Being Overly Protective of Your Music: A Great Way to Frustrate Potential Fans

March 16, 2011{ 64 Comments }

A co-worker of mine here at CD Baby made an interesting comment a few weeks ago while he was searching Google, trying to find audio clips to illustrate his argument about an independent musician we were discussing. He keyed in his search and started clicking around, but his determination soon shifted to dissatisfaction. He turned back to me. “If a band doesn’t have a link to one of their songs on the front page of their site, that’s it – I don’t bother.”

While I think that his all-or-nothing perspective probably leans toward the extreme, it also struck me that he is by no means an atypical music fan, and his views can’t be unique when it comes to a situation like this. It got me thinking about my music, its presence on the web, and how I feel about offering it to people who have made no promise of giving me anything in return.

Whether we like it or not, music fans are more accustomed than ever to not only hearing something before they buy it, but also to getting some (or even all) of it for free. They’re also increasingly impatient when it comes to the time it takes to make that happen. Song snippets (like the ones provided on CD Baby and iTunes) are one of the best ways for potential fans to get a sense of what you sound like, but they’re not without drawbacks: The clip might be unrepresentative of the whole of the song, leaving the listener with only a vague sense of what they’re getting.

Streaming full songs on your site is clearly the next best thing, but there are shortcomings here, too, especially when it comes to portability, which is something a modern music listener really values. Now, you could choose to look at this as your strongest selling point: someone’s eventually going to get sick of listening to your music exclusively on their computer, and they’re going to pay for it in order to port it to their iPod or listen to it in their car. But while that model may have worked in the past, I’m not so sure that its effectiveness is quite what it used to be.

The quickest way to introduce a potential fan to your music? Make it easy to find, give them some of it for free, and let them do what they want with it.

If you offer fans prominently-placed access to a full, free song, it’ll be on their computer in minutes. In their music library. Ready to be transferred to their iPod. One click away from being added to a mix or playlist. All set to pop up randomly when iTunes is set to “shuffle.” Before they know it, your music is with them, and you’re in a better position than ever to connect with them. And the goodwill offering of something for nothing? Not a bad way to start a new relationship.

Now, I understand the overwhelming urge to be protective of your music, and believe me: I feel your pain. Your songs are worth more than nothing. I know that. Mine are, too. And in a perfect world, none of us would be handing over the goods until we were paid in full. And if you choose to stick with that approach, I can’t fault you for that. But I also think you’re missing out on an easy opportunity. The simpler you make it for someone to hear your music in the way they want to, the more chance you have of becoming a part of that person’s life, which can quickly lead to them introducing your music to their friends. The more you keep your music under lock and key, the higher the risk becomes of someone getting frustrated and forgetting about it.

A great way to try it: set one of the track prices on your CD Baby album page to zero, and add links to that page on your site(s). This way people can get a look at the rest of your album while they’re there, too, further introducing them to what you have to offer.

Just think how happy someone would be if they Googled your band name and got a free song from you, all within the span of a few minutes. If you make it into their headphones during that critical time when they’re especially curious about your music, they’re going to give your song(s) a good listen. And if they like what they hear, they’re going to want to hear the rest of your album.

So, what do you think? Have you had any good/bad experiences with giving your music away for free?

-Brad at CD Baby

Chris Robley's Author Bio

http://SonicTruths.net Christopher Sutton

I’ve had this reaction myself – there’s simply so much exciting new music out there waiting to be heard, we as listeners have the luxury of being picky (or lazy?) when it comes to music discovery. If I end up on an artist’s website and I’m confronted with some all-flash ‘experience’, or I have to work hard to find a ‘media’, ‘audio’, ‘listen’, ‘discography’, ‘albums’ etc. link, or the only way to hear their music is to *leave* their site and go to their MySpace page… I’ll give up and go find some other music to listen to. I’m just looking for a quick auditory glimpse of their stuff and I’m not going to invest much time before getting at least that much.

Somewhat ironically, I’ll also ditch any webpage which starts playing music at me automatically! It’s just instinctive, it feels like an intrusion…

So I’d say making sure visitors always have a one-click way to hear your music (and yes, ideally download it, to truly connect with it) should be the #1 priority for any artist’s website.
http://www.liveunsigned.com Live Unsigned

Great article and and very true.

Some bands make it very hard for themselves. One bands site I visited recently only has 30 second snippets of songs online because they fear piracy. In reality making at least some of your content available as a free download makes a lot of sense. We wrote about tactics to use free music as leverage to build an online audience here:

http://www.liveunsigned.com/blog/2010/10/how-to-use-free-music-to-grow-your-fanbase/
Pingback: The Morning Tabs March 17 — We All Make Music
http://dianastimmler.com Diana Winkler

I don’t know. I hate to be a crab about the issue, but I have never gotten any benefit from giving away music for free. Not more fans, not more sales on my album. Zip. And I have given entire albums away, and lots of downloads. I’m on Jango radio, and I pay money to have my songs played for nothing in return. I supposedly have hundreds of fans, but none of my Jango fans have ever bought my CD for paid for downloads of songs on my CD Baby site. The reason why is because in this culture we live in people want something for nothing, and they know they can get it. I don’t sell a ton of CD’s but the loyal true fans that I have have bought my music. They understand that I have bills to pay. They want to support me. Musicians don’t get studio time for free. We don’t get free mastering. My replicator company doesn’t give me any free service. Harry Fox sure won’t give you licensing for free. So why is it that the musicians are expected to give the music away for free?! No wonder we’re starving artists. The ones that got the music free didn’t appreciate it either. No thank yous, no feedback, no promises of telling their friends. I am a very generous person myself, but i’d like to make the choice to be a blessing to someone who likes my music, but can’t afford it. I don’t feel it’s right for people to expect it for free. People choose what they want to spend money on. In high school i would go without lunch so i could spend the money on the next record that was releasing Friday. I know it’s different now, but not everyone has to like it. Thanks for letting me rant.
http://www.dialashop.com/vic/index.html Vic Stathopoulos

This is the chicken and egg scenario. If u are unknown you need to give ur music away. But what then? I know alot of people like some of my songs alot like ‘Hoping Time’ and ‘Distant Memories’, but they don’t seem to be interested in buying them. So it seems we are working for nothing. I plan to give all my songs away and see what happens. Later in the year I will release an album and sell it. Till then I have the impossible task of finding a few thousand fans, which are hard to find. Vic Stathopoulos
Devil’s Advocate

@Diana Winkler

You did receive a benefit from giving away all of that music. It’s called exposure. It’s called advertisement and advertisement isn’t usually this cheap. In the digital age, giving away 1000 downloads costs nearly nothing compared to giving away 1000 copies of that same material on a disc, tape, or paying to have your music played 100 times on internet/terrestrial radio. I see your point but you need to look at the bright side instead of focusing on just the negatives.

