Giving away music

[mthrfnk]

I like the "Pay with a Tweet" model, its a app you can use that forces people to tweet or facebook a generic message and link to your download before providing access to the free download. Rusko did it with his newest EP iirc.

I think it's quite a good idea tbh, people still get the stuff for free but they have to promote you first.

...
i dont get this at all
what do you earn from that? internet fame?
i know some people might think attention is the new dollar but that only works with advertising cause implanting non-piratable goods into my subconscious is gonna make me 0,0473% more likely to buy them. but music? really? this is ridiculous.

What don't you get, it's got nothing to do with "internet fame" at all.
It's just a good way to get people to share and promote your stuff with others... in return they get your stuff for free.

its not sharing and promoting, it's spam. read wub's post, that's how its done.
and i still dont know what you actually gain from all that forced promo

Okay I understand you're point of view, but most people will gladly click a button to make a single tweet about your music with the promise of getting something free. Whilst it may seem like you're just "spam promoting", really what's the harm if it gets a couple more people downloading your stuff? If it was such a useless system, people wouldn't use it... but they do because it works, prime example of Ruskos new EP which I only found out about because a friend "paid with a tweet" which showed up on my timeline.

Obviously giving some stuff out for free to entice people to buy your other stuff (as wub has pointed out) is still a valid and damn good way of promoting and building a fan base (that is if you have enough good tracks to do this heh ), I was just trying to point out a way of not really charging anything for any of your tracks but still getting a little in return, as an alternative.

I'm not saying you have to or should do it, nor am I saying it's an excellent method; I just think for a small time producer with a limited fanbase, getting say 50 people to share you music to their friends/followers is a nice idea imo - but obviously you're going to polarise oppinions with those who are vehemently against such a system declining to download your tracks.

[NinjaEdit]

I'm going to use the example of Fanu again;

http://fanu.bandcamp.com/

That's his Bandcamp page, full of free stuff mixed in with stuff you pay for. I downloaded the free stuff (WITHOUT having to click like/follow/Tweet/whatever) and liked it so much that I ended up buying a copy of his double album on CD;

http://fanu.bandcamp.com/album/daylightless

€4 for a double CD? Fucking BARGAIN mate if you ask me. Anyway, the point is that even without having to force me to click something to get the free stuff, the fact the stuff was free was enough to get me enticed.

And I've done some promotion for him here by mentioning him in this thread anyway

You get to stream it before you buy a high quality download anyway. I bought XXYYXX's album for $1 because I liked 'Good Enough' (and yet, the whole thing's on Youtube without link to the $1 purchase ).

[syrup]

yeah, it'll probably just fuck people off

[wub]

I'm going to use the example of Fanu again;

http://fanu.bandcamp.com/

That's his Bandcamp page, full of free stuff mixed in with stuff you pay for. I downloaded the free stuff (WITHOUT having to click like/follow/Tweet/whatever) and liked it so much that I ended up buying a copy of his double album on CD;

http://fanu.bandcamp.com/album/daylightless

€4 for a double CD? Fucking BARGAIN mate if you ask me. Anyway, the point is that even without having to force me to click something to get the free stuff, the fact the stuff was free was enough to get me enticed.

And I've done some promotion for him here by mentioning him in this thread anyway

You get to stream it before you buy a high quality download anyway. I bought XXYYXX's album for $1 because I liked 'Good Enough' (and yet, the whole thing's on Youtube without link to the $1 purchase ).

I bought the double cd physical copy and got 320s of all 22 tunes as a bonus freebie

[travis_baker]

theyed think your a twat and probably wouldnt listen to your tunes based on the fact that you didnt give away a wav of your own tune

[Soulstep]

If i was a artist i would focus on youtube, streaming and bandcamp
make money off the plays, give the music away for free, people download it then upload it to different youtube channels it gets more plays and makes more money

[wub]

http://fanumusic.com/whyismymusicfree/

QUESTION:
Why do you give your music out for free?
Why should anyone pay for your music when you’ll be giving it out for free at some point anyways?
Aren’t you devaluing your music – and maybe music in general – by doing that?
I’ve been getting these questions recently.

