Pay what you want

Great post from Joy at Grassrootsy.

You read so much stuff about how 'freemium' or 'pay what you want' pricing works for musicians and other creatives, but you don't often see artists (who aren't major label escapees!) prepared to test it and then disseminate their results.

So, it's great to see a post where the artist has done it and passes on their experience.

I am sure you have come across this model recently, artists making their work available for whatever fans want to pay for it.  It has been called by many names (pay what you want, pay what you can, pay what you think it’s worth etc), but they all essentially mean the same thing.  The artist gives the audience the choice as to how much money they spend on the music.

And with this in mind, I come to the main point of this post: using the pay what you want model with merchandise at live shows.  I started doing this over two years ago when I toured around the UK.  I know of a few musicians who do the same now, but have mainly encountered a response of fear when encouraging others to try it.

You can read the whole thing here.

And this is a link to a post that they refer to by Derek Sivers on the same topic.

Social Media Tips for Musicians

Another long video from the IMS summit in Ibiza earlier this year.

The people on the panel are genuine experts and I do really recommend that you take some time and watch the whole thing.

BUT, for me the best stuff is from Randy Reed who manages an act called Pretty Lights that you may or may not have heard of. The facts about Pretty Lights are that he has given away (yes, for free) 1.5 million album downloads and as a consequence he sells more albums on iTunes et al and has a career that makes him a very good living from those digital sales plus touring and merchandise.

For me, he is the total answer that freemium (when applied to good quality music) clearly does work. If it's not working for you, my usual hunch is that your music isn't good enough! Therefore what his manager has to say about how to reach fans wuth Social Media is worth hearing, don't you think?

Randy comes on the video at 11.41 and then in a couple of other places, but, like I say, you ought to watch it all!

Here's the video:

 

Don't give away all your music for free

We looked at this issue once before in the context of charging for online shows.

Interestingly, in that particular situation, evidence suggests that charging more increases sales - check it out.

But this post is about the whole idea of the effectiveness of giving away music and whether it is the right course for musicians.

I had a conversation with an artist manager this week who partly believed that giving away music to those who had already become a fan (by being on an email list or 'liking' on Facebook etc) was the best way to use freemium.

I categorically disagree.

I think giving away free music is THE key to building a fanbase in the DIY musician world. By that I mean the exchange of some free music (a selection of tracks - perhaps 6 or so - rather than 1) in return for an email address and the potential fan's time invested in making a judgement on your music. But, I also think that this article makes a great point. Don't just give away the farm on first contact. Give something (preferably from your own site rather than in a Twitter DM) and then entice that listener into a deeper relationship.

Don't bombard them with free material at the get-go! Let the two way relationship build (Funnily enough, using an autoresponder such as Aweber, as we recommend, is the ideal way to do this).

I don't agree with the whole of Dave Cool's article (basically as I know free works for my clients) but the measured approach that he is advocating is very much the way to go!

The argument for giving away your music is that you should simply want to have your music heard, and since people can generally find music online for free, then why bother putting a price tag on it? Live shows, merchandise, licensing, and subscriptions are just some of the ways that bands are encouraged to generate revenue. However, should artists just give up selling their music? Are we to believe that nobody buys music anymore? I’m not so sure that’s the case.

Read the article here.

 

Freemium works - you can't blame P2P!

Dr Sean asked if he could repost my comment on a DIY Musician thread in this post.

I'm happy for more people to read it. But don't take it the wriong way!

If your efforts to build a fanbase by giving music away for free are failing, the lesson isn't that you won't ever 'make it' and that you should give up. The lesson is that you need to have a very harsh and reslistic review of your material, your band line-up, your commitment to improving and then make the changes that you know, deep down, are necessary before your music will be good enough.

Don't give up, but do learn to make your art as good as it can possibly be.

Read Dr Sean's post here.

The 3 most important platforms for musicians

Are:

Email

Twitter

Facebook Shares

.....according to Topspin.

This is a short post that sets out the direct to fan specialist's view, backed up by their data, that those are the three most important platforms artists can use to drive direct sales. Note that it's about sales and they also give a large nod to YouTube for engagement.

It's also refreshing that their advice is to spend all your attention on developing your art and finding people who can do the marketing for you. Clearly, your material needs to be great for any marketing effort to be worth the bother.

