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Bands should give away their first recordings for free.
This idea is not new. First recordings used to be called “demos.” Bands gave away demos. People tape-traded them. They were meant to be distributed freely. If bands charged money for demos, it wasn’t much. Demos weren’t albums, and were priced accordingly.
In this age of Pro Tools, however, band’s first recordings are more likely to be full-length albums than three-song demos. Bands can record at home, free of the demands of the studio clock. So now they make full-lengths and think they can get full-length prices for them.
This is wrong thinking. In this age of downloading, people are hardly willing to pay for albums by established bands, much less up-and-coming ones. But you’d be surprised by how many young bands have self-released albums for sale, or are sitting on them, waiting for labels to pick them up. Both are exercises in futility.
Andrew Dubber, whose blog New Music Strategies tackles industry questions head-on, has this bit of insight in this post:
Don’t try to make money from your music, make money BECAUSE of your music
Payment of anything is a powerful barrier to music consumption now. What would a band rather have — a handful of sales each month with pocket change revenues, or no revenues upfront but many fans familiar with the music and potentially buying merch at gigs?
Only in one situation should a band not give away a first recording: if a label puts it out (or it is so good a label might put it out “as is”). One shouldn’t pirate one’s own album if it has viable sales potential.
But even this exception has exceptions. If a label-released album yields few royalties for a band (which is often the case in metal), then the band has little incentive to fight piracy. In fact, it should actually encourage piracy, because it gets more exposure, while losing little. Only the label loses out. Here, labels’ and bands’ interests are not aligned, which is a whole another can of worms.
Cosmo I gotta give props to you for being so forward thinking. A few of your recent posts have been really good. I've read a lot of Dubbers stuff and exchanged a few emails with the guy and I wish more people would listen to people like him.
So much of the underground scene is rooted in a music business model that is 10 years out of date and I think many of the smaller labels do more harm than good. I recently had a debate with a small label guy cos he had asked for one of his records to be removed from a file sharing blog. It had been downloaded over 200 times and had sold less than 100. Those 200 people would probably never buy it so why stop them from downloading it? It doesn't make any sense. At least they get to hear it, generate some plays on last.fm etc.
If you're in an underground metal band you are NOT gonna make profit from your records and you may well not break even, especially if you restrict how much of your music people can hear. The best you can hope for is that LOTS of people will hear your music and like it. But how fucking cool is that!!! Post your music online and the entire world can hear it if they want. That was the wet dream of every underground metal band in the 90s.
I'm self releasing my bands first full length later this year and one of the first things I'm gonna do is get it on the Sludge Swamp. I'll be pressing a bunch of CDs too for those that want them and for selling at gigs but there's too much good music for everyone to buy all the good stuff.
I wish more bands would do this or at least make their music available for full streaming (last.fm, Reverb Nation etc.). There is so much stuff I want to hear but I can't afford to buy it all so I'll listen to the one or two tracks that they have on their god awful myspace pages and then forget about them and go listen to those that let me.
Ahhh I feel much better after that rant.
I agree with your post entirely. Bands should look to the open source movement in software development for inspiration here. It can actually make good business sense to give your stuff away for free, you've gotta see the bigger picture.
I agree as well…it's actually kind of ridiculous to have such a megalomaniacal view of your work that it demands money anyways. Anyone nowadays who can afford a computer can get free software and start recording distorted lip sounds and make a semi cool Merzbow tribute.
If somebody likes your stuff enough, trust me, they'll get the t-shirt…they'll come out to the show. They might even come out to your side-band's show
so on that note, please d/l all of my music at http://www.catatonicdisassembly.com and push for a song to become the new theme song to Gossip Girl so i can pay some billz
Right, take a page from the drug dealer's playbook, free samples get the kids hooked…
Giving away free demos has unfortunately been replaced by "uploading it on myspace." I don't care how good the band is, I can't have my first exposure to it be terrible streaming audio.
I saw ISIS a couple months back and on my way out a kid handed me a CD with 2 songs on it from his band. The band was nothing special really, but going home and putting that CD on felt great
I could not agree with this more. Time and again I argue with local bands selling album length demos at chain store prices who refuse to see the reasoning behind giving it away free. If your in a band 'for the music' then surely the best way to get as many people as possible to listen is if its free yet so many seem dumb founded by this concept. 'but we want to break even' is the usual retort. I did not become a metal musician for the economic viability (it was for the hair copters and Tom G going 'Urgh!' incidentally)and really how much does it cost to make cheap cdr copies for gigs. I want people to hear my music so it is free to download with full art and all we ask in return is that people spread it to anyone they think may like it. (shameless plug – http://www.myspace.com/hesperpayne )The flip side of this could be the devaluation of music, at a recent show a great band where unable to give away cd's to people who had actively enjoyed the set. I was a bit puzzled untill I heard one person remark 'whats the poit if its free its gonna be shit'
I still dont understand, you complain if they want money but your not interested if its free?
