Should you give your music away ?

[morbid]

For someone of your calibre I can only see you gaining.

No disrespect to you.... but

Before the digital thing came along I used to buy up all your vinyl releases, hydraulix, boscaland, routemaster etc etc. there was no other way to get hold of your music.

Nowadays I wouldnt pay for one of your digital releases, not because its not worth anything but because theres so much else out there that I dont have to pay for.

I spend a minimum of about 2 hours a day listening to new music and I haven't bought a CD or record for over 3 years. I have hard drives full of quality stuff that I haven't even got round to listening to through rapidshare or netlabels. Im not saying its the right thing to do (not paying for music) but its the way things have become. In rare cases if I like the free stuff I do download the album or whatever but in terms of revenue I dont think its about the music anymore, its about the name and the brand and the performance.

I wouldn't pick up a mutate to survive on digital if I had to pay for it. I would definately download if it was free.

Do you gain from this - I don't know. Your music becomes more accesible to a wider target audience providing you centralise your distribution of the freebies. ie. all digital releases availble for free at (www.) davethedrummer.com. as Mark does. That way you can track who is downloading your music. You don't gain financially but you gain a better perspective of where your music is popular giving you ideas about where to market your DJ / Live performances better.