Cult Musician Mojo Nixon Storms the Web
source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/10/22/cult-musician-mojo-nixon-storms-the-web/
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Cult musician Mojo Nixon hasn’t had a hit in years, but he’s moved over a million songs at Amazon.com so far this month.
The artist, who calls his revved-up rockabilly sound “psychobilly,” earlier this year cooked up a scheme to put almost his entire catalog up on Amazon.com, for free. “I’m losing a little bit of money in the short run,” Mr. Nixon says. But “in the long run, there is going to be much bigger Mojo awareness.” He and his online distributor, The Orchard, hope the move will lead to bigger sales and other opportunities, such as licensing more of his songs to Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
Mr. Nixon, who was hoping to get just 10,000 or so downloads out of the scheme, says he is very happy with the outcome so far. Typically, about 35,000 of his songs a week trade on illegal file-sharing networks, levels that largely haven’t changed since the promotion started Oct. 6, indicating a separate group of fans may be tapping into the songs.
“That would be much bigger than his traditional audience,” says Eric Garland, chief executive officer of filesharing consultancy Big Champagne LLC. “The people-who-bought-this-also-bought aspect of Amazon is going to make this really viral within the Amazon marketplace.”
Plenty of other bands have offered their music online for free, notably, Radiohead. But Mr. Garland says the sheer number of downloads– commeasurate with an artist with a much bigger fanbase than Mr. Nixon– makes this promotion stand out.
The artist, who calls his revved-up rockabilly sound “psychobilly,” earlier this year cooked up a scheme to put almost his entire catalog up on Amazon.com, for free. “I’m losing a little bit of money in the short run,” Mr. Nixon says. But “in the long run, there is going to be much bigger Mojo awareness.” He and his online distributor, The Orchard, hope the move will lead to bigger sales and other opportunities, such as licensing more of his songs to Hollywood and Madison Avenue.
Mr. Nixon, who was hoping to get just 10,000 or so downloads out of the scheme, says he is very happy with the outcome so far. Typically, about 35,000 of his songs a week trade on illegal file-sharing networks, levels that largely haven’t changed since the promotion started Oct. 6, indicating a separate group of fans may be tapping into the songs.
“That would be much bigger than his traditional audience,” says Eric Garland, chief executive officer of filesharing consultancy Big Champagne LLC. “The people-who-bought-this-also-bought aspect of Amazon is going to make this really viral within the Amazon marketplace.”
Plenty of other bands have offered their music online for free, notably, Radiohead. But Mr. Garland says the sheer number of downloads– commeasurate with an artist with a much bigger fanbase than Mr. Nixon– makes this promotion stand out.
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