I’ve ragged on our local dailies for being slow to embrace the glories of the ‘net, so it’s only fair I highlight the good stuff they do. Such as the Vancouver Sun teaming with local progressive record co. Nettwerk to provide a free 15-track downloadable album. Featured artists include Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Josh Rouse, the Be Good Tanyas and a bunch of acts I’ve never heard of.
(It’s not quite free. You have to give them your email address and indicate whether you’re a subscriber or not. We non-subscribers still get the music.)
The Sun reported there’d been 14,000-and-some downloads by late Sunday morning. The article also says the offer expires at 12:01 on Sept. 10, without adding an a.m. or p.m. to it, so who knows. There’s a video report on the initiative, although I couldn’t get it to play (Safari on a Mac), and while it’s branded Vancouver Sun, the title bar says it’s a Dose (another CanWest publication, formerly print, now online only) player.
Interesting. This pans across a couple of the early 21st century narratives: newspapers connecting with audience through the ‘net, music makers finding new ways to promote their stuff. You could say, as an online initiative, it’s a little tepid, but here in Vancouver we’ll take what we can get when it comes to our major media on the ‘net.
UPDATE: The Vancouver Sun article that I linked to has been updated and now reports that the total of downloads, as of 4 p.m. Sunday, was just over 10,000. Weird. I’d swear this morning’s report was that there had been more tan 14,000 downloads, but I can’t find the original article.
TAGS: MUSIC, VANCOUVER SUN, NETTWERK, RETHINKING MEDIA
