Free is for the Bees!
If you are giving away your Music for Free and not receiving anything in return, you are devaluing yourself as an Independent Artist. Use free only if it benefits you as an Artist. Sharing your Music for free doesn't guarantee any type of results. In fact, you are insinuating, "I don't think my music is good enough to buy, so I'll just give it away for free." You might think to yourself, "Well, if I give away one of my songs for free, I have more of an opportunity to expand my fan-base and have others buy my music." The problem with this mentality is you've already defined what your music is worth: It's Free! You not only defined this to your customer, you defined this to yourself and because of this, free has just put you and your music career in a very un-free situation. If you aren't receiving any compensation for your music, how will you quit your day job and make music your full-time career? Does it really benefit you to have 1,000 fans who have not paid a cent for your music? Your goal as an Independent Musician is to have those 1,000 fans support you, so you can be free and make a living doing something that does not require you to punch a clock for the rest of your life. Don't let your business falter because a few other voices are telling you how you should run yours.
There's a lot of websites out there spewing the word, "Free." They want you to "Share" your music and "Like" your fan-page, but your goal as an Independent Artist is to sharpen these words and use them as tools to further your music career. It's important to remember: You made very strong choices and sacrifices to get to the point of releasing your music and you have an obligation and responsibility to yourself to give your product a value and hold to it. Success does not come from giving away things for free, it comes from knowing what you are worth and following through consistently. Your persistence will pay off, but first you have to define your objective and know where you are going. Free is a word the online world uses every day, but don't think for a second it's completely free. Do you think Gmail, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is Free? You're a very bright statistic with glowing fields of information that can be sold to potential advertisers at any given minute. The more you network and socialize, the more you are worth to advertisers. Free is not Free. When you have websites or apps offering to "Share" your music, ask yourself: "How am I furthering my Music career by sharing my music for free? This question segways into the most important question of all: How can giving away something for free be a worthy investment?
To make "free" work for you give free a value. Trade your fans a free song for their e-mail or give your fans a free song for every referral they bring you through your Fan/Band Page. There are millions of ideas, start thinking outside the box and having fun with your decisions. Make your fans work for their free. Your fans most likely will consider the work you assign them an honor. Remember: Your world is different than theirs, it's exciting, new and a breath of fresh air. Give your Fans the opportunity to play (work) in your world and in return show them how much you appreciate their work by giving them something for free. If you have your fans earn free they will appreciate you a lot more for it and your self-worth as an Artist and CEO of your music career will increase by leaps and bounds.
To Buy My Music please listen and purchase tracks from my TuneCube Store below. While iTunes, takes 30-35% of my Music sales, with TuneCube I receive 100%! Best part is, you don't have to click on another link to BUY. Your payment will be processed securely through PayPal. Thank you for supporting me and my music career. DW
My Music Store
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