Digital music caught the record labels off guard and smashed their business to pieces, and from the rubble new economic realities are emerging. In this new reality, most independent artists, especially those who are just starting out, should give their music away for free. Sound crazy? Maybe, but hear me out. It boils down to 3 main concepts. Starting with…

The Rise of Spotify and the “All You Can Eat” Music Services

Shortly after the introduction of the MP3, legal music subscription services started popping up. Companies like Rhapsody and a then-newly legalized Napster offered “all you can eat” music services. You paid a monthly subscription fee and had access to the millions of tracks in their music libraries. The services gained modest traction here in the US, but it wasn’t until the UK based Spotify arrived on US shores in July of 2011 that the concept really took off. Users flocked to the new service, which connects to Facebook to enable easy music sharing. Their basic free service got many users hooked, and many of them upgraded to paid subscription services. Now, what does this have to do with artists? Well, for better or worse, many people aren’t going to buy albums anymore with a service like this available. Why would they, when they can pay a monthly fee (about the price of a single album) for a library of thousands of their favorite albums, which they can easily share with friends? On a personal note, I have not bought a thing on iTunes since the introduction of Spotify, and even as a self-professed Apple fanboy, I have barely even opened the iTunes application (in fact, I am listening to Spotify right now as I write this). As an independent artist, you can place your music on any of these services quite easily with most digital distributors, but the payout is only pennies each time a user listens to your album, far less than iTunes or Amazon. Now, this might sound like I am gushing about these services, but the truth is that from the perspective of the music fan, it’s a much better deal for us. I want to discover and listen to lots of music, easily and inexpensively. And these services are showing no signs of slowing down. That said, the fact that independent artists earn far less for a stream is a red herring. The cannibalization of recorded sales doesn’t really matter for most indie artists, because the truth is…

Indie Artists don’t sell that much anyway

This isn’t my personal theory, it’s a fact. I followed the sales data from our digital distributor, FoxyMelody, for 6 years. The majority of artists make less than $10 per month. The reason for this is simple; most people are unwilling to buy music from a band they don’t know. And our data is by no means unique. There was a recent, hotly discussed article published recently on Digital Music News about another digital distributor, Tunecore. The article looked at the data of over 600,000 artists over the period of a few years and found that a majority of the artists make less than minimum wage from their online music sales. At FoxyMelody, this was absolutely true. The average artist made less than one hour of minimum wage over the course of an entire month. If that’s the case, why bother even putting your music behind a paywall in the first place? Is it worth the $6.43 you might make? Unlikely. Therefore, let people hear it, which brings us to our next point…

Hear/Like/Buy

Why are people unwilling to buy an album from a band they don’t know? I read this concept years ago from Music Strategist Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies, and it has always resonated with me. The order in which a fan will interact with an artist is Hear-Like-Buy. Always. They need to hear your music before they can like it, and they need to like it before they will buy anything. You can’t skip a step here, and there are no shortcuts. Giving your music away for free allows potential new fans to get a chance to hear your music…the first step in the process.

Now you might be asking “But if I give it away for free, what can I sell them when they like it?” Fair question. For one, having fans come to your live shows is a big win, as well as buying merchandise like T-Shirts/Posters/Buttons etc. In addition, you can still offer your music for sale as well. Free music doesn’t always mean people won’t also pay. In September of this year, the most pirated artists on BitTorrent were Jay-Z & Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Adele, David Guetta and LMFAO. Most of these albums are still in the Top 20 on Billboard. That said, these are hugely successful artists, but the overarching point is that free does not necessarily cannibalize sales. It’s merely a question of quantity. Do you think OK Go would have been as successful as they are if they had charged people to watch their famous treadmill video? Hell No. Very few people would have paid for it, and they sure as hell wouldn’t be as big as they are now. The more fans you have, the more people there are who will buy what you are selling. That could be future releases, merchandise, live shows, or whatever else you can think of.

This concept is not new in the business world. It’s given names like freemium, content marketing, loss leaders, etc. In fact, I am putting my money where my mouth is with this very article, as I am writing it for free with the intention of you visiting our magazine, Think Like a Label. As an independent artist, you should remove any roadblocks that might prevent potential new fans from hearing your music. It is an ugly truth of the changing economics of the music business, but I’m afraid the writing is on the wall. So, just give it away. Set the music free.

