Should you give your music away ?

[SlavikSvensk]

the whole house of cards is collapsing. i don't see a good alternative on the horizon. doom! gloom!

[DannyBlack]

A lot of people have that attitude, but feck it- time to rethink.

[SlavikSvensk]

so where does that rethink start?

i think labels are still very useful. one thing i've seen more of are netlabels that subsidize their existence--and ability to give things away for free--by offering mastering services and releasing sample packs. not sure if that's really a long-term viable solution, though.

[DannyBlack]

well I think the rethink should start right now. I mean, if you want your music to sell you can't just sit back and wait for it to happen. You can't rely on someone/record company- else to create a new model then go with it. If you honest to god are determined to sell your music then you need to get on it and create the market yourself. An independant market. Personally, I don't know- but that's the way id be looking at things.

[DannyBlack]

Digital aside; I think the decline in sales has something to do with the decline in quality. There was a huge feeling of massproduction for a while.

Maybe it was the other way around. A continuum of rubbish versus sales. Are people going to buy into tripe? The less money was made, the more it was churned out. Techno became pop.

[vegim]

while getting music to fans cheaply or even for free is great, if it becomes widespread, the digital labels will die. if they die, then the ability to reach a certain level of exposure will be completely in the hands of the 'techno aristocracy.'

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[lunatrick]

[QUOTE Techno became pop.[/QUOTE]

yeah but more pop is being sold in singles than ever before due to downloads...it doesn't seem to be the same with techno sales though.

BBC News - Singles sales soar to record high

I think the music is going the same way as dj'ing - somewhere along the way it stopped being a spectator sport and people just preferred doing it themselves, leading to hundreds if not thousands of mediocre labels.

[davethedrummer]

[QUOTE Techno became pop.

yeah but more pop is being sold in singles than ever before due to downloads...it doesn't seem to be the same with techno sales though.

BBC News - Singles sales soar to record high

I think the music is going the same way as dj'ing - somewhere along the way it stopped being a spectator sport and people just preferred doing it themselves, leading to hundreds if not thousands of mediocre labels.[/QUOTE]


basically music and media is in very high demand
the highest ever.
but....will people pay ?
pop music thrives on live concerts, advertising and music videos now
the sales may have gone up but the prices have tumbled so who's winning ?

but with techno because its small to start off with
it really suffers with no sales, there's no KFC endorsements for us
so we have to sell the bloody stuff.

I like the teaser idea
give away the odd track to get people to come and check out the label etcc..
I think that would work.

[DannyBlack]

create an alter ego, create pop, enjoy the takes. Eric Prydz, Pryda, Mouseville...

no shame in it.

[Winds]

I like the teaser idea
give away the odd track to get people to come and check out the label etcc..
I think that would work.

Sounds like the best option to me. IMO giving away a free track every now & again would definitely attract more people to other tracks you have available to buy. This has been the case with me. About 2 years ago beatport released a few free tracks by different established artists as part of a promotion for beatport. I hadnt bought any tracks by any of the artists before, but always check them out when I see their new tracks released now, and buy them if I like them.

[Luke_C]

I think radiohead did it right, and i plan to do something similar myself.
Releasing you album for free with an optional donation system on your website/myspace etc is an excellent idea. It cuts out labels, distributors, shops/downloads sites which means if someone gives you a euro for 12 tracks you get the euro. rather then 12 euro for 12 tracks and you only get 50% of 50% of 50% of 50% or whatever bs. not that you didn't know that already lol

[crime]

Interesting points so far
I get that point about wanting it but not paying for it.
that was marks point exactly, and he said that as soon as he put his stuff up free it really started moving.
I gues the thing to do is ask if it has made any difference in any other areas of marks working life.
like has he got more paid work from it ?
because at the end of the day tracks take time to make, good or bad tracks
and you can't spend your entire life making tracks for nothing , it's just not possible.
unless you want to starve to death in your studio.

an to A X Cell yeah mate , I would just give it away if your very new to the scene
just to get an idea of an audience reaction.
forget the record deal idea for now, record labels are mostly crap anyway these days.

my 2p:

My experience of trying to sell my album made me re-evaluate everything- I took about 18 months out of making music after that experience as it depressed me deeply at the time - but in the end I really wanted to make music again, so I made music because I wanted to - this is the best reason to make music and the results are much better for it - When I was earning a living from music, I had a lot of time to write stuff, but I really don't think the quality was necessarily any better. You lose the hunger for it, and also you feel that you should be making music even if you have no good ideas, because it's your job. You make trax out of liveset trax which you had to write just because you had a live gig you had to do to pay the rent. You then try and sell the trax to a label as you need to maximise the income for the work. Then you meet the Artistic freedom vs market forces argument which often happens with labels, where the label is telling you "oh it has to be more like this or like that" to sell units. Changing your style, even slightly, just to sell records is the biggest mistake you can ever make as then you are diluting your own artistic vision - therefore diluting you uniqueness, which, if you have a lot of originality, is the card you are playing -

giving stuff away for free gives you the ultimate freedom to express yourself exactly the way you want to- no label saying "oh, make it more like this/make it more like that".. for the money that can be made out of mp3 or even Vinyl releases it's not worth diluting yourself just to get on this or that label. As Henry says labels can be a pain to deal with anyway.. and whilst it is a buzz to hear people playing your stuff out - if that is your sole motivation behind making music, to "get somewhere", I really think you should be making a style of music which is more popular - if you try and do it with techno/IDM you will be sorely disappointed.

