Good Leaks

10 May 2008

So last week I talked about the Coldplay free track giveaway. Since then it’s gone on to be downloaded – for free – over 2 million times. This week they’ve stopped the free download, and started selling it on iTunes.

So, you’d think that with over 2 million people having the song already – in essentially the same format as you get from iTunes – would dent the sales a bit, right? After all, isn’t this akin to the biggest, most publicised leak ever?

It’s currently Number 1 in the iTunes charts, ahead of the likes of Madonna, Sam Sparrow and Wiley, and looks set to go top 10 in the singles chart tomorrow on download sales alone.

I think you would say that’s pretty successful, don’t you think? Yes Coldplay are a big band and the strategy relies on their built up brand recognition, but how many more examples of free track promotion working are we going to have to have before we can put this ridiculous fear of leaks behind us?

In contrast, I think we can conclude that we’re almost over the ‘album distribution revolution’ before it’s even really begin. The Nine Inch Nails album (as talked about here) is one of their most cohesive albums in years, and a real triumph, but has got next to no press even though it’s been given away for free. You would sort of expect a whole load of online buzz about it at the very least, but I think they got all the press they were going to get when they did something similar on ‘Ghosts I-IV’.

Giving an album away for free no longer works as a promotional strategy.

That story has been written – it’s time to come up with a different one.

From: Articles

10 May 2008