Coke's Stageside

From the New York Times, Coke produces its own music programming to be distributed on the web and via P2P applications like Bittorrent.

From the article:

"Stageside,'' which is free and completely legal, is produced and seeded onto the Internet by viral marketing specialist Jun Group Inc.

'Stageside' is a watershed event in branded entertainment,'' Jun Group founder and CEO Mitchell Reichgut said. ``Coke and Island Def Jam have paved the way for a lot of others who will follow in their paths. It's a very bold move on the part of both parties, and both of them will reap the benefits.''

The program is not protected by digital-rights management technology of any kind. Reichgut said the entire concept of the show is for fans to share with all of their friends using any means they wanted, so DRM would be counterproductive.

``This is not piracy, nor does this encourage piracy,'' Coca-Cola N.A. vice president of interactive marketing Carol Kruse said. ``This a legal way for consumers to download and share great new content. It's good for the artist, the label and, most of all, our consumers. We are reaching people where they live and on their terms.''