interesting read all this.

i'll put my opinion in.

I personally don't think music should be given away free. Art has a value and if you like something you should pay for it.

I 100% agree with promotion and giving away stuff is part of that.

But i feel that all this giving away of tracks is de-valueing the music industry. Particuarly the underground scene, which is already undervalued.

We run the risk of the scene turning into a bunch of part-timers. You need guys out there doing this as there full time job really pushing the scene and the music and generally doing a good job of it.

Loving the scene is not a good enough reason to do it for free. I love my job... would i do it for free? Would i hell.

If you have a good day in work and your boss says "well you've enjoyed yourself today so i'm not paying you" you'd be like what the ****

So why should artists be forced to do the same?

On the other hand i'm being slightly hypocritical here as with my label i like to increase the perceived value by doing full colour artwork and giving away free things in the records... in the process i can't really afford to pay the artists for there tracks as i would be loosing money on each release. So i'm in the dilemma, do i cut production costs and pay for tracks or do i keep going doing what i'm doing? But from a promotion perspective the artists tracks being on my label promotes them... should that be enough... i don't really think so!

It's a tough one

The only thing i do know is that we should support the underground and keep it thriving and buying records is a BIG part of this.