Pay to listen

It is, of course, a wry stunt rather than a new business model: The Reclusive Barclay Brothers are offering 'incentives' to people who listen to their music, reports Music Week:

The video asked viewers to visit the aptly named site www.newlowformusic.com to submit their e-mail address and over the subsequent 30 days, the band will randomly pick 100 people to receive their £27 share of the cash.

The band claims that paying people to listen to music is the only logical conclusion to the current trend of giving music away for free.

It might just be a smart use of £2,700 worth of promotional budget - cash that might otherwise have gone on small adverts or flyposting. Can't help wondering if they might have been better off having one huge prize though. If you're going to turn fans into a lottery, make it a big lottery.

There is no sum of money large enough to compensate for listening to Olly Murs.

[Thanks to Peter D for the link]