Joe Pug's Manager Uses "Free" To Promote Another Artist
A common paradox for indie artists is that while knowing that filesharing can be a great promo tool, they also need to make money selling music to survive. Skybox, managed by Don Bartlett who also manages D.I.Y. legend Joe Pug, decided to talk to their fans about the problem and offer a solution.
"We’re totally cool with (filesharing)," the band recently wrote their fans. "We’re pretty broke too, and like listening to tons of music that we can’t always afford…. the most important thing to us is that you get to enjoy our music. But the flip side to that...(is) when you buy our albums, literally every penny goes to promoting our music and getting out there to play shows."
The Band Makes A Proposal To Fans -
Skybox offered a win/win proposal to those who download their record from a filesharing sites, "If you like the album, pick your favorite song and email it to 10 of your friends." They even make it easy to do by including a "share" button on all the player's on their site.
It's the kind of strategy that's worked for Don Bartlett with Joe Pug. "I stress to my artists from day one that giving away free music is a crucial part of their strategy as a developing artist, he told Hypebot. "To be effective, though, you need to make sure that you're getting some sort of value in return for it. In many campaigns this takes the form of an email address, but in the case of filesharing you don't have that option."
"Do I suspect that everyone who downloads the album will respond to it?", Bartlett continued. " Of course not. But I do think there are plenty of fans who will relate to the logic, and be glad to help out the band in return. And if you give them the right tools to do that...and that includes everything from well-designed widgets to simple suggestions ...I think it can be another modest but effective tool for bands."
"Regardless of your moral stance on filesharing, I think it's important to always be working to bring fans into the fold rather than marginalizing them," he concluded.