As for the people who downloaded your music and then never bought anything from you or gave you a cent, well, I hate to break it to you but they were more than likely never going to buy your music or merchandise in the first place. When you gave it away and they downloaded it, you infiltrated their music collection and got the chance to grow on them. If they actually like you, they will be your customers(paying fans) one day.
Jon

Music IS free you bone heads… Just because over the last century, with the advent of recorded sound, the industry has been able to create a commodity consumable product out of a service, doesn’t mean that’s REALLY what music is. It’s a service, not a product! The fact the we have been able to sell music on a record, tape, cd, or mp3 has simply been a prolonged luxury. Technology is simply catching up with the times and putting things back where they belong. It’s a scary new world out there, but ask yourself this: “Are you really making some kind of killing protecting the right to sell your music?” If the answer is yes, by all means, keep it up. But if you are expecting to stay alive as an artist in the times ahead, you had better start changing your thinking, adapt to the new market, and change your rules to match the rest of the world. Otherwise, have fun collecting dust in the back of the few remaining music stores in existence.
devil devil’s advocate

giving away music for free is so last decade.

the idea that the people who have d’loaded your music illegally amongst thousands will suddenly up and buy a song has been proven a myth. they won’t. if they can get if for free, they will. if they can’t, they’ll buy (if the song is good enough).

my top money generating albums are one that are ONLY available in iTunes.

often in the last few years, when i sell a hardcopy cd, shortly thereafter (a week or two) it suddenly explodes on the torrent sites. thanks russia. soon thereafter, i see less sales.

so do this if you must give it away for free: do it low quality, or mono, or if you do a youtube video, do a “pause” a couple minutes in… if the song is good enough, they’ll buy.

also: via rhapsody, and other streaming sites, i’ll track 500 listens in a month, for months, but maybe one sale a year. so those thousands of free streams results in 99¢. better to not stream, and have a few people take a one-dollar chance on your music. you’ll make more money.
http://youtube.com/pianosoulos PianoSoulos

Diana, I understand your points, although, is the main reason to share music with others to make money? I donate all my sales to charity, for the simple fact, that money stifles creativity and places a negative stigma on music as an art. Emphasizing monetary gain seems cheapen the process for me.

Pomplamoose, one of the most profilic youtube music sensations only makes about 50 – 70K in Itunes revenue/year, most CDBaby Musicians don’t make enough to even support a pet, let alone a family, so why place so much emphasis on money?
devil devil’s advocate

make the music with the truest of intents (meaning without concern for monetary rewards.)

if you decide to put it in front of the public, however, you should expect monetary reward. if people like it enough to listen to it more than once, they should buy it. if you are seeing very few illegal or free downloads or youtube views or whatever, perhaps you have no reason to feel you should be compensated.

if i can’t afford a coffee, or a car, i don’t go steal it. i don’t get angry and try to say all coffee (or cars) should be free.

saying money stifles creativity… is kinda like saying a rhyme scheme in poetry stifles creativity.

if, for example, you donate all your music sales to a charity, say, for cancer, wouldn’t you feel great if that charity received the most money it could from your music? what’s wrong with that?
http://youtube.com/pianosoulos PianoSoulos

@ devil’s advocate says:

if, for example, you donate all your music sales to a charity, say, for cancer, wouldn’t you feel great if that charity received the most money it could from your music? what’s wrong with that?

————————-

Yes, nothing is wrong with that and that is the only reason I charge, if they don’t want to pay anything and just ask for an Mp3, I just give it to them, I ALWAYS leave it up to the listener, which is how it should be.

I have noticed that some Indie artists have setup sites to allow the listener to choose how much they pay and $0 can be chosen. I think this is a great concept. Value should be accessed by the listener and the listener alone. In some instances, this may be more profitable than charging a set price.
http://www.stevencravis.com/lavenderdreams.html Steven Cravis

I offer a link to 12 free legal music downloads. The link appears in the moment the email address is submitted (to subscribe to my email newsletter, can unsubscribe any time) at http://www.stevencravis.com/lavenderdreams.html

This is a good way to gain new subscribers, and give them something for subscribing.
http://www.myspace.com/peterdavidsonmusic Peter Davidson

Hi,
Diana Winkler is right. if someone truly likes a song, they download it for 99c
but if its so so…, they get it for free if they can, listen once and then move on. unfortunately artists are expected to play for free on venues also very often.
so my advice(to myself also) is simply to keep on going, releasing better and better tracks, and slowly folks will discover it. there is never any point in hitting your head against the wall. free tracks or demos, could be sent to true fans or maybe available on your homepage for a limited period, say before albumrelease… not just anyone.

Thanks /Peter
Chris B

This is a response to devils devils advocate.

“giving away music for free is so last decade.” post

I think that if you sell your music as a CD (or even as a high quality mp3), anyone came make available through a torrent, what difference does it make that the stuff you offer for free is low-quality? One person bought your CD – one person can buy your whole album digitally and then offer it for free.

So for me, you have just proven the point of the article – that being overprotective can be damaging.

Unfortunately, all music, movies, computer software and any other digital material can and will be copied if it is made available through these torrents. It is abhorrent and should be stopped as much as possible, but just look what is out there.

I think that if there is some free music, that will actually reduce the number of people who will pirate a whole CD, because some people would just do it as a curiosity to hear the band – it won’t stop everybody however.

I like to look at the free tracks (complete and high quality) as my “singles”. I see no advantage to release a single to sell at gigs and really they are supposed to promote and sell the album as a whole.

When I buy music, that’s what I generally will look at. That said, I will not scan the web for a band I have not heard of before. And it always helps if I know the musician personally or have seen the musician play live. Word of mouth is as usual always the best promotion.

P.S. By the way, I reckon if people thought they could get away with stealing stereos from hi-fi shops, they would do it.
Toby Rhee

@ PianoSoulos

” most CDBaby Musicians don’t make enough to even support a pet, let alone a family, so why place so much emphasis on money? ”

Hello PianoSoulos, I’m having a party next month and would love for you to come play…….for FREE !!!

“why place so much emphasis on money? ” …as you say….

