Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Using File Sharing in Viral Marketing

By Steve Blalock

There are probably ten million people online, looking for downloads at any given time. Of course, a lot of them could be looking for pornography or free software but still, reaching a minimum of a million people on any given day does offer some rather intriguing possibilities.

People like using file services to download music for two simple reasons, theyre free, and there is an incredible selection. The fact is Pandoras Box has been opened. In Napsters wake, other quasi-legal services quickly emerged a lot of them. Even if they are closed, others will succeed them.

Major record companies would like to think otherwise but they are probably never going to stop file sharing. Net users are file sharersplain and simple. Long before the Internet came into being, people made cassette tapes of their favorite music for their friendscd burners are so much easier and faster.

So how can you use this to help your viral marketing campaign along? Think about this. Once someone downloads your MP3 files and those files are available on that listeners hard drive, viral marketing begins. After two users start sharing your files, suddenly, your music is on the hard drive of a second computerthen a third and on and on. When users are searching and they find your music on a lot of different computers, they are more likely to download the files. Its just a matter of time before youll find your files showing up in more and more places.

No matter what genre music you playRock and Roll, Country, Tejano, Mozart sonatas, Heavy Metal, of Brazilian Jazz, there is an audience for it somewhere.

In this new paradigm, you arent hawking a product, you are offering free music via a medium that lets you be directly connected with your audience.

About the Author:

No comments: