Séparadisques, a new Montreal based label recently teamed up with QuebecTorrent, a file sharing community to help spread the word for Maleteau, a new label signing. The label and artist offered some free music and the site promoted the release with banner ads throughout its community of users.
It provided the label a marketing opportunity at no cost and perhaps more importantly, a platform to prove that being pirate-friendly can lead to additional album sales. So far, it seems to be working.
However, QuebecTorrent has recently come under pressure by many local music labels and producers who have taken legal action and want it shut down.
Why would you not want to make at least some of your music available on file sharing networks, blogs, podcasts, etc. This exposure would certainly lead to more people buying your music and attending your live shows.
If you haven’t done so yet, read a recent study prepared for Industry Canada, entitled The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music and revisit my post about The Pirate Bay sponsoring a local band on their site.
[via QuebecTorrent]