People know my name, and I get a few gigs a year - but I still have to work 9-5 to live - many people are under the illusion that once you get picked up by a big label, that's it, you have no worries, your life is going to be like something out of MTV "Cribs". doesn't work like that. I guess giving some stuff away for free has probably helped in some way, but I think doing a weekly mix has helped me more as far as getting gigs is concerned - but it's hard to say, as these things come in waves, you might do no records and have an amazing gig year, you might do 10 releases and have a slack year...

[scott_robinson]

I am new to this forum and so far I am begining to feel at home here. After reading this thread I fealt I had to add.

I have been away from the 'music business' and recently decided I had to do it again. Simply to just be creative.

My job is boring, no suprise there we probably all hate our jobs however I make computer games for a living. I won't argue it should be the most fun in the world you can get paid to do. I thought it would be great but like everything else these days created on a computer there is no market any longer for computer games with any kind of plot or substance because people download so much. This means publishers just want a version of the biggest selling game that year. So I find that I had to get back to the music to vent my creative passion.

Mark actually talked me into it and I am glad he did.

Basically I started writing 'techno' in the early 90's and it was new and exciting the scene was alive. As the years went on it changed and morphed through many phases. The one thing that has always remained constant is the style I choose to do. No one could ever really put it into a genre and I used to hate that.

However. That is, irronically, why Iam now writing techno again. Because you can do what you want.

I have friends in the rock and pop worlds and they have to conform so much that it is upsetting. I don't. I can go home after a shitty day at work and hammer out some group of sounds and rhythms that capture that mood forever.

I released a song on Cluster once that I am really glad the Liberator boys released quite simply because it was pure punk. My boss had pissed me off at work I came home and wrote it in an hour. It was pure emotion. The song was ready from the night before and I came home and whacked all the levels on the desk up to overload and recorded it.

Anyway back on topic.

I dont think anything has changed since 7 years ago when I stopped writing to now when I have returned.

Yes we have more tools and yes we can get our work heard by someone in Austrailia minutes after we upload it. But in the early 90's it was just as hard for me. Take away the internet and software and roll back time and you have the same disadvantages you have today.

I had to post demos. I couldn't afford the equipment that LFO had. So it was harder to get together a good demo on a tight budget. But I never gave up.

Now it's the other way round. The sounds are easy to get and the equipment is far cheaper. So when balanced out all you have left is raw talent.

Make something good and people will listen, make something different and they won't forget.

In the past music was about capturing an emotion that could relate to others the great thing about techno is you can do that, anyone can.

To get back on point. I will happily let people have my music for free if they REALLY want it. If it makes them feel something then it has served it's purpose. If you crave fame then maybe that will only come through hard work as it always has done. I have always made sure I dont have to live on my music so that I can be free to do what I want to do.

People I know in bands are always saying to me 'must be great to just hammer out what you want when you want' and I say 'yeah but it can be lonely sometimes' :D. Everything has pros ad cons.Those people in that band got a 500 000 quid advance, which they are still paying back some 15 years on because the label dropped them.

I am sorry about the length of my first post here but the subject is an important one and I am extremely interested in peoples views having been away for a while. As Mark said 'my 2 pence worth'.

http://www.myspace.com/scottrobinsontechno

[rhythmtech]

nice first post scott... and man i remember your stuff from years ago! think i used to hammer out a tune of yours on cluster?

[king aaron]

I want some free music but I don't want to steal it or download it illegally, who are some singers who give away their music for free? Like they choose to give it away and want people to download it?

[tonyc2002]

I am new to this forum and so far I am begining to feel at home here. After reading this thread I fealt I had to add.

I have been away from the 'music business' and recently decided I had to do it again. Simply to just be creative.

My job is boring, no suprise there we probably all hate our jobs however I make computer games for a living.

I made a website using Actionscript!!!!!! Can I have a job!?? :cheese:

[clubsynthetic]

So we all think it should all be free. Give me your music NOW! haha

[crime]

fcuk giving away music for free. if ppl want it for free they'll find a way to steal it anyway.

So, you would rather release music which is a compromise on your own vision over giving away stuff which is exactly how you want it to sound rather than have it rotting away on your hard drive with no-one hearing it? How is someone gonna steal something which no label will release because in their eyes it's "too much of a risk"?

and how exactly do mainstream pop/rock acts giving away music for free damage sales of techno music? sorry, I just don't understand how your points make sense.. Techno/electronic music has become less and less popular for years, definitely since the heady days of 1995/1996. There's no point in being bitter (I'm not saying you necessarily are) about the fact it's very very difficult to earn a living from it. Surely if you are making stuff it's better to get it out there in whatever way you can than just be sat on stuff because there are no labels around which consider your music viable to release on conventional formats. I'm seeing this personally as the greatest opportunity ever to be able to break out of any creative ruts I've been stuck in in the past and to do stuff which is really different without worrying about compromising any kind of "Careeer" I might have once had...

[Microdot]

So, you would rather release music which is a compromise on your own vision over giving away stuff which is exactly how you want it to sound rather than have it rotting away on your hard drive with no-one hearing it? How is someone gonna steal something which no label will release because in their eyes it's "too much of a risk"?

I have always released music that is exactly how I've wanted it to sound and never compromised on my own vision, and have never given it away for free.

[crime]

I have always released music that is exactly how I've wanted it to sound and never compromised on my own vision, and have never given it away for free.

well, you're lucky to be in that position.. Myself, I don't have that privilege.. So, what are you saying exactly, that no-one else should give their music away, just because you haven't been put in that position yourself? Just interested to know...