Steve Winwood Promotes CD Via P2P
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steve Winwood dipped a toe in largely untested waters this summer by giving away a track from his latest album on peer-to-peer networks. The experiment appears to be working out.
In the past month, Winwood’s label has seen a noticeable increase in record sales thanks to a promotion that included releasing a free song and video over file-trading services. The campaign was part of an experiment in whether peer-to-peer can be used to create buzz around an artist and drive up sales.
Winwood’s independent record label, Wincraft Music, said sales of About Time have sold up to eight times the number of records in some regions since June 15 when an audio file of one track, Dear Mr. Fantasy, made its way on to peer-to-peer networks. At the same time, a video of Winwood performing the song live and another video of a rehearsal were distributed on Limewire, eDonkey and RazorPop. The album has also been promoted through television commercials.
“There’s really no other medium that can reach the quantity of people in such a meaningful way in such a cost-effective manner,” said Lisa Protter, a spokeswoman for the Jun Group, a marketing firm which coordinated the release of the digital media files.