ANSWER:
I’ve given loads of music out for free, and will continue to do so.
For me, it’s by far the best way to reach people – old fans and new.
Along the years, I’ve tried hard to get myself and my music out to the media – big and small – and especially those whose word would do me good.
I’m getting virtually zero support from those, and trust me, I’ve tried, and still do, although there’s no response.

A small artist like me makes VERY little money from music sales – especially considering how much time and effort I put on my the whole Fanu/Lightless thing.
Every time I do a free download frenzy, it earns me way more than having music out there selling for any price, I’m not lying.
In fact, unless I do a campaign like this, there’s not much coming my way.
I can tell you I try to put a LOT of time on music even though I have very little time for that: I do have time-consuming real jobs as music is not a considerable source of income for me (getting very few bookings these days).

It may be hard for any non-artist out there to understand how f***ing hard it is for any artist out there today, and I’m not lying one bit when I say that honestly, giving music out is 1) one of the most rewarding things I can do as an artist and, to be honest, 2) one of the best ways for me to do marketing – as that’ll allow my supporters to do valuable marketing for me.

In today’s world, you can get any released music online for free, so why should we pay an artist, then?
In my honest opinion, giving artist some money for his music is not the same thing as putting your coin into a slot to get that can of Coke.
It’s about supporting an artist who you would like to see continue his/her work.

If anyone feels cheated or offended by my way of doing things, I’ll only say 1) you should try to understand my position and 2) you don’t have to buy anything from me as I won’t make you.

[bRRRz]

http://fanumusic.com/whyismymusicfree/

QUESTION:
Why do you give your music out for free?
Why should anyone pay for your music when you’ll be giving it out for free at some point anyways?
Aren’t you devaluing your music – and maybe music in general – by doing that?
I’ve been getting these questions recently.

ANSWER:
I’ve given loads of music out for free, and will continue to do so.
For me, it’s by far the best way to reach people – old fans and new.
Along the years, I’ve tried hard to get myself and my music out to the media – big and small – and especially those whose word would do me good.
I’m getting virtually zero support from those, and trust me, I’ve tried, and still do, although there’s no response.

A small artist like me makes VERY little money from music sales – especially considering how much time and effort I put on my the whole Fanu/Lightless thing.
Every time I do a free download frenzy, it earns me way more than having music out there selling for any price, I’m not lying.
In fact, unless I do a campaign like this, there’s not much coming my way.
I can tell you I try to put a LOT of time on music even though I have very little time for that: I do have time-consuming real jobs as music is not a considerable source of income for me (getting very few bookings these days).

It may be hard for any non-artist out there to understand how f***ing hard it is for any artist out there today, and I’m not lying one bit when I say that honestly, giving music out is 1) one of the most rewarding things I can do as an artist and, to be honest, 2) one of the best ways for me to do marketing – as that’ll allow my supporters to do valuable marketing for me.

In today’s world, you can get any released music online for free, so why should we pay an artist, then?
In my honest opinion, giving artist some money for his music is not the same thing as putting your coin into a slot to get that can of Coke.
It’s about supporting an artist who you would like to see continue his/her work.

If anyone feels cheated or offended by my way of doing things, I’ll only say 1) you should try to understand my position and 2) you don’t have to buy anything from me as I won’t make you.

bigup fanu!

[Soulstep]

http://fanumusic.com/whyismymusicfree/
bigup fanu!

the 'name your price' feature on bandcamp is way better than pay with tweet or free at x0000 likes on facebook, cant stand that shit

[wub]

http://fanumusic.com/whyismymusicfree/
bigup fanu!

the 'name your price' feature on bandcamp is way better than pay with tweet or free at x0000 likes on facebook, cant stand that shit

Fully agree. Which is weird because it's essentially the same thing, I'm still giving my email address whenever I 'buy' something through Bandcamp even if it's free, but it's a psychological thing, I guess...

