Someone asked this question:
“What would it take for you to put out your next album as officially mastered files (mp3, ogg, etc) that anyone could freely download or share across P2P networks? Basically, if someone was to approach you with a check that was cashable as soon as you released those files to the public, what would the amount on it have to be? What other considerations would need to be made? I understand that Divine Industries owns all the “mechanical” rights to your songs, and this would not preclude them from pressing and selling physical albums. It would also not interfere with any royalties you receive for song use, as you could retain control over all “commercial” use rights.”
I’m interested in getting input, feedback, yelling, about this idea. I mean besides “yeah that would be rad”, I’m interested in if anyone has any insight as to the pitfalls and perks of this kind of a deal in our modern age of digital downloads….
Well realistically it’s going to be online right after it’s released anyway, so you might as well get something for it.
I’m a believer in the “tip jar” fundraising for music releases. Make the music available to everyone and let those that appreciate the legal online release dump a few bucks (or more) into your PayPal account. If a million people get the songs and only 1% gives you an average of two dollars each, that’s $20,000 you’ve made with hardly any production costs and with BitTorrent driving the downloads, no bandwidth costs either.
Then those people buy t-shirts and many will want to actually buy the printed CD so they have something tangible to show off their music preferences to friends.
And, as I said before, because it’s going to be shared over less legitimate means anyway, every penny you make and every bit of good exposure you get is gravy.
Not too mention that it’s better exposure than you would get otherwise. And not too mention that people new to the music might end up buying older releases, that wouldn’t have otherwise.
There’s little downside here. The people that would buy the CD will still buy it, they’re your core fanbase. The free digital release is meant to introduce new people to the music and hopefully drive further sales of the current CD as well as the older CDs.
There’s really no downside for a band of your size.