How To Build An Email List From Real-World Foot Traffic

Chimpadeedoo just released an Android version making it even easier for storefront owners, musicians or artists of all types to build an email list, in person, even if there is no Internet connection.

Via MailChimp Blog:

“Ever since we released Chimpadeedoo for iPad, an app that helps you collect new subscribers from your tablet, many of our customers have been waiting for an Android version. If you’re not familiar with Chimpadeedoo, it’s an easy way for store owners, bands, and people who set up shop at trade shows or festivals to build their mailing lists. We’re happy to tell you that Chimpadeedoo is now available on Google Play for Android devices (and of course, the iPad version is still available on the App Store)….” [Continue Reading]

Music “Piracy” Is Nothing New And It’s Not Evil

That’s right, I placed piracy in quotations. Why? Because downloading mp3′s is no different than dubbing a tape for your friend back in the day or burning a copy of a record to CD, and that is not stealing, it is called “sharing”. It is our nature as humans to share things we like with others. This is nothing new. What is new is the technology we are using to share music now. It’s sharing on steroids! That is the only thing that is different.

Here’s what the music industry giants don’t realize though. I guess they don’t read news headlines that often.

Gizmodo reports:

“A study from the BI Norwegian School of Management has found that those who download free music from services like BitTorrent are also the biggest legitimate consumers of downloadable music.

In fact, among all 1,901 (global?) study participants (all of whom were over the age of 15), it was found that those who downloaded “free” music were 10x more likely to download pay music. In other words, music pirates are the music industry’s largest online consumers.

Note: “Free” music obviously implies pirated music, but it also encompasses legitimate free music download services.

The findings also included that, in the 15-20 age range, 50% of participants had bought a CD in the last six months. So that trusty format isn’t dead quite yet.

Since we relied on Google’s translation from the original Norwegian, anyone who speaks the language is encouraged to glean for more specifics and post them in the comments.”

Record labels that “get it” can be found freely giving away mp3′s of their music for their fans to sample. Great examples of this are Rumbletowne Records and Quote Unquote Records.

I know it seems counterintuitive to give away mp3s of your music if your goal is to recoup some of the money you put into recording and releasing your music as a CD or vinyl record, but it isn’t. You see, making money was never the issue when it comes to music, exposure was. As long as your band has raving fans, you will not starve… far from it actually.