Free Download Friday #10: Sponsorship - The Way Ahead?

Following my recent We7 post (New Music on We7) I've been thinking about different models for distributing music. Despite We7's failure to make the advertising supported model of free downloads work, my suspicion is that advertising, in some form or another will continue to grow in importance.

It's already happening to an extent. For example, I mentioned newspaper distribution deals in the We7 post but you also see it in sponsorship deals for concert tours and recently I've come across a few sponsored download sites.

Today I'll mention Feed the Beat - Taco Bell's "Virtual Music Music Fest". Taco Bell doesn't have much of a presence in the UK but I think they are a fast food chain. (Anyone from the USA want to confirm?) It looks like they had some sort of online vote and are currently offering three tracks from the winners as free downloads:

• Fireflight - Unbreakable
  
• Hit The Lights - Pulse
• Thousand Foot Krutch - Bring Me To Life

I assume that Taco Bell is paying the artists/record companies something for the privileged of offering these tracks for download. I think my favourite is Bring Me To Life but check them out and let me know what you think. Also, advertising supported music distribution - is it really the way ahead?