Area residents don’t need to wait for prominent artists such as Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass to show up in Lawrence to hear their distinctive styles.

Just grab a free iTunes card, download the songs and start the music – an innovative introduction to the Lied Center’s upcoming season, courtesy of the center, Apple and the artists themselves.

“We just thought this was perfect for what we wanted to do – to try and communicate and introduce the upcoming season to people,” said Tim Van Leer, the center’s executive director. “They have the opportunity to listen to some of the music from the artists that are performing, and then they can decide.”

Within the next week or so, the center will begin distributing thousands of free iTunes cards at area businesses that are members of the Friends of the Lied organization. The cards will give users free access, through iTunes, to downloads of 20 songs from eight artists set to perform this season at the center.

It’s a fresh approach. Stanford University was the first to partner with Apple for such a promotion, and then came Krannert Center at the University of Illinois.

Now add Kansas University to the list that Van Leer expects to grow as people embrace the program’s potential.

“Performing arts organizations are in a situation where they have a traditional audience that they’ve been communicating with in traditional ways, but those traditions are different now – not only for the older audience, but also the younger audience and the new audience,” Van Leer said. “Using the Internet, using e-mail, using iTunes – it’s a perfect way for us to communicate through the technology about what we’re doing.”

Since launching the iTunes promotion earlier this month, the Lied Center already has distributed about 25,000 cards. Those have gone to donors, subscribers, ticket buyers, students attending music camps, incoming KU students going through orientation and others.

Now the cards will be made available through area businesses, and some will be available to distribute on campus.

After making arrangements with Apple and then securing permission from the artists to distribute their work through the free iTunes card, Lied Center officials had to spend about $5,000 to actually produce the cards themselves, Van Leer said.

He expects the program to help draw more people into buying tickets for the upcoming season, and the artists should find more people exposed to their work.

“And it’s a mass-appeal campaign – it’s not just intended for students – so that appealed to Apple,” Van Leer said. “And I’ve heard from some people, ‘I think this is a really good idea. I don’t have an iPod, but I’m thinking about getting one.’

“From that standpoint, it’s worked.”