Dave Weinberger Shows How Fans Can Help Support An Artist As Well

from the connect-with-fans dept

We're getting pretty much overwhelmed these days by people sending in different examples of artists embracing new business models or the concept of connecting with fans and giving a reason to buy. It's really great to see, though we just don't have the time to write all of them up. Still, some are unique enough to merit a mention. Michael Bennett Cohn alerts us to the fact that Dave Weinberger didn't just want to get more people to listen to the band Brad Sucks, he decided to pay Brad money for the first 50 people who downloaded his album. Brad Sucks has long been a big supporter of free business models, and eschewing copyright as being unnecessary. He's actually done quite a bit himself to try to better connect with fans over the years, and even though he lets you download all his music for free, Weinberger wanted to get more people to hear Brad's music, but also help Brad make some money. Apparently, it took about an hour for people to claim all 50 copies. This is similar, in some ways, to the experiment we wrote about a few months ago when the band Officer Roseland started offering to pay people a dollar to download its album. This is definitely different in a few ways, but perhaps the most compelling of all is that it shows how a fan can really step up and try to help an artist he or she likes, while also helping to promote the music.

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