Andre Yoskowitz
26 Apr 2007 13:06
Thanks to a three-year old company named Intent MediaWorks, P2P users will be able to download free and legal music via their regular P2P applications such as Limewire or Shareaza. What is the catch? When you start the download, a pop-up will appear asking the downloader to view an ad (either text or video) and in return they weill obtain the music legally and for free.
MediaWorks has done extensive testing on how to embed pop-ups in music and video files unobtrusively and the company says that surveys show that 60 percent of users are willing to endure the ads.
"Consumers don't want to rip people off," says Les Ottolenghi, president and co-founder of MediaWorks. "They just want to get music as easily as possible."
For the past few months, MediaWorks has been seeding P2P networks at a very fast pace. In February alone, its media content was downloaded 1.7 million times and the company expects that number to increase to 10 million by December.
For every 1000 views, it costs the advertiser $5.80 and usually $30 or more for videos, creating a healthy revenue stream for all involved. MediaWorks shares the money with artists and the record labels behind the artists which can choose to promote thier own artists in the ads.
A few of MediaWorks's customers include the Nettwerk Music Group, the group that publishes Avril Lavigne and Barenaked Ladies as well as SlamJamz Records. The company expects to sign one of the Big Four in the upcoming months.
So far users of Frostwire, Shareaza, Limewire and others have downloaded many tracks feauturing ads by Audi and Coca-Cola with many more advertisers in line to sign up.
This a very interesting concept and one that hopefully will become more mainstream when a Big Four Label joins the mix.
Source:
CNN