Techdirt: Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads

Techdirt: Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads

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Techdirt: Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads Techdirt About Contact Us Your Preferences Main Submit a Story Advertise << Cheap Storage, Digital Pack Rats... Opening Up New Possibilities | Turns Out Those Six Thousand People Who Are Your 'Friends' On MySpace Aren't Really Your Friends >> Culture by Mike Masnick Tue, Sep 11th 2007 8:41am Share This Filed Under: canada, downloads, music, newspapers Companies: nettwerk, vancouver sun Permalink. Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads from the that's-the-spirit dept Earlier this year, there was a huge fuss over the UK's Daily Mail newspaper's promotion giving away the new Prince CD for free with a copy of the newspaper. It seemed like a pretty good way of dealing with the troubles facing both the newspaper industry and the recording industry -- offering a new way of financing music combined with a new way to promote and distribute music, all the while helping give people a reason to actually buy a newspaper. It was so reasonable that it freaked out the recording industry, music stores and even other newspapers. However, it appears that some newspapers have decided to go even further. Michael Geist lets us know that over the weekend, the Vancouver Sun put up a freely downloadable compilation of songs from Nettwerk Music. You may recall Nettwerk as being the Canadian record label that seems to actually understand that the trick isn't in fighting against consumers (or in suing them), but in giving them what they want. Thus, it's not really a huge surprise that it would be this label that took part -- allowing well known acts like Sarah McLachlan and the Barenaked Ladies to take part in this promotion. What's a little strange is that the promotion only lasted for one day. However, it is good to see more newspapers (and bands) at least experimenting with this type of model. It has a long way to go, but through this experimenting the next generation of music business models are going to be discovered. 10 Comments | Leave a Comment.. Reader Comments (rss) (Flattened / Threaded) by Roger - Sep 11th, 2007 @ 10:06am Not to quibble, but the promotion lasted at least 4 days. The article you link to was dated last Friday; I downloaded the album yesterday. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) by Anonymous Coward - Sep 11th, 2007 @ 10:48am Why do I keep hearing about new business models for music. There is only one model now and it is to give your recordings away. If you want to get paid, play it live. All other models have become a joke. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) DRM? by comboman - Sep 11th, 2007 @ 10:48am The article doesn't mention whether the songs are infected with DRM. I've "won" dozens of downloadable songs in candy wrappers, fast food contests, etc. but I've never claimed any of them. Even when free, the hassles of DRM are not worth it. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) Re: by Anonymous Coward - Sep 11th, 2007 @ 11:08am Only one model huh? You are almost as imaginative as the big record labels. Maybe you should send them a copy of your resume. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) Re: DRM? by Anonymous Coward - Sep 11th, 2007 @ 12:09pm I downloaded the album; it came as a ZIP file with MP3 encoded files. So, no DRM. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) eMusic by PaulT - Sep 12th, 2007 @ 1:48am The interesting thing about that tracklisting is that I recognise at least 2 of the tracks from eMusic's free daily download page. Also, I'm pretty sure that the full album by The Format was given away on their website for a while. So, whereas the Prince promotion was an exclusive for one outlet channel, Nettwerk are simply using the newspaper as a complementary method of getting their music out there, which is entirely the point of course. By the way: the the "anonymous coward". Do you honestly think that nobody got paid for giving away these downloads? The newspaper will have paid royalties to the label, who will have passed on some of those royalties to the artists. Just because nobody's handing over money directly for the MP3s, it doesn't mean that nobody gets paid. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) Re: by AngryYoung Man - Sep 12th, 2007 @ 6:06am how did you do it? there's no button on the site. (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) hahaha by bob - Sep 26th, 2007 @ 10:54am weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee = ) (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) by uujuj - Sep 26th, 2007 @ 11:00am what is that bob guy going on about any way (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) bitch by afghan - Mar 5th, 2008 @ 5:28pm ass wipe, fagat/ bitch, triple loser, asshole, mother fucker (reply to this comment) (link to this comment) Add Your Comment Name Email Get Techdirt’s Daily Email URL Subject Comment this is for spambots, do not use this Options Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break
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