In the last year alone, thousands of artists have given away their music for free, distributing their work via various BitTorrent sites and specialized music portals such as Jamendo.
Although some musicians opt for BitTorrent because they sincerely want to get their music out there, the majority make the choice because its their only option to get recognized. Roughly ten years ago label-less bands were stuck in their garages, but today they can reach out to a global audience by submitting their music to torrent sites and music portals.
Despite this new freedom, 99% of these artists only see their album being downloaded by a handful of people. Although quality is probably one of the reasons for this, lack of promotion is probably the number one reason. It’s often said that labels have lost their place in the digital age, but thus far there are few alternatives to the powerful marketing machine they provide.
In the past we’ve seen The Pirate Bay adopting the role of marketeer, as they have promoted several artists on their homepage, resulting in thousands of downloads. Other P2P initiatives such as Frostwire’s Frostclick service and Vodo’s BitTorrent distribution platform have been equally successful in marketing independent productions.
Inspired by the trends-setters, the people at BitTorrent Inc. have now decided to launch a marketing campaign of their own, promoting the mixtape debut of PAZ, titled Young Broke & Fameless. For uTorrent and its parent company BitTorrent Inc. this is the first step in a new direction, that of actively supporting artists who want to distribute their content using BitTorrent.
“We want to continue to build on the successes that we have already seen with Pioneer One and the Yes Men. In both cases, their creations were wildly downloaded and consumers showed their enthusiasm by opening their wallets and donating to these creators so that they can continue to make future content,” BitTorrent Inc. spokesperson Jenna Broughton told TorrentFreak.
In the cases of The Yes Men and Pioneer One, uTorrent participated in a campaign that was set up by Vodo, but now they have branched out to music, running their own campaign. For artists, getting promoted by uTorrent is as good as it gets. It guarantees massive exposure, as the client is downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people each month. BitTorrent Inc. on the other hand, is happy to help, and show how musicians can benefit from BitTorrent.
“There is a group of creators out there who are interested in using new distribution methods to reach a very large and engaged audience online. So, we are excited to continue working with creators who want to develop business models that work in today’s digital age and leverage the power of the BitTorrent platform,” Broughton said.
PAZ will be the first artist to pluck the fruits of uTorrent’s promotion service. His unique sound – a cocktail of rock, hip-hop and dance – has not gone unnoticed by music insiders, including LA super-promoter Tommy Alastra who labeled him the “Hottest new act right now, bar none.”
Is he really? You can find out for free by downloading a copy of uTorrent, via PAZ’s website, or just grab one of the many torrents out there.