[erratech]

Its a bit much when you find a "free download" on soundcloud, follow the link which takes you to a facebook label page which you need to 'like' to get the link, that link takes you to the individual artists facebook page (same deal) which then forwards you on to bandcamp where you enter your email to actually get the damn track. Thats not hyperbole.

I dont think giving away music devalues your music, I think giving away substandard music devalues your music.

[NinjaEdit]

Value is subjective and not the same thing as price.

[travis_baker]

to be honest i like buying 320's, makes me feel good. to hard to personally messaging some dude who gets back to you like a week later bout how the master aint ready.

[Echoi]

If you upload full tracks to Soundcloud, Myspace etc, then you have allready given it away.

Download doesn't have to be activated for music to be given away.

[3za]

If i was a artist i would focus on youtube, streaming and bandcamp
make money off the plays, give the music away for free, people download it then upload it to different youtube channels it gets more plays and makes more money

How do you make money of plays on youtube?

[mthrfnk]

If i was a artist i would focus on youtube, streaming and bandcamp
make money off the plays, give the music away for free, people download it then upload it to different youtube channels it gets more plays and makes more money

How do you make money of plays on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/yt/partners/

[3za]

If i was a artist i would focus on youtube, streaming and bandcamp
make money off the plays, give the music away for free, people download it then upload it to different youtube channels it gets more plays and makes more money

How do you make money of plays on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/yt/partners/

I'm aware of youtube partners, but how do you make money of plays on different youtube channels?

[Soulstep]

If i was a artist i would focus on youtube, streaming and bandcamp
make money off the plays, give the music away for free, people download it then upload it to different youtube channels it gets more plays and makes more money

How do you make money of plays on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/yt/partners/

I'm aware of youtube partners, but how do you make money of plays on different youtube channels?

basically youtube knows my releases/tunes when someone uploads a video or mix with my tunes in, it checks.... based on your settings it will either takedown the video or monetize it (or something like that)

if you had plays like ukf you'd be making a lot of money, as a artist i would put my time into trying to get popular on youtube rather than soundcloud

[3za]

Ah cool, I never knew you could do that.

[Hircine]

I'd love to give music away for free but there are a few problems, I'll list those:

1- Some people uploaded my music on youtube and even on torrent sites, but they don't have, together, more than 6000 hits. Mishka the dubstep dog, however, has way more.
2- A few months ago I even posted on the forum about a dubplate contest, I literally gave two dubplates together with ISR away (payed by me and jesse together) for free and yet we only had about 20 entries for the contest.
3- I have no more than a few hundred likes / follows on fb / sc. Whenever I post something up, I only get a few views. I have to resort to extensive facebook reposting and putting stuff on my dsf signature. Because of this, I rather release stuff through labels or blogs so I can reach a wider audience of the "right" people.
This way I was able to reach #2 on Juno ep charts and #1 on Juno single tune charts, plus 256 downloads with FKOF. Problem is you can't do that often because blogs and labels have their own schedules, so there's a few months interval before you can put out something new.
4- I if I send exclusives to radio djs this will ensure they rinse my tunes, giving me more exposure than a free download.
5- I don't play out. If I do, it's in my own night and I make almost 0 money from that. I won't be playing in other countries anytime soon. Whenever a promoter brings an international artist, it has to be a big one so he can fill the venue so I don't have much hope of playing in Latin America or anywhere else without having to pay for flights etc. The few bucks I get from digital sales will be invested directly on my studio.

I know that maybe if I spammed a bit more and invested on premium accounts and facebook ads I could easily overcome all of those things, but I don't like to force stuff down people's throat. Sorry for any grammar errors!