How About Paying Bands $0.50 For Every Free Dowload?
from the can't-make-money-off-free? dept
We were just talking about how there are more and more new startups in the market to help bands do everything they need to do to both make music and make money these days -- and one of the most successful has been ReverbNation, who has created a variety of tools for musicians to help them both distribute music and connect with fans in new and compelling ways. And, now, the company has announced that it not only wants to help bands give away DRM-free mp3 music for free, but it will pay some of them $0.50 per download. Who says free can't pay? Of course, as always, there is a money-making business model involved. In this case, it's that ReverbNation will get to include a small ad in the cover art that appears with the album. Also, it's only open to a 1,000 bands. I'm not convinced this is a sustainable model, as "ad supported" music strikes me as a market where it will be tough to get enough ad revenue to make it worthwhile -- but it's still a neat experiment to watch and see how it evolves. It certainly may help get more indie bands over the fear of putting their music out there for free on purpose -- and hopefully some of those bands will recognize the other benefits of doing so, beyond just the $0.50 per download from ReverbNation.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: advertising, business models, free downloads, mp3s, music
Companies: reverbnation
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50 cents? for free? DRM idea is already old
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It's not free, it's annoying
As Techdirt mentions quite often, I sincerely believe it is high time to abandon this type of business model, and instead embrace the more realistic concept of using the art itself to attract valuable fans who will buy merchandise and concert tickets. The music is the hook, make it freely available without any catch, and artists will gain trust and respect from their fans.
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Re: It's not free, it's annoying
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Re: It's not free, it's annoying
That's how radio and television work... I guess Keifer Sutherland sold out as an artist when he decided to do TV.
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RIAA will shut it down
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Re: It
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Re: It
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Re: It's annoying
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Question
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It's worth a shot
Personally I would much rather see a band I like take advantage of sponsorship opportunities than quit music altogether because they can't support themselves. Unfortunately that's a choice too many good artists regularly face.
Is this going to be a successful model? Who knows? If it's a way indie artists can get paid for their music I think it's worth giving this thing a fair shot.
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yeah
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Re: yeah
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ReverbNation promotion
Yes, I am one of the Co-Founders of ReverbNation but this is not a biased comment. I come from the Label side of the business and know that setting up a myspace page or facebook page is the easy thing and it is free. Getting people to your music is not easy and it is very costly. We are helping with both - driving traffic to the artist's music at no cost - well the cost of one download which you know would wind up on the p2p networks for free anyway.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
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Another system that will run for a while and finally go bust when it can't pay the artists.
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Re:
If you did ask Chris (and I have) you'd know that he's not betting on ads to help Wired, but on other business models that leverage free. You'd also know, of course, that he's the Editor not the publisher, and has only so much input into the business decisions of Conde Nast. But, you know... why let details get in the way of a misleading anonymous comment?
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GoHoster Free .mp3 URL ...
Thanks
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Reverb Nation don't pay .50 cent per free download I wish!
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