The decision of whether to offer music for free is one
that has been troubling upcoming artist for years.This decision could make or
break new artists because this decision affects the amount of people who will download and listen to their music. If there decision were in my hands I
would offer my songs for free on my webpage like New York based talent A$AP
Rocky has done.This member of
the upcoming group A$AP Mob has been extremely successful thus far.
It's hard to believe that if you aren't selling your
music that you will still be pretty successful and make money. However, in college I have learned that there are different ways to market your talent or product
indirectly in order to generate revenue. For instance, A$AP Rocky has been on tour in many different places including
Vancouver, California, and even right here in Maryland. A ticket, on Ticket Master, for one of his shows cost on average about
$35. Initially that may not seem like a lot of money, but when
you consider that about two thousand people will be in attendance, the amount of revenue starts to grab one's attention. This is not the end though, artist usually go on multiple tours
at a time, so the revenue starts increasing, and the artist makes up for not
charging for their music. The sole reason an artist was able to sell out their show is because people listened to their music, available to download for free, and fans enjoyed what they heard.
An alternative to free music is to make some songs free but not the whole album. Chicago based rapper Kanye West demonstrates this tactic on his website. With his new album Cruel Summer recently released, Kanye hopes for lots of revenue from this collection of songs. Most people do not want to download an album they know nothing about, so Kayne has put a few tracks from the album on his website so the viewers can get a better feel of what the album will be about. This tactic works particularly well because listeners then get excited from the song they just heard and will immediately download the album in order to hear the rest.
The upcoming trend, due to the progression of the digital age is, to become a parter with Youtube. When you become a partner Youtube gives you your own channel where you are free to do whatever you please as long as you do not break their terms of agreement. Through this method you are promoting your music on Youtube, a site that exceeds 2 billion views a day, and getting paid through the advertisements shown on your channel. Mike Tompkins has a very popular channel on Youtube. He does covers of popular songs, but what sets him apart is that he makes all the sounds in the song with his voice and mouth. His popular Youtube videos lead him to be a guest on the Today Show on NBC, where of course he gained more fans and became more popular.
An alternative to free music is to make some songs free but not the whole album. Chicago based rapper Kanye West demonstrates this tactic on his website. With his new album Cruel Summer recently released, Kanye hopes for lots of revenue from this collection of songs. Most people do not want to download an album they know nothing about, so Kayne has put a few tracks from the album on his website so the viewers can get a better feel of what the album will be about. This tactic works particularly well because listeners then get excited from the song they just heard and will immediately download the album in order to hear the rest.
The upcoming trend, due to the progression of the digital age is, to become a parter with Youtube. When you become a partner Youtube gives you your own channel where you are free to do whatever you please as long as you do not break their terms of agreement. Through this method you are promoting your music on Youtube, a site that exceeds 2 billion views a day, and getting paid through the advertisements shown on your channel. Mike Tompkins has a very popular channel on Youtube. He does covers of popular songs, but what sets him apart is that he makes all the sounds in the song with his voice and mouth. His popular Youtube videos lead him to be a guest on the Today Show on NBC, where of course he gained more fans and became more popular.
Akeem, I felt that this was a great post not only because it explained the benefits of releasing free music, but because the examples used were relevant and interesting. To someone who is not up to date on the digital role of music, an artist not charging for music may seem illogical. Your post, specifically highlighting A$AP Rocky, explains how many artists are putting out completely free albums and mix-tapes in order to gain popularity that allows them to make money in other ways, such as touring the country. The statistic on Youtube receiving over 2 billion views a day supports your claims, as it has become the ultimate form of advertising for musicians. The entire Youtube graphic in your post does a phenomenal job of displaying just how popular the online video program is. I was really interested to learn how artists can make money through advertisements on Youtube. I now understand how a person can get their own personal channel, and if they have enough views they can advertise and make profits in this manner. This is just another way music in the digital age brings in money aside from album sales. Before reading your post, I couldn't fathom how a musician would be able to offer their music completely free of charge. Your discussion of how free music leads to popularity, and how popularity can lead to tour money, advertising, and other sources of profit really opened my eyes to free music being plausible. Past technology did not allow this to be possible, but in this digital age, free music may become a mainstay.
ReplyDeleteI liked the content of your post. I have always liked the idea of allowing the masses to access material for free to allow them to decide if they are into your style of entertainment before they go out and purchase a CD or ticket to see a performance. If people are not aware of what they are looking at before they get it that leads to bad publicity which is not what any emerging artist wants. For instance I am a fan of this music group called Big Bang from Korea. The only way I even found out about them was because of Youtube where I was able to see some of their music videos and hear their music. Since then I have become more of a fan and even bought a ticket to see their upcoming concert. I do believe in the power of allowing potential fans to access some of your music for free. With the growing rate of music downloads – which the company Musicmetric monitored at 405million in the first half of 2012 from BitTorrent, and about 124million of those were licensed and legal. If you compare that with the amount of sales that artists are garnering per concert – NY Post reports “Drake and Nicki Minaj took in $20.5 million and $15.5 million off albums, tours and endorsements…” – I doubt if they are sitting there counting losses from song downloads when they are constantly selling out shows and albums.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was really well thought out because Akeem brought up really great points that really solidified his argument on why free music is a good thing. If an artist is strictly looking at his direct sales in just his album or single and only cares about that aspect then he/she is making a big mistake. In 2011, digital music downloads accounted for 32%. What about the other 68 percent? That must come from endorsements, concerts, meet and greets and fan bought merchandise (ex. Clothing). This proves that it is very important to look at the big picture, maybe you can lose a little but by losing a little you can gain a lot more. The Kanye West example was really spectacular! He is such a well known artist and he knows that if he offers his fans and people who haven’t listened to his music before that he can build an even bigger fan base because the fans probably sees It as a trust factor. It’s almost as if he is saying, “hey, I promise my music is so good that if I let you listen and download a few of my songs for free, you will want the album.” It shows a lot of confidence on his part as well. Digital music sales have jumped 8% from just 2010-2011. (http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/01/23/sales-digital-music-increase-8-2011). With artists like Kanye who are offering a few free songs, it feels as if its almost like a teaser and these few songs are only the preview but to see the whole “movie” (a.k.a album in this case), people will definitely buy it.
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