Comments on: The New Free

By: Pete Berwick

Pete Berwick — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:34:33 +0000

The only people ever getting free cds should be radio stations and anyone in the media who may write or review the album, also agents, potential managers and anyone else who you feel may benefit your music career. As far as your cheapskate so-called ‘fans’ and ‘friends,’ make the bastards pay. When you give your music away you are stating by this action that you do not believe it to be worth anything. Does a carpenter build a house and give it away? Then why does anyone create a Cd and give it away? Was there not time and money and blood and sweat invested in this product just the same as the building of the house? Music has been cheapened and it’s value trashed by desperate musicians yearning to be discovered and heard. When you give your music away to anyone other than industry people who may help to further your career, you are working for free. And anyone else you just hand your Cd to will never really appreciate it. If they didn’t ask for it or bother to invest in you as an artist they will just look at it as a worthless piece of plastic, which based on your lack of commerce skills it has become.

By: jomar

jomar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:43:21 +0000

I believe I’m doing both: free and expensive.

1. Offering “advise” for free, inside my mailing list, inside my social network.
2. Selling an exclusive “advise” club for a high price that only a few can afford or doing live workshops at an even higher price.

It works for me.

By: sean

sean — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:36:23 +0000

I think bjorn said it best “is that “free” goods online are in effect infinitely abundant, and you can’t really make them non-free.”

The question is not should music be free. Music is free (kind of. I will explain below). The question is- If music is free, how can bands create a profitable business model?

“Music” has to be defined.
Music Mp3’s for download = free.
Online streaming music = free.
Why? Because music “files” are infinitely abundant. If you don’t want to pay for an mp3, just go to any file sharing platform and download it. Without limit in supply, there can be no value.

Music itself is not free. Music files are free.
Music itself, as an experience, as art, as a connection is priceless. This is where bands can make money, and create a profitable business model.

Free= everyone can hear your music, assuming they have an internet connection, without any barrier between “you” the musician and them “the fans”.

Sell= fans get a tactile product (limited edition high quailtiy product) which has real value. (ex. CDs, T-shirts, etc.)

Sell=live performance, as any music junkie knows a great live concert is priceless

Sell= License your music for movie, videogame, or commerical sondtracks.

This seems to me to be the current path for bands. It could all change tommorrow, we are all currently blind trying to figure it out.

Regardless of whether you like the music or not, it seems that Trent Reznor has a good hold on the new music business model
here’s a short video http://futuremusic.tumblr.com/search/nin

By: SmartBlog On Social Media » Blog Archive » The value of emotional value

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:45:51 +0000

[...] there, then, a new free? My feeling is that the new free may be the opposite of free. The complete opposite, a.k.a. [...]

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:45:13 +0000

Anna,

You are exactly correct!

I am a performing musician, and over the years I came to the exact conclusion you have.

Musicians and audiophile enthusiasts here music very differently from typical listeners.

I think of this every time I read the ads for super quality recording gear in recording magazines.

Who are they kidding? Themselves. Recording engineers hear music differently, too. They are basically audiophiles.