The arctic Monkeys are a rock band from Sheffield, UK that has rocketed to success. They have a best-selling album. They're playing concerts in major US cities with a Japan and Europe tour to follow this summer. They did it all through grassroots web promotion.

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The foursome got together in 2002. They started playing shows around Sheffield and passing out free CDs at gigs. They encouraged their fans to trade the tunes online and to post them to websites and P2P networks. Yes, they encouraged file trading. Eventually, more and more people found them on MySpace or on their website via word-of-mouth, and their reach started to widen. Fans started booking them in venues farther and farther away from their hometown. Wherever they played, everyone in the crowd knew the words to the songs. This is all before they even signed to a record label.