I’m sure you’re a nice person and maybe very talented, but it’s exactly this mentality that cripples working musicians. We provide a valid, much needed service and are entitled to compensation for it. Unless you’re not really very good, or have a huge trust fund, in which case maybe free will work for you.
http://deeprelaxationmusic.com Rob Rand

I’m with the CDBaby guy… I made sure to have a clickable player with a 3-minute clip on the front page of the web site. I’m in a niche market, relaxation music created specifically for professional therapists. Of course this music is fantastic for anyone, and the reviews I get are astounding (and fun!), people chillin’ their nervous pets, for example. Three minutes is enough time to get in the zone, and nowhere near long enough to use professionally (the soundtrack is 60 minutes). Wavepool has been selling worldwide, both in CD (direct fulfillment) and, 320kbps full length form (via Digstation- great outfit). I have a 6-minute “radio edit” version on iTunes that’s perfect for a short meditation. So it’s all good. The player is essential.
db

I can confirm devil’s advocate remark about cd sales and piracy. I found my tracks on seven illegal download sites within a week of the cd release. I do niche market electronica and am not primarily in it for the money but I like to cover my costs. I am wondering why anyone would go to the trouble of uploading something so quickly and widely when it is unlikely that more than a specialist audience would be interested anyway.
One other observation – as far as I can tell 90% of my sales are to those over 35. It seems most people below that age now expect their music for free or they don’t listen to it.
http://www.drewstephenson.com blinddrew

@ Diana & Devil, the thing is, once you’ve digitised your music, your unit cost for reproduction is, effectively, zero.
And that’s the price that the market is frequently willing to bear for the recording.
Price and value are not the same thing. My e-mail address is free, but it has a lot of value to people who want to sell me something. If you’re giving stuff away, have you set it up so that you get an e-mail address in return?
Additionally consider what you can do to shift people from downloading-because-it’s-free to wanting-to-buy something. Maybe it’s a limited edition special run of cds. Maybe it’s signed artwork included with the CD. Maybe it’s a voucher that gets you a discount to the live show. Maybe it’s a chance to get their name up in lights on your site, or recognised as a supporter on your next CD. Maybe it’s a cross promotion with a charity so 50% goes to make-a-wish.
There are lots of options that could work for you, one thing I can guarantee is that as an unsigned or very-small-label artist you can’t rely on the same model as the major labels. If you want to sell your music you have to find a reason for people to buy it.
http://www.michelethomas.net Michele Thomas

PianoSoulos, I don’t believe the only motivation to share music is to make money, but by your logic, no one should even pursue a livelihood in music because expecting any form of compensation so will taint the art form.

Money doesn’t stifle creativity. That’s an overly simplistic assessment that perpetuates some romantic notion that true artists shouldn’t care about compensation for their work. It also assumes that there is no actual “work” involved in the “art” that we create. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

It’s nice that you give away your music to charity, but what that indicates to me is that you have the luxury of doing so – and that you don’t make your livelihood as a full-time musician. And if you are not making an actual living as a musician then I don’t think you can really appreciate the challenges of having your art support your livelihood.

There are many of us who have worked extremely hard, dedicating years of study and practice towards having a career in music – and as much of a challenge as it already is to create a livelihood in music – it’s that much harder when our overall society doesn’t take it seriously as an actual profession.

It’s time that we move away from the notion of music and art as being some over-indulgent, pipe-dream that can only be pursued as a hobby with the hopes that you’ll hit it big on American Idol or YouTube. Art should be considered a serious profession, where if you work hard and master your craft, you, no-less than anyone else, deserve a sustainable career in it!
http://taylorsappe.com Taylor Sappe

It’s hard to make a living from royalties on music sales. The lion’s share of your income will come from live shows. If you use your music to promote yourself as an artist by giving it away, you can quickly become famous and make much more in your live shows.

I had a friend who had her entire CD bootlegged by someone in Europe. They sold 250,000 copies of it and she didn’t see a penny from those sales. She didn’t even find out about it until she booked a show in Italy and 10,000 people showed up. She was a star in Europe and didn’t even know it.

Had she relied entirely on the sales of her CD, she would have had to pay for advertising and promotion of it, and most likely would have reaped very little, or even taken a loss.

The mindset today has to be how to get new fans from the distribution of your music to let them know you are there and have the talent. The fans are going to compensate you with ticket and merchandise sales at your shows. If you don’t plan on doing live shows, then don’t expect much more from your music sales than enough to buy yourself a nice dinner a few times a year…….unless you happen to be that one in several million that just happens to hit it lucky. But don’t hold your breath.
OldSchoolGuitar

@ Jon: you’re the bone head. Musicians have been paid for their service for centuries. Mozart, Beethoven, etc were paid by churches, patrons, or other employers to write & arrange music. Wandering minstrels were paid with food, wine, or cash. Good musicians deserve to be paid.

No question, the *recorded music business* skewed everything in terms of scale just as mass media skewed everything in terms of visibility. When it comes to music, technology is a double-edged sword. Sure, now we can make “records” at home on our $300 laptop & give it away, while holding down a day job at Best Buy. But the music will probably suck. Why? Because the “artist” does not have the time to hone their playing ability, their songwriting craft, their skill as a vocalist, etc. But HEY! Just use auto-tune to fix the vocals (I’m certain you can steal a copy of it somewhere), and samples of songs from someone else’s hit for the music, & voila! (Pronounced “vwah-lah.”) And now you’re just like the stars!

Maybe if I ask my plumber to just charge me for parts & not his labor (didn’t cost him anything to be there, right?) and explain that I will give him “exposure” by telling all my friends about him, I can save some money there. Of course, if he goes for it, all my friends will want to do the same. Maybe he can pay his bills by selling t-shirts…

The harsh truth is this: most really good music costs quite a bit of money to record & release, and there has to be some way of recouping that cost. Most “indie” music out there sounds like it was recorded on a cheap computer in a bedroom by persons with negligible music skills; unimaginative playing, boring arrangements, lousy mixes, etc. The only fix is for the “artists” to spend 8 to 10 hours a day, every day for years, working at their craft, or to HIRE people who have already done so. Yeah, hire, as in “give them money in exchange for their expertise.”

I’m all for free samples, when & where it works. Mrs Field’s Cookies had it work for them; Baskin-Robbins uses it to good end results; & super-markets do it every week-end & sell more product as a result. But I just don’t think it’s a panacea for musicians. 99% of the musicians I know say that they see no increase in sales after years of giving away songs or even entire albums. When they come out with something new, which they hope to sell, their fans just grumble that they got the last one free & refuse to buy the new song or album.

