Operation Disc Drop

Do you remember the good old days when you used to make "mix tapes" of your favorite songs for all your buddies? Yes, this was a long time before there were Discmans, iPods and Napster. George Stromboulopolos and his cohorts at The Hour have come up with an incredible marketing strategy to expose the general public to new, exciting music. It's called Operation Disc Drop.

The premise is simple: You burn a CD of your favorite music, and you leave the disc in a public place for a complete stranger to pick up. On the disc are a list of tracks and artists, plus a link to Operation Disc Drop. A complete stranger picks picks up the disc, listens to it, logs into Operation Disc Drop, and informs the site where and when they found the disc. The recipient then can drop that disc in another public place for someone else to pick up, or make a mix CD of their own, and leave it in some public place for someone else to discover.

The premise is, of course, if the recipient likes the music on the disc, that they will go into music stores and buy the music for themselves.

This is a fantastic idea. I have been toying with the idea of leaving a disc somewhere in my hometown, but I may include the caveat that I will only include Canadian artists on my disc. Knowing me, I would include such a cross section of Canadian artistry, that I am unsure what the recipient would think of my musical tastes. I am certain that Canuck artists such as Matthew Good, Bruce Cockburn, Holly Cole, and Sarah Harmer, as well as a dozen others, would make it on the disc. Sorry, there will be no top-40 rock or pop on the disc; just pure good music that almost anybody can dig.

So far, over 100 discs have been 'discovered' by Operation Disc Drop, but there are room for hundreds more. For further details, check out the Operation Disc Drop site here, and see what the buzz is all about.

P.S. George's interview with Matt Good tonight was sweet.