Indie Label packs band based trading card with new CDs

[BlackWolf]

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - While most indie labels look to the Internet and other new-media ventures to promote their artists, Trustkill Records was inspired by a more traditional form of media: the baseball card.
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Starting with the release of Bleeding Through's "The Truth" in January, the Trenton, N.J., rock-based label rolled out a series of artist-branded trading cards, each with stats and tidbits about the act on the back of the card.

Trustkill founder Josh Grabelle says he has been surprised at the number of inquires about the cards the label has received, given that biographies of artists are already all over the Web. It's enough interest, Grabelle says, to have him planning another series.

"Within about a week of the Bleeding Through album coming out, we started receiving e-mails from kids offering $200 for a set," he says. "That's insane. If someone collects them all, I'm sure it'll be on eBay."

Right now, there's one card for each of Trustkill's 15 acts inserted at random in all of the label's CDs. Up next will be individual cards for each band member, and Grabelle hopes to have retailers involved by the end of this year. He's thinking of offering a complete set as a value-added item for fans who purchase more than one Trustkill CD.

The label has another notable promotion up its sleeve. When it releases the debut album from Long Island, N.Y.-based hardcore act This Is Hell on May 16, initial pressings will contain a coupon for a free T-shirt, redeemable only at the band's live shows.

"It's getting harder and harder to break a band and develop an artist, and kids are getting spoiled," Grabelle says. "They expect something extra if they buy a CD."

That sounds like a good idea to me, a little something extra for those actually buy the album.