It’s available in two places - on iLike and on iLike’s Facebook application. The Facebook application is particularly interesting - 1.2 million fans have signed up specifically to get new U2 news and were notified as soon as the video went up two days ago. So far, over 9,000 fan messages have been left on the video.
This was an experiment, says a representative of the company. No press was notified when the video went live - they wanted to see how fast it spread virally and without any promotion.
This wasn’t out of the blue - iLike has connections to U2 through Elevation Partners (Mark Bodnick at Elevation is on the board of iLike, and Bono is also a partner at Elevation), and Brooke Hammerling, who handles PR for iLike, is a personal friend of Bono’s.
But regardless of the connections, the success of the viral release will certainly get other artists to consider using iLike to talk directly to fans via the Facebook application. That’s something MySpace and other competitors can’t do yet.
Did you hear about Bono putting a song on iLike’s OpenSocial app? Oh wait, he didn’t.
Wow! That’s a best-practise on “How to increase your company value a few millions”. Amazing!
Greetings from Berlin (Germany),
Sebastian
Joshua Tree
Best. Album. Ever.
Goes to show you how knowing the right people can make a world of difference.
I just checked myspace for this song, yet I still haven’t found what I’m looking for..
Wow! That’s a best-practise on “How to increase your company value a few millions”. Amazing!
I Agree
> they wanted to see how fast it spread virally and without any promotion.
iLike set a mass email to all of their registered users telling them about the video, so I wouldn’t say that this was without promotion.
ummm, so did this website have the song or not?
iLike rules! I am thrilled to see them so successful!
I cant wait for OpenSocial to launch and see how they do when there’s more players on the field!
How does one get their music put up on iLike btw?
Like the music, hate Bono!
.
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Stuck with 1MBPS connection,
I will check out if My Music spreads virus.
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
Just as an FYI, the video was available to registered users of the band’s official site, U2.com, a day or two before it hit iLike/Facebook.
COOLio
As others have indicated, it was hardly a purely-viral spread as many had already registered to be notified directly from the site about the posting of the music video. I was under the impression that “virally” meant from person to person (e.g. you notice a friend or someone else looking at something and are then interested at looking at it yourself)
Nonetheless, it does show that promotion can happen online almost as effectively as over traditional mediums such as print, TV, radio, and other offline forms.
Cool idea the Artist will talk directly to fans through ilike and via the Facebook application.
Fantastic way to generate a buzz around your app/service!
A celebrity as an investor is definitely not a bad idea. How about having Angelina Jolie in your team !! any takers.
I guess it helps to have rockstar connections…
The song is a bit rough but is dynamic and can go places that other songs dare, Inspiring lyrics and love to hear it come togehter , Tells a truth about the world in sorts.