In today’s Times newspaper website, I came across an article about a US-based rock group R.E.M. who are planning to launch their album for sharing via the iLike application on Facebook.

They will launch the album Accelerate one week before it hits the shops. iLike is an application that is popularly used on Facebook where people can list their favorite songs. By cultivating a viral marketing campaign, their songs will go all across Facebook and into people’s iLike application allowing them to hear it completely and build up the buzz before they get into shops and start selling.

Here’s what band frontman Michael Stipe said about the changing music industry:

“I think you can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers,” he said. “It was one of those ideas that was presented to us and it seemed like a good one so we ran for it.”

Read the rest of the article here. 

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