A new UK pop act have inverted all regular methods of promotion this week by offering to pay fans £2,700 to listen to their music. Taking a cue from The KLF’s subversive approach to pop, The Reclusive Barclay Brothers (pictured) are giving £27 to 100 fans that have registered their email address on the appropriately titled newlowformusic.com website.
Under the direction of Bill Drummond during the 1990’s, The KLF burned £1m of royalties earned from hit singles, fired a fake machine gun at the music industry audience during the Brit awards and deleted their entire back catalogue.
The Reclusive Barclay Brothers released their debut single ‘We Could Be Lonely Together’ on Monday through iTunes and bundled an instructional video with the song in which they explain how fans can apply to what they refer to as cash ‘incentives’.
They also explain that the reasoning behind this is that paying people to listen to music is the only logical conclusion to the current trend of giving music away for free.
In an amusing twist, the stunt was inspired by the 2005 payola scandal, in which major record labels were caught bribing radio DJs to play specific songs. Singer Pauline Johnston said: "We thought that payola sounded like a smart idea, so we decided to do our own version."
The band are apparently operating independently of any music companies and have funded their ventures, including the website, recording costs and making a video through a bank loan.
The debate surrounding giving away music for free flared up again recently when Prince released his new album through a cover mount on a national newspaper.
Last week, several music blogs were ordered to stop hosting a link to a free download of Radiohead’s album ‘In Rainbows’, even though the band themselves had originally offered the album for whatever the consumer wanted to pay for it, including free of charge, in 2007.
Of course, copyright still stands irrespective of how an artist chooses to release their music and subsequently, bloggers were ordered to cease and desist by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Although the LP was originally released using this model, it is now on- sale through iTunes for £7.99 following a more conventional and highly lucrative multi-format release on XL Recordings.
Generate Debate: What are your thoughts on The Reclusive Barclay Brothers' stunt and their music? Would you be paid to listen to them? It has certainly generated some invaluable publicity for their debut release but is unlikely to start a trend. Where do you stand on high profile artists releasing music for free? Is it confusing for music fans and does it devalue music?
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