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Eminem Hosts Sweeps for CD Buyers, Not Pirates
Eminem's impersonation of Michael Jackson in the rapper's latest music video has already generated plenty of controversy. Now Eminem is planning to channel Ed McMahon, offering an unusual sweepstakes to try to lift holiday sales and thwart piracy in the run-up to the Nov. 16 release of his new CD.
Executives at Interscope Records, the unit of the Universal Music Group that distributes Eminem's albums, are designing a contest in which fans who buy the new album, "Encore," can register to win one of 400 prizes. The giveaways include platinum plaques, Sirius satellite radio equipment and subscriptions (Eminem is programming a channel on Sirius), and a chance to work on a music video.
Bootleggers are not eligible. To enter the contest, fans would be required to visit the rapper's Web site and place a legitimate copy of the CD in their computers to unlock a registration area. To lift sales during the holiday shopping rush, Interscope will end the contest on Dec. 21.
The sweepstakes is an expansion of a tactic the label used last year, when it placed Willy Wonka-style golden tickets in a handful of CD's from the early shipments of albums by fledgling acts like the rapper Obie Trice and G-Unit, 50 Cent's rap group. Tickets hidden in a few G-Unit albums entitled the winner to a diamond medallion.
The record conglomerates are scrambling to adjust strategies as their established techniques for developing and promoting albums are threatened by online networks that let consumers sample and download music free. Songs from Eminem's previous CD, "The Eminem Show'' released in 2002, leaked to some Internet sites about a month before the album was to reach stores, prompting Interscope to move up its release date. That album still went on to sell more than nine million copies.
The rapper suffered a similar fate this time around, when several unfinished songs leaked to Internet sites last year. But Interscope plans to make the best of that situation - in addition to the sweepstakes, the label has a tentative plan to release "Encore'' with a limited-edition bonus disc that includes three of the leaked songs that are not on the regular album.
Source: NY Times