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Even as the music industry disintegrates, artists can still survive and thrive with direct community engagement and new business models. Malaysian MC Altimet is doing some pretty innovative marketing online. He released his first solo effort First Among Equals for free (download here).

If you like hip hop, this album is definitely worth a listen. With guest artists like Dina (of Malaysian Idol fame), Malaysian rapper Joe Flizzow and fellow Teh Tarik Crew alum MizzNina, Altimet has produced a respectable album with some wicked grooves. The production quality is high, and some of the tracks have already enjoyed good airplay over the past couple of years.

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Giving away music for promotion is pretty much a standard move these days — after all, we even have sites like RCRDLBL that features new, completely free (and DRM-free) music all the time. So Altimet has created a slight twist to the concept with Follow The Leader. Follow The Leader is essentially a tour of blogs/websites from asia that Altimet regularly visits. Altimet will release 12 tracks exclusively on these 12 different blogs/websites across 12 weeks. These are different tracks from those available in his album.

It’s his way of giving back for the support these blogs have given him and also a way to get new music to his fans. I hope to see more Malaysian artists follow Altimet’s example. Set the music free, and the fans (and the money) will come.

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