Some Bands Want You To Take Their Songs For Free

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DAVID GREENE, host:

Awesome New Republic was named the best band in Miami by the Miami New Times this year. They also recently appeared on an episode of the popular TV series "The Hills." Not too bad for a band that gets around record labels by encouraging file sharing.

Mr. MICHAEL-JOHN HANCOCK (Awesome New Republic): The first thing we did in 2004 was we got a Web address and we put up four or five albums of music for free. And that was how we promoted ourselves and how we got gigs for our first tour.

GREENE: That was Michael-John Hancock from the band Awesome New Republic. To find out more about how entertainers are using technology, go to NPR.org/soapbox. There you'll find a link to Queena Kim's podcast, Cyberfrequencies.com, which is devoted to stories buzzing on the web. It's all part of Maker's Quest, a project of the Association of Independence in Radio Incorporated and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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