One guy I know bragged to me around a year ago that he had added almost 3,000 names to his email list by giving away an album download. When his new album came out he sold almost the exact same amount his previous album sold *without* those 3,000 names on his list. Hmmm…

While there is a time & place for hobbyist music & recordings (most of which probably should be free) there is still a place for music that people should be willing to pay for, and most of it will be worth every penny.
arto

Diana said the right thing. I am a musician who has to pay a ton of bills… When I wanted to compete for the humanist of the year, I’ll share my works free of charge.
http://www.whiskeyrodeo.com Chase

Reality time folks;

Jon: “Music IS free…”? What are you nuts?
Even before the age of the recording you didn’t hear music unless you; 1) paid to see a live performance, 2) could afford to own an instrument and play it yourself, 3) happened to live near others who played music.
#3 was particularly rare, even in cities.

Yo everyone;
Your music is not worthless!

That said;
Unless people are already willing to pay for it (live or recorded) GIVE IT AWAY.

If you’ve given your music away and feel like it didn’t help; there’s always the possibility that your music just sucks. Sorry.
Keep working at it.

Protect your music from theft through copyright & publishing.

If you’re fortunate enough to strike a nerve with a LOT of people with your free stuff, they WILL come to your shows, (if your shows are also fascinating and well-promoted) and they WILL buy your music, shirts, etc etc.
The WILL tell their friends about you and you can definitely build a career that way.

Nobody does everything perfectly, but face it folks, we live in a world that has far more options than option-takers.

Why should anyone choose you?
http://www.thebluevoodoo.com Ted Tosoff

Have fun…play write record the best stuff you can…..if you make money great…just enjoy your life…there is no one path to get you where your going…here today gone tomorrow
http://www.jonitunes.com Johnny Jackson

Here in rural Pennsylvania, and elsewhere I’m sure, you can drive along the road during the warmer months and come upon unmanned [or unwomanned] vegetable stands offering wonderful home grown fruits and vegetables priced reasonably with a sign above that says “thank you for putting your money in the jar”. Sure, there are unscrupulous people who make off with these treasures from the land without paying [and even some who'll take the jar, too!] never thinking twice about the troubles this hard working farmer [often with rosey cheeked kids] must now work even harder to mend. Then, there’s also how the selfish theft tends to lay low faith in fellow man. Maybe you see where I’m going with this?
Yup; I’m older. Actually, I’m so old I’m featured on [RCA] vinyl! I’ve been writing and performing my songs off and on since the late sixties. Even went to Woodstock! Whoa! However, lucky for me I am also a successful wood sculptor, furniture designer/maker with a lot of fruits, asset-wise, to show for those decades of backbreaking labor. Point is; I do not give my 3D art away for free…unless of course you are my wife or kids, yet, I must do so now with my music because the world expects it for free?! If this is to become the destiny of other world commodities in the near future…eventually, nothing will get made.
Something has gone terribly wrong, folks. As my mother used to say, rest her soul, “There’s not enough deprivation in the world.’ She was right. If you feel like you’re entitled not to pay for those miraculous rasberries on that roadside stand, you are part of the problems in that little corner of God’s green earth. If you are unwilling to compensate a musucian/songwriter for what he places on his website for purchase then you are ripping him off, too. Me? I always pay for downloads…same damn thing as buying tomatos on the honor system down in Ephrata, PA. Only difference is you get to sample the music first.
Robinsong

Outstanding article and debate, thanks to all.

Music may have been free a century ago, but that was long before recording studios and the technology it takes to capture it. Even wandering street musicians of yore passed the hat hoping to collect a tuppence. Anyone who gives their music away is a saint. Most of us, unfortunately, pay a price to make and record music and need something in return.

The idea of letting the downloader choose how much, if at all, to donate is a great compromise. I would include a ‘suggested donation’ price to give them a reference point.

About those 30-second snippets: You’re so right, whoever picks the samples we hear on Amazon and the like have no idea what they’re doing. We often hear twenty seconds of a long musical intro followed by an unrepresentative first few words of the first verse. Lazy hacks! Start at the chorus!!
http://www.lesfradkin.com Les Fradkin

I do not subscribe to the theory that giving away music results in more sales. I have enjoyed very handsome sales since I joined CD Baby back in 2003. And I have never given anything away. If folks want to sample what I do, there are 12 videos on YouTube for anyone to hear, embed or sit and gaze at, as often as they please.
http://www.melissakate.net Melissa Kate

Jon says… “Music IS free you bone heads…”

Actually, it’s not. It’s REALLY not. If you hear music on the radio– somebody paid for that music. It’s called a music license. Bars, hotels, clubs, movies, tv commercials, the radio– all of these places pay a fee in order to play music. Live band venues pay a fee for musicians to play music there.

I want people to listen to my music on the radio for “free” but that means my music is expected to generate listeners for the radio stations, who then are able to sell ads or ask for donations because of the quality of their programming.

Music isn’t free. Way back before recording devices we sold music by “sheet music” or by selling tickets to an opera, or by commissioning it because you are a king or queen and you want something nice for your royal guests to listen to. And if you are listening to music for “free” then somebody else paid for your right to do it– whether it’s the radio station, the store manager, or even the artist himself who paid to record/publish/license/practice/write/promote it so that it could end up on your I-pod for “free.”
http://www.bobcushing.com Bob Cushing

I will never EVER, give out my music for free! It cost’s ME money out of MY pocket to produce it and put put it out there, so why should I devalue my craft because this generation are bunch of entitled cretins who think you should get something for nothing?
http://www.drewstephenson.com blinddrew

@oldschoolguitar “Musicians have been paid for their service for centuries.” Yep, mostly paid a pittance and most of ‘em died penniless.

“Good musicians deserve to be paid.” Nope. No-one deserves anything. There’s no law that says talent must be rewarded. It’s the same as any job, you find a need in the market and provide a service to fill it. If no-one’s prepared to pay for that service well shit, turns out the market need isn’t that great. Sorry.

There are plenty of people out there who are figuring it out and working out how they can connect with their real fans and give them a reason to buy.

Music isn’t free, but the price that other people are willing to pay does not equal the value that you ascribe to it.
http://www.marksmusicplace.com Mark

For the [unsigned] independent artist it has become a matter of supply and demand. There is an abundance of music being produced and the more that is given away for free (whether downloads or performances) the less value any of it has. Of course, those in the biz would say that if your music is great, it will sell. It follows that 90% of the money is probably being made by 10% of the people. If you’re not in that top 10% and trying to earn a living on a penny a play or think that giving it away will encourage sales, you may need to work harder on your craft or change your paradigm.
http://www.alexandradaymusic.com Alexandra Day

Chase, I think you hit on an important point. If you give your music away and nobody ever buys it or comes to your shows, it’s probably because they DONT LIKE IT. Maybe it’s NOT THAT GOOD! Let’s be optimistic: maybe it’s just a bad match between the music style and the people who are downloading it… But most of the time, I’d say, back to the woodshed!!!

