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.