... Without Really Trying!
For a musician trying to make a living in this day and age, offering your music for free might seem totally counter-intuitive, but if I were this struggling musician that's precisely what I would do.
Every musician who wants to make a career out of their talents needs people to listen to their music. In order to build a fan base at all, the general public needs to be familiar with the artist's music and sound -- and what better way to do that than make it free and available for easy download on either their website or a similar music sharing service such as Bandcamp, ReverbNation, or SoundCloud. The accessibility of music is critical to developing a fan base, the money portion falls into place later; after all, you have no chance of selling music to people who don't know who you are.
Being a musician can still be a profitable career, even if your tracks are being offered for free. Take for example, The Super Mash Bros., a growing music group out of the Los Angeles area. Although all three of the albums they have produced have been available for free download on their both their Facebook page and proper website, they also sell merchandise for a nominal fee at both of these locations. The Super Mash Bros. have one other money-making trick up their sleeves: Touring. Over this spring and summer the group performed at several major festivals and they kicked off the start of 2012 by touring with Matt and Kim, coming up later this month they are participating in the Counter Point Festival, in Atlanta, Ga. which boasts Skrillex as the headlining act.
Taking to heart the example of the Counter Point Festival, touring can be an incredibly profitable market. Tickets to this concert series would cost anywhere between $169.00 and $440.00, now granted all of that money does not make its way back directly to the artists, but there is a clear margin of profit even when looking at the costs touring has. An important note on touring, though, is that your popularity clearly increases when you can tour with other popular musicians, this not only allows for you to gain more exposure to a larger audience, but it also allows for a slightly higher ticket price than would be acceptable if you were, for instance, touring with your neighbor's son's garage band.
Once people have been exposed to your music, selling your tracks may become an easier undertaking as common knowledge dictates people will spend more money on a trusted service. Even at that rate, though, finding a balance between free music and priced music is incredibly important as you do not want to dissuade people from discovering your work for themselves. Hey, even super-famous people like Ke$ha and Lady Gaga post and tweet opportunities to access some of their music for free!
I completely agree with Abby's opinion on this issue. My favorite point that she made was that, "the accessibility of music is critical to developing a fan base, the money portion falls into place later". Many people think that being famous happens overnight and will make you a millionaire. Abby is right - people have to listen to your music before they can support your sales and therefore make you financially successful. Abby used the example of The Super Mash Bros, but I have another. Tyler Ward and Boyce Avenue are two artists that established themselves on YouTube. They started off posting covers of songs, and then began posting originals. Both artists now have a millions of followers, and they are both now out on tour. The way they got this fan base was by making their music FREE to viewers (because YouTube doesn't cost anything). They still post free content on their channels, but now through iTunes downloads, tour tickets, cds, and merchandise, they are extremely financially successful and known around the globe. You have to start off offering your content as free, in order to reap the benefits later.
ReplyDeleteOther Abby, thanks so much for pointing out YouTube! I hadn't even thought about it as a method for being 'discovered' as an artist -- and that was a serious mistake on my part! I suppose the most famous example of a YouTube singer would be Justin Beiber and, although you can contest his talent if you would like to, it would be verry difficult to contest his popularity. Not only was Justin Beiber able to establish a fan base from YouTube, he was actually found by a person who contacted him and ended up becoming his manager. Now Beiber makes millions of dollars and has tours not only in North America but also around the world. I think that from this example, along with the 2 examples Abby Kaye-Phillips gave, it is clear that offering your music for free can be an incredibly useful and successful way of developing a fan base and building popularity/success.
ReplyDeleteAbby’s opinion about the method for success in music industry is a good point. The most significant thing for new artists is make public becomes familiar with their songs and name. The financial profit is not a first goal for new singers. The financial success could be achieved after the artists get reputation. They can make profit from their albums after public in general listen to their songs and start to have interest in that particular artist. Therefore, as Abby mentioned in portfolio, it is important for new artists to share their music for free for the first time when their album released. Since online markets became humongous today, the artists need to adjust to this transformation. Abby makes a good point for way to success in the music industry today. For success in music industry, the artists need successful business model by planning smart strategy after they gain fan base. The Super Mash Bros, music group that Abby mentioned, is a good example of using smart strategy to become successful for gain reputation and get a margin of profit. While Abby uses example of super-popular artist such as Lady Gaga, I have example of Korean singer who is now ranked top 1 on iTunes chart. The name of the singer is PSY. Although he is one of the most famous singers in Korea, only few people knew about him in foreign country before he released his song “Gangnam Style”. However, through the YouTube, where anyone could listen to the music for free, PSY’s record company posted his music video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0). Now, 255,250,908 people in the world has watched this music video which is top 1 video on YouTube right now. This is unexpected success for PSY in US’s music industry as Korean singer. For now, PSY and his record company gain large amount of profit. PSY, who did not have reputation in foreign music industry, now beat Maroon5 on the iTunes chart. The strategy is the most significant thing on online music market. Not willing to make profit first, but get a reputation first by planning smart strategy on online market.
ReplyDelete