Sales Crowd

By Samantha Gilmartin

 Today’s musicians, it would seem, go to great lengths in order to promote new material: Radiohead initially released InRainbows via download only, Coldplay gave away downloads to promote their new album whilst Oasis employed the raw talent of street buskers in New York to promote their latest offering, Dig Out Your Soul.

Manchester’s answer to the Beatles has really caused quite a stir with this latest offering to the public as hoards of excited and expectant fans gathered across the five boroughs of New York city in anticipation. The event was a collaborative effort between their label, Warner Bros, and the New York marketing and tourism organisation.

Brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher met the eager street performers early in the morning for a private rehearsal of the works. New songs; The Turning, Bag It Up, (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady and The Shock Of The Lightning were given to the buskers and rehearsed before they were sent off to various destinations across the city.

Aside from the rain, the performances were widely received as nothing short of excellent.

The idea of letting street buskers promote their new music is the latest way in which Oasis have shown their commitment to the Take It Away scheme, as pioneered by the Arts Council. The band have also agreed to give away sheet music for three of their tracks to readers of NME magazine in an attempt to encourage more people to pick up instruments.

Noel Gallagher, guitarist for Oasis, stated that “the gift of music is special… anything that can bring music into a kid’s life is an incredible thing.”

The Take It Away scheme is an initiative pioneered by the Arts Council which encourages young people to play a musical instrument. Take It Away is available to everyone over the age of 18 years and allows individuals to apply for a loan of up to 2,000GBP for the purchase of any kind of musical instrument. In the past 12 months alone, the Arts Council have given out 6m GBP in loans.

Not happy at just giving away their music for free, Oasis are securing their spot in the limelight for some time yet. Once the music has been distributed in NME’s 17 Septmeber, 2008 issue, the band will be holding a competition encouraging fans to send in their renditions of the songs. Entries will be sent to a micro-site (which is part of the official Oasis web-site) where they will be judged. The winner wins a VIP trip to see the band in concert - anywhere in the world.

This scheme sounds all very well and good, but one can’t help but recall Noel’s rants about giving music away for free. In reference to Radiohead’s latest offering, and proposal’s that Oasis might follow suit, the star commented ” I didn’t spend a year in the most expensive studio in England, with the most expensive producer in America, and the most expensive graphic designer in London to then give it away. F*ck that.”

So it would appear that Oasis aren’t just helping the Arts Council out, they are in fact attempting their own clever marketing tricks to help boost sales of the latest album. Did I hear somebody say that Noel is down to last 4m GBP?

In this modern day environment where you have to use every media available to promote your work, Oasis are really up against it. Reality TV talent shows dominate prime time slots, forcing pop music upon us and when you turn to the internet, there is always a band running some sort of promotion or give away in the name of boosting sales.

Music fans may remember RedBoxBlue’s attempt at breaking into the limelight earlier this year. The band used social networking site, Facebook, to promote themselves in a series of live streamed gigs entitled Five Nights on Facebook. They have since released a single and plan more gigs on the site in 2009.

Not the first to use the internet to create instant stardom, RedBoxBlue hoped to follow in the footsteps of Sandi Thom who became a legend after her webcast gigs from the basement of her home in 2006. The star, who is now famous for songs such as I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker and What If I’m Right, came under much scrutiny after the gigs were broadcast as critics accused her of working with larger companies to produce the gigs as opposed to the indie route that she so claimed.

With the release of Oasis’s new album quickly approaching, it will be interesting to see if the band’s own spin on clever marketing pays off. If so, we could well be seeing the emergence of yet another technique in the war on ailing record sales. In the meantime, we can all enjoy the legitimate free music offering without the worry of our ISP sending us nasty letters through the post.

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Samantha is an expert Research and Theatre consultant. Her current interests are UK shortbreaks including Alton Towers and Theme Park Breaks.

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