I'm wondering how the independent artists on this forum feel about selling their music (either as digital downloads via iTunes, etc. or physical CDs) versus making it available for free (under Creative Commons license, etc.)
On the one hand, if you are unknown can you ever actually hope to sell a decent amount music within the current environment of being able to find just about any music for free? Does it make sense in this situation to give away your music in an effort to reach as many listeners as possible (since you are probably not going to make any money anyway)? Is it possible that this method may help to make your existence known on a larger scale?
Or, does giving away your music create the perception that it must be worthless? Does the average listener think "Oh, they couldn't get a deal with a "real" label so now they're giving it away."
Also, does charging for your music encourage more people to seek it out for free? Sort of a mentality that "I got something for nothing" - in other words they got something for free that would have normally cost some amount of money. Will this mentality (ignoring issues of right & wrong) actually cause more people to seek out the music than if it was available for free?
Thoughts?
Sell your music or give it away?
Moderator: Aesthetics
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ArtOfTheGroove
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Flyingpurplepeopleeater
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I don't expect anything for free these days. Personally I would be willing to pay for anything I liked enough to download. When I finish some music some day and put it online I'd hope that anyone who liked it enough could fork out a little cash for it, it's not too much to ask really. Why give away what you have sweated over and cherish for free?
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turquoise70
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25 atlas lane
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hills west
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when my new album is done, everyone who wants a copy will get one...but instead of money i want them to mail me back something cool...a copy of their own music is normal but maybe a cool shirt (size medium), or if youre not from the states then whatever currency your country uses...unique little objects, pictures of you when you were little, you know, kewl stufffff...(gulp)
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sevenELIXIR
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I'd love to make money with my music, and I need money pretty bad right now. But I just know nobody would ever buy it, so I leave it. Besides that, making music for money creates presure I think. (will this be good enough, will people buy this? etc.)
Throw away your smartphone.
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The Telepathic Kid
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Like...not love.The Telepathic Kid wrote:I think a lot of people who like BoC would like Copied Betamax.
Besides...I don't have allot of listeners. Just this forum and a handfull of family members (that I know of,anyway)
Throw away your smartphone.
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The Telepathic Kid
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IanRedpoint
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Love Hills' idea. That's inspired.
I would love to make a little money from music. Just enough to pay for a proper vinyl pressing of a record. I don't like CDs as aesthetic objects, so I'd rather not waste time, effort and money on those when everyone I know (even my parents) would just rip them to mp3 anyway.
I'm happy for people to have my music for free. The ideal setup would be similar to shareware software, where people give money if they feel the software deserves it. A band like Radiohead can get people to pay up in advance because most people already have a pretty good idea if they will like Radiohead's new album or not before hearing a note of it. Obviously that's not the case for most of us on here. People would have to download and listen to our music before knowing if they like it or not. For example, I wouldn't have known that Sarin Sunday's 'The Lonely Hike' would be one of my favourite records this year if I hadn't downloaded it for free. If there was an option to retrospectively pay for it, I would.
A few years ago Andy and I wrote a little shareware shooter for the PC called 'Deadeye'. The money we made from that allowed us to buy legitimate copies of most of the music software we use. If I could do that with my music then I'd be more than satisfied.
I would love to make a little money from music. Just enough to pay for a proper vinyl pressing of a record. I don't like CDs as aesthetic objects, so I'd rather not waste time, effort and money on those when everyone I know (even my parents) would just rip them to mp3 anyway.
I'm happy for people to have my music for free. The ideal setup would be similar to shareware software, where people give money if they feel the software deserves it. A band like Radiohead can get people to pay up in advance because most people already have a pretty good idea if they will like Radiohead's new album or not before hearing a note of it. Obviously that's not the case for most of us on here. People would have to download and listen to our music before knowing if they like it or not. For example, I wouldn't have known that Sarin Sunday's 'The Lonely Hike' would be one of my favourite records this year if I hadn't downloaded it for free. If there was an option to retrospectively pay for it, I would.
A few years ago Andy and I wrote a little shareware shooter for the PC called 'Deadeye'. The money we made from that allowed us to buy legitimate copies of most of the music software we use. If I could do that with my music then I'd be more than satisfied.
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hills west
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