Music

Generation Free is also the iPod generation and the rise of the MP3 player has led to an unprecedented explosion of interest in music. To some extent, this has translated into increasing online sales.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the recording industry’s representative body, digital music sales in 2007 were up 40% on 2006 to an estimated $2.9bn, representing 15% of all digital income.

Yet at the same time, consumers have never been so reluctant to pay for their music. According to composer lobbying group British Music Rights, 63% of the British public who download music have downloaded music illegally, through sites such as Kazaa, Limewire and Bittorrent.

Paul Gayfer, strategy director at comms planning agency Goodstuff, believes the emergence of the freemium model on sites such as Last.fm and Spotify is a pointer to the future. He says: “Spotify allows users to access thousands of tracks and albums to stream for free, and to upgrade to a premium account for £9.99 a month, givng you an ad-free service, among other benefits.” Even artists and musicians have begun to adopt this business model. For example, Nine Inch Nails released the first nine tracks from the album Ghosts I-IV as a free digital download and sold the entire album for $5, as well as an ultra deluxe edition box-set for $300.

The band sold all 250,000 copies of the ultra deluxe edition of the album, grossing $750,000 for the band in just three days.

Online Games

Recent research from comScore Mediametrix revealed that online, free-to-play games reach approximately 40% of all people online. Companies such as Spil Games, EA, MSN and Miniclip are growing rapidly, taking advantage of this burgeoning enthusiasm for free online games. The largest player according to comScore, Spil Games’ global revenue jumped 125% in 2008.

Advertisers are flocking to the medium. UK-based free-to-play games site Mousebreaker recently partnered with the band The Prodigy to produce a new game as a key viral element in the launch of the album Invaders Must Die.

A classic shoot ‘em up, featuring music and artwork from the new album, the game is viewed by the band and its record company as an excellent way of connecting with potential buyers. As Paul Collins, publisher of Sticksports.com, which provides free-to-play online cricket, football, baseball, tennis and motorsport games to about 2.2 million visitors every month, explains, free-to-play online games are one of the most effective methods of targeting the key demographic of young professional men.

“Our users are male, aged 18 to 30 and work in an office environment. Seventy-eight percent of users do not yet have children and so they have the disposable income that makes them extremely attractive to advertisers.”

Jude Turner, client services director of agency Magnitude, which has produced award-winning games on behalf of Wagamama, concludes: “Send a game out to a database of 100,000 people and, on average, 15% of those recipients will forward it on to a friend. That’s 15,000 new people communicating with your brand. Then they forward it on, and so on. The joy of this model is that there is no end. Long after the initial launch, users can still be forwarding on the game you have created.”