Perhaps one of the most beloved and followed rock bands, the Grateful Dead had one of the best marketing and consumer mailing list plans in the history of music marketing.  The Grateful Dead not only complied, but maintained and grew their own consumer mailing list.

The Grateful Dead’s main way of gaining revenue was the concert scene.  The Dead rarely made studio albums and allowed concert goers to record their concerts and then sell the recordings, so the concert venue really was the main area for profit.  The Grateful Dead had a major following from show to show and took advantage of these “repeat customers.” At shows the Grateful Dead would have a table set up asking for concertgoers to sign up to their consumer mailing list.  for being a member of this consumer mailing list you would receive updates about upcoming concerns and news.  Within one month the Grateful Dead had signed up over 10,000 members to their newly formed consumer mailing list.  In 20 years the band was able to grow their consumer mailing list to over 500,000 members.  The band was able to not only use this consumer mailing list to share news and events, but to promote and encourage attendance to upcoming concerts and sell merchandise.  The cost of the buying the names on their consumer mailing list was zero and the profit that it made the band over the years in insurmountable.