I know the market has changed, but I still buy music downloads on itunes or on independent sites like bandcamp (can i say bandcamp on this site???)… but only if i LOVE IT. Most people will pay for something that they really value. Who wants fans don’t value you? Let those people wile away in their crappy world of not valuing artists and art…. they can suck it.
http://www.elikamahony.com Elika Mahony

Fifteen years ago when I started my music career, I gave away a lot of my music and I heard that people started burning the CDs in different parts of Africa, Europe and North America because it simply wasn’t easily available at that time. As a result of that, after releasing music in recent years, I believe it has sold more easily as people have heard of the older albums and are more familiar with the music. I still give free downloads about once a year to thank the fans for their support and to show my appreciation and I’ve noticed they share the downloads with their friends which in turn brings more people the website and the mailing list. Those are the times my numbers spike on the website. I’ve also found that keeping in touch with ones fans and developing a true friendship with them is as important as giving away music. So being less protective of my music has definitely helped my music career.
Meg

In the past we had music on a couple of services that required you to give away at least one free song. The result was that people would download the free song, and that’s it. NOBODY ever paid for the songs that were not free. One person who liked the free track even emailed to ask if we were going to put up more free tracks – ignoring that there were tracks and CDs for sale. I think CD Baby and iTunes have been successful because they don’t give away free tracks. Free tracks only attract freeloaders. That being said, I think having one free song out there – just one – may be alright for promotion in some cases.
http://www.bulletantonline.com/home/ Ross

I’m a big believer in free Rock & Roll. If you want to hear my band walk the walk you can get 2 free downloads here (scroll below past the sale badges): http://www.bulletantonline.com/home/
Thanks for stopping by!
Ross
http://www.michelethomas.net Michele Thomas

Another great blog article on this subject is on Grassrootsy.com: “DO YOU REALLY EXPECT TO GET PAID?” http://www.grassrootsy.com/2011/02/28/do-you-really-expect-to-get-paid/

I think the article sums up perfectly why we need to take the monetary gain of artists more seriously. Though there is currently no clear solution to the issues of music downloading and access, it doesn’t mean that music professionals & artists should give up the idea of being compensated for the value of their work. Exposure means nothing if no one places a value on your art.
http://www.myspace.com/joeslant Joe Slant

Johnny Jackson summed it up beautifully! Nuff said!!
http://www.mapsforsleep.com cath

I am old enough to remember when the issue was piracy by copying music onto blank cassettes. It was going to destroy the music business (it didn’t). I don’t have a problem with free music or people making copies. Why? My best example is a friend lent me a CD of a band I was interested in. I dubbed a copy. I ended up buying their 3 other releases, going to their concert, and buying a T-shirt. If you get something for free now, you may like them enough to pay for their next release.
http://www.jetwestband.com Chris

YES! I have been in this for 3 years now….70 shows, 3 states, an album, a music video, tons of parties, bands, small stages, big stages, free music, sell the music…

What it comes down to is this. Where do you want to be in 3 years? If touring the country and selling albums and shirts, then 100% yes you should give out as may CD’s or demo cd’s that you can afford. I spent over 1,000 hours in burning demo cd’s and went through over 2,000 myself with my band making this happen.

Success does not come easy, and if your an old timer, then out with the new, in with the old. If your a newbie with this, then prepare to get your hands dirty. This is not an easy economy, but live, laugh and love and give your music out to as many hot girls as you can. Bring the girls, you bring the guys, bring the guys, you bring the alcohol sales and everyone has a good time and a great memory. So, yes, give out as much music as you can afford to give out, why? They will be fans for life, unless your music sucks, then just be happy someone actually took it from you.
http://www.ubetoo.com/jasonggabbott JASONGGABBOTT

PAY PER PLAY is the way to go! The model I believe is the future of artists being is PAY PER PLAY and it is already happening! TWEETMYSONG, UBETOO and others NOW pay the artist 1/2 the ad dollars they make! About 3-6 cents perplay! NOT bad, imagine a future where our music is accessible to everyone, no one pays except people that can make money off of us. There are many ways for others to market through our music and WE SHOULD and ARE being payed. HOW MUCH depends on you, the artist. IT ISN’T about the money though, it is about exposure. Unless you are already established with a fan base. The business model for music has been long broken and now returning to the state it should be, FREE FOR THE LISTENERS, PAYED FOR THE ARTISTS!
Jason
devil devil’s advocate

i hope every musician “releasing” music is also actually buying every single song they download or at least listen to more than once. walk the walk.

i hope every musician is also telling their peers, fellow students, family, friends, etc. that buying music instead of stealing it directly affects someone they know.

i hope music teachers at all levels (from kindergarten to post-graduate) emphasize that buying music helps more get made.

my pre-teen buys music because she’s been taught that music has value, and besides is very cheap anyway — for the price of a bag of chips (gone in ten minutes) she’ll own a song and listen to it dozens and dozens of times.

Some points to say to people when they say:
“It costs nothing to distribute digitally” — explain the number of hours needed to get good, the costs of instruments, computers, programs, mics, recording/mixing/mastering, and the promotion side of it: website software, graphic designer, web designer, or thousands of hours needed if doing oneself. And life costs: rent? food? clothes?

“Music should be free” – then go buy your own guitar, spend hundreds of hours, and play songs to yourself. also, whatever labor (lawyer, ditchdigger) you do also deserves to be compensated…

“Record labels ripped us off/the rockstar has enough of my money” – there was bloat, yes, but those high-priced cds actually funded a lot of niche music (punk, world, etc) that could turn a profit on small sales.

“I’ll see them live/buy the t-shirt”. – not if they don’t tour near you. and music doesn’t exist to sell a t-shirt!

“I wouldn’t have bought it anyway.” – yeah, that’s why you downloaded it and have listened to it a few times. cuz you didn’t want it.

