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/

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.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ju3umdijyky

If you want to download..

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.

These practices will increase the quality of the final product, deliver more direct value to the consumer and advance the direction of underground metal.

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 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.

Thanks for being an inspiration and a smart, smart writer/thinker.