The Benefits of Giving Away Your Music for Free

Image via Complex Original

Across the board, people aren't buying music like they were during the late 1990s/early 2000s. While part of that is due to music piracy, a lot of it has to do with the changing of the times. More people are streaming music these days, be it via Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. A blessing and a curse of these interconnected networks. But what's the point of selling music if people would rather just stream it at their leisure?

Most EDM bloggers will tell you that people respond better to music that's being given away for free. Why? Who knows. Maybe people just like the word "free." But even on our own SoundCloud page, we've seen that even the number of plays for free downloads can trump the number of plays on something that's only up for a stream with a pre-order link. People are just attracted to free things.

Media are way more likely to cover a free release than a paid release since it will drive more traffic. It gives people a reason to go to a blog post because they will get something in return. People seem to be less interested in reading about something they will have to buy. Blogs know this.

This seemed to be one of Mat Zo's gripes; giving away music on his own timetable means that his fans get material faster than they would if he was to sell it with a label and be forced to wait on when his release is slotted. His system should be way more direct, giving people hot beats when they're still fresh.

You don't want to be the odd artist out. It might be cool to say "I want to get paid for the music I create," but you could be potentially missing out on a lot of fans by not throwing them a bone. The last thing you want to do is alienate those who might possibly be into your work, but aren't necessarily trying to buy your music. And that's not to say you should give EVERYTHING away, but a new fan sharing a SoundCloud link of a dope freebie of yours can be better promo than many of the PR agencies out there.

Talib Kweli has spoken numerous times about his website, kweliclub.com, where all of the information gleaned from people purchasing his music doesn't get fed to some PR agent or rep; he has access to that information himself, and can directly contact his fans anytime he wants. Put that same mentality into, say, making people sign-up via email for free music. You're building a mailing list that could be hit up about tour dates, a major new release, or just saying "thanks" for grabbing your music. For most artists, they are the best spokesperson for their art.

Also, you're cutting out the red tape of a label possibly not wanting to sing a tune they don't think will "work well," but you know could either push the boundaries or connect better with their fans. All of the strain is gone when you're doing it for yourself, and the feedback on the material is almost instantaneous. That's a lot of power for a smart artist to harness, and can turn into a solid revenue stream, like touring throughout the year, which could net you way more money if you add in merchandise sales and sponsorships.

You know what would be cooler than putting out a well-hyped, well-received album for sale amongst all of the other albums dropping every Tuesday (or Monday, depending on what side of the Atlantic you're on)? Being the odd producer out dropping a full album, for free, that's pure flames. Remember when Beyonce suddenly dropped her self-titled album on iTunes with no hype? Now imagine if people could go ahead and grab the entire project for free. You might only be gaining word-of-mouth and SoundCloud play numbers, but that word-of-mouth turns into ticket sales whenever you swoop into town. If a great single is the real calling card, does it need to be purchased to make people aware?

We've seen it ourselves; fans are more apt to tweet out links to music that you can download for free. DAD's not adverse to posting buy links - we want people to support any way they can for artists, but we've seen artists do, say, free giveaways on a regular schedule that will trump the numbers of producers who might be strictly signing tunes to labels for official retail release. And like it or not, more promoters are looking towards acts with large social media presence on SoundCloud, Twitter, and Facebook, and a few "like Facebook to download" releases of stellar material can boost your stats at a more rapid pace. Plus, it's more organic than buying likes and plays.

If it's possible to track we're willing to bet that music, especially electronic music, is getting into more people's hands through pirating than through sales. Most underground electronic dance music producers have a relatively young fanbase who are very Internet literate and have come of age during a time when getting music for free is no big deal. Why not just embrace that fact? They probably make a pittance from sales anyway.