Are you a fan of Alicia Keys? No, I mean a Fan with a capital Facebook. I always thought the whole “Become a Fan” thing on Facebook was just a silly way to waste time, but now I see that Facebook Fandom is becoming serious business.
That’s because if you become a Fan of Alicia Keys, you can stream her entire new album, The Element of Freedom, for free. That’s 14 tracks of Keysian goodness, all for the low, low price of a mouse-click.
The catch is that you won’t actually be able to download the album, only stream it, but considering that this is currently the only way to get a hold of these precious 14 tracks, you might have to resign yourself.
She is releasing the album exclusively through the Facebook social network until the its official release on December 15, when you can go all old-fashioned and buy it. Her Facebook page, however, reports that if you pre-order now you’ll get three instant downloads, so you’re not entirely stuck with streaming at the moment.
According to TechCrunch, this is the first time any world-famous artist has ever debuted an album on Facebook, a signal that the site is eclipsing MySpace, typically the venue for such artists’ stunts.
Photo courtesy of VersusLiveQuizShow, via Flickr