Groove Armada and Bacardi Pyramid Scheme

I recently read that Bacardi and Groove Armada (GA) partnered in a social networking experiment to, "embrace free music while giving it value", according to a GA band member. Music Ally, a blog I try to follow, is fond of the experiment.
Here's the dirt: one may download Track One of GA's new album entirely free. In order to download subsequent tracks, one must pass Track One on to other people via any number of methods including widgets on Facebook. To get Track Two reach must be 20 people. Track Three requires reach from Track One to be 200. Track Four is 2,000; presumably track five is 20,000. Oh, and there is a time limit - forty days - after which I presume you can just buy the entire album (but I don't know). Music Ally loves the idea and is working hard to build up its reach (see update).

Let's do some math:
I have a lot of friends on Facebook with friend densities of 35-100. I also have a few friends who are in the 300-5,000 density range. Let's be generous and say that the average is about 200 Friends. Let's also assume that one in every four friends likes GA or Bacardi rum and thus wants to try to get some tracks off the new album. Then these 50 people send it to their network, which consists of 200 people. Let's assume that everyone that receives track one tries it (big assumption). Let's also assume that the networks do not overlap (also a big assumption).
10,000 people get Track One free.
50 people get Track Two and Track Three free.
Then, if each of those 10,000 send Track One to 50 friends who try it, we're at 500,000 free downloads of Track One.
10,000 friends get to try Track Two.
All in forty days...like Lent.

If this is going to work, Track One and Track Two better be spectacular! There is a big difference between getting something for free and choosing to buy it without a sample - even if it is less than a dollar.
I bet this is the longest forty days of Bacardi's and GA's life!

There are a few reasons I like this:

• It's a new approach to giving value to free downloads; it's sort of creative and it's a start.
• If done properly (partnered with sponsors (Baccardi) holding lots of cash) it can really build a buzz.
• This could work really well with an entire catalogue - either artist's catalogue or label catalogue, but that would require a music search engine that bases searches on something relevant, like...music (like Hounds to the Music is creating).
  

And more reasons that I don't:

• Pyramid Scheme. GA is the Amway of music.
  
• If you're going to have a timeline for such a promotion, you've got to have a lot of launch momentum to get the word out - the first fans to download Track One are key and there better be a lot of them. This is tough for budget-conscious independent, emerging musicians trying to make a buzz.
• What if you don't like Track One or Track Two? If you don't you won't spend much time trying to get Track Three for free.
• A better idea is to have your choice of next tracks to download after track one, provided you meet the "reach goals". I'm not sure why this was not an option - maybe it was too challenging logistically.
  
• GA can put all the great tracks at the top of the album and leave the let's-just-finish-quickly-songs after track four. Did they do that?
  
• Is coaxing your 2,000 best friends to download music so that you can benefit with another track really the best use of your time? Or would you rather spend the $3 for the first four tracks? If you really dig GA, you'll probably spend much more than that to get your choice of songs from the album.

And your thoughts?

Developing Taste

I'm a new blogger on Hounds to the Music. If you're like me, you appreciate knowing where writers are coming from before you subject yourself to their strong opinions (musicians always have strong opinions). So it's only fair to share a little about my music interests before I dive into things.

I grew up playing piano and french horn (my mom was a piano teacher and my dad a band director) so I have a classical background. My parents listened to New Age piano music like David Lanz and George Winston, so when I first started writing my own songs on the piano, that's what dripped out of my fingers. It drove me crazy. I didn't venture out and start listening to my own music until junior high and high school, but I still didn't have my bearings. It was a matter of switching on the car radio and playing the top 40 because I was young and didn't know any better. (But let's admit it--the 90's was a pretty decent era, wasn't it? REM? Counting Crows? Blues Traveler? Cranberries? Ah, the memories...)

Luckily by late college I had finally formed a solid list of likes and dislikes. Like most musicians, my list of likes is a lot longer than the dislikes because variety is what makes the world and my ears spin:

Likes
Acoustic
Rock
Alternative rock
Pop
Punk
Hip-hop
R&B and Soul
Electronica
Jazz
Folk
Celtic
Latin
Classical
Musical Theatre (that is, if it can be a genre of its own. I'm a sucker for it)
some Emo (but not the whiny kind. Trust me, non-whiny Emo exists)

Dislikes
Opera
Country
Smooth jazz
Some rap (too much gets old)

Some favorite artists right now:
The Hush Sound: alternative rock/pop
Mates of State: alternative rock/pop
Iglu and Hartly: 80's hip-hop
Ben Folds (will always like him. Love piano rock)
Neil Cowley Trio: jazz
Greg Holden: acoustic/folk

Now I prefer to listen to indie music if I can wade through all the sites online that claim to have it. But it's difficult to find artists who have both good music and lyrics (although like Carl I'm a music person more than a lyrics person). It's difficult to find the kind of music that matches my mood at that particular time of day. It's difficult to find truly talented artists who know anything about music beyond the standard chord progressions, and who aren't just in it for the fame and money. But now, with this website on the horizon, no worries. Hounds will be the one-stop site that will match visitors with the perfect music.

Until then, maybe you have a better story to tell about your musical upbringing. What influenced you? When did you start listening to music you actually liked?

Getting started

At Hounds to the Music, LLC we are working to change how independent music is discovered. We're currently working out the glitches of our prototypes in anticipation of a Beta launch sometime in summer 2009 (fastly approaching!). A few of us thought it would be great to begin blogging about the things we think about as we are building up to our launch. Not surprisingly, we think a lot about music! So we're going to write about music.

I'll start by writing about a song I've dug since I first heard it. If you like contemporary jazz (not the cheezeball jazz, but cool poppy-jazz with good progressions, tight instrumentation and musicianship, ebbs and flows) you should give this tune a try. The song is called "Fire Dance" by Armen Chakmakian. He's quite a pianist and this is song is energetic. The sound has influences from contemporary jazz, pop, world (Arabic and Armenian), fun rhythms and a lot of piano flare. Honestly, I never grow tired of that tune. If you prefer a little more mellow piano contemporary jazz feel, there is also "Rain, rain go away" that can be found at the same site. Another good tune, although there is an instrumental portion in the song that I could take or leave depending on my mood. I'm not a fan of all the stuff he's posted at this hosting site, but there are other jems there as well.