This Window and Microsoft

You Have The Power

Creating strategic alliances between companies or individuals enables shared goals to be achieved for mutual benefit. You don’t need to be a large organisation to gain from cooperation; sometimes big fish need smaller fish to help develop ideas and strategies. Get out there and find a partner.

Playlist 7

During the summer of 2009, Windows and ReverbNation formed a strategic alliance that enabled independent musicians and artists to give away their music for free while still being paid through sponsorship. This was a radical “win–win” business model: the sponsor, Windows, embedded advertising into the cover artwork of the downloadable MP3, and the artist received payment. Although the payment per download was lower than platforms such as iTunes or Amazon, the value in exposure and reaching a wider audience was generous compensation.

Participating artists were later given the opportunity to allow their “Sponsored Song” to continue as a free download in a new archive as part of a fresh initiative called Playlist 7.

Playlist 7 was again a joint marketing venture between Windows and ReverbNation, but with a few twists. The principle remained the same: offering a pool of free music to anyone interested. Fans and followers on Facebook, MySpace (at the time), and Twitter were given special access to a weekly selection of 50 new featured artists. Fans could download up to seven songs for free, and those downloads helped determine which artists’ tracks would be available to everyone the following week.

This project led to thousands of downloads for This Window.

Today, This Window continues to evolve through its website thiswindow.co.uk, its archival releases, and its ongoing Bandcamp catalogue. The project remains what it has always been: a shifting creative framework rather than a conventional band.

You Have The Power now appears within the digital album This Is War, released in 2026, though its roots stretch back to a time when digital music was still experimental — and when underground artists were quietly forging alliances with the very platforms that would later dominate the industry.


Location: Europe

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