When Wilco’s landmark 2001 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, took a pass from the original label, the band played the entire album for free on their website. Thousands of fans extolled the virtues of the album, giving up much that was most successful album of Wilco. Since then, a growing number of bands have considered offering their music free online, these days, it is quite accepted that one or two songs should be audible in a band Myspace or other site, but should your band offer all of its music for free online? Here are some reflections on the nature of independent music online, download, and if it is profitable for bands to offer their music for free.
1. Albums vs. Singles
Before giving away the music online, whether the band is best described as an “album” or “singles” band type. Pop acts tend to fall into the “singles” category, along with many metal bands – does not mean they’re not capable of a great record, just that their songs are on their own and their situation with their album. “Album” bands envision their CDs as complete projects, and singles don’t do the final product justice. Album bands are more likely to see the benefits of offering their music online, and listeners who enjoy this type of bands tend to appreciate the physical product on a CD, or will pay for a higher quality version of their music if only offer a low quality version for free. Individual listeners do not act this way, however, are in it one song at a time, and if those songs are free, you do not really have much of an incentive to buy the entire project, or even individual songs.
2. Quality
You should almost never offer its album for free online in a high quality version, unless you do not plan on making money from their album, which is a realistic and defensible position – many groups are looking to get as many people as possible in their lives, and in these cases, the album works more as a promotional tool than anything else. For most bands, however, in most sub-standard or streaming version of their album to be offered, like anything else again to remove the incentive to buy his album that his fans might have had.
3. Benefits Tracking
If your band offers their music free online, be prepared to monitor performance. Make your fans put in their email addresses before they can access the free music, or only offer free music through a certain code that is available on their live shows. Any way you can, if you track free music worth to you, even if just watching the traffic of your website logs to see if their top hits. There is no sense in offering free music if you’re not going to track and take advantage of it.
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