To Sell Your Music or Give it Away for Free?

by Brian Casel | January 26, 2009 | 9 Comments

It’s a question that so many songwriters that are just starting out will ask themselves: “Should I sell my music or give it away for free?”

You may be thinking, why would you give it away?! If you want to make music your career, then you need to make music make you money! True. That is certainly the long-term goal of many songwriters. But is charging a buck per song from the very beginning always the best way to acheive this goal?

When you’re on your very first EP or demo release, and you’re an unknown fish in a sea of gigging artists and bands, your goal might have a bit of a twist: Get your music heard and appreciated by as many people as possible. Maybe charging for your music is not the fastest way to acheive this goal.

But what about all of the hard work you put into writing, recording, and performing your music? Do you not deserve to be compensated for this effort? I say you absolutely do. But the harsh reality is that only a lucky few ever reach a level of success that brings in real money from selling your music. Furthermore, this is the wrong thing to be focusing on.

Focus on your passion. It’s the reason you create music in the first place. It’s the reason your music is good. It’s the reason your music is appreciated. I say set your music free by spreading it to as many mp3 sharing listeners as possible. If your songs touch people’s souls, and you work hard to grow your fanbase and churn out more music, monetary success will come.

There other ways to keep your musical career afloat financially while you work to advance your career. Drawing crowds at your live shows will earn you some cash. Touring outside of your local scene has the potential to pay even better (although touring does have many expenses to consider). Selling merchandise at shows and through your website is another way to monetize your musical endeavor. But these methods will earn you nothing unless you have a growing fan base that is hungry for your goods.

Give the people what they want. Free music that they can share with their friends.

Consider option 1: A first-time visitor to your website or Myspace page is absolutely floored by the streaming audio preview of your song. They want the mp3 for their ipod, but it requires purchasing with a credit card. Sure it’s cheap, but it requires getting out the plastic, typing in the credit card number, expiration, blah blah blah… “oh forget it, I’ll do this later” they think to themselves. They forget to do it later. You lost a potential fan.

Consider option 2: A first-time visitor adores your music and clicks to download the free mp3. They throw it on their ipod, jam to it in their car, and play plugs your name or band to their friend. The friend checks you out on the web and is not quite as sold on your sound as the first person was, but takes the trusted recommendation for what it’s worth and downloads the mp3 anyway. After a week of listening they’re converted. And they email your web link to a 3rd friend…

What do you think? Is music for free the only option for budding artists in today’s music industry?

Thanks for being part of the conversation at Serve The Song. We have a simple comment policy (with thanks to Tim Ferriss) - critical is fine, but if you’re rude we'll delete your stuff. ’Nuff said.

The Business, promotion

9 Comments:

01/26/2009
3:43 pm

pilgrimOmega

I’ve been enjoying the stumbles on this blog. This topic is something worth talking about as in an age where an organization called the RIAA is prosecuting music fans, they are doing nothing but losing fans forever. As an artist, I want people to listen to what I am doing, first and foremost. Certainly, I would never want to punish someone for enjoying my work so much they downloaded some.

Yeah, I wanna make a living, but…not the way the RIAA wants me to.

I used to be in a band signed to a major back in the 90’s and I would never go back to that life.

People have to get comfortable with what I kind of jokingly refer to as the pusher business model. In other words, you give a sample or a song for free, hope that you make them an addict and that they come back with cash if they want more.

Either way, the genie is out of the bottle and we have to change the business models. There’s no going back.
01/26/2009
4:46 pm

Brian Casel

How’s this for old vs. new business models:

http://mashable.com/2009/01/25/band-website-displays-copyright-claim-from-its-own-label/

Death Cab’s label pulls a youtube video off of Death Cab’s website. Talk about shooting your own artist’s web promotion efforts in the foot.
01/26/2009
7:06 pm

Mr. Kraft Singles

Excellent article Brian. I’m going to cut to the chase about this dilemma.

As a new artist with no fans, listeners or open ears – earning money is NOT your first option, 2nd or 3rd. In fact that shouldn’t even be on your mind. Your goal should be getting heard!

That involves performing in public, shopping your demo around to anyone who’s willing to lend an ear, making your rounds across the net (social networking sites, blogs, etc.)

That is your first test, if you can gain a strong following – then that should give you the green light that you can make it in the music industry. Your next move has to be trying to score a viable manager. They have the ins and outs to put you under the spotlight. Once a manager sees how strong of a following you have, he will want to invest in you.

Execs are only concerned with the big bucks. If you don’t have people who believe in your work, why should they waste and damage their reputation with an unproven client. So before you approach any manager, make sure you have your fans to back you up!

As an artist, you’re main concern should be the music itself – all legal and press matters should be handled by the pros. You do not want to juggle the executive side of things while still doing your OWN music. Even if your manager is cutting a chunk of the check.

AT LEAST YOU’LL HAVE A CHECK!

Only then will you ever be able to sell your music.

We all have to start somewhere and if you really are THAT artist then your music will only get better with time. Hence, you’re old music will feel novice compared to your future works.

Hope the bit of insight helps someone in need!

- MKS
02/11/2009
9:18 pm

David O.

I agree with a lot of what is mentioned in the post and comments. It’s not uncommon for a new artist signed to the majors or an indie to give away music for free or even videos away for free on their site or itunes. But are you going to give it all away for free ? A lot of people feel they should not have to pay for recorded music. But I think it’s possible, even at the beginning to sell recorded music.
02/11/2009
10:07 pm

Brian Casel

On the one hand, there is no doubt in my mind that recording artists deserve to get paid for the effort they put into making their music.

On the other hand, the reality is most people want music for free – especially new bands they’ve never heard of.

I say when you’re just starting out, its more important to spread your music to as many listeners as possible and worry about selling your music later.
02/12/2009
4:40 am

David O.

“On the other hand, the reality is most people want music for free – especially new bands they’ve never heard of. ”

That’s true, then there are some people like me who after hearing the full song, and enjoying it, won’t mind spending 99 cents to download it. Typically when I find such a band, their music is not available on itunes.com or amazon.com. They just have their music on myspace without a download option. And since myspace gives me a headache for the most part, I rarely go back to listen to it after awhile. This is similar experience to the first scenario you mentioned

In any case I think making the music available for download is important, making it free is a good promotional tool for new artist. But I think perhaps it’s possible for fan give something for it ? Perhaps signing up for a mailing list on their site so they can download it may be a solution.

Here’s another scenario for you, suppose you run a real independent label. The focus of the signed artist is to make great music, your focus is to market it then monetize it. The independent label has more money then most aspiring artist to market it so the exposure is greater. The exposure is not great compared to the exposure provided by a major or independent under a major label, what would you do ?
My solution would be to give some songs away and sell others.
The important here is signing an artist that can produce more than one good song.

In the long run, I think it’s possible to sell music online. It will involve providing plenty of quality content for one low price directly to the fans.
01/31/2010
9:09 pm

Pete Smith

Most of our tracks are released under a creative commons license.

We are an independent record label not a big bad corporation out to sue you for file sharing, we WANT you to spread our music around.

With such an overcrowded market place giving away your music is essential in my opinion. The biggest problem for emerging indie artists today is obscurity, not piracy. To find out more listen to The Antiqcool Podcast .

http://antiqcool.podbean.com/2010/01/22/the-antiqcool-podcast-episode-1-how-can-you-be-a-part-of-our-success/
02/9/2010
2:46 am

DreaM_LivE_DIE

If you are new, no one will want to PAY for music… If you are established… No one wants to pay for your music.