To say the music industry has changed in the last decade would be a massive understatement. You don’t even have to go back as far as the advent of Napster and peer-to-peer file-sharing to see dramatic changes in the way the business of music is being run. The story of band vs. label is also not a new one and we continue to see evidence of the war between music sales and music distribution as bands like OK-Go, Barenaked Ladies, Sonic Youth and many more shed their longtime labels to head back to an indie or to form their own. An immediate example of the changes in music distribution would be Kanye West’s most recent experiment in pre-releasing his new album via Twitter—if you weren’t following along at home, for the last couple of months, Yeezy has been dropping a new track (some rough and some studio-quality) every Friday, and when Dark Twisted Fantasy finally dropped in stores yesterday, he had already distributed half of the album online for free, along with multiple B-sides and remixes.

The scene is definitely changing out there, but the challenges in the music industry are the same they’ve been since Buddy Holly: in an oversimplified nutshell, labels want and need to make money from record sales, while bands themselves need to build their fan base and have their music heard by the masses. These objectives do not have to be at odds with one another, and many in the music industry are looking for fun new ways to distribute music while also enhancing fan experiences.

Enter Weezer and Epitaph Records: Having recently released their new album, Hurley, Weezer is about to hit the road for a tour, and they decided to engage Gowalla to add some serious fun to the Memories Tour. For starters they had us create custom stamps for each tour stop. Check-in at the concert and you’ll get a limited edition Weezer tour stamp for your Gowalla passport, and for bragging about on Facebook, Twitter, anywhere else you like. Here’s where it gets extra fun, and this is something we’re completely excited about: upon check-in, you will receive a free Weezer music download on behalf of the band and Epitaph Records. A  check-in success screen will pop-up and alert you that you just won music from Hurley, and an email will be automatically sent to you with the download instructions. For those people who check-in at the concerts, the label will also be providing a link to purchase the entire album for the lowest price you can find anywhere, another huge plus. 

Weezer is ramping it up one more level for this great kick-off: every check-in at a Weezer concert automatically is entered to win an expenses-paid trip to see Weezer in concert, including US airfare, hotel, as well as a meet-and-greet with Weezer!

Gowalla is perfectly situated to help bands implement solutions not only for creating awesome custom stamps for tour stops, but also for helping distribute music in new and engaging ways. Be on the lookout for more news from Gowalla Music! And if you’re going to be at SXSW Music or Interactive, plan on joining me at my panel on Rocking the Check-in, where we’ll talk about the fun future of music and location.