Sorry for the ramble but this is something close to my heart and I am unable to accurately articulate my incomprehension at the average metal bands attitude to this matter!
Why doesn't this prove that bands should always give away their music? What is the relevance of it being their first recording?
The obvious answers would all be equivalent to what is the use of record labels. Which are arguable.
Furthermore, at least for us elitists(harhar), first recordings are inevitably a band's best, so the presentation of the first album IS fundamentally important.
Todd – The word for that is "freemium." It's a hot topic right now. I have wondered myself if giving away hundreds of hours of my time each month for this site is worth it.
Brooke – Cheaper things are inevitably perceived as lower quality (see conspicuous consumption, name brand mentality, etc.). But the millions who download music for free and are happy to have that replace paid media far outnumber those who turn their nose up at free music.
post-felix – If fortune smiles upon a band, it may get signed after its demo. Then the number of stakeholders rises, and giving stuff away may not be in all their interests.
Even if the Internet levels the distribution playing field, labels remain vital for promotion and branding. You would not know of your favorite bands unless labels paid for their recordings, got magazines to interview them, sent press releases to Blabbermouth, etc. A band on a reputable label has a higher profile – and thus demand for its music, paid or not – than an unsigned one.
Another polarizing post Cosmo. I've started streaming music on my page. Its totally free and fast. Why don't those bloggers who tout the "all about the promotion of the music line" use the streaming way to share music? check it sobasc.com
I don't think bands should always give away their music but new bands would benefit from starting out this way. They sure as hell should make it available for streaming at all times though. If I can't hear it I don't know if I like it.
At the moment labels are still important mainly because they are the people with the press and media contacts. Bands can certainly do more in this area though and labels also need to change their mentality of "We'll front $xxx for this record and we'll shoot down anyone who gets it for free until we've made our money back". This is bad for bands, fans and underground music in general.
Labels are also important as so called 'tast makers'. If a band is on a label like Rise Above then you roughly know what you're gonna get and you know it should be up to a certain standard. Bloggers are taking over this area more and more now though.
I will continue to run my band myself for as long as I can but if I had an offer from a label I would have to seriously consider it. I still think it's possible for an individual to make the contacts/promote their music etc. if they're willing to put the time and effort in. There's no point trying to sell overpriced albums, remaining largely unknown in the hope that one of the few decent labels will pick you up though.
@ Mike
That's a great idea. I haven't had a look at your blog yet but there must be bands that have their music on sites like Reverb Nation. RN make it really easy to grab a music player widget and embed it wherever you want.
Mike – A streaming-dominated world is a few years away. (Or sooner, if Spotify makes its way to the US.) There remain issues like bandwidth, compression (see MySpace's terrible sound), and Internet access in the first place. Smartphones still have problems running browsers; streaming rich media is even more problematic. Multiple streaming scripts in multiple browser windows (e.g., MySpace and YouTube) is currently a dicey proposition. Also, people still feel like they must "own" music, though this need will probably diminish over time.
Many MP3 blogs, including this one, already offer streaming capability with their sound clips. Just click the "play" icon here to do so.
I completely agree with you Cosmo. I'm a musician currently recording some stuff, and I know I'm not making money off of my music. I have a day job–that's where I get my money. You can damn sure bet that whenever I finish whatever it is I'm doing, I'm gonna hand that shit out.
Thanks for being an inspiration and a smart, smart writer/thinker.
While I'm a firm believer in buying music whenever possible and artists being compensated for their efforts, I'm also a FIRM believer that the world would be an infinitely better place if musicians kept a realistic perspective in terms of seeing their recordings more as literal documents of their musical work than potential sources of sustainable income. At the end of the day, what good is the time and effort spent if the music's not heard by as many listeners possible?
Wow I didn't realise Spotify wasn't available in the US.
I can't really describe how good it is and how much it has changed the way I listen to music. The adverts are a little annoying but a small sacrifice for the music that is available.
If and when the iPhone app gets approved that will make the biggest difference because you will be able to cache playlist for offline playing.
