Offspring Announce The $1 Million Winner: Ashley Hitchcock
November 16, 2000 Ashley Hitchcock of Georgia won $1 million from the Offspring.
About the drawing: Every person who downloaded a track from the band's new album, Conspiracy of One
(which was made available in its entirety at www.offspring.com), was entered
in a drawing to win $1,000,000. The winner was announced November 14th, which was
the traditional retail release date of Conspiracy of One.
The million-dollar prize was offered directly from the band. Neither
sponsors nor record company funds were used. The band's singer Dexter
Holland asserts, "This money came directly to us from our fans. We feel it
would be cool to redirect it back to them. We are trying to launch our album
with promotions that are fan supportive rather than fan exploitative. We feel
that giving them our music and letting them have back some of their money is a
great way to show how much they mean to us."
Prior to the November 1998 release of the Offspring's Americana, the free
MP3 of first single "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" was downloaded over
22 million times in ten weeks (as reported by Wired magazine), while Rolling
Stone identified "Pretty Fly ..." as the number one most downloaded MP3 on the
Internet. Americana went on to sell 10.5 million copies worldwide. The
band's career worldwide sales exceed 26 million units.
Just as technology has made leaps and bounds over those last two years,
plans for the download and release of Conspiracy of One are significantly more
sophisticated. Anyone who purchases the actual CD will have the opportunity
to use proprietary new technology, located directly on the physical compact
disc, to launch into a coded part of the band web site and become a member of
the Offspring Nation. Offspring Nation is a digital fan club offering
incentives and benefits including subsequent exclusive downloads, animated
films, gated chats with the artist, advance ticket sales and more. Dexter
Holland says, "We decided that we would create a super fan club for those of
our fans who actually buy our CD. The CD has a key in the CD Extra section
that registers members to the Offspring Nation, our fan club. We figure since
we make our music available to everyone for free this will act as a special
acknowledgement to our fans who go to the trouble to buy our CD."
More Offspring:
- Feb. 1999 - Interview with Noodles
- May 1997 - Offspring in Concert
Send this page to a friend Join our mailing list Current stories Classifieds
|