Heard on the news that Alicia Keys had just put her premier album, The Element of Freedom on her Facebook Fan Page for free. That’s right, an entire album of her newest music – absolutely free to listen to.
Not just part of her new album, or part of her songs. The entirety of her new work is there to enjoy. Alicia has over 1.3 million fans on her Facebook Fan Page. And already you can see how many times each track has been clicked and listened to. As of this post it ranges from 5,000 – 11,000 times per track.
Why would anyone give their stuff away for free? To be clear, the application comes from a company, Involver and you can’t save or download the music. You can only listen to it via their Facebook application on her Fan Page. And, from a marketing standpoint that’s the beauty of it.
It will be interesting to watch how many more fans Alicia attracts to her Facebook as word spreads virally about the free music. I heard about it on GMA this morning and immediately searched, “Alicia Keys” on Facebook. Clicking on her name in the results brought me to her Facebook landing page for non-fans – The Element of Freedom” music page. I clicked to become a fan and started listening to her music. I then decided this was too great a thing to keep to myself. I wanted to immediately share it with all of you.
And that’s the essence of great marketing. Create interest and demand for your remarkable content, give it away in limited fashion, let others spread the word and see if they don’t just want to preorder it from Sony Digital Music for only $15.99 (available via a sidebar ad on her page).
Brilliant.
Go ahead. Try not to look up her Fan Page on Facebook and listen to her amazing, free music!
