We'd be better off Dead...Listen up Far-L

[softball]

What goes around, comes around

"Freemium" may be an ugly neologism, but the practice of giving something away and then selling a premium version of that product has been part of the Dead's practice for decades. They were the first major act to encourage fans to tape their concerts, even providing a special section near the soundboard for Deadheads who wanted to record the show. "Conventional wisdom held that if fans made their own recordings, they wouldn't need to buy records," write the authors. And while the Dead's records may never have sold in huge volume, taping encouraged a community of fans who would collect and trade homemade concert recordings, obsessing over the band's ever-changing set lists and improvisational approach.

This early form of viral marketing provided a vehicle for word-of-mouth about the band and their extraordinary live shows to spread, and grew their fan base exponentially. "Each tape was like an advertisement that attracted new people to one of their concerts," write Scott and Halligan. "The more concerts [they] performed, the more tapes were in the marketplace. The more copies were made of the tapes, the more advertisements were in the marketplace pulling in new customers." By making the band's content "spreadable," concert ticket sales more than made up for any compromise of album royalties.

The Dead were also early to see the potential in communicating directly with that fan base. In 1968, the band hired somebody to run a booth at every concert and sign up thousands of fans for updates on the band and their tours. And they included an advertisement for their burgeoning newsletter service on a 1971 live album, promising to keep fans informed in exchange for a name and an address.

"At the time it was a radical idea for a band to add a 'call to action' to an album as an overt way to build their mailing list — and by extension, their following," write Halligan and Scott. The band corresponded regularly with list members, and after a few years, the Dead were able to use their now-enormous database to ask fans to call radio stations and record stores when the band would release a new album. Their fans were happy to do it, because they felt they were part of a community, rather than simply being marketed to. The band has remained an early adopter of communications technologies, from Usenet through to iPhone apps.