blog that the free tracks should be embedded with a short We7 type ad. Check out that post at: http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/2008/01/amazonpepsi-promotion-misses.html

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      No ads please..., 30 Jan 2008 @ 9:53am

      Re: Pepsi (Amazonmp3) Lite

      Yeah, I don't know about ad supported music. I would think an ad attached to the mp3 would annoy most people. I personally don't want to hear an ad everytime I want to listen to a song, it is likely to have an opposite effect on me.Of course as "founder of Lirix, Inc., www.lirix.net, the developer of on-device dynamic ad insertion and a pioneer in the field of advertising supported music." I am not sure how objective your opinion is on the matter.....

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lisa Creech Bledsoe, 31 Jan 2008 @ 6:47am

    EMI gets smart

    Finally! Do you think more music distributors will get smart now too? (Are we there yet?)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
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