“I’m just a student/out of work/don’t have enough money”. -yeah, but you’ll have that expensive cell phone, or shoes, or drop 6 bucks on popcorn at the movies…
http://www.fluffythepitbull.com Nicole Chaplain-Pearman

I say that serious music fans who want their favourite indie artists to keep playing and producing stuff will put their money where their mouths are and buy the music. This is especially true if they want to see the artists play live. Bands can’t book venues and transport themselves to those venues without money to do so.
If you’re one of these people who keeps saying how much you totally love Band X but are really disappointed that they never come to play your town, this may be one reason why. If you say you’re sick and tired of hearing the same old mainstream crap everywhere in town you need to realise that the artists you consider to be better quality can’t continue producing and touring if you don’t pony up for CDs or downloads.
All the so-called “fans” out there who expect to get everything for free need to man up or woman up and realise that if they contribute nothing they’ll eventually have nothing.
http://www.zachmaxwellmusic.com Zach

I think restaurants should just start giving away their food for free so that people can give it to their friends…hay, so should clothing stores…why stop with free music right? Sheesh
http://dendeemusic.com Dendee

Please, Please, do not listen to people who tell you to give your music away for free. If you belong to a performing right society such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS,
don’t forget they are working hard to protect you and your music. The fact is everyone wants music, & nobody wants to pay for it. Giving your music away for free is just confirming to them that they don’t have to!
http://youtube.com/pianosoulos PianoSoulos

@ Tobee Rhee -

You state that we provide a valid, much needed service and are entitled to compensation for it. However, who decides that we, as musicians, are entitled and to what degree of compensation? A terrible musician can pay a million dollars to make a record, they put out a bad record, are they entitled to recoup that money? Why?

@ Michele Thomas

No, I am not saying someone should not try to make a living from music, just that people should not always expect to, or have it be their primary goal. I just simply choose to separate monetary gain from music in itself, if that means that I am a bit crazy, then so be it.

Why do you think it is so difficult to make a livelihood in music? Do you think, it is perhaps, that large record companies appearing as if they are money-greedy-entities, ruined it for the small-time-musician? Most people refuse to pay a set price for ANY music due to this mentality?

In my opinion, people will pay for something, if they feel that they are given control to attribute a set value to that item, being told what to pay is not always the best option, especially with subjective items.
http://www.terraform-records.com Steffen Presley

It’s been a long time since I performed live, even though I believe this is the best way to gain fans and sell music. So, I put a lot of my music on my web-site for people do as the wish with. As a creative type with not a lot of time, giving this music away was all I could think of to gain exposure. I’m not fearful! No, there are no downloads on the main page. I think with a good percentage of fans, finding obscure stuff is part of the fun. Anyway, for quite some time nothing much happened. And then a few months ago, looking at my web-site stats, I noticed a particular song had been downloaded many tens of thousands of times. Why, I still have no idea. The song is a jazzy instrumental, not the type of song most people would consider “commercial”. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to release the song as a single on CD Baby. I did nothing at all in the way of promotion. As a busy producer with a family to support, I didn’t have time or money to do anything in that regard. Nevertheless, boy was I surprised when just a few weeks later, I got emails from CD Baby letting me know about the quite significant amount of money they were automatically depositing into my account from digital sales!!! I still don’t pretend to have any answers concerning this subject, but giving music away is currently the key to my making some real money right now. In case anyone is interested, the song is “Bottom’s Up” by “Bent Branes” (just one of my many original projects). One thing for sure, I will now be releasing a lot more singles on CD Baby for digital downloads.
http://cdbaby Jan Benschop

When I first learned to play guitar, I practiced until my fingers bled. I risked being found out by my parents when sneaking out in the middle of the night to go to the local coffee house to practice and learn from musicians passing through. Now, I am 60 and much better for having invested my time and money and efforts into becoming a musician that some people pay to hear. For years, restaurants would pay me to enhance their draw, so they could sell more meals. Lately, some restaurants have “songwriter nights.” They draw new, inexperienced performers to do a few songs in exchange for “exposure.” In other words, the restaurant makes more money but doesn’t have to pay for musicians. But wait a minute: it seems that most of the people in the audience are friends of the musicians. Strangers who are there to eat and not support the musicians they don’t know leave quicker because truly talented musicians are few and far between, and what’s left to perform for exposure is often not worth listening to. Hey, restaurants, you gets what you pays for…
On my first album, I spent ten grand including studio time, engineer time, mastering time, paying session musicians, etc. And I ordered a thousand copies. I did gigs and sold CDs. In other words, I paid $10 per CD to make them and sold them for more. I have made roughly $2500 in profits since I broke even. That is only because I SELL the fruits of my labor: writing the songs, practicing them into a salable product, performing them and producing them into something people want to listen to more than once. I do not work for free, and if you’re any good, neither should you. Of course, if you’re doing basement tapes, easy come easy go… And by the way, before there were albums, there was sheet music being sold. And before that, there were benefactors supporting musicians. And before that, bards received food and lodging. In other words, until recently, music and musicians were valued and paid for.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Soul-Thrust/142945022392876 Salem from One Soul Thrust

Oh yes indeed. We’ve recently had an experience. Our debut cd went platinum. Pirate platinum. Actually beyond (pirate) platinum. Each of those over 100,000 dl’s was either stolen or purchased for pennies (pennies that we needn’t be concerned will ever weigh our pockets down) through an illegal torrent site. I had another experience yesterday too. I bought groceries on credit. Give it away, give it away now…
http://renelabre.com Rene Labre

I get paid to perform unless I have agreed for some reason to do otherwise.The person paying me does not complain and I feel no guilt about accepting cash for my services.I have entertained you,made your event a fun time.Sang for your beautiful wedding,made your prom to dawn swing,jammed for your party. I began performing professionally when I was ten years old,meaning I got paid to do it.Working clubs when I was 14 and nobody ever complained about paying me to do it.They expected to pay me the agreed upon fee.I can’t drive in a van for umpteen hours going from Nashville to Jackson Hole,knock the audience out and then not be paid.And I always get paid.If I go into a restaurant and order a meal I expect that the waiter is going to bring me a bill that I must pay for my meal.And that meal is going to represent a professional standard.(hopefully)So you pay the bill and go “man that was tasty!”You are happy with what you paid for.As indies we could see the net coming and it is sweet yet you have got a lot of sub-standard stuff crowding up the house.The cream is still going to rise to the top.That is the law of gravity.You really have got to love this and have a passion for it to be able to do it.It is a hard old road.Your tune may be a financial blessing for you and it received NO radio airplay.You were open to explore other options.I would say you must be a fool to allow people to download an album for free,did it benefit you in any way to just hand it out?Did six million new fans pick up on it?No,of course not,your stuff is not that remarkable.I would say this on freebies if a fan gets on my mailing list and can’t afford to pay out the outrageous fee of one dollar a tune I will just give it to you because I want you to have it.And thank you very much,I am so happy that you dig what I do.
http://www.solopiano.com MatthewMayer

The margins are so thin that the consumer can essentially get anything they want either free of charge, or next to nothing (even besides music)…software, movies…etc. On our site (www.solopiano.com) we feature an artist to get their name out there in front of people who enjoy piano music, and will stream (with permission) a couple “full songs” to give new listeners a flavor, however the ultimate goal is for the artist to get paid for their creative work. It’s so tough to generate big dollar amounts with online sales, however as a previous post mentioned, the “live shows” are really going to be the biggest opportunities for the CD sales.
http://henrymena.com Henry Mena

2 things:

- You should be remunerated for the music people want to own, period.
- No one should be getting music for free w/o the consent of the artist. How hard to understand is that?

