Pearl Jam Gives A Song Away For A Tweet
MG Siegler
Jan 4, 2010

Screen shot 2010-01-04 at 5.04.15 PMRegular readers may know my affinity for Pearl Jam. The band, which released a new album, Backspacer, last year had a series of promotions with MySpace to promote the album. Now they’re turning to Twitter for some more.

The band has teamed up with the digital media house Culture Jam to launch a new site that easily allows you to tweet about about the Pearl Jam song “Just Breathe.” This site is actually a simple application that gets your Twitter credentials via OAuth. In exchange for the tweet, you’ll receive a code that will allow you to download the song on iTunes for free. Specifically, it’s a live version of the song that was recorded at Austin City Limits this year.

This free song isn’t without a slight catch. Not only will you obviously have to send the tweet, but in small print on the site, you’ll see that by tweeting the message you will also automatically follow the @pearljam account on Twitter. Of course, if you’re tweeting this, you’re probably into Pearl Jam, and won’t mind following the account.

On the site, there is also a way to buy a digital copy of the single and you can enter to win a limited run copy of the new album on White Vinyl LP (there are 15 of them available).

Culture Jam does these types of promotions for a number of musical acts. The use of Twitter in this regard is smart because there is a very low barrier to entry. As we discussed yesterday, a growing number of brands and venues are using Twitter to trade free goods and deals for promotion on the service.

Screen shot 2010-01-04 at 5.04.04 PM

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  • http://www.republicproject.com Ryan Swagar

    Best band in the world!!

  • http://leifandersen.net Leif Andersen

    Oh great…another twitter ad scam, yuk. Well, at least if we admit that twitter is a spam wall from the get-go, we’re not loosing much of anything. And at least the people on the sending end of the tweet benefit this time (rather than being promised to put in a competition to win a free iPod with a hundred thousand other users).

  • http://johnnyworthintgon.com Johnny Worthington

    US only, BTW. “Sorry to our international friends. Download Code US only” (and the ‘only’ is underlined)…

    I know… I know… I understand the whole rights/licensing thing… it just sucks sometimes…

  • http://johnnyworthintgon.com Johnny Worthington

    One more point… There was no mention on the website before hand. Only after the auto-follow and the auto-tweet was I told.

    A total Pearl Jam fanboy is crying inside… just a little…

  • http://www.crunchbase.com/person/mg-siegler MG Siegler

    ah that sucks.

  • Sean

    Oh my god, that song was AWFUL!!!

  • Jesse

    +1 from Canada.

  • Adam

    Crap, I should have read closer that this was an iTunes download. No thanks. MP3s please.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry_Hughes/694049634 Larry Hughes

    Pearl Jam is probably the most overrated band of all time. “One of the most important bands of the 90s” was in reality one of the most SELF-IMPORTANT.

  • Jonathan

    Maybe I missed it, but nowhere on the site does is say for US only. I’m in Toronto, Canada and tried to get the download… it told me I was outside the range AFTER I allowed it access to my Twitter account to send out that Tweet.

    Something not right about that.
    Thanks Culture Jam!

  • http://capitalistbastards.com Patrick

    Isn’t this the same as Twitanium.com? Maybe thats what they’re using?

  • http://jtnt.net Nicholas Tolson

    I really hope Twitter locks down this sort of user-generated spam (spam by proxy?) like Facebook has with their new promo guidelines.

  • James

    too bad the site crashed… not too pro (and its built with ruby on rails)

  • Jim

    Just got the song, and its an awesome live version of Just Breathe. I think these sorts of promotions make perfect sense for artists. Why give away a song for nothing in return, its like a tree falling in the forest with no one to here it….

  • Scott Boone

    Be forewarned: the applet is pulling your location from a pretty sketchy database. It told me -I- was international and I didn’t get a code. Of course, I’m sitting here in the good ole US of A.

    Still did the tweeting and auto-follow. Pretty shitty.

    Furthermore, there is no link for support on the applet itself, only links to iTunes for help downloading and the Terms and Conditions.

  • Sean Wilde

    Worked great for me, one tweet is no skin off my back. In fact for a band as legendary as Pearl Jam its the least you could do.

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  • Kristen

    I don’t see what the big deal is – it’s just one tweet… And the song is great!

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