Virgin Records are trying a new method of encouraging their consumers to purchase CDs, but this time it has nothing to do with lawsuits. They launched an online based video channels centred around the electronic rocker Mr. Harper last month and encouraging its fans to tell friends about the channel via E-mail. The E-mail sent out contains a link to the official site where they can download software to obtain multimedia content. They use a sort of 'chain-letter' approach such that for every five e-mails addresses a fan sends this to, they get one free track that was taped at one of Mr. Harper's concerts. Each fan is entitled
up to 21 songs, although that is if they find 105 e-mail addresses to send to
😉
Maven records claim that file-sharing is killing the record industry, but hope that this strategy of promoting its music will help. The Channel includes the music video for Mr. Harper's new single "Diamonds on the Inside" in an aim to expand its fan base beyond its main supporters. When a fan sends out E-mails, the record label will only count E-mail addresses that have not received this E-mail from anyone else. This is intended to spread the word of the music video to potentially new fans.
| In a marketing twist, Virgin Records is encouraging online sharing among fans of musician Ben Harper -- but no files are changing hands.
Record labels have blamed a huge sales decline on illegal song-swapping and have employed strong-arm tactics, including a raft of lawsuits against individual file-sharers, to get people to pay for their music. But EMI Group PLC's Virgin Records is trying a different strategy in promoting Mr. Harper: Last month, it launched a free online video channel centered around the eclectic rocker, and is enticing fans to tell friends about the channel by freeing up unreleased audio tracks taped at Mr. Harper's concerts. For every five addresses that they provide, senders get one track, up to a total of 21 songs for 105 e- mails. Of course, Virgin Records' word-of-mouth marketing strategy is very different than illegal file-sharing: The record label is trying to prevent the sharing of the video and audio themselves. Instead, the e-mails fans generate direct recipients to an official site to download software to get the multimedia content. Still, users have found holes, with some entering fake e-mail addresses to get the tracks and other fans trying to convert the encrypted tracks into files that can be shared. But analysts say providing incentives like free audio tracks is a clever way to co-opt some trappings of file-sharing as a marketing and e-commerce tool. Virgin is "tapping into the behavioral aspect of file-sharing, but in a way that's more appealing to people controlling the content," says Boyd Peterson, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. |
Unfortunately, the record label is now fighting a new problem with this technique. Consumers are managing to break the DRM protection to record their tracks to CD as well as share them over peer-to-peer networks. Some are even using fake E-mail addresses to obtain the free tracks! While fake non-existent E-mail addresses will bounce back an 'Undeliverable mail' e-mail, it still counts on the record label's system as a recipient. The record label has the technology to check if E-mail addresses are valid, but want to make the E-mailing process as simple as possible by allowing any E-mail address to be submitted.
Like with many other record labels that promote tracks online, Virgin use Windows Media Digital Rights Management to protect their tracks. While this does prevent direct burning of the tracks to CD, it does not stop someone from running an audio recorder in the background while playing the tracks down to even simply holding a microphone up to the speakers. Even the most sophisticated copy protections on audio CDs can be broken by simply connecting a CD player with a digital out to a PC sound card with a digital in, playing the protected CD in the player and recording the tracks on the PC.
Source: Yahoo Financial News