Source: Jeremy Belcher is the Editor of Think Like a Label, a magazine for musicians & their people. Prior to that, he co-founded Foxy Melody Digital Distribution in 2005, one of the first companies that distributed independent music to the online music services (which we shut down this year). You can follow him on Twitter @thinklikealabel or visit Think Like a Label

Get ready to cut the ribbon; the search engine giant Google has just launched the long-awaited Google Music, a platform enabling musicians to connect with their fans. Google Music allows you to discover and purchase new music, upload your personal collection to the cloud, share purchased tracks with friends on Google+, and access your entire collection from the web or any device.  So what does this new digital platform mean for the user? And for the artist?

WHAT IS IT?

Google Music includes an online music store within Android Market that provides à la carte digital downloads of albums and tracks (tracks vary from free to $1.29). When you make a purchase through Android Market, the album or single automatically goes to your Google Music library, which can be thought of as a kind of locker.  In addition to storing downloads from the store, the locker can also hold up to 20,000 songs from your personal music collection.

Once in the locker, the music can be streamed on the web and any device, and even stored for offline listening on a mobile device. You’ll be able to access your songs on up to 10 authorized devices per account.

In addition, artists will be able to create an “Artist Page,” which will feature the artist’s albums for sale, as well as additional information and media such as  band photos and an artist bio.  To upload and publish content for Google Music using their artist portal, users must be residents of the United  States (including its territories, protectorates, and insular areas). To  edit an artist page, you can be located anywhere in the world.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION

If you want to share a song you just purchased with a friend, you can use the integrated social recommendation feature to share a full free play of the track via Google+.

HOW DO I GET MY MUSIC INTO THE GOOGLE MUSIC STORE?

TuneCore artists have TWO options for getting their music into Android Market:

-       They can have TuneCore deliver their music to Google

-       They can go direct to music.google.com/artists

There are a select number of artists who are already in the Google Music database. For artists not already in the Google Music database who decide to go direct, Google charges a $25 one time set up fee to create the artist account.

GOING DIRECT WITH GOOGLE

If you go direct, you will need to go to music.google.com/artists, customize your artist page, upload your music, agree to the Google Terms & Conditions and create a Google Checkout account so you can get paid and accounted to directly by Google.

Once your music is available in Android Market, it will appear in the general store and you’ll also have the option to create your own store and sell your own music off your blog, webpage and/or Google Music artist page.

The artist will get paid the same amount of money by going direct through Google or distributing via TuneCore or any other entity.

You will be able to set the price you want each song and/or album to sell for at the track level.

USING TUNECORE TO GET YOUR MUSIC INTO GOOGLE MUSIC

If you choose to use TuneCore to have your music distributed to Android Market,  and you do not already have a page in Google’s database, an artist page will be created automatically at no cost.

If you claim an existing page to edit your bio and photos, it will also be free.

Note: you will not be able to change any of the album or track data delivered by TuneCore.

WHAT DOES TUNECORE CHARGE TO GET INTO GOOGLE MUSIC?

At this time, TuneCore and Google are finalizing the digital pipeline to get your music into the Android Market store. Until this pipeline is done, TuneCore-distributed music will not appear in the Android Market store.

Once we are ready to deliver…

• If you have a new release you would like to distribute, you can choose as many digital music stores as you would like, including Android Market, for the flat $49.99 per year per album or $9.99 per year per single.

• If you have a pre-existing release at TuneCore that you would like TuneCore to distribute to Android Market, there will be a one-time fee of $1.98 per release.

If you use TuneCore to get your music into the Google Music store, you will have the benefit of being part of Google’s largest music supplier.  Although we cannot speak for Google, we suspect we may be able to get you answers to your questions about the Google Music Service more quickly than if you go direct with Google.

HOW DO ARTISTS GET PAID FROM GOOGLE MUSIC?

Payments from Android Market will come into your TuneCore account just as they do from the other stores we distribute to: as soon as the store reports your sales and money to us, we’ll post your sales data and money directly into your TuneCore account. Then you can withdraw it 24/7, 365 days a year, via Electronic Funds Transfer, PayPal or check.

If you discontinue using TuneCore to distribute your music but still want to keep it in Android Market, you would need to go to music.google.com/artists and set up an account directly. Artists who create pages directly on Google Music can still opt-in to TuneCore distribution later, but Google will not refund the $25 set-up fee.