Hey, devil devil’s advocate:

Love your “10 commandments”! One of ‘em (“I’ll see them live/buy the t-shirt”) I have actually had to rebut: What if you’re out of town, sick, or broke when they come into town? How will you compensate them then? No response.

Here’s a conversation I had not too long ago with a self-confessed computer geek and music fan, over drinks at a neighborhood Brooklyn bar.

CG/MF: Man, free downloading and file sharing are gonna be awesome for music.

HM: Really, how so?

CG/MF: It’s gonna bring music back to minstrelsy. As a musician, you won’t be able to pay your rent or bills with it, but it’ll be great.

HM: Hey, I know it’s a bad analogy, but you wouldn’t feel that way if the government, the marketplace or whomever, arbitrarily and greedily made, say, writing computer code a non-compensated skill, right?

CG/MF: Um…

HM: Listen, I’ll pay you $100 bucks a head for every musician you bring me who honestly believes that the disappearance of revenue streams is a good thing for him or her.

CG/MF: Well, um, I guess, yeah…I hadn’t seen it that way.

And so it goes…
Jason

PianoSoulos – You’re a big part of the problem.
It’s called making a living, a career. Unfortunately you need money to survive in this world. Especially in the US where the greed of corporations is destroying lives and the country itself.
I have spent 25 years of studying, practicing, playing out, going to college, and getting a job to pay for that music college, learning recording, spending every pennny I have to build a studio, learn the studio, deal with equipment that never worked right, learning new technologies, constantly updating software and equipment, setting up a business, paying taxes and fees, doing administrative paperwork, working seven days a week as much as I possible can, working to get fans, doing website maintenance on many sites, being interactive on many sites, creating the artwork, writing the music, recording the music, producing the music, sacrificing everything so I can do music. This list can go on and on.

For the people who steal music and ignorant people like yourself, I wish you a lifetime of listening to corporate fluff and crap like Justin Beiber, Black Eyed Peas, Ashley Simpson, Kayne West or any of the other talentless “musicians” out there who everyone complains about.
The Copyright Cop

The Government needs to create a copyright protection arm of law enforcement that is funded by the fines against the infringers. Not the ridiculously unatainable fines of $250,000, but small fines such as first offence $300.00 second offence $1,000.00. third offence $3,000.00. None of this money would go to the copyright holders it would be used to fund the existience of the department much the way traffic tickets fund local police depatments(also no further tax burden to The People). If the deterent reduced infringment by even 30% that would mean billions and the re-enfranchisement of songwriters and other holders of intelectual property, back into their birth right, the right to partisipate in the Capitalist marketplace. Why steal a song and save a dollar when it could cost you $1,000.00. Put the price of stealing back on the the thief. The stigma of being a criminal plus a reasonable yet painful enough fine would be deternt enough to make a significant change in this runnaway culture of taking what is not yours. One important thing separating humans from the other species is the ability to create intelectual property. When a return on its value is no longer viable in the marketplace, the society will begin to collapse. The challenge is that only a small percentage of people are creating intellectual property and a large percentage are benefiting from not paying for it. We must remember that this country was built on the rights of the minority, “equal protection under the law”. Reasonable fines will cure this. The theives will value their music more when they pay for it anyhow. Win-Win!
Chris

When I look back it was often the radio that makes a song to a hit and makes a musican popular. A record seller said to me “when the song is in the radio they buy it. if no, the people would not buy it”. I wait for the day when people will be able to stream a song in high quality for one time only. Its the same when people listen to the radio. They listen to it and like the song or not. I do not like the free mp3 idea. It could be your best song, but you do not know – and you give it for free. ( I know my english is not perfect, sorry)
http://www.richardcmorgan.com Richard Morgan

The bottom line is that you can’t separate art and business. I frequently hear people complaining that they’d like to take the word ‘business’ out of ‘Music Business’. Or justifying the fact that someone is hopelessly disorganized and irresponsible because he’s an ‘artist.’ It’s just not on.

There is as much art in business as there is business in art. They are inseparable. And I think it’s a mistake to think that because we are writing and making music, we are on some higher plane. Do you really think that when you go to a hairdresser and come out with an amazing haircut that there’s no art involved or that it’s inferior art because you paid for it ? That incredible croissant you had this morning. Was there no art involved in producing that ?

Art is everywhere you look and so is business. You wouldn’t expect to get your haircut or croissant without paying for them. There’s no reason your music should be free either. The hairdresser or baker spent years learning his art, and so have you, learning to play an instrument, practising, learning to write songs.

While it is true that making music comes with fantastic personal non-pecuniary benefits, there is no objective reason why people should not be paid for their music. And we’re not asking for the moon. Is it really so unreasonable to ask people to pay less than half the price of a cup of coffee to dowload a song that will give them pleasure for a long time to come ?

I have no illusions. We musicians are in serious trouble. There are too many of us. And what happens in the marketplace when there is too much of something ? The price goes down. But that doesn’t mean it should be free.

Is what you produc really worth less than the croissant or the haircut ? Are you quite sure that when you try to convince yourself that music is a special case, that it’s a higher art form and therefore that remuneration isn’t necessary, you are not really placing it on a lower plane than any other commodity available in the marketplace ? It doesn’ say much for your opinion of your music.

Again no illusions. If you think giving your music away is the best way to go, you will continue to do so. But if no one was giving music away – if all musicians refused to give their music away – then people would have to buy it if they wanted to listen, wouldn’t they ? But the damage has already been done. The airy concept of free music has taken hold of the public’s imagination and it’s impossible to go back now. We really only have ourselves to blame. (Yes, I confess. I’ve given away some of my music for free, too, out of sheer desperation.)

