Taking a page from Radiohead's playbook, Coldplay decided to release a single, off of their upcoming album, online for free. Hitwise took a look at the boost in Web traffic that Coldplay.com received after the song was made available for download, and its findings reaffirm the power that free music has online.
Hitwise compared the U.S. traffic to Coldplay.com on Sunday, April 27th (which was before the “Violet Hill” was made available) to the traffic on Tuesday, April 29th, the day that the single was released. It found that traffic to the band’s Web site jumped a whopping 1,800%.
This boosted Coldplay.com to the top of the Bands and Artists category last Tuesday, as it took a market share of 2.53% in the category. This is equivalent to a little more than 1 out of every 40 visits to sites considered to be under the Bands and Artists umbrella. On the 27th, Coldplay.com was ranked at 305.
Defleppard.com (Def Leppard) ranked second on the list of daily market share in the Bands and Artists category with 1.91% of all U.S. visits, while Theclayboard.yuku.com (The Clayboard) ranked third with 1.73% of all visits.
Bill Gaither, Chris Brown, Neil Diamond, Beyonce World, New Kids on the Block, Dr. Sam and the Frivolous Action Blues Band, and Soulja-Boy all had sites that finished in the top 10 on that day.
Offering songs, and even albums for free online seems to work wonders for the awareness it raises for bands and their free music. More big bands will likely take a stab at this approach in the near future.
Source:
http://hitwise.com/press-center/hitwiseHS2004/
us-coldplay-free-single-01052008.php
Jason Hahn
e: jhahn221@gmail.com
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