Winnipeg Folk Festival
amped
by Renee Alexander
February 16, 2009 issue
When thinking of branding, most people conjure images of iconic brands such as Apple, Rolex or McDonald’s. Branding, however, is essential to business ventures of all sizes, backgrounds and philosophies—even the Winnipeg Folk Festival, a bastion for hippies, acoustic guitars and feelin’ grooooooovy.
The annual four-day extravaganza, one of North America’s premier outdoor music events for the last 35 years, recently brought its website into the 21st century thanks to a US$ 100,000 gift of technology from an ex-patriate Winnipegger.
PassAlong Networks, a Nashville-based media distribution developer run by Dave Jaworski—a former deejay at the University of Manitoba radio station in the 1970s and long-time fan of the Folk Fest, as it’s commonly known—provides the Internet infrastructure, e-commerce interface, catalogue of songs and the album art for the site.
The idea is to promote and sell CDs by the many artists who perform each July at the Folk Fest while providing an income stream for the not-for-profit charitable organization. The prices range from 33 cents to US$ 1.29 per song, with the vast majority set at 99 cents each. The Folk Fest receives one dime for every song sold through the site.
PassAlong’s total music catalogue has more than three million songs from artists such as Madonna, Coldplay, The Guess Who and The Tragically Hip.
