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Metric: A Canadian Digital Music Success Story

By Michael Geist

The LA Times runs a great story on Metric, a Canadian band that is enjoying commercial success without a major record label.  The story points to the band's digital-first strategy - it offers various versions of their latest CD (ie. limited edition deluxe packages, etc.), streamed the entire album a month before release, allowed fans to embed the album on their websites, and distributed the music digitally via iTunes.  The band's co-manager notes that allowing free streamed versions of the album before its release actually increased demand. 

Less than one month after its commercial release, the band says that it has made more money than it did under a previous record label deal.  It is also worth noting that Metric was a beneficiary of FACTOR, which helped cover its recording costs.  This story points to how the government can assist Canadian musicians by continuing cultural funding support, while ignoring the claims that it is copyright law that stands in the way of commercial success.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).