Site Meter Musician’s Notebook » Blog Archive » Prager: Download for free strategy only works for big bands

Prager: Download for free strategy only works for big bands

by Joel Falconer

Nancy Prager, a copyright lawyer and writer whose articles I am a frequent reader of, has had some great commentary on the Radiohead “controversy” in the past couple of weeks (as well as the emerging “controversy” regarding Reznor and Saul Williams).

Prager’s conclusion on the whole thing:

“While In Rainbows may be a musical work for the ages, it wouldbe inappropriate to use Radiohead as the poster child of bands pursuingalternative paths if its journey leads them back to the major labels.”

I believe her to be correct. Free music downloads are a friggin’ great way for musicians to start building an audience. I’ve done it myself for most of this year. By the time I’d published the third tuneback, I was building buzz and had a few major publications, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, interviewing me and even releasing my songs on their site.

That’s not bad growth for three hours work (the tuneback concept imposes a rule of one hour spent writing and recording a song).

But building a career? You can’t do that by releasing free music forever, and in an age where - as Nancy says - some don’t even want to pay $1 to obtain the album and go over to the file sharing sites, you might want to wait until the ass-end of your career before you start giving fans entire albums for free.

Radiohead can afford to do this. They are sitting on more money than George W. Bush is sitting on stupidity. But if you are reading that, chances are you’re not sitting on that much cash. If you are, my email address can be found in the right sidebar (I have a bad case of starving artist syndrome). If you don’t charge for independently released albums you won’t be able to make any income from your songs. On the other hand, the tuneback is a minimal time and effort investment for building audience. There’s a balance when it comes to freebies.

The scary part is that Radiohead and Saul Williams are setting a dangerous precedent. Pubs already pay insulting rates to bands because they know they can get a cover band in for free. The problem of piracy has begun to plague album sales in the same way. This can only make it worse.

Or maybe, NDK was right when he proposed that Radiohead were really asking their fans: given the opportunity to steal from us, will you?

Tags: , , , ,


One Response to “Prager: Download for free strategy only works for big bands”

  1. Musician’s Notebook » Blog Archive » Rocker Meat Loaf Quits Music Says:

    […] It’s important that musicians know their copyrights, especially when dealing with the industry. Knowing things like this allows artists, with the help of an able intellectual property lawyer, to negotiate with businesses so that the artist in question doesn’t sign a slave labor contract and both parties end up with an equitable deal; this allows artists to do what they like within the realm of that equity, even if the industry doesn’t like it (just because it’s fair, doesn’t mean they will). […]

Leave a Reply


About Musician’s Notebook

Do you know which essential questions to ask yourself when starting a band? What is your strategy for reaching an audience? Which tactics are you using to promote? Can you answer in 4 seconds or less what the strongest theme of your music is? Most musicians answer these questions with a shrug and glazed-over eyes, but they're just a few of the things a musician must know to create exposure and audience. Read Musician's Notebook with Joel Falconer and discover how to make your music sharp, focused and successful.

Musician’s Notebook Author(s)
    » Damian-C

Blogging Flair

Earn $$ with WidgetBucks!

WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com

Entertainment & Music Channel Posts

  • This Week In Pop Culture: A Haiku
    THE DAVIDS BATTLE ON AMERICAN IDOL DOES ANYONE CARE? [...]
  • Davina McCall Denies Quitting Big Brother - Big Brother 9 Eye Logo Revealed
    Last week it was reported that Davina McCall was planning to quit being presenter of Big Brother after the forthcoming ninth series had finished. She's now come out to deny this, and claim that she'd [...]
  • The Great Debate?
    Well, this is weird. A biopic of George W. Bush? While he's still in office? That's got to be some kind of a first. I dearly hope we get some kind of (minor) media coverage here. Please tell me [...]
  • Music Video Flashbacks
    TONY! TONI! TONE! - "FEELS GOOD" (1990) SKID ROW - "18 & LIFE" (1989) RICHARD MARX - "HAZARD" (1991) BETTY BOO - "WHERE ARE YOU BABY?" (1990) [...]
  • The "Blindness" Movie Trailer Is Trippy
    TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA "Blindness" is an upcoming dramatic thriller film that is an adaptation of the 1995 novel "Blindness" by José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. [...]
  • The "X-Files: I Want To Believe" Movie Trailer Is Awesome!
    FROM WIKIPEDIA.COM "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is the second feature film based on the TV series The X-Files, following the 1998 film. The sequel is directed by the television series [...]
  • Moms, Blogs, Ethics, and the Old Madonna versus Whore Dichotomy
    More than anything else, the availability of blogging can reinforce the truth that we human beings do not all think alike. More than just cultural differences, which can be vast, the variations we [...]
  • Eurovision Boss Critical Of Terry Wogan
    The Eurovision Song Contest is a once yearly music (if you can call it that) competition between various countries who are active members of the European Broadcasting Union. Outside of Europe it's [...]
  • Favorite Music Jukebox #7
    LISTEN TO A NON-STOP MIX OF OVER 100 OF MY FAVORITE TUNES WITH NO REPEATS! GREAT FOR CLEANING HOUSE, FOR WORK AND SURFING THE NET! GET READY TO HEAR SOME SONGS YOU HAVEN’T HEARD IN A [...]
  • For the little ones
    I've been trying to hold off making too much fun of What Happens in Vegas..., which came in second at the box office this weekend. I mean, does it look terrible? It does. Am I soured on the [...]

Hot Off The Press

  • Vote for Your Favorite Kitty Blog!
    I only took over the reins of writing for this site about a week ago, and have already met with such a positive response! I love feedback from all of you cat lovers out there, so if there's something [...]
  • Weekly Forecast: What’s the Buzz? Signs and Portents That We Are Over Stimulated
    May 16, 2008 Week of May 16 to May 22 We don’t have to always look to the stars for certain signs and portents. We have concrete signs that we are over stimulated by media overload and [...]
  • At the Library...
    Face-to-Face With the Civil War Saturday May 17 2008 from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm This event will be held at Hardesty Regional Library. Event Description: Come face-to-face with the [...]
  • Tykelight
    Bed time is a interesting time in this household. I really can't complain too much my kids actually are good sleepers, besides my son nicknamed, The Rooster, waking up at the crack of dawn every [...]
  • Panasonic Gets It Right The Second Time Around
    Panasonic DMP-BD30 - sleek, compact, and snappy! One of the problems of almost all ( well, every one I saw) of the first generation Blu-ray players was the excruciatingly long start time from disc [...]
  • Tom Cruise to be President Of US
      Tom Cruise is going to be the President of the United States, but no not for real. Tom Cruise was rumored a while back to be running for presidency but it seems it was all for a movies. I [...]
  • Official Smackdown Preview: Chasing the title
    Although SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero stripped Undertaker of the World Heavyweight Championship, The Deadman has the opportunity to regain the gold in a title match with Edge at [...]
  • Friday Feast
    Thank goodness it's Friday! Phew. Another exhausting week has gone by and I am ever thankful for the weekend. I hope you all wish me luck as I wait to hear if I have an interview with the company [...]
  • Recap delay...
    I thought I was gonna crying a whole bunch in last night's episode. But as it turns out, I did cry because of my crappy internet connection. Be right back with the recaps, photos and reactions [...]
  • Lately I Just Use Skype/Pamela
    One of the most common questions people ask about getting started in podcasting is 'How do you record a telephone call?' Back in my early years as an internet radio show host, I tried every [...]