But, read the piece and don't ignore their data and the reasons. Email creates sales.

If you're not running an artist website that offers free tracks in return for an email.....you are an idiot!

Read the piece here.

Don't give everything away for free!

I am passionately pro you giving your music away for free.

There's a great article on that on Mic Control here. You should definitely be doing it.

But, I love this other piece about a new company that will allow you to stream shows to your fans, but get paid for them!

It says that the experience of engaging with your band, for the fan, is the one part of you as a musician that can't be replicated - so don't give it away for free.

Not sure that I agree completely as you can do some for free and some paid, but the mindset is important.

Yet this presents us with a potential dilemma.  Many of us have fully embraced giving away our fixed content as a way to promote our real revenue generating events: touring and appearances.  But what happens when we're given the ability to literally tour the world from our laptops?  Should our 'shows' be free because it's the internet?

My message is that it should not and cannot be free.  If you utilize an online broadcasting website that doesn't offer you the ability to get paid, you will be effectively devaluing the only asset we have left.  The only asset that is not replicable and cannot be saved to a hard drive: yourself.

Read it here.

And check out the StageIt service here.

10 ways to force your fans to download your song

Marcus at The Musicians Guide (@themusicguide) posted this useful list the other day.

He was inspired to write it by Brian Hazard's post on ways to get people to hand over their email addres - which we also looked at here.

In my opinion, none of the tips below will increase the rate of visits to downloads (or conversion rate) quite as much as an improvement in song quality, but these tips are still likely to have a positive effect when used to complement great music.

1. Offer your fans exclusivity
We all love something that’s special to us, exclusivity in itself is a form of incentive as it gives a feeling of superiority. Offer your mp3 exclusively to your mailing list subscribers or Facebook fans or live show attendees before the rest of the world to reward them for their actions.

Get all 10 tips here.

 

 

Freeconomics - free white paper study on giving your music away for free

I urge you to download and read this paper, primarily for the case study of Canadian band Mister Valaire's rise over 4 years to solid profitable working indie band - all through the use of 'freemium'.

Bob Lefsetz has recently been banging on about how the album is now just a marketing tool for the act (and their live performances) but adding the twist that chasing the hit and the record deal to provide it is a short term strategy doomed to failure.

For most independent acts, I agree.

Mister Valaire is a flagship testimonial that the modern paradigm is primarily about taking years to develop the craft, and the fanbase to sustain you through a lengthy career. This is the future music business model for most.

Virginie Berger's second report for Midem is well thought out and provides proof not just theory. I loved it.

Read it - you have to sign up to get it - but it's worth it.

 

Giving music away for free really does work

Image by Mark Raaphorst

So, 2011 has been here a week and all the other music advice bloggers have the drop on me!

Well, I'm back. Apologies for the delay but we had some serious work to do with clients to get the year started.

And what better way for a first 'Dailies' post than to talk about the specifics of one erstwhile client.

I have mentioned Laurent and his moniker 'Little People' before, but what he is acheiving as a DIY musician is so impressive, he deserves regular mentions - especially as his second album is due soon. We dont work together directly anymore but we exchange information all the time and I advise and help him on his career.

Laurent released his debut album 5 years ago and thanks to Pandora loving it and recommending it to all it's listeners (get your music on Pandora now BTW), he has built a very vocal and loyal following.

This has only increased since he adpoted Topspin to drive his artist website - and started giving away half of the debut album for free. His sign-ups to his newsletter and his digital sales through his own site and itunes have rocketed. He is now consistently in the top 30 electronic albums on iTunes US - with a 5 year old album. That is astonishing and an indictment of the DIY ethos.

Take note - he now SELLS more music because he gives half his album away for free.

Read this email from a fan - he gets several a day - but this one makes it abundantly clear why a deep and loyal fanbase comes from giving away your quality music for free. They are in it with you and want you to win.

From a fan - "Paying for music is something I do not normally do, not digitally anyway. But after hearing a great deal of your work, and visiting you on the web I was moved to purchase your album, as well as a t-shirt. Besides the fact that you're turning out some truly wonderful music, I'm also partial to the mentality behind your work - meaning the generous nature in which you offer up what you've done. As far as I can tell, all of what you've made is available to listen to completely free, and I attribute that to you seeing more value in having your music heard than making money from it. I like that attitude, because it's one an artist should have.