I haven't met many of the younger generation who care too much about people buying their music. They have a good attitude towards the whole thing, IMO, but they also grew up (or are growing up) inside a whole new paradigm. In my experience it's the label owners who really care about people buying the music…the musicians just want people to hear it. And yes, it's remarkable that these days a band can record a demo and be heard by a thousand people in a matter of days. I think that's fantastic. I can only say that…one would wish there wouldn't be a corresponding decline in quality or commitment on the part of musicians…but there has ALWAYS been bad music, bad bands, etc. I like the loosening up of the power structures within the music industry and inside music itself. If music becomes more and more competitive I don't think that's a bad thing…it just means bands will have to work harder to stand out. I have faith that good music will always be heard and treasured, and it doesn't matter whether that happens now or in a number of years as people hold on to something they've come across. I think that as soon as technology enables a lossless format that can be easily bundled/packaged with art and some kind of "authentication" so that people can refer back to a band's presence, website, etc. all other forms of audio media will be dead as far as the "official" spreading of music. I love discovering new music and as the pace of production increases it just makes me happier…there is so much music to go through now that it's bewildering, but it's a good type of confusion, often.
It's fun.
But also: yes, if you're serious about spreading your music through myspace, offer alternatives to their player. Protip: people are so lazy now that if you don't provide a clickable link for a download page often they'll skip it because CTRL C/V apparently takes too long! Ha! Oh well.
I think this is good advice, but he underlying problem here is the artist mentality. Art and musical collaboration takes lots of time, effort and experimentation before something of value is formed. Even with dirt cheap digital production making the tracks "sound" professional, the material is often shortsighted and lacking innovative value. Bands should record demos to physically fixate the progress of their experimentation, and then receive internal and external feedback for those ideas. In essence, artists are asking their community for a service: honest feedback and moral support. And when you ask a community to help, it only makes sense to give them access to the materials for free of charge.
These practices will increase the quality of the final product, deliver more direct value to the consumer and advance the direction of underground metal.
This is spot-on. When my band Flaming Tusk decided to release our recording as a debut EP instead of a demo, it was really just a matter of what we called it, and we very quickly decided that the idea of charging for it was insane.
The record was on our website as a high-quality download from day 1 (and still is), and the "release" consisted of making it public, making some blog posts and sending some emails. We definitely reached a much wider audience much faster that way.
My band has handed out a couple hundred copies of our demo for free at shows, as well as posted it for download for free. We'll probably continue doing this for a long time..
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ju3umdijyky
If you want to download..
SPREAD IT LIKE A DEADLY VIRUS.
"I have wondered myself if giving away hundreds of hours of my time each month for this site is worth it."
I hear you. I used to write more and do journalism and had a show on campus radio. At times, it did make me wonder what I was doing it for, because i'd promote shows by some lesser known touring bands and there wouldn't be that many people there.
That being said, if you consider the origins of pop music, there's always had to be tons of giveaways, really, before you'd had any significant sales. Labels had to promo at radio stations, newspapers, various places. In the times of DJ run stations, it was better because you had artists breaking because the DJ's liked them. Then payola got involved and ruined the purity of that, probably because the industry was being overrun by every act that thought they could "make it", so they got wise and asked for payment in lieu of "free" exposure, and then the liberation from that was pirate radio (ships playing music from on the water), etc, then they got shut down and it reverted to payola again and back and forth.
When I was younger, I thought that bands got paid for interviews! I think of all the times that musicians are calling from the middle of nowhere in a crappy van, or some dive motel and laugh at how wrong I was.
The statistics are more sobering–how many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of bands, from your average basement band to your gigging with demo/ cd bands to major label bands there are, and then actual fans? When I did campus radio, it occurred to me–when I saw the hundreds of cds we'd get in a month, there is no possible way that all of them can get played….if you factor in the amount of hours per day that there are.
So it almost seems like a waste to promo at those places, but the only other alternative is to not promo there, and i've found that i've had airplay and interest in the most unlikely of places. I've promoed all the way across Canada and a bit in the States and some in Europe and have either got turned down by people or not, but that's the way it goes, that's par for the course. As the saying goes, "you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take". Of course the postage adds up like hell (especially when promoing vinyl to the US or Europe) and hell, the people could just toss it in the trash, but I like to do some things the old fashioned way.
That being said, even radio play and good reviews–which come from freebies and are free exposure in trade– don't transpire into sales. It's kind of odd, but i've seen the bottom line. I can relate to your other article in saying that maybe if you panned an album that much, that people would check it out. People are looking for some sort of entertainment value….whether that's enlightenment or just escaping boredom, they're looking to be entertained. It's tough to transfer free into paid these days. Royalty cheques are cool, but they're not much. But i'm happy to be able to create and have some sort of an audience, ultimately.
Sorry for the long ass response, but I thought that I could weigh in with some things here.
Give it away I say
Songs from our catalog have been played by hundreds of radio stations and podcasters worldwide and it didn’t cost them a penny, in return we got exposure and promotion…..sounds like a good deal to me, that’s why many of our tracks have been released under a creative commons license and are free to download. So what if you lose out on lost sales, you gain more in the long term by increasing your fan base (If you can survive that long)
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/