Experimental rock poppers Wilco are giving their new album away for free in exchange for an email address.

Wilco’s special album landing page.

Despite the album already being on music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music (and available for physical pre-order) in exchange for an email address they’ll give it you for free.  Well, almost for free, they want something that is going to be of value to them in the future, your email address.

This is another illustration that your mailing list should be your primary focus for your marketing.  Your object is to acquire the email addresses of your fans. Unlike social media fans, this is data which YOU own and mailshots typically have a better response rate than social media posts.

Even if you use this tactic to give your music away for free, you can use that email addresses to generate revenue.  You contact your fans to get them to buy the physical deluxe editions of the album, the vinyl, a t-shirt or some gig tickets.  If you’ve not got a mailing list, get one now!

Read more about Wilco’s campaign here

http://blog.mailchimp.com/how-wilco-used-mailchimp-automation-to-release-its-new-album/

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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