I was at Schuler Books on Alpine today, and in the music section they had a big display for “microindie records”. There was almost no info about them, but there were a lot of cd’s and on top there was this little stack of cd’s in clear sleeves that said “free sampler cd!”. So I grabbed one.
The cd was a plain cd-r, nothing written on it at all. The sleeve had a sticker on it that said what songs were on the cd, who they were by, what album they came from, and their URL.
I’ve listened to both songs on the cd now, and they’re not my style. On the other hand, the groups ARE talented, I could tell that. It just wasn’t my style. The reason I’m blogging about them is the fact that I was so impressed by the idea of a sampler cd. I’ve never seen that before, ever. It’s like free mp3’s on a website, except I would probably have never found them otherwise. And I certainly wouldn’t have bought a cd without knowing even what style of music it was. It’s just poor luck on their part that I didn’t dig the tunes.
I think it’s an excellent marketting move, and I’ll be mentioning them to my friends who DO like that kind of music, which makes it a marketting success to a certain extent. I may even blog about it.
For those interested, the songs on there were kind of mellow grunge. I think. I don’t listen to that genre at all, so I don’t know who to compare them too. Free mp3’s on their site check’em for yourself.