Why You Should Give Away Free Music

by Joseph Steine

Do you remember Ashley Dupree? She’s the prostitute who was involved in the whole Elliot Spitzer fiasco. After the scandal was revealed, there were all types of stories going around about how this girl was suddenly making windfall profits from sales of her mp3s on the website amiestreet.com. I even read one story about her being recruited by major labels as a result. I bet many of you didn’t even know she was a singer. Well, there was all this buzz about how her newfound notoriety was encouraging sales of her songs. Many people read those stories and believed them. Even serious people didn’t bother to check whether any of it was actually true.

The New York Post, a large newspaper with a daily circulation of around 725,000, reported that Dupree had sold more than 300,000 digital downloads via amiestreet.com and said she had netted $200,000 as a result. It turned out to be false.

The truth was that at the time the New York Post published that piece, Dupree’s tracks had been listened to on amiestreet.com more than 300,000 times. Big difference. Anybody can go to a site and listen to music for free. It is notoriously hard, on the other hand, to get somebody to buy your music, as any music artist will admit. Doing so requires putting that person in a psychological mindset that makes them ready to buy. And doing that on a medium like the Internet is even harder.

Ok, hold that thought and now enter Prince. He gave away tons of free copies of his 10 track CD Planet Earth last year. Behind the scenes, Prince partnered up with a newspaper in the UK to help distribute the CDs and they paid him for it. But the point is, the consumers got free Prince CDs. Prince was heavily criticized by music industry people for it. One music store executive described it as “madness.” Paul Quirk, co-Chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association of America said at a music conference that, “It would be yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.” Prince also gave away free copies of the CD with tickets to his concerts. And he sold out every single one of his concerts.

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So who’s right? Prince or the people who are saying that he shouldn’t be giving music away for free. I would think that the guy who’s laughing all the way to the bank is right. And that would be Prince, and criticism of his tactics were veiled jealousy. Ashley Dupree I’m not going to criticize because she doesn’t know the music business and she has no talent. But the music industry execs and retailers I’m going to pounce on hard. The reason they’re going broke is because they’re stupid and stubborn.

They don’t see what Prince does. They don’t understand human psychology. And in the case of Ashley Dupree, even if she were any good, she still wouldn’t sell many downloads. To get people to buy something, there has to be a perceived value in what it is you’re trying to sell them. Something is valuable only if someone thinks it’s valuable. Things that are valuable usually have some connection to the physical world. People value the entire experience of seeing, hearing, touching and experiencing something. That’s why shows and live appearances will never go away and have always been huge drivers of CD sales.

People are more likely to buy a band’s CD after they have seen the band perform on TV or in concert. But the CD is dead and will never come back. Those of you who are still struggling to get a record deal, by the way, and who think you’re going to sell tons of CDs some day need to stop dreaming. That’s not where the music business is today. Start thinking about doing your own thing.

Anyway, mp3 download sales haven’t and likely will never replace CD sales in terms of revenue because they have a lower perceived value in the eyes of consumers. If somebody has a choice of buying or downloading an mp3 for free, he will usually download it for free. Unless he has an intense emotional connection with the band. And it’s very hard to make someone develop an emotional connection to your music unless he sees or hears you in person, on TV, on the Radio or wherever because that gives him social proof that you’re a real person that other people appreciate and respect too. That tells him that it’s safe to buy your product. But at the same time, the best way to entice people into buying into your musical brand is by giving away free music.

What giving away free music does is it sends people the message that you wish to establish a relationship with them. It might seem like a wasteful thing to do, but giving away free content is a powerful way to build trust with consumers who don’t trust new things right off the bat. It’s the same principal many bloggers use. They give away free content to their readers to develop a bond with them, then they sell them products related to the theme of their blog.

Prince thinks like a blogger. He’s smart because he understands that the money isn’t in the content anymore, but in what the content can sell. Another band that understands this concept well is The Grateful Dead. They’ve made millions upon millions by giving away free music and selling all kinds of brand merchandise on their website. And they started doing this a while back before everything went digital.

Ok, so you’re not Prince or the Grateful Dead. How do you grow your brand? Remember that The Grateful Dead were also at one time a bunch of nobody’s. But they found a way. You have to tour and get yourself in magazines and on the radio and basically just get known in public in as many ways as you can. Even if it’s to a small niche. Focus on making more money from a small group of people than a little money from a large unattached group of people. Give away free music to a targeted and loyal audience and make them your friends. Set up a clean looking website where they can learn more about you and get free music. Then sell them things, including some of your best music.

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