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File sharing - what's in it for the band?
Posted by Rainhat • 8/01/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: download, file sharing, music
I recently moved my music blog as well as my website onto self-hosted wordpress, and it just got approved here on BC. So here's some shameless blog promotion: Check out my blog! Any kind of constructive criticism is most welcome!
www.rainhatmusic.com/blog
I'm also curious about your views on file sharing. All the music out there is available for free, whether the bands like it or not, and I honestly don't think that's going to change. New bands might even have a tough time breaking into view unless they give their music away for free to encourage it getting spread and heard. So how will the bands of the future make money? Only off the shows?
User Comments
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They will make money from the shows, and also dvds, radio playback, and music channel royalties.
In my opinion (and I can see it happening already) the band should offer more of an incentive to buy the cd such as artwork, codes to unlock areas of their website, posters, merchandice etc etc.
But also with the file sharing, in my opinion it may not be such a bad thing if you're a band thats wanting to get noticed and have your music heard by people internationally. But the catch is that you're song would have to be known well enough for someone to download it.-
Nine Inch Nails have things like that going on, they have pretty interesting ideas. They let people download their music for free, but offer all kinds of other cool stuff that comes with the music if you buy it. Some of their stuff might be harder for an unknown band to pull off, but it seems to be the way to go.
File sharing can be a pretty effective tool, I think, but as you say, people need to know the music exists and like it before they can start searching for it. Maybe online services like Last.fm can help with that, but I think it's still largely up to the band to get out and play as much as they possibly can to make people hear about them.
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I agree with Sam. It seems that the way the music is being marketed has changed drastically with the advent of the web. It is accessible but at the same time it is tough in terms of getting someone to buy it. There are so many bands and so much competition out there. I think digital downloads can provide as a teaser for what's to come(supposing you are consistent in your style).-
Yeah. I guess it's like with all kinds of sales, there needs to be a demand for something in order for it to sell, so it's up to the bands to create that demand. Obviously, one needs good music, but also stuff that competes with free downloads and offers something the fans want, but the free downloads don't have.
What kind of teasers are you talking about? -
What I mean is, the promotional' single' has to have a description of what the band and the music is all about. For instance if I download one Dead Can Dance song, then I know or have an idea what the band and album is all about. Marketing also plays an important part. Most bands today do their marketing via social networking sites like myspace as well as band camp. If you don't know what band camp is yet, I actually wrote an article about it few weeks back:
celticmusicfan.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/bandcamp-com-an-alternative-to-mysp...
or visit the website:
bandcamp.com/
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I noticed that you are using PayLoadz shopping cart. How do you like them? The reason I ask is I read some not so good reviews about them.-
Payloadz is pretty easy to manage and set up, everything is quite userfriendly and simple, but I've noticed that it is at times incredibly slow. Sometimes the page doesn't load at all when you click the buttons. As for actual purchases I can't really tell. I've only had it up a couple of weeks and I haven't sold anything through it yet. But it does seem quite unreliable, so I'm going to switch if I find something better. I mostly went with them because it's completely free if you sell for less than 50$ a month, so I figured it doesn't cost anything to try it out.
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If you are not using a lot of storage space and don't want to be restricted by the number of transactions you make then you can try www.e-junkie.com/. Their basic plan if for $5/month.
Good luck!
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Yeah it's a sticky situation, I went to a concert for Griffin House a few months ago and honestly I was shocked that he said I could have his cd's for what ever I wanted to pay or just take them....I felt bad cuz I know some people were taking advantage of it but he said that's how he gets most of his following by word of mouth, he gives away a cd and then people will give them to their friends and they turn their friends on to the music and so on. So in his case he felt "sharing" music was a good thing for him
But I still gave him what I would have paid on Amazon for the cd.-
Heh, I wish all my fans were like you!
But yeah, a lot of new bands give away their music for free on purpose, because they feel that it's better to get your music out there and let as many people as possible hear about it, than to try and squeeze money out of every single CD and thereby severely limit the amount of people who "discover" you.
I think the RIAA and their campaign of lawsuits against file sharers downloading and sharing music has done more harm than good to the record industry. It's a PR nightmare to start going after your most hardcore fans and punishing them. -
With regards to file sharing , I think if you are a true blue fan you will always buy the album when it is available . I also download music from the web especially when I get impatient that the CD release is taking so long. But when the album is available I always go to the record store to pay for it.
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I'm not so sure they would. I heard NIN made a survey and found that only around 18% of their fans paid money for their music. Apart from it being free, many people also download it off the net because it's way easier than buying it.
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I have been thinking about that a lot too lately. On a music forum I participated were a lot of discussions about how 'ethical' that all is. And the opinions where very opposed.
So it got me thinking how 'unethical' it was to listen to a site like Deezer, where you can listen many albums for free, (although it all keeps changing and I find the site rather chaotic) mainly the older recordings of a band.
But as I was reading more about all that, (streaming music as it is called I think) it seems that there are deals of record compagnies with such sites, so in that way it seems legal, although I do not know if that means it also is good for the artists.
But maybe it is just another way to help the musicworld change and survive.-
After they updated it, I find that most of the music on Deezer is not available to listen to here because of regional copyright restrictions. A streaming music site full of music you can't listen to is pretty pointless, I think.
I'm not sure how those deals actually work out practically, but something definitely needs to change in the music industry. The old model that the record labels want to hang on to so bad just isn't working anymore. The music is available for free already, whether they like it or not.
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I have been thinking that as long as the file is listened to and not downloaded then it is not illegal. For instance, there are artists on myspace where you can listen to their music over there. It's for free but the idea that you can't download it means that ' it is not an illegal copy'. whereas a file that is shared through your own means becomes illegal. How is that? Anyhow, for me, sites like liveireland.com gives me info about what's new in traditional music so I know what to look for in record shops or on line.
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I've thought about the same thing. If listen to a band on MySpace for free, it's ok, but if I download the same song it's against the law. The bands don't make any money on people listening to their music on MySpace either, so what's the difference?
It's kinda like libraries. If I read a book at the library it's free and totally OK, but if I read it online, it's a crime?
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It's already been mentioned, but merchandise and concerts are where musicians should focus on trying to earn money.
Out of principle, I refuse to pay for duplications of patterns of electrons.
CDs, DVDs, and other physical media? Different matter. -
concerts.. merchandise.. get featured on tv/film.. and if you get famous enough, your fans will buy the records with money just out of loyalty.. I do -
Lol, most bands only make money off of shows. You didn't know that?-
I did. A lot of bands make money off of sales on CDs and stuff still too though, just not as much as before. Personally, I make all my music available for download for free, I see it as a marketing tool.
But I'm curious about what people's views are on file sharing. *Should* all bands give their music away for free and try to make money off of other things? Are there other ideas about how artists could earn their money?
She Swedish government is (unfortunately) completely bending over for the old industry lobby and have a bunch of new laws in place that turn more than 10% of the population into criminals. The record labels can basically go mafia on people and force money out of individuals on their own. In my opinion that is probably the dumbest option.
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I do think that making your music available freely on-line is the way to go, as long as you have incentives for people to see you live, buy your merchandise, and purchase "hard copies" for safe-keeping. The only way to create that incentive is to be really good or to offer added content that cannot be accessed without a purchase.
If you want to get known, people are far more likely to point out a place to get a free download of an unknown band's songs than to recommend that people pay to buy a track or album from someone of whom they've never heard. I know that it can take three or four (or more) listens before I decide whether I like a song well enough to recommend it. I'm more likely to take that time if I don't have to sit on your MySpace page and listen to only the tracks that you think I should hear.
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