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TechCrunch has an interesting article about Coldplay giving away their new single called "Violet Hill."  According to the article and Exclaim News, the single was downloaded 600,000 times and 52% of those visits were from an email sent to existing registered fans.  That leaves about 300,000 new potential fans that downloaded the single.  Coldplay requires that you give your email address, country and zip/postal code in exchange for downloading the song, so Coldplay received a huge increase to their email list. 

The author of the article suggests that Coldplay can now market their albums, ticket sales and merchandise to these new fans, but unfortunately a few commenters on the article seem to disagree.  I'm going to try to analyze the boost to band profits that 300,000 fans' emails can give you.

Estimating Coldplay's Existing Fanbase
For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that Coldplay's fanbase is limited to the exact number of people that are on their email list.  If 300,000 of the downloads were from registered fans, we can guestimate the total size of the list.  I would estimate that a 20-30% open rate for email blasts is pretty standard for most businesses, although you could say that for a band like Coldplay, your open rate would be even higher.  But let's just say 25% of the total list opened the email and 50% of those people clicked to download the song.  That means that Coldplay's mailing list before the giveaway was approximately 2.4 million people. 

Approximately 300,000 new emails from people who weren't on the list increases the size of the list by 12.5% or 1/8. 

What To Do With 300,000 New Emails
Now that Coldplay has 300,000 emails of people who liked them enough to give their email addresses up in exchange for a song, the real question is, "How can we maximize the value of these new customers?"

1. Email them when the album is ready to be pre-ordered and released
   Sending out an email blast specifically tailored to these new fans can increase first week sales which can cement a #1 spot on the charts for Coldplay.  Sending one when the album is available for pre-order on Amazon/iTunes and one when the album is officially released would be best. 
2. Email them to buy concert tickets when a world tour is organized
   No rock band's album release would be complete without a world tour and Coldplay is no different.  Coldplay was smart enough to get everyone's country and zip/postal code so they will be able to easily segment their new fans into groups by country, state and distance from major cities.  This means that the emails will be targeted to a specific region, so people in New York don't get emails to buy tickets for an upcoming show in Los Angeles and vice versa.  Then they can partner up with local radio stations in the area to do cross promotions with them such as ticket giveaways and special pre- and post-show events. 
   
   It's just not effective to promote a special Los Angeles Coldplay/KROQ event to a global audience and segmenting your list properly by country and zip code prevents wasted effort.
   
3. Email them to buy a live recording the day after the concert
   Coldplay can record every show of the tour and then make it available for purchase the next day.  Because the list is already segmented by region, you are targetting people who live in the area where the concert was held.  For example, if Coldplay plays the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, then they can send out an email the next day to everyone within 50 miles of Los Angeles saying something to the effect of "Even if you couldn't make it to last night's show at the Greek, you can download it here for $9.99!"
4. Email them to buy the next album
   If you follow the first three steps, you've basically guaranteed that you're going to be making another album after the current one has run its course.  Emailing the fans that you acquired from the previous album is a great way to generate buzz for the next album, and since you know that these 300,000 new fans already like the idea of downloading a new album's first single, you can bet that they will respond the same way to the next album's single.

How To Do It Better Next Time
Giving away a single in exchange for an email address is a great start to embracing the digital age.  However, there are a few things that Coldplay could have done better.  The most obvious is that there is no link to pre-order the album on either the email signup form page or the confirmation page.  Nor does the link to download the song actually open a page, you just get a link to a zip file.

1. Wait until the album is available for pre-order on Amazon and then run the promotion
   I'm not a Coldplay fan so I don't know if the album is days, weeks or months away from being released, but either way, not having a link to pre-order the album on every page related to the song giveaway is, in my opinion, a huge mistake.  They are leaving thousands of dollars in sales on the table because a percentage of some of these new 300,000 fans, however small it may be, would have pre-ordered the album on the spot.
2. Add a donation button to encourage small donations for the song
   Sure Radiohead kinda sorta did it first, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work.  Encouraging small donations for the single could bring in lots of extra cash at no extra cost.
3. Include a link in the email to buy Coldplay CDs, tshirts and concert tickets.
   The email I received with the link to download the song contained basically nothing but the link.  Using an email layout that reflects the current look of their web site, Coldplay could have created a branded email message with the download link surrounded by a link to their online store to buy existing t-shirts and CDs.