Windows and ReverbNation Team Up Once Again to Provide Music Fans Free Music
A few months back, you might recall the first time ReverbNation and Windows teamed up to promote free downloads. The campaign was a success for both parties – many bands got some serious exposure, ReverbNation and Windows got some ad love, and some acts got to put a few bucks in the bank (which they need to take whatever they can get at this point, especially if they are just starting out.)
Now Windows and ReverbNation are back again with their latest free download campaign, dubbed “Playlist 7″ (obviously to promote Windows 7). The deal is pretty simple: ReverbNation picks emerging artists from it’s large user base and promotes them on the Playlist 7 website for one week, where they become “contenders” to become the following weeks “featured artist”, no doubt giving them a ton of exposure if they can get enough downloads to beat out the other contenders.
The “featured artist” list of 7 songs can easily be downloaded each week, a “compilation” of the previous weeks most downloaded tunes. Every artist who gets picked gets $57 paid into their ReverbNation accounts with a grand prize of $507 after the promotion commences.
“Windows’ generous sponsorship of this program means that more emerging Artists will be heard as well as compensated for their art,”
said Jed Carlson, co-founder and chief operating officer of ReverbNation.com.
“It’s a great way to bring bands and brands together for mutual benefit.”
Now, many will argue that this is not a lot of money for a band, but don’t forget they are also getting a ton of exposure out of the contest. The last promotion with ReverbNation and Windows saw many acts getting thousands of downloads and new fans, and in today’s music economy getting your songs on as many ipods as possible is the best way to build organic exposure for your music, hands down.
It’s cool to see ReverbNation providing their users with these kinds of opportunities, and I think we’ll continue to see more of them in the future. It’s a great way to partner with a big company but not neccessarily “selling out”, as really it’s not about the monetary compensation but more about exposure.
Debra from rock fudge trio Devi and our very own Label 2.0 (who is one of the 7 bands competing this week) is pretty excited to be a part of the promotion:
“Playlist 7 is really cool exposure for us and also great for our fans, who get to download songs from six other new artists, too. I love being able to offer them something in return for taking the time to go vote for us!”
So what does Windows get out of this? Well, in order to grab the free downloads, all you have to do is become a “fan” of Windows 7 on either Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. In other words, you don’t have to give them some kind of email address and worry about getting spammed to death. Becoming a fan on Facebook or following on Twitter is a pretty harmless thing to give up for some free tunes, and Windows does get some street cred out of it for putting together the promotion in the first place.
The promotion began last month, and in addition to this week’s 7 contenders, there are already over 600 other songs you can download, searchable by genre. Start discovering some of these emerging artists now, all free, by visiting Playlist 7.
