Having your demo MP3s all over P2P before you've had a hit single: happy accident or clever buzz-building marketing ploy?

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It happened with the unreleased Scissor Sisters demo album, somewhere towards the end of 2003, just before the UK release of "Comfortably Numb". It happened with the Magic Numbers, towards the start of 2004. And it has just happened again with the Arctic Monkeys. On the strength of this "underground fan buzz", the Magic Numbers sold out two nights at the London Forum before their first major single release - and the Arctic Monkeys have just done the same at the Astoria. (Although both have also benefitted from ultra-rare limited edition singles.)

If this was accidental rather than planned on all three occasions, then something tells me that it won't be for much longer...

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Monday, 17 October 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

i'm already sick of arctic monkeys.

― Googley Asearch (Toaster), Monday, 17 October 2005 09:49 (twenty years ago)

hmm maybe i should sell my copy of their debut now

― vacuum cleaner (electricsound), Monday, 17 October 2005 09:50 (twenty years ago)

haha but it also happened with MIA!

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 17 October 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

a bit dud when everyone loves the album, yet no-one buys (and a big hello to the rapture if you're reading this).

― haitch (haitch), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:23 (twenty years ago)

Well, that's why I focused on the leaking of demo MP3s. They're strong enough to build an interest, but not strong enough to detract from sales of official releases (being under-produced/under-arranged etc). For the people downloading them, this instils a sense of ownership - that somehow, this is my band, and my discovery - or else it confers membership of an "underground" community of fans, who can all bask in the glow of having heard them before they were famous. It's skilful marketing - except that I'm not yet convinced that it is being run as a controlled promotions exercise. My hunch is that this will soon start happening, though...

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Monday, 17 October 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

I know there is another article from Wired about a promotion company that actually does this...only not with demos, but the real albums...but here is an article from a few months back about Steve Winwood experimenting with P2P promotion...short but interesting...

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64128,00.html

― bobby.lasers, Monday, 17 October 2005 11:11 (twenty years ago)

Winwood needs all the help he can get if his "new" track is Dear Mr. Fantasy

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:17 (twenty years ago)

i'd take winwood's worst over arctic monkeys any day of the week

― vacuum cleaner (electricsound), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

this is currently happening with the guillemots, too.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 17 October 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

Test-Icicles are all over 5l5k and have been for months.

― Emo Thunderboy, Monday, 17 October 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

are you talking about the "leak" or the "all over"? the leak may be marketing, but they won't spread virally unless people are into them. buzz alone will only do so much.

― mitya forgot his frigging password, Monday, 17 October 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

Test Icicles demos were readily available on there several months ago. I guess they sold them at gigs prior to Domino picking them up.

― Emo Thunderboy, Monday, 17 October 2005 23:42 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty much convinced that 95% of the artists that are getting a "grass-roots buzz" going actually have some kind of marketing force behind them, whether professional or just their own cleverness.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 17 October 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

Test Icicles.

Really.

4th generation US pop-punk band names now = zeitgeist of ideas in Cool Britannia.

/scorn

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 17 October 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

six years pass...

Innocent days.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:28 (thirteen years ago)

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