(Source: crimesagainsthughsmanatees)
This great evil. Where does it come from? How’d it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who’s doin’ this? Who’s killin’ us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin’ us with the sight of what we might’ve known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?
If a musician or a producer plans on making a profit or a living from their hobby, the best option is to gain as much exposure as possible. This can be driven by a period of earning none or minuscule amounts for a period of time.
This has been more easily facilitated with the internet, and how easy it is for artists to simply share their music with fans. Whether this is by mere file-sharing, uploading to streaming sites, or selling for name-your-price on websites such as bandcamp, the mere existence of the internet should allow for a new era of artists to emerge. By giving out the music free, it allows people who enjoy it to share it easily with friends, and possibly give you a small amount of money.
However, I often see artists which will have very low sales charging a similar amount to itunes for their albums. I believe this is due to this seeming to be the industry standard for online sales of albums; $10 in the US and £8 in the UK. If a small artist trying to gain exposure via the internet is charging this much (needlessly) they are stifling themselves. This is due to them limiting their own audience, if an album is free or has a relatively low cost, the amount of sales is likely to be higher, therefore the amount of people exposed to the music is increased.
Essentially, artists need to stop being greedy in the early stages of their careers and merely wait until a point where they will make a much larger impact (and profit).
Another benefit with the patient approach is that you can be kinder to your fans. The need to charge higher amounts becomes unnecessary, seeing as distributers other to iTunes take much smaller cuts. Bandcamp will take a cut of 10% (can’t be bothered to check, but it’s either 10% or 15%) (which can be negotiated down). So by merely changing distribution method, it is possible to charge less, and actually make more money!
This is probably all bias though. I like to have more music. So I like cheap music.
I said I’d post a picture of myself at 100k subs so here it is. I caught myself recording towns, gotta love action shots. hngh!!!
(Source: sallyintheskywithdiamonds, via coffee-and-gin)
(via conangifs)
