WASHINGTON (Distributed Computing
Industry Association press release/ www.dcia.info) - The Distributed Computing
Industry Association (DCIA) today announced that its Member companies are participating in the first simultaneous retail and file-sharing sales promotion of a major rock-and-roll album.
The album is Heart's critically acclaimed "Jupiters Darling," about which the Associated Press wrote "the hit-making sister act of Ann and Nancy Wilson is back with a vengeance."
With sales of more than 30,000 CDs and 2,000 digital tracks, the album is yielding significant sales via the secure Weed format redistributed through peer-to-peer (P2P) software programs such as Kazaa and Grokster, which are offered by DCIA Members.
In the past week, the number of tracks purchased through the Weed file-sharing process has outnumbered those purchased through iTunes.
"The future is here," said DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty. "DCIA Member companies today deliver the final proof that artists can be fairly compensated AND consumers can enjoy the benefits of P2P file sharing. What Sovereign Artists, Shared Media Licensing, and our other Members have demonstrated with their history-making collaboration should become standard-operating-procedure for major music releases going forward."
Sovereign Artists chose Shared Media Licensing's Weed format because it offers fans a way to share files that encourages sampling while also ensuring that artists are properly compensated for their work. "The entire P2P community came together to allow Heart to reach out to millions of fans worldwide," said George Nunes, President of Sovereign Artists.
"Music fans love to share music. Sovereign Artists and Heart have made the decision to put the fans first, so they're not afraid of people sharing music - especially since file sharing can easily lead to revenue," said John Leighton Beezer, President, Shared Media Licensing, owner of the Weed technology. "Using the Weed format is a simple step that makes it possible for fans to trade music freely and for artists to benefit financially at the same time."
DCIA Members Altnet and INTENT MediaWorks are now also joining the sales promotion to distribute mega-talent Heart. Altnet will use its industry-leading TopSearch technology to reach a global audience. vINTENT MediaWorks currently distributes the work of hundreds of independent labels and musicians through several digital distribution partners and plans to deliver significant sales results to both Heart and Sovereign Artists.
"Our mission is to positively impact the bottom line for artists, labels, and consumers by seriously lowering distribution and marketing costs using P2P and other interactive digital technologies. The efficiencies gained in tracking, reporting, and marketing digital content on the interactive networks really make this channel a powerful value proposition to all sides of the equation," said Les Ottolenghi, president and co-founder of INTENT MediaWorks.
"Heart is a future Hall of Fame rock group showing that there are significant and undeniably attractive commercial uses of P2P file sharing," said Marc Freedman, CEO and founder of DCIA Member RazorPop. Their success makes it very clear that consumers will buy licensed entertainment via P2P.
TrustyFiles software is the multiple P2P network leader, uniquely positioned to market and distribute great content from Heart and other artists across all the major P2P networks."
