If someone were to compile a CD entitled "The Stupidest Songs of the Last Ten Years", around half of it would be songs by The Offspring. Yeah, I know, nobody in their right mind would use that title to sell a compilation CD. How about "Stooopid 2001"? Yeah, that would work (featuring "classics" such as "Come Out and Play", "The Thong Song" by Sisqo and "Gettin' Jiggy With It" by Will Smith, "Stooopid 2001" would probably sell by the cartload, proving once again that good music, like crime, just doesn't pay). Part of the irony is The Offspring themselves -- they are not stupid people. They are college educated, and in particular, singer Dexter Holland has a Ph.D. from Cornell in molecular biology. But dumbass music aside, The Offspring have come up with one of the cleverest marketing strategies I've ever seen. Their upcoming album "Conspiracy of One" will be available for downloading FREE on their website. Thus, it will be on the internet for several weeks prior to the album's official release. As if that weren't reward enough for Offspring fans, everyone who downloads the album will be entered in a draw for one million dollars. The draw will be held live on MTV when the album is released in stores.

The Offspring are exploiting the powers of the internet to garner FREE PUBLICITY. True, it's not exactly free (it will cost them a million dollars) but the band is smart enough to know that their actions will create a buzz amongst their fans, the internet community and the music community that defies pricetags. Most people will hear about this through a broadcast medium, not from an ad campaign spurred on by a publicist hired by their record company, and in that sense, the publicity is free indeed. This is not rocket science, in fact, all The Offspring are doing is sticking out their tongue toward the hand that has fed them. Two years ago, they pre-released "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" on the internet and it was downloaded 22 MILLION times in ten weeks. The hype they generated clearly worked -- "Americana" sold 10.5 million copies worldwide, about two or three times the total of their previous album, 1995's "Ixnay on the Hombre". You might question the majority of those increased sales being directly attributable to the internet, but why would you? -- the BAND clearly believes it, or they wouldn't be giving away a million dollars this time.

And that's not all -- to encourage fans to buy the CD in November, it will come encoded with a key that will unlock a special "fans only" portion of their web site, allowing ... *consumers* ... to access interviews, videos, chat rooms, etc. More kudos to The Offspring -- a marketing strategy for the Napster generation. This type of marketing approach may be the future of music sales, and if so, The Offspring are helping to lead the way. Now if only they could do something about their music ... [thanks to nme.com for the news story and providing the facts and figures included in this piece].