Yahoo! News reports, veteran rocker Steve Winwood has tied up with "Access Hollywood" in an experimental marketing tie-up intended to demonstrate the commercial potential of file-sharing networks such as Kazaa, according to people involved in the project.
The deal is one of the first to use sponsored downloads to support commercial music on the same peer-to-peer networks that the music industry has blamed for an explosion in piracy and weak CD sales in recent years. "The major record labels are so afraid of file-sharing that they're missing the opportunity," said Bruce Forest, a principal in Jun Group, which brokered the unusual marketing alliance and helped place the free tracks on Web networks.
Winwood, a founding member of the group
Traffic, has made a previously unreleased, eight-minute live version of "
Dear Mr. Fantasy," freely available to digital file swappers. A separate video file, which is also freely circulating on networks such as
Grokster, includes footage of the Grammy-winning musician in rehearsal.
Each file includes a commercial blurb of about five seconds, similar to a radio ad, directing users to the Web site of syndicated TV program "Access Hollywood," which features other Winwood tracks and offers fans a chance to register to win an autographed guitar. A separate link on the same Web site sells Winwood's new independently released CD, "About Time."
The promotional deal was put together in conjunction with TV station owner Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., which has a stake in the syndicated TV program. In addition to driving traffic to the "Access Hollywood" Web site and collecting more information from viewers, the deal was also a chance to experiment with broadband media, said Hearst-Argyle vice-president for marketing Marv Danielski.
"It's really more like TV," Danielski said, adding that if sponsored peer-to-peer content can work as a way to promote music, it might also work in the future as a way for media companies to distribute mainstream TV shows and movies.
That would also allow media companies of all kinds to distribute content without having to maintain expensive network capacity, said Jun Group's Forest. "This is the first time that legitimate content is being distributed in this way," said Mitchell Reichgut, also a principal at Jun Group.
NBC Universal Television, a unit of General Electric Co., produces and sells "Access Hollywood." New York-based Hearst-Argyle Television owns 24 U.S. TV stations, including 10 NBC affiliates, making it the second-largest owner of stations affiliated with the network.
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