Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Okay, maybe that’s not the best analogy but it seems to be the trend in music today. No sense in actually (gasp) purchasing music when you can simply download a free torrent online in minutes, right? Regardless of your personal stance on pirating music, it’s easy to argue that it is doing a whole lot of damage to the industry and that artists that we all know and love.

Guvera, a new music streaming and download service, has a unique platform to try and change that. They seem to understand that people today just aren’t buying as much music as the used to, so they are finding someone else to buy it for you! Yep, you heard me right, Guvera is “free but paid for” music streaming and downloads. What the website provides is as a tool that matches advertisers with the consumers most receptive to their messages. The advertisers pay for the music they know their consumers are listening to, and both parties benefit.

I joined the website myself to get a taste of the action, unfortunately the service has not officially launched yet but, by registering now I received “pre-launch access” and got a chance to preview the channels and get a feel for the format of the site. The set up is pretty darn smart (if you ask me). Initially after setting up an account, you do a few required interested surveys, simple check box deals with a few options (favorite music, movies, sports, holidays, countries, that sort of thing). This I’m assuming is how they know which brands to target to you. Once you have completed your interests, all that’s left to do is search! Simply type in a song name, or an artist and Guvera returns a list of advertiser-sponsored channels that provide the matching tracks. After selecting a channel, you are free to stream or download the  music paid for by that brand.

It’s a unique business model. I find it effective in the sense that it is giving music consumers what they may be taking other wise, free music, except that this content is now actually being paid for by someone else. Advertisers need to know and reach their demographic, this seems like a productive way too support an industry that is lacking in many areas while doing just that.

Try out Guvera for yourself  and let us know what you think!