Rock Band’s Web Giveaway Turns Marketing on Its Ear

Multi-platinum music sensation Offspring plans to rock the recording industry by posting an album on the Internet more than a month before the CD goes on sale.

The really radical idea, however, is that the punk band believes that its giveaway--the first by a major recording artist--will drive sales of the CD when it hits stores in November.

Offspring, ranked at one point in 1998 as the band with the most downloaded songs in the country, is directly challenging its own record company and the way music is marketed. The action comes on the eve of the recording industry’s court battle with Napster over the free flow of music on the Internet.

Sony, the record label that distributes the band’s music, has told Offspring to cancel the giveaway, describing the band’s plans as a contractual violation.

Offspring’s action--falling just four days before Sony and the other record giants square off in court against Napster--could have dramatic ramifications on the industry’s legal battle against online piracy. Analysts wonder how Sony can argue that Napster is killing profits when one of its top-selling acts is tapping the technology to promote its next album.

True to their rock tradition, Offspring band members say they plan to defy the warnings of attorneys at Sony and the record industry association.

“The reality is that this album is going to end up on the Internet whether we want it to or not,” said Offspring singer Dexter Holland, whose rock quartet has sold more than 23 million albums over the last six years. ‘So we thought, ‘Why don’t we just do it ourselves?’ We’re not afraid of the Internet. We think it’s a very cool way to reach our fans.”

In fact, this is only the first step in a very sophisticated marketing plan conceived by the band.

Offspring, unlike Metallica and other musicians suing Napster, says it views unauthorized Internet file swapping as a useful promotion tool that can help boost CD sales. The band’s last collection, “Americana,” has sold nearly 12 million copies since 1998 even though the album’s hit single, “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy),” was downloaded without authorization more than 22 million times on Napster and other sites.

“Original Prankster,” the album’s first single, is to be available for downloading next Friday at https://www.offspring.com and other sites online including Napster. The Orange County superstars intend to post the entire album by late October--nearly a month before the CD goes on sale in stores.

Offspring’s plan is built around a contest that will offer fans a chance to win $1 million simply by downloading the first single and registering their e-mail address with the band. The contest winner will be announced live on MTV on Nov. 14--the same day the album goes on sale in stores around the world. If fans respond to the contest, the band believes it has a shot at creating the largest e-mail database in the music business.

The band intends to use that database to entice fans to buy its new CD. To reward those who go out and purchase the disc, the band plans to e-mail an additional unreleased track once a month through spring 2001 and give away a series of original online animations. CD customers will also have access to other perks, such as the right to buy prime seats in advance to upcoming Offspring concerts.

“It’s our way of saying, ‘Hey, we know you could’ve just gotten it for free and we think it’s great that you went out and bought it,’ ” Holland said.

Not everybody involved is so grateful.

Executives at Sony Music, who have been wrestling with the concept of the promotion for months, declined to be interviewed. A Sony spokesman released the following statement: “While the band has come up with a million-dollar idea for their fans and we’re excited about the contest, we have very real concerns when it comes to unsecured downloading of music and piracy on the Internet. We’re hopeful that we can arrive at a method that will protect everyone’s rights and still maintain the integrity of the band’s idea.”

Offspring has been kicking around the idea of giving away music on the Internet for some time. Back in 1998, the band and its manager, Jim Guerinot, asked Sony if they could put up MP3 files of “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)” on their Web site before the song was released to radio stations. Sony adamantly opposed the concept and after weeks of tense negotiations, the group abandoned the idea.

As soon as the song became a hit on radio and MTV, fans began posting and pilfering unauthorized versions on Napster and other Web sites. In a Web chart published by Rolling Stone magazine at the time, Offspring was listed as the No. 1 downloaded band in the country. Wired magazine said 22 million computer users had downloaded the track.

Nonetheless, sales of Offspring’s “Americana” CD shot through the roof. The band dominated U.S. and foreign sales charts throughout the period, selling nearly 5 million copies in the U.S. and about 7 million more overseas.

“Digital downloading was not hurting our sales. In fact, it may have been helping,” Holland said.

Instead of joining much of the rest of the industry last year in threatening Napster, Offspring chose to tease the company by publicly championing its cause in a tongue-in-cheek promotional campaign during the band’s own concerts.

Offspring printed up unauthorized “Save Napster” T-shirts and began selling them at shows and at its Web site. Initially, Napster sent Offspring a cease-and-desist letter, but it quickly reconsidered and allowed the band to continue poking fun at it through the promotion.

While Offspring may have a friendly relationship with Napster, the same cannot be said for attorneys at Sony Music. When Guerinot and the band informed the company in March that Offspring planned to put up its next album on the Internet, Sony officials adamantly opposed the idea.

Industry attorneys have told the band that they are afraid that the download promotion could jeopardize the industry’s legal case against Napster and its 25 million users, who download unauthorized MP3 music files on a daily basis.

“What these industry attorneys fail to realize is that ‘MP3’ has replaced ‘sex’ as the most sought-after thing on the Internet,” Guerinot said. “It’s our job to figure out how to market, promote and sell music in cyberspace--not just unplug 25 million potential customers.”

Offspring is maintaining that Sony and other conglomerates have been violating artist contracts because they have failed in their fiduciary duty to stop piracy and protect copyrights in the digital world. Offspring contends the CD itself is an unsecured format and as soon as Sony releases the album, fans will be able to copy and post millions of MP3 versions of it on the Internet.

“How can record labels stop bands from doing what they are already allowing the rest of the world to do? That’s just too weird for me,” said Holland in an interview.

“In the end, if a band sells 12 million albums, what are we supposed to say? Oh, maybe we could have sold 13 million if we had just been Internet Nazis. Frankly, at a certain point, you have to say. Hey, let the people have the music.”

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Related stories are at https://www.latimes.com/musicweb.

* ANTI-PIRACY PLAN

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