Good question!

My guess would be to go with what you are the most well known for. Are you primarily a cover band, or do most of your fans respond best to your originals? Or maybe it might be better to look at it as how you want to be known…a cover band, or an original band? If this is your first CD, the way you promote it could go a long way to establish who and what you are in the future.

In my case, although I do a lot of covers in my performances, I am known and promoted as an original artist, "singer/songwriter", because so far I have only recorded and released my own original music. My fans know when they buy one of my CD's, that it is going to be all original.

My "bribes" to get signups are alternate mixes of my originals. I'm not saying it's a bad idea to give away something identical to what's on your album, but I think there's some advantage to being able to tease potential fans with music that isn't exactly what's on the album. That way they get the idea of what you're about, but you're not "showing them all your cards". I also further leverage the originality of the mixes by making them available only to subscribers (and I tell them that).

Concerning covers, I do quite a few. It's expected that jazz musicians will cover standards, and I do. I practice all the time to minus-one mixes. I typically record my practice times, and if I get a take I particularly like, I give it away. My goal in doing that is to provide content that isn't difficult to produce, but has some value. And, like Steve said, it provides a connection to fans by showing them your influences.

You guys out there who are singer-songwriters have a great opportunity to record practice and song-writing sessions of original material using just a guitar (or keyaboard) and vocals. People love that kind of thing, and I don't see as much of that as I think I should. If I was in that genre, I'd be milking that for all it was worth.

I know some of this isn't exactly related to your question, but I've been wanting to discuss this, and you provided an opportunity.

I'm not sure that there's an absolute 'right' answer here. I'm also a little confused because you mention a website launch but then talk about having some strong music to promote; is this just a website launch or a website/album launch?

I haven't had the chance to go through John's "sound-a-like" approach, but I'm familiar with the concept and teach a variation of it myself.

I agree that giving away a free cover song might be potentially confusing when releasing an original CD. I think the sound-a-like concept is often used to promote your band instead of any particular recording. However, if you're getting feedback on the album where it sounds similar to a particular album from a more famous band - doing a cover that's related to it could work.

I also love the alternate re-mix idea, the only caution I'm going to add to this is to make sure that your freebie is still high quality. The hit singles on the radio were free to drive people to buy the full album. If you're not putting up your best stuff you run the risk of people thinking the rest of your material is as good or worse and lose potential sales.

Lastly, whatever you choose to do - track it if you can. If you use an auto responder you can see if people unsubscribe after receiving your free bonus (which could also mean that they were just 'freebie seekers'). Try a landing page/squeeze page with the cover freebie and test it against the original freebie and see which one converts better.