Offspring Plan To Pre-Release Album For Free Via Website
The Offspring plan to offer free downloads of their new single "Original Prankster" beginning Sept. 29, and ultimately plan to make the entire album "Conspiracy of One" available for free at the band's official website well before its Nov. 14 release.
Additionally, each fan that downloads the album will qualify for a $1,000,000 gift from the band, with the winner to be announced on MTV the day of the album's release.
Singer Dexter Holland explained the band's decision to give away the money in a press release issued on its official website.
"This money came directly to us from our fans. We feel it would be cool to redirect it back to them. We are trying to launch our album with promotions that are fan supportive rather than fan exploitative. We feel that giving them our music and letting them have back some of their money is a great way to show how much they mean to us."
The Offspring experimented with free downloads for their last album, "Americana." In that instance, the band offered an MP3 of the single "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)," and according to Wired magazine, that song was downloaded 22 million times in 10 weeks, with sales of the album topping 10 million albums.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, a spokesman for the Offspring's label Sony expressed some skepticism regarding the band's plan.
"We certainly have very real concerns when it comes to unsecured downloading of music and piracy on the Internet, but we're hopeful that we'll arrive at a method that will protect everyone's rights and still maintain the integrity of the band's idea," said the spokesman.
On Monday (9/18), a Columbia Records spokeswoman said that no label response to the Offspring's plan has been prepared, but one is expected in the next couple of days.
The Offspring's manager Jim Guerinot told the Times that the new technology demands alternate methods of marketing. "What these industry attorneys fail to realize is that 'MP3' has replaced 'sex' as the most sought-after thing on the Internet," he said. "It's our job to figure out how to market, promote and sell music in cyberspace--not just unplug 25 million potential customers."
As part of the proposed idea, the Offspring will offer incentives for fans to buy the album in the form of extras available only on the actual disc.
"We decided that we would create a super fan club for those of our fans who actually buy our CD," Holland wrote on the band's website. "The CD has a key in the CD-Extra section that registers members to The Offspring Nation, our fan club. We figure since we make our music available to everyone for free this will act as a special acknowledgement to our fans who
go to the trouble to buy our CD."
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