[by Todd] Yes, I shamelessly ripped off the headline from the Bare Naked Ladies blog. But how can you not love a band that will spoof one of their own songs for a cheap thrill?
For my money there is nothing like BNL for sheer genius. Their lyrics are razor sharp and the music frighteningly addictive. But, if you think you can do better the guys from Canada are more than happy to let you beat them at their own game, with their own music.
BNL has ventured into uncharted waters by putting up their music and asking people to create their own mixes.
For the first time in Barenaked Ladies history we are making available
for download multitracks of our songs… It
is our hope that you will remix, re-create, re-edit, re-configure, and
realize what you will with these parts in coming up with your own
versions.
It would be easy to dismiss all this as a marketing ploy if BNL weren’t so famous already, and if the stunt didn’t play right into the band’s irreverent nature. It also has a great deal to do with the label behind the band’s release of Bare Naked Ladies Are Me, Nettwerk Music Group. Over at The Viral Garden, Mack Collier has a great interview with the Nettwerk’s Terry McBride. In that interview he talks about idea to let fans remix the band’s work.
This is all based on a simple principle, put the music where the music
fan spends their time and allow them to consume it how they want.
It doesn’t get simpler, or more powerful than that.
But the band isn’t giving away its music. It will cost about $2.50 to download a song with all it’s separate elements. Which leads me to this thought. Why not partner with an advertiser to sponsor the remix project?
Advertisers spend hundreds of thousands securing rights to music for their spots. If they spent just part of that underwriting the free distribution of the tracks, I’d bet they’d get back some amazing mixes that would sound great in a commercial.
Just a thought. Do with it what you will.
Already the success of the BNL remix project has convinced Sara McLachlan to offer one of her upcoming songs in a similar fashion. Given the appeal of her music, and her penchant for cause related marketing, you can imagine some powerful partnerships.
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