Last Wednesday a few people started tweeting that “Free and Legal Music Downloads now available from @Qtrax – Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/qtrax18”. At first most of these tweets emanated from Qtrax’s PR firm based in West Palm Beach, FL and from one of its attorneys, followed by some company insiders and acolytes. The tweet...
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Tags: Abba, AC/DC, Allan Klepfisz, Beatles, Chicago Venture Partners, digital music service, Edgar Bronfman Jr., EMI, Fleetwood Mac, Green Day, iTunes, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, John Fife, Josh Groban, lawsuit, Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Madonna, Oracle, Paul Simon, qtrax, Rod Stewart, spiralfrog, Spotify, Warner Music
Posted in Digital Media, Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 4 Comments »
About a year ago a couple of start-ups announced their intentions to take the US by storm with a completely new take on ad-supported free mp3 downloads. Free All Music of Atlanta, Ga. claimed that they were going to give users free MP3’s by just viewing a little 15 second commercial before each download....
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Tags: ad supported, digital music service, free all music, mob, mp3, napster, qtrax, Rdio, ruckus, spiralfrog, spottily
Posted in Digital Media, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 2 Comments »
Music industry legend Clive Davis and guitar hero Carlos Santana teamed up this week in an historic effort to curb piracy. They released a CD not worth stealing. A couple of days ago I nearly won $140,000. Well, actually $70,000. A very senior major label A&R exec sent me a copy of Santana’s new...
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Tags: Carlos Santana, Chris Cornell, Clive Davis, Grammy, Guitar Heaven, Nas, Rod Stewart, Scott Stapp, Sony Music
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 8 Comments »
Everyone is aware of Warner Music’s claims to be the leaders in the digital music space. But perhaps they should get old school and consider adopting this new business model. I have a funny feeling they will after reading this: Music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked...
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Tags: Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Group, WMG
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 1 Comment »
The guys at Torrentfreak do a terrific job of covering the torrent and p2p scene. I’m always amazed at the stories they break and the excellent writing. And if I understand it correctly, they do it in their spare time when not at their day jobs. Last weekend they broke another story that I...
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Tags: anti-piracy, Carter Report, Digital Britain, Digital Media, digital music, file sharing, Marketing, p2p, record label
Posted in Digital Media, Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 1 Comment »
In case you haven’t heard, Michael Jackson died recently, leaving behind a lot of debts, a custody battle over his kids, an estate that must look like a rubic cube and AEG Live holding the bag. I’ve know Brandon K (Randy) Phillips, president of AEG Live, for 30 years, when he was a piss...
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Tags: AEG Live, concert, Michael Jackson, music, Randy Phillips
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 2 Comments »
Here’s a really good one for you. Last week EMI sales reps started making calls to many if not all of their small accounts, mostly independent mom & pop stores, to tell them that they would no longer sell them product!!! Were these accounts bad payers? Nope. Would they not stock catalog or new...
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Tags: Elio Leoni-Sceti, EMI, Guy Hands, music, record label, retail, Terra Firma
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 55 Comments »
Wimp soft rockers Coldplay are trying to get hip by giving away their new CD. Fans who attend one of their upcoming North American tour dates will get a free copy of their new live album The CD, called “LeftRightLeftRightLeft,” will also be available as a free download through the band’s website www.coldplay.com This isn’t...
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Tags: Coldplay, Digital Media, EMI, Marketing, music
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 6 Comments »
Remember all of those Napster gift cards you would see in grocery stores and 7-Elevens all over the country? Now when you go into most supermarkets you’ll see a rack of preloaded gift cards for everything ranging from your standard Visa card to an Outback Steak House gift card. I guess that they make a...
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Tags: EMI, Marketing, music
Posted in Music Biz, Stupid Marketing Ideas | 3 Comments »