Warner Brothers Records Pulls A Radicati

Warner Brothers Records was recently busted by bloggers for astroturfing, a laRadicati. First they emailed a number of MP3 bloggers, asking them to post a song by one of the bands, The Secret Machine. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just another avenue for promotion, which is what record labels are supposed to do. They weren't hiding who they were at this point. And think about it: a major record label actually asking someone to post an MP3 for free download?... Sounds like a pretty good thing, right?

Well, most of the bloggers decided against posting the file. It was a matter of maintaining their independence and not wanting to become proxy shills for a major label. One blogger did post it, however, and that's when the astroturfing occurred. Blog comments posted under multiple names, all from the same IP address that the original email messages had originated from, heaped all sorts of praise on the song, the band, and the label. Here's the thread. Interestingly, I don't see any evidence of any on-line backlash in that blog similar to what we saw in Ed's encounter with Radicati. but somehow the New York Times picked up on the story. (Hint: perhaps the reporter would like to do a follow-up ;-) )

By the way: I really like the term 'astroturf'. I like it enough that I decided to research it a bit. That research led me to the link above, which is in the Disinfopedia Wiki: "a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests". What a great resource!