Marketing technique

[Tim]

I've noticed a couple of CD marketing efforts where the concept is to give a prize to the person who e-mails the most people about the CD. #If there's anything we don't need it is more junk e-mail. #My initial inclination is to not buy the CD (and the John Starling one would have been high on my list) as an admittedly small protest.

[travisburch]

I respectfully disagree. #I say kudos to these independenct musicians for thinking of creative ways to advertise. #Despite superior talent, we all know radio won't help them.

These guys are in a losing battle against the music biz already without us getting on their case!

[sgarrity]

Remember that even the superstars of our music are far from wealthy. They are just hard workin' folks who happen to have an amazing talent. We need to support them in any way possible so they continue to produce quality music. Afterall, we do have a delete key on our keyboards.

As for the Greencards.....I've only seen the live once and it was one of the best, most energetic shows I've been to. And it was for a very small audience! A lesser band might have just gone through the motions and left. These guys gave us a SHOW! I can't wait to buy their new cd.

Shaun

[Walter Newton]

I agree with Tim. I like the Greencards too, and I do sign up for email updates from bands I like - but I think this should be my decision. If a friend of mine likes a band and wants to tell me about it that's great, but I don't want them signing me up for junk email in the interest of winning themselves a prize.

[JEStanek]

I wouldn't mind "SPAM" from a person I knew. If I kept getting it from a friend(s) I would make a rule to delete based on subject line. I prefer music SPAM to the ordinary kind for Rx, African money laundering scams, stock quotes and porn.

It is a good way to promote music. Grassroots! Not everyone gets featured on NPR, or CBS Sunday Morning (both of which influence my buying) or CMT (which I don't watch).

Ideally, the e-mails include ways of choosing to be on an artists e-mailing list for tour updates and new releases. I'm on several of those and most get tossed after a quick glance but they are a good way to know when a band I like will be in my area.

By boycotting them for this you hurt yourself more than them... you miss out on music that you said you really would like to have.

Jamie

[sunburst]

I hate spam.
It's as simple as that.
There are others who feel the same way. I consider any email that I get from anyone who is promoting anything, anyone who got my email address from a source that I didn't intend them to, basically, anything I didn't ask for as spam.
From that perspective, promoting CDs through mass emails is a sure way to offend and anger people like me. Can that be good marketing?

[Got8Strings]

If I remember college philosophy class correctly Immanuel Kant recommended testing morality by applying the rule "let the maxim of your action be universal law". In other words, if everybody who had something to sell engaged in this sort of guerilla marketing what would happen? Well, you'd have what we have today, which is an estimate that about 40% of all email is spam - or worse.

I'm all for creative marketing, but encouraging spam should not be part of the plan.

[Scott Tichenor]

I've noticed a couple of CD marketing efforts where the concept is to give a prize to the person who e-mails the most people about the CD. If there's anything we don't need it is more junk e-mail. My initial inclination is to not buy the CD (and the John Starling one would have been high on my list) as an admittedly small protest.
That one raised my eyebrows. I gave them some press, but it's their job to make sure it's handled properly. Technically what they've set up is a mail relay tool which a spammer would love to maniuplate if possible. The real danger is if the programmer isn't real talented then you can automate submissions against that script and send out a few hundred thousand spams over night, which we all know, is when the internet is closed. I did a test submission sent to a co-worker and it emailed her some inappropriate source code in the email. Hope they got that ironed out. <me_slaps_head>