UK Band The Arctic Monkeys are putting viral media to the test, by using it for song distribution - actually hitting the charts.  The Business Online reports:

DURING the dotcom boom of the late 1990s, analysts predicted that the internet would change the way people shared information and become a medium for content and advertising rivalling traditional distribution channels such as analogue TV, newspapers and magazines. With infinite capacity and connections, the internet and the developing digital world would allow people to do for themselves much of what the traditional media companies had been doing.

While the market got a little ahead of itself at the time, to say the least, some of these predictions are finally coming true. This is affecting the strategies of most European media companies, spurred on by an unsympathetic equity market and the attentions of private equity houses.

The Arctic Monkeys are a recent pop-culture example of people “doing it for themselves”using the marketing power of the internet. The Sheffield band’s single, I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, entered the UK music charts at number one last week largely as a result of a “viral’” marketing campaign focused on word-of-mouth and fans sharing free songs online. The band has now been signed by Domino Records, but has no doubt given food for thought to the traditional music industry on how to manage and build profiles of bands in the digital age.

On the other side of the pond, Time Warner’s board has reportedly discussed the future of AOL, the epitome of boom-to-bust internet stories, but now the subject of attention from the likes of Google and Microsoft. BT last week outlined a service offering video on demand, personalised TV channels, online gaming, and high-speed broadband – all to be squeezed down phone lines.

Is any of this affecting the economics of the media business? You bet. Internet advertising represented 3.6% of the £18.4bn UK market in 2004 sandwiched between outdoor (5.4%) and radio (3.3%). More importantly, internet adverts grew 60%, according to the Advertising Association.

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