Building A Business On 'Free'

Can and should 'free' be part of the plan for today's emerging artists, labels, managers and small music companies. Is it viable or indeed advisable to give music away and if so, how can it be done in a way that doesn't compromise artists' income, integrity or longevity?

TOPIC

Fantastic. Prince gave away his new CD for 'free' with a national newspaper, former Kinks frontman, Ray Davies, is soon to follow and Radiohead recently invited you, Joe Public, to decide precisely how much (or not), to pay for the digital release of their latest oeuvre, In Rainbows...

But what does this mean for artists who aren’t household names, who don’t have a lineage of best-selling records or a fanbase to match?

Recent history shows that it can be done - UK indie band The Crimea hit the headlines earlier this year having made a digital copy of their 2nd album, The Witching Hour, available as an entirely free download. Remember Nizlopi's JCB song, Christmas '05? Encouraging unfettered downloading and sharing of their video was a crucial factor in the song's success. Then there's the Arctic Monkeys, whose rapid rise to fame was greatly helped by Internet distribution of free downloads of the band's pre-label demo CDs. But these are the exception, not the rule and in terms of pr, the law of diminishing returns will always apply.

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