INDEPTH: DIANA KRALL
Diana Krall gives it away for free
Dan Brown, CBC News Online | April 28, 2004
Diana Krall performs during a free public concert at Union Station in Toronto, April 28, 2004. (CP
PHOTO)
|
TORONTO - Diana Krall, the queen of Canadian jazz, gave a free concert Wednesday afternoon in front of hundreds of fans at Toronto's Union Station.
Krall's no-charge public performance was a treat for the Torontonians who had gathered at the downtown landmark, which is the hub of the city's subway and rail system.
It was also a savvy marketing move designed to promote The Girl In The Other Room, Krall's latest album, which landed in record stores on Tuesday.
"'Free' is a word that works really well with the public," said Greg Simpson.
Simpson is the president of Mindbenders, a music-consultancy firm in London, Ont. that promotes records to radio. "The whole concept of using the word 'free' is directed at the consumer because the consumer right now is thinking 'free,'" he added.
The blond-tressed singer was on stage for barely an hour. She played a four-song set (which included her version of the Tom Waits tune Temptation), participated in a town-hall style question-and-answer session hosted by fellow singer Jann Arden, then played one more number before departing.
"It's really great to be home and playing this music, some for the first time," she told the crowd midway through the concert.
(CP
PHOTO)
|
Krall is the latest in a growing line of musicians to see the virtue in giving their music away for nothing. Avril Lavigne grabbed headlines with her free tour of shopping malls, Prince is giving away a complimentary copy of his new CD to everyone who buys a ticket to one of his shows, and George Michael recently announced that his future releases will be available for download at no cost through his website. Free music is hot.
Although there is a long tradition of free concerts in pop-music history that extends at least back to the 1960s, Simpson believes that putting one on today has an added political dimension in this age of rampant illegal downloading: it's a way for artists to get their sales back on track by signaling that they are on the side of the music-consuming public.
"I think there's a certain attitude among the artists that it's nice to get rich, but it's a different kind of attitude, less greed-based perhaps than the labels themselves. So I think there is a movement among the artists to say 'We are the good guys. That's why you buy our records,'" Simpson said.
In the case of Krall, it's a ploy that seems to have worked. Karen Muzerall is a Krall fan from Montreal who was in the audience Tuesday afternoon. "I think it's a good marketing strategy," she said of the show.
(CP
PHOTO)
|
Muzerall points out that a free concert may help Krall in particular because the Nanaimo, B.C.-born singer faces one obstacle that other musicians do not: her image as a frosty, emotionless player. Muzerall says that she originally thought of Krall as standoffish, but she is reconsidering that impression in light of the Union Station appearance. "It makes me feel like she's more humane," Muzerall said.
But would Muzerall buy the new CD based on the afternoon gig?
"Oh yes, I would. I definitely would," she said.
And it's not as if artists like Krall risk winding up in the poorhouse. According to Simpson, musicians are still compensated for free performances, usually by a sponsor.
"Avril Lavigne on the mall tour - that may be a free tour, but she's being paid," he said.
The way extra money is generated is by selling things like television rights. Judging by the number of camera crews that were at the Toronto event (at least half a dozen), Krall will get maximum return for her hour's work. The specialty channel Bravo!, to name just one outlet, is wasting no time turning the show into a TV special - it will air on May 18.
And it doesn't necessarily stop there. Music lovers who attended the show were greeted with signs warning them that "by being present at this event, you are aware that you may be taped for broadcast on television and the Internet and other media such as DVD."
Diana Krall talks to media as Elvis Costello looks on during a news conference in Vancouver, March 4, 2004. (CP
PHOTO)
|
"There's an added value to this free concert where the money will be generated at some point in the future," Simpson explained.
Also on hand to watch Krall was Diana Catargiu, who is a recently arrived immigrant from Romania. She says she "loves the idea" of Krall's free show, although she's not sure if it would prompt her to go to the record store in search of the new release by Elvis Costello's wife: "Maybe. I don't know."
She is, however, sure that it's an effective method for artists looking to cultivate a following. "I think you get to be known better if you do this," Catargiu said, adding that she was looking forward to hearing the songs Krall had written herself.
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MORE: |
|
|
|