Best of luck to you, and thank you for the beautiful sounds.  I look forward to seeing you in the States."

Can't beat that can you!?

I suggest that you start giving away your music now if you're not already - in exchnage for an email address, of course.

Giving music away really works!

I found this video on the Time website.

Jonathan Coulton has become a succesful DIY musician by building his fanbase largely by giving music away. He has a great take on it in this video - "What's the worse that can happen - millions of people listening to my music for free!?"

It shows insights into how he got where he is and things that he does to engage his fans - well worth watching.

If the embed doesn't work - click this link to go to the Time site.

Some exchanges of email for free mp3's will fail

Read the linked article and the comments, since this is a debate, not a statement of fact.

As a DIY musician you are constantly being told that freemium is the way to go and to build an email list from that exchange. I wholeheartedly believe in that.

However, this article argues that the level of effort required by a potential fan to get the 'free' mp3 is too much of a burden and hence not as effective as it should be. I have written before about this - saying that you shouldn't view it as free since you are asking someone to invest their time to download, listen and form an opinion. That is a cost to them. That's why I advocate giving away a bunch of tracks - one free mp3 doesn't cut it for me.

The entire music industry is infatuated with the idea of free. It is a valid and strategic marketing tool. But if not used correctly, then it holds no relevance for  the oversaturated fan. There have been numerous times when I've gone to a band’s site to get a free mp3 and have decided to not complete their process. The reason being that the value of the mp3 was not free, it was work.

Read the article and the comments here.

 

The real cost of free

Cory Doctorow responds to the claim from a fellow journalist that many of those that recommend the freemium model are actually not practising what they preach and are raking in the dollars by charging for exactly that which they suggest others should give away.

It's a long piece but worth a read - although he doesn't talk directly about music it's obvious that everything he covers also applies to the future of music.

What should other artists do? Well, I'm not really bothered. The sad truth is that almost everything almost every artist tries to earn money will fail. This has nothing to do with the internet, of course. Consider the remarkable statement from Alanis Morissette's attorney at the Future of Music Conference: 97% of the artists signed to a major label before Napster earned $600 or less a year from it. And these were the lucky lotto winners, the tiny fraction of 1% who made it to a record deal. Almost every artist who sets out to earn a living from art won't get there (for me, it took 19 years before I could afford to quit my day job), whether or not they give away their work, sign to a label, or stick it through every letterbox in Zone 1.

Read the piece here.

 

How to stop your fans file sharing your music

I am not against file sharing.

However, I do believe that teaching a generation of fans and consumers that music has no value and that they can trade it freely is a slippery slope - there has to be a happy medium for the future of music.

If you are the person controlling the free dsitribution of your music (in exchange for an email address or similar) then at least you're getting some value. Let's not forget either that 'free' isn't free - you're still asking a potential fan to invest their time and energy in listening to your work and deciding whether to become a fan. That has a value - something the major labels do not undersatnd.

This article looks at ways that you can help to reduce the file sharing which ultimately should drive fans back to your site where you control the way that music is delivered to them.

They should be happier and so should you.

If you follow the arguments surrounding file-sharing close enough you’d assume that file-sharers are the kind of moral lacking scum of the Earth that would consider pushing their own grandma into moving traffic or, that on the weekends, they shoplift from Best Buy and are slowly working up the confidence to start robbing banks.

Of course, we all know that’s simply not true. Most fans that file-share are like you and I. With the slight exception that they don’t even have an idea that folks like us have invested thousands of words debating, contesting, and trying to make sense of how we feel about the notion that music fans think music, the most beloved and precious thing that we have, should be free and not be paid for.

Read the article at Music Void.

Freemium is the right model for most artists

I love what Chris Bracco writes about on his 'Tight Mix' blog. He is always bang on. He is covering a lot of the ground that we do in creating great musicians resources.

This post looks at whether you are right to be using the freemium model - some music for free with higher priced paid products as upsells - for your band.

The growing trend these days is to use your music as a marketing tool to help promote the other products, services, and experiences you can offer your fans as an artist (live shows, physical CD's, vinyl, t-shirts, toys, video games, music lessons, bundled packages, etc), since those products and services usually yield higher profit margins. While the "freemium" model seems to be working pretty well for some artists, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for you.

Read the post here.