The internet is an amazing channel for information, entertainment, and business. Viral ad campaigns have found themselves very successful; always getting word of mouth exposure, some even getting free media time from the news reporting on them. What has the internet done to music? Well music has "mutated" too and there are plenty of artists working to turn viral music into a cure. Our generation expects music to be free anyway with programs like Limewire and BitTorrent, so some musicians have decided to give us what we want. I'll share two with you, Pretty Lights and The Hood Internet have gained massive followings through sharing their music for free with people. They make their money from playing live gigs and people turn out in droves. When Pretty Lights made a stop in Tallahasse the show sold out at $15 a ticket on the same night that Peaches was playing for FREE on campus. Obviously these two groups aren't trying to make huge amounts of money or else they would make extremely catchy hooks with simple lyrics. They chose not to be mainstream and in doing so a viral promotion campaign has served them well. It helps artists share their music with more people and get the word out where radio has failed to do the same for independent artists. They're building awareness about their brand on a larger scale than otherwise possible. Even a group that's seen major success like Radiohead has implemented giving away their music for free with In Rainbows, but for more artistic reasons. Also, The Hood Internet doesn't sell it's music because of the immense amount of legal work needed to gain permissions to sell, but I'd say being viral has worked out pretty well for them.
http://www.thehoodinternet.com/
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