• by Aaron Baar , March 1, 2011

Rhapsody, the subscription music service, is so convinced music fans will love the way it works, it's willing to give it away for two months -- giving people the chance to fully explore all that it has to offer before signing up.

The programming and promotional campaign spans across all channels of the MTV Networks (including MTV, VH1, Spike and Comedy Central), offering consumers 60 days of free-trial of Rhapsody's service.

"We're seeing the momentum our business has gained with the explosion of smartphones; it's fueling the growth in our subscriber base," John Irwin, president of Rhapsody, tells Marketing Daily. "This is the right time to raise the awareness of the value that on-demand music can bring to the music fan."

A commercial promoting the offer features a man listening to music in a variety of settings -- a beach, on a hill outside a city, in a coffee shop -- while a voiceover explains that "a lot can happen in 60 days: the world turns, life happens. You change your mind, you change your scene, you change your tune. With 60 days of all the music you want, your weeks find rhythm, your days have a soundtrack and every minute of every hour speaks of endless possibilities."

While many services offer trials for seven or 14 days, the 60-day trial offer gives consumers a chance to really explore all of Rhapsody's services from smartphones to computers to connected televisions and TiVo, Irwin says.

"The idea is they're going to be hooked after 7 or 13 days. The additional 45 days is to get them to understand the scope [of the service]," he says. "It's educating the consumer of the full value of that service. This enables them more time to explore the service."

In addition to the commercial, the "60 Day Free for All" promotion will include ties-ins with various MTV programming, such as Comedy Central's "Tosh.0," MTV's "Jersey Shore" and Spike's "UFC" series. Each of those tie-ins will be customized to the programming, such as playlists from "Jersey Shore" characters or sponsorship of daily videos through mobile apps, Irwin says.

"The marketing will be pervasive across all the brands within the MTV networks, promoting the Rhapsody brand across all of them," Irwin says. "How you reach the 'Tosh.0' audience is different than how you reach the 'Nick at Night' audience, for example."