With the summer concert season quickly approaching, MP3.com is teaming up with music retailer Best Buy Co., Inc. to sponsor an upcoming
tour featuring Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos.
The tour, which kicks off August 18 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., will encompass
26 shows in both indoor and
outdoor arenas across the country.
This is the first such sponsorship for MP3.com, which launched its download
site for compressed music in November 1997. The site has quickly become one
of the leading music sites on the Internet with an average of 250,000 daily
visitors.
There’s irony in the fact that the music industry has tried to eliminate
the MP3.com site and format because of its potential to allow pirated
music, yet will allow the firm to sponsor a major music summer tour.
MP3.com’s co-sponsor, BestBuy, is a brick-and-mortar music retail chain
with 312 stories in 36 states and annual revenues of more than $10 billion.
Best Buy retails consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment
software and appliances through its chain of stores and its e-commerce
site, bestbuy.com.
“We are proud to be a part of this ground-breaking tour, and see it as part
of Best Buy’s continuing commitment to forging a clear pathway between the
artist and the consumer,” said Gary Arnold, Best Buy’s senior vice
president of Merchandising.
Among its current music projects, Best Buy is helping develop new artists
through
its unique “Find ‘Em First” Campaign–a multi-million dollar advertising and
promotional package.