Sharing the Gig Love Interviews, How-Tos,and more

This week, our newest Guest GigLogger, Giovonni Lobato, takes us into the gray area on the debate whether to give away your music for free or sell it. Let’s just say he’s onto to something here. Check out Giovonni’s Bio below.

There’s an ongoing discussion on the GigLog about the pros and cons of giving away your music for free. I’m here to propose a new idea – have your cake and eat it too. By this I proffer the model that our beloved Radiohead and Trent Reznor have used quite successfully. That is, give away your music for free AND for money.

Music for money:

As a musician who works hard, spending time, sweat and tears producing and making music, you have value, as does your music. You know it and so do your fans. So it seems only natural that you should be fairly compensated for your hard work.

Music for free:

It’s no secret that free music is plentiful and often expected in today’s world. Anyone can go on RCRD LBL and download a new free MP3. I’m not arguing if this is good or bad, I’m simply stating that this is something we cannot change.

Secondly, free music often equals free advertising, see Dexter Bryant Jr.’s post and Danger Mouse’s release of “The Grey Album” with Gnarls Barkley.

So both of those models rock! Whatever do we do?

Release your music for free and for money! It’s not against the law, and it’s not going to destroy your credibility. It can be a profitable model if used correctly with touring and advertising.

Some ideas to get you going:

1. Release your music on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, etc…And tell people about it! Make it more desirable to purchase the album or song by including real or digital booklets, signed CD’s, personalized freebies, the list goes on. At the same time, release it in its raw form online for free, allowing the consumer to make the choice. Bandcamp.com is great for this because you can offer the music for free, but require an email address to facilitate download. Now you’re building your mailing list!
2. If that doesn’t seem like a good plan, let the fan choose how much they want to pay. The master of this art form is Girl Talk (see the RiP!: A Remix Manifesto documentary for more on Girl Talk). The consumer determines how much they value your music, but you set the minimum. And using our special friend Bandcamp, you can set the minimum at zero while collecting those email addresses.

So the fact is, not every great idea will work for everybody. It may not work for some of us (I’ll let you know how it works for me). These are just two ideas, but I’m sure we are all collectively smarter, what are some of your ideas for compromise between the free and paid music market? Discuss.

About Giovonni:

So now you know what I think, but who am I? Well I am a freshman at NYU from Denver, Colorado. I go to the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at NYU, a program for creative entrepreneurs in the music business. We learn about working in the studio as engineers and producers, as well as the history and business of the music industry. I am currently working on an experimental dance album that will be released in April. I have also been known to program effects and plugins for audio processing in what little spare time I have. I am super excited to be a part of the Giglog and Gigsby as a whole, and I hope that my experiences, learnings, and thoughts, can help the community and that we can all work, learn and grow together! If you want to get to know me more, feel free to shoot me an email! Giolobato@gmail.com. Please, no hatorade.
Thanks!

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Tags: BandCamp.com, free music, Girl Talk, Gnarls Barkley, Radiohead, RCRD LBL, RiP!: A Remix Manifesto, The Grey Album, Trent Reznor