Freebies

There's a bit of a trend to give your music away for free nowadays, which is all good! Suprisingly, the next act to do this is...McFly, who are giving their new album away for free with The Daily Mail next Sunday.

For those of you who are unsure of who McFly are, in the UK they were referred to as the next Busted when the first appeared on the music scene and were also in Lilo's film Just My Luck. (And if you don't know who Busted are, then I believe the Jonas Brothers covered one of their songs and released it in the US. It was Year 3000 - you know the one "not much has changed, but we live underwater, but your great-great-great grand daughter is pretty fine". Ahhh, Busted's lyrics were always entertaining) Anyway, possibly quite a risky move for them. They've just been released from the record deal - on good terms - and have set up their own label, with their new album being the first release. For a group considered a "boy band", and who possibly don't have the most credibility - though I don't see why not - quite a odd move. Then again their legions of girl fans will buy the album anyway, and perhaps a few curious folk, or people who will listen purely because it's FREE (which will be me) will give it a listen. Although they do have a dedicated fanbase - well girls, to generalise - and generally do pretty well (think most of their singles have gone top 10), they aren't "huge" in the UK. So, it'll be interesting to see if they gather anymore credibility/popularity after this.

I'm not particularly a fan myself - yeah, I've heard all their songs of the radio, and they seem quite likeable, but I've never loved one of thier tunes. Though that trumpet/brass solo in Star Girl is quite catchy. They're hinting that there's going to be a bit of a change in their music, though judging from their new single, not that different. The interview with them in one of The Daily Mail supplements was quite interesting. They were talking about how, even though they got on well with the record company, they'd submit songs which wouldn't come back as they were before. Radio 1 have put their new single - err One For The Radio could be the title if memory serves - on their A List, which is apparently a first (that did surprise me). So maybe things will go alright for them.

So come next Sunday, I will be popping on a bit of McFly. Honestly, not expecting to be grabbed by it, but perhaps because they do seem to be a bit of an "underdog" here, I'd like to see them succeed. Plus it's FREE! (Although the album will be released to buy - which no doubt they'll get the money back from. I imagine a lot of their fanbase would go out to buy an "actual" copy) Who next? We've had Prince and now McFly giving their albums away for free.

(And yes you must be thinking, it's a slow day for posts for mi|kshake, when I'm mogging about McFly. I know! But I quite enjoyed reading their interview thsi morning)