What does the future hold for recorded music ? I recently read an article – it may even have been on CDBaby – that suggested that soon no one will buy music because if you can hook up to internet at any moment wherever you are with your iPhone, there is no longer any need to dowload it. The future is streaming. I think unfortunately the writer may be right in his prediction. If so, we as musicians need to make very sure that the various on-line libraries where our music is available for streaming pays out something to artists and that there are no loop-holes in the agreements negotiated by the various copyright and performing rights organizations. Otherwise, the personal satisfaction of recording our music may soon be our only reward.
http://www.das-kaiserreich.net Korpfnagel

My band Kaiser gives a way a free song. The complete album costs and I understand that most musicians want to be paid.

But I am also a listener of music and I have downloaded copy righted music from people who probably illegally hosted the songs. The ting is that on many occasions I heard the band for the first time and liked it so much that I wound up buying the Album. in fact if I really like a free download I will wind up buying an actual release by that artist. If I am not impressed by the music I will not buy anything and nothing would change that. free download or not.

I think it is save to say that everyone has some copied free music somewhere but it is also true that everyone owns original paid for releases. I am shore that for every album I sell that the buyer will probably at some stage make a copy for one of their friends and I am cool with that .I have bean guilty of doing this and everyone I know has bean guilty of doing this. I have never personally met a person who would be an exception. It is practically unavoidable to prevent this from happening but it is really not such a bad thing many of my favorite bands I got to know trough a unauthorised copy. I now own many original store bought releases by those bands and it is all thanks to a copy that I got to know them.

Yes some people will own copied music that they do not like enough to ever buy an original. but the artist lost no money because that person would have never bought an original anyway. However since the individual has a free copy one of hes friends might get to hear it and wind up liking the band and eventually purchase an original. I have seen this happen on several occasions.

The type of illegal copying that i object to is when someone copies music in order to sell it in some kind of black-market music industry. This is the case of someone else profiting from the work of a musician, this is simply unacceptable.
http://www.makeitinmusic.com Ian

I actually feel unwell when I read this kind of post and the comments that it inspires.

I have been involved as a manager with record sales in the millions. I’m old school but I also embrace the world that we live in today – I am something of a music marketing expert and thoroughly get ‘direct to fan’.

So, I have experience (lots of it) with the old way and quite a bit with the new way.

And, a lot of what you read in these comments is utter crap from people who have no idea what they’re talking about.

How can you know if freemium works when you haven’t seen the upside and the downside? – all you know is it didn’t work for you.

The truth is that free does work and it does sell.

It works for established acts who had the luxury of breaking before file-sharing became common but it also works for brand new acts who are building a fanbase now.

If YOU ARE ANY GOOD then giving free music away will get you to a point where you have a fanbase who will also buy the same music that you give away free and will buy other stuff that you do, whether that be merchandise or tickets.

If your efforts to build a fanbase by using the freemium model aren’t working, it is 99% likely that the root cause is that you’re music isn’t good enough to be commercially viable.

You have the right to express your art and to try to promote your talent but that doesn’t mean that your expression of art has to find an audience. It might not be shit – just too odd to find listeners to love it. On the other hand, if you can’t find fans on the web, then it’s probably just shit.

The old rules of economics haven’t been changed by file sharing and freemium. If people like what you gave them for free, they will come back and pay for it. It’s worked for hookers and heroin dealers as well as farmers and merchants for thousands of years – why would it be different now?

You give away music, people get to hear it and talk about – which they will if it’s good. If you don’t give it way, they can’t.

If this didn’t work then why would Corey Smith and Pretty Lights have been able to build sustainable and very profitable careers from giving away lots of music?

I have seen it with a client of mine whose sales GO UP now that he gives away half his debut album for free. It is slowly rising up the iTunes charts 5 years after first released and sells more every month than the one before. BECAUSE more and more people are picking half of it up for free and raving about it.

BECAUSE IT’S GOOD.

The Arctic Monkeys weren’t broken by MySpace – that’s industry hogwash. They broke because they and their fans gave away CDR’s (and downloads) of their songs, thereby building a rabid fanbase.

BECAUSE THEY WERE GOOD!

So, stop thinking that a free track is a sale lost. It’s not. That was a sale that could not have happened as no-one knew what you had to sell.

Instead see it as a way to open the door and create the start of your story – because that’s what it is.

And if it doesn’t work for you. don’t blame the free track model, blame your material. Go away and sort that out and come back for another shot.

If what you give away is good enough then giving stuff away for free WORKS.

And that, by the way, is fact, not opinion.
Andy

I agree with Ian.

I run an internet startup with a freemium model and am also in a band.

Go to any investor and the one thing people want is traction. Without this it doesn’t matter how good your service or tracks are, if nobody hears them you wont succeed.

Unfortunately we live in an age where the public expect things for free. The way to combat this is to find other monetization strategies to overcome this.

I believe if your band is good enough giving your music away will turn heads. Once heads are turned in your direction, people start to whisper….
Pingback: Plan 9 Studios
http://www.indiesings.com Ms. Indie Sweet

Both sides here have made good points. I completely see Ian’s point that free does work.
But its one thing when the artist is giving away free music, and a whole other thing when music is being stolen. (Downloaded for free w/o artist’s consent)
I too, agree that giving something away for free will increase people’s interest, word of mouth, etc. therefore helping the artist.
But file sharing and illegal downloading just isn’t fair.
Nowadays, most people just want the whole thing for free – even if it’s not meant to be.

Ms. Indie Sweet
http://www.indiesings.com/blog
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/robbiealn2 Robbie Alan

If a song is given by the artist for free, that’s fine. A true fan understands that we
need to make a living too. A download for .99 cents is a bargain,coffee and cigarettes
cost more,music is a lot better for you as well. I’m a musician and a music fan, when
I hear music I love,I just buy it. Supporting the music allows us to keep making more
music. This also shows respect for the artist.
- http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin
  
  Too True. Music is much more healthy!
Guest

What about withdrawing all full length songs from the net and shorter it down to 30 sec. or 1 min.
So people had to buy it if they wanted the whole song.
- Duncan
  
  That’s what everyone does anyway. People don’t like musicians that appear money hungry. They like musicians that are in it for the music alone. Fans like honesty in an artist and for their personality to show through. It’s like a friendship… no one wants to pay for a new friend. Just face the fact that there’s not much money in cd sales anyway, especially for an upcoming, unsigned artist.

Music Promotion for Independent Musicians

Being Overly Protective of Your Music: A Great Way to Frustrate Potential Fans