After reading back over the last post I can tell what most people must be thinking. “That’s all well and good, but those things don’t actually work!” I can assure you they do and they are becoming more and more common as the studios and recording companies put a stangle hold on their artists, directors and how their final products are marketed. They’ve said that no one can ever succeed by relying on the generosity of others, but the cases highlighted here in this post, not only prove it is possible, but are sources of inspiration.
Case 1: Steal This Film 2
Download number: Around 2.7million
Viewed: Approximately 4.86 million people
• -Steal this Film (1 and 2) are documentaries about the past present and future of file-sharing.
• Instead of charging the viewer money in order to obtain the films, they were distributed solely through Internet distribution and downloads. Steal This Film II is also currently available in its entirety on YouTube.
• Downloaders were no charged anything to download the movie, but were asked to leave a donation to help fun future projects.
• Within the first 4 days after its release, there were 150,000 downloads and over $5,000 dollars donated.
Case 2: Independent Filmmakers and Musicians
Movies that have been promoted through BitTorrent:
Nasty Old People : Written and Directed by Hanna Sköld
• Instead of turning to traditional marketing methods that would have cost her thousands of dollars without the guarantee of a payoff, Hanna Sköld approached The Pirate Bay about forming a partnership to release her debut film. Always caring to help out fellow Swedish artists, The Pirate Bay readily agreed. The title and logo of the film was hosted on the main page of the site and the film was uploaded as a torrent for people to download and view.
Music artists that openly shared their music via BitTorrent:
Radiohead
• Musical artist Radiohead are leading a coalition of other artists in escaping from underneath their record labels’ control. They currently belong to FAC (Featured Artists Coalition) along with other notable artists such as Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, KT Tunstall and others.
• In early August 2009 a new Radiohead song was leaked. No one knew at the time where the track had come from, until a posting appeared on the band’s Dear Air Space blog. It explained that the band was very proud of their new track and hoped their audience loved it as well. At the bottom of the posting were two download links, one of which linked to the original torrent uploaded to Mininova. Radiohead leaked their own song.
Familjen
• The Pirate Bay was known to supporting Swedish artists that they liked. This was no different for the Swedish band Familjen. In 2007, the Swedish Grammies changed the voting procedures. Instead of having a panel of judges pick the winners, they allowed the public to vote for the artist they thought deserved to win.
• The Pirate bay caught wind of this and posted a logo on the front page of their site, suggesting that visitors of the site should vote for the band. Their album was also available for download free of charge.
• That year, they won a Grammy due to the overwhelming support that came from the BitTorrent community.
More and More artists are turning away from the traditional distribution models that require the direct involvement of major record labels and film studios. Instead, they are turning to a free marketing and distribution plan offered through use of the vast BitTorrent network. By removing the meddling of the labels and studios, artists are having direct access to their profits and are slowly gaining more money than they would using the outdated business model that the industry is still trying to promote.
