Entertainment For Lively Minds
Imogen Heap buys her own promo on eBay
Posted by Dr Yang on 5 July 2009 - 3:29pm.
Some idiot journalist (from the Daily Star by the looks of things) has allowed his unopened pre-release copy of Imogen Heap's new album to be sold on eBay, and didn't apparently reckon that she might find out about it.
It's been fun to watch this little story break via Twitter and then leaking on to blogs, with even Thomas Dolby getting in on the action.
Link to the item on eBay (which may well be taken down once the lawyers step in).
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What's the problem?
I don't know what the fuss is about. If someone sends me something unsolicited in the post then surely I can do what I like with it, even if it says on it that I shouldn't. Surely it's basically no different from those catalogues that sometimes get pushed through the front door that very occasionally, about 2 weeks later, someone comes to the door to collect only to be a little upset that you bunged it in the recycle bin as soon as you saw it littering your floor.
I would have thought that the basic principle is that if you want to retain full control over an object then you shouldn't post it to a total stranger. I do appreciate that this presents a dilemma to the artist or record company but in this case they had presumably put a 20p CD-R in an envelope and sent it to a national newspaper in the hope of some free exposure. It's a gamble.
But it wasn't unsolicited
in the sense of being junk mail. Whether we punters like it or not, the media operates an embargo system on all sorts of things: new cd's, government reports, copies of yet-to-be-broadcast tv programmes, policy announcements or whatever. Journalists, as in properly accredited members of the press, know this and generally respect it. In principle, it's a win-win position as the journalist gets early access and the subject gets his work discussed by people who've had time to digest it.
IMO, a journalist losing the copy and it ending up on eBay is poor professional behaviour. It's not the end of the world - you could even argue the storm in a teacup will generate more publicity than they might hve expected - but it seems to me to be highly unprofessional.
Silly Bunt
Although he denies selling it himself, claiming it must have been stolen from him. The auction is not yet finished - up to £330 - so the whole story has been a good PR exercise.
I had a similar experience when the charity I work for was given a large box of unwanted promo CDs by a local BBC radio station. They went on eBay and one of the artists contacted me but wished me luck when realising it was a charity auction.
James Cabooter?
Does he come from a long line of Carbooters?
For the sake of completeness here...
Tom Savage of the Daily Star posted the following comment on Stereokill:
"I can confirm that James Cabooter is NOT responsible for the album being on eBay.
Exactly how the album did come to be for sale is urgently being investigated.
I hope that clears things up at least as far as James’s involvement in the issue."
The eBay listing has been removed.
I've sent out promo CDs..
..in a previous job in music PR online.
The real shame is that record companies have always been loath to send pre-release copies on major releases out to online journos in particular for fear of leaks and something like this just re-inforces their worries.
You'd be astonished at the amount of CDs I wasn't allowed to send out for reviews until the day of release.
I have actually sent James Cabooter stuff for review in the past, and I'd be really surprised if he had leaked this himself.
I'm amazed
that Imogen Heap has 646,217 followers on Twitter. I had no idea she was so popular.....