Veteran rocker Steve Winwood has partnered with “Access Hollywood” in an experimental marketing alliance intended to demonstrate the commercial potential of file-sharing networks such as Kazaa, according to people involved in the project.
The deal is one of the first to use sponsored downloads to support commercial music on the same peer-to-peer networks that the music industry has blamed for an explosion in piracy and weak CD sales in recent years.
“The major record labels are so afraid of file sharing that they’re missing the opportunity,” said Bruce Forest, a principal in Jun Group, which brokered the unusual marketing alliance and helped place the free tracks on Web networks.
Winwood, a founding member of the group Traffic, has made a previously unreleased, eight-minute live version of “Dear Mr. Fantasy” freely available to digital file swappers.
A separate video file, which is also freely circulating on networks such as Grokster, includes footage of the Grammy-winning musician in rehearsal.
Each file includes a commercial blurb of about five seconds, similar to a radio ad, directing users to the Web site of syndicated TV program “Access Hollywood,” which features other Winwood tracks and offers fans a chance to register to win an autographed guitar.
A separate link on the same Web site sells Winwood’s new independently released CD, “About Time.”
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