October 18, 2006

Firm Arranges "Strangest Press Conference Ever" for Russian Music Site

Allofmp3_3 A tipster alerts us to this tale: 

  • Russian music downloading site AllofMP3.com faces heat from recording industry and U.S. government for selling unauthorized digital music.  AllofMP3 hires local firm Qorvis Communications to tell its side of the story.
  • Yesterday, Qorvis arranges an online press conference for AllofMP3. Company Director General Vadim Momotin answers questions via Russian translator Ilya Levitov.  Press conference attracts an impressive 59 journalists (including 4 separate BBC reporters)
  • USA Today's Kevin Maney calls it the "Strangest 'press conference' ever. Online, text only, not even via IM but essentially a constantly updated Web site with answers to journalists' questions. So the AllofMP3 folks basically stonewalled, not answering much of anything thoroughly."
  • Though Qorvis advisory says that a trancript will not be available (strange given that this is an online press conference and no one would need to "transcribe" it), Maney goes ahead and posts the whole exchange to his blog anyway, perhaps out of pique.

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