NWB - Community Blog

24 Oct 2011

leading on to my next blog

Filed Under : Rants , Voting

Posted By : The Black Watch | Comments : 9

original music - to giveaway or not to give away?

i dont wanna get into all that "music industry on its arse" crap. just pondering on the moral values of "selling" our music to the hundreds of thousands of fans that we have hehe =)

as some of you may know we've gone to the small expense of having a couple of our tunes proffesionally recorded and with finishing date looming we're now concerning ourselves with how to release/distribute it.

basically i personally think that nobody should have to pay for our music BUT the other two members think that we should charge.

does anybody on here charge and if so what sort of success have you had? as a compromise ive suggested giving cd's out and "accepting a charitable donation" if people want to give money they can. id much rather people just HAVE THE MUSIC as opposed to paying for it maybe putting people off. however it would be nice to try and recoup some of the cash we've spent on recording and producing the album artwork etc

so yeah just mithering really as to what you guys think on the matter. opinions welcome

cheers guys

ben - TBW

Comments

# Posted by Jez (Route 69) - 24/10/2011, 13:01 (GMT)

IMO sell CDs and give a free download option. I would say it's more about getting people out to come and see you (the more people come, the more you can charge etc)

# Posted by Jez (Route 69) - 24/10/2011, 13:03 (GMT)

...or get some flexidiscs - nostalgia avenue!

:0)

# Posted by NIGHT TRAIN - 24/10/2011, 13:05 (GMT)

yeh, keep the downloads free....however some people actually want to buy cd's, and seeing there is a bit of expense in making them, just charge a reasonable amount. I found that just by saying 'give us what you think for it' you often get, say, a fiver instead of the couple of quid you would have let em go for.

# Posted by NIGHT TRAIN - 24/10/2011, 13:06 (GMT)

YEH! Flexidiscs!!!!

# Posted by The Black Watch - 24/10/2011, 13:10 (GMT)

Posted by NIGHT TRAIN
"I found that just by saying 'give us what you think for it' you often get, say, a fiver instead of the couple of quid you would have let em go for"

this is pretty much exactly what i was thinking. its only gonna be a two track cd (we're calling it a double a side haha) and its gonna be basic artwork in plastic sleeves so we aint going mad, maybe 2-3 quid or summat.

thanks guys, looks like i was wrong on the whole hippy-vibed "give the music away maaaaaaaaaan"

hahaha

=P

# Posted by Defunct account - 24/10/2011, 13:11 (GMT)

Stick it on a sampler album ;-)

The answer should be related to a balance of ambition and outlook. You give it away you're gonna have to keep doing the day job. You sell it you may not get too many buyers. There may come a point when you have given away enough to be able to charge and still shift millions (ahem) but its your choice what to do at this stage.

For me personally I'd just give it away, whenever we release anything i usually swap the limited edition hard copies with other bands merchandise rather than sell them. I always feel guilty about this as i think i get the better side of the deal :-)

# Posted by Synthy Mike - 25/10/2011, 10:37 (GMT)

Hmmm, an interesting one. I'd say give one track away, charge for the other perhaps or for the release of both tunes in one package?

In my band we give out free 4-track EPs at gigs and DVDs of high-quality renders of our videos on Youtube for people but ideally we don't want to release our entire album for free as once it's been released for free its very difficult to charge for it. We did however give sneak previews of each track via weekly updates on Soundcloud.

We spent 18 months recording it in a brilliant studio with some of the best gear money can buy and our singer took literally years to write the songs so it'd be nice to recoup something for our efforts. Plus more importantly we all want to be full time musicians, we won't be able to achieve that until we start making a profit from gigs and music rather than a massive loss.

Next year we're recording an EP of new songs which we plan to release ourselves via iTunes and possibly a limited physical release - though the market for anything other than albums on CD is as dead as a doornail now.

# Posted by 'Claire' (Wangies) - 28/10/2011, 05:26 (GMT)

Not really sure i know much about this but i would recomend to a friend, at gigs give it away to those who ask for it to start with and if you then find the demand is high start charging a small fee.

i found when we had the salford music festival that people didnt mind paying 3 to 4 pounds for a band they enjoyed. you could also use it as an advetising prop, include web sites addresses and up coming gigs.

when it comes to 'selling' the music els where i cant comment.

we have got cd's off band we like and put them on the juke box, they may not be selected because thay are not recognised but we will play them our selfs to creat intrest.

Again i am not that up on the matter i can only speak from my own experiance at Wangies x

# Posted by Willow (of somebig™Fish) (Reti... - 28/10/2011, 07:55 (GMT)

We made a 10 track (could've even been 11) cd and had no compunction flogging them at gigs for a fiver. Freebies were also given to mates, enthusiastic fans etc etc.
Think we sold about maybe 40 of the hundred produced.
Key words here are "no compunction"!

P.s.ben, I'll have a freebie please!
:o)

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