Band
Gives Away Entire Song Catalog... inside an MP3 Player
instar uses new approach to promote "virtual album"
BOSTON, October 16, 2000 - INSTAR celebrated the release of the first single from the group's upcoming album by giving away an MP3 player...pre-loaded with the band's entire song catalog. The new song, "The Future's Going to Forget You", is the lead track from the band's forthcoming CD "Amusing the Enemy".
"We
wanted to do something unusual", says INSTAR front man Karl von Kries. "Every
group on earth promotes new releases with the usual nonsense like shirts or
key chains. We thought, why not give away something that's actually cool?"
To enter,
fans simply downloaded a track from the INSTAR website. Each song had a "secret
phrase" recorded at the end, which fans entered in a simple online form along
with their name and contact info. The contest ended on November 30th, and
Kimberly Sock of Cransville, PA was the lucky winner.
Founded in 1998 by von Kries, the group's self-recorded debut was called "Excellent" by London's NME magazine, and received much praise in the US press as well. "We were pretty surprised to get the nod from NME", says von Kries. "We finished the disc, stuffed in an envelope and sent it to NME, and forgot about it. We were totally surprised that a national mag like NME even listened to the disk… the fact that they liked it was amazing!"
Since then INSTAR has been on a roll, landing a gig scoring MTV director Patrick Smith's new short film "Drink". The band's website, www.instarmusic.com, delivered over 11,000 MP3s of INSTAR songs to fans in the past six months. All this activity suggested the right way to promote the group's new single.
"With all the downloads happening we thought, why not give away an MP3 player? We'll load it with every song we've done, plus a few special B-sides and out-takes", explains von Kries.
"The Future's Going to Forget You" introduces a harder sound for the Boston-based band. Featuring intense drumming by PJ Aylward of Portland's "Made for TV Movie", the track combines an intense rock feel with the spacious production that has become INSTAR's signature.
"The internet gives us a perfect way to connect directly to our fans", says von Kries. "Short of a live show, it's the best way to reach the people who like what we do".