WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

In Praise of Freeloaders

I think I'll be going along to listen to Bryn Haworth tonight locally, a guitarist I've not heard live since the early 80s. The friend I was talking with wanted to know what he sounded like, so I went to his web site to look for a sampler. Nothing there. Bryn is clearly only interested in people who already know what he sounds like. No free sample track. Not even any track previews.

So conversation turned to the paradox of the new web-mediated market and how some musicians don't seem to get it. I assume the thinking goes "I make my money by selling music, so why should I give any away to freeloaders". But that's so superficial. By giving me a few tracks to listen to, you're much more likely to recruit me to the ranks of admiring fans, since without them all I have to go on is your photograph (or maybe if you're a bit more avant garde some stuff I can awkwardly stream while at my desk).

Giving away samples is very effective. I follow a couple of web sites (3Hive, Lost at E Minor) that review and point to free tracks and the main way I have found new artists of late has been through those sites and the free tracks on iTMS and Amazon MP3. In the shake-down that's coming, I suspect it will be the artists who treat music lovers looking for music as "freeloaders" who will join the RIAA whining about how no-one loves them, while the enlightened part of the industry moves into the new mainstream.

Labels: Music

posted at 4:42 PM (UK) | |