Will Future Music Be Free?

Do you think we're approaching a point where artists will just voluntarily put their music up for free, and then get all their money from touring and performances? Every year, now, I'm seeing more and more people putting up albums for free, or the also popular "Pay as much as you want" method. Perhaps the music will mostly be free digitally, but vinyl will still be sold for traditional DJs.

All musical elitism aside, you can't deny that when big names like NIN or Radiohead are doing it, it's indicative of something big.

Your thoughts?

people are just getting tired of all the bullshit hoops you have to jump through to release anything

the simple solution is to make it free. plus the fans dig it too.

Then they'd bankrupt themselves. I don't think the market would allow that.

you know, i've been playing music for years and regardless of whether people actually would buy my music (i'm really nothing great, i just create loads of idkwtf guitar music) i always told myself i'd never become a musician. i would hate having to rely on music for my sustinence i.e. paying bills, buying food, paying rent, etc.. it was always a personal endeavor, a way of venting emotionally in the dark late in the night.. but then again in our fast paced world it's hard to work a full-time job and find time to apply yourself enough to record, distribute releases, and work gigs in the time you have left. i really respect people that can do it and succeed. all the more power to those who gladly give their music away and make it on touring alone. quite respectable imo

  xxx said:

Free music, $200 tickets to the show.

This is the future for all 'superstar' bands/artists. Once you reach a certain threshold and have a big enough audience where you're playing sold out shows all over the world, this model makes the most sense. Release music for free to promote your overpriced concerts and live act. Also to sell other merchandise like tshirts and whatever.

For a lot of smaller/independenet artists, selling music/streaming it online will still be very important to gain an audience. I really do think streaming online music is the future of everything, which will improve based on what you like/don't like within certain genres.

There are so many different business models out there, that it is entirely possible for artists to choose what works best for them, how much they want to be exposed, etc. Some people like to remain obscure/underground

  autopilot said:

Then they'd bankrupt themselves. I don't think the market would allow that.

Relying on music solely as a source of income is incredibly difficult to do and probably 90% of artists/bands right now and in the future will have other jobs and ways to make money outside of music in order to survive. Unless you reach a large enough audience and are big enough, you'll end up being broke all the time. It also depends on the kind of music/genre you're in, who your audience is, what you're trying to sell them, there's so much stuff to get into about this topic. Basically it doesn't make financial sense to be in the music 'business' so trying to market/sell yourself certain ways just cheapens your image. A lot of people are in this only for the music, while doing other things in order to make ends meet.

*waits for zeitgeist zealots to take over so he can write music all day*

Wasn't it Mike P or one of Plaid who had a stint working at Boots to pay the bills. Or is that just bullshit.

classical musicians have been doing it for years considering their relatively low record sales, although teaching is always a backup which you can't really do in any other genre

In rap you can school people. It's like teaching with malice.

it's basically free already

Chances are it will get to the point where we'd be saying "You know, back in the day we could choose the music we wanted to listen to"

Concert T-Shirts would run about 70ish huh?

No, it's £3.50 in WH Smiths

  Iain C said:

No, it's £3.50 in WH Smiths

lol, thats what I thought when I read thread title

edit: lol @ futuremusic

"Why you lot all have to go out and buy more stuff"

weg wam woom

free music to help the economy!

...and legalize cannabis

  chax said:

  xxx said:

Free music, $200 tickets to the show.

 

This is the future for all 'superstar' bands/artists. Once you reach a certain threshold and have a big enough audience where you're playing sold out shows all over the world, this model makes the most sense. Release music for free to promote your overpriced concerts and live act. Also to sell other merchandise like tshirts and whatever.

but then the fans feel cheated because the music doesn't sound as polished as their CD and looking at live people on a stage seems quaint because it doesn't have the visual effects and editing they are used to.

Bands like Radiohead and NIN can afford to it. It wouldn't matter to them if they never sold another record again. However they have very loyal fanbases who will buy whatever they put out.

  Betty said:

  chax said:

  xxx said:

Free music, $200 tickets to the show.

 

This is the future for all 'superstar' bands/artists. Once you reach a certain threshold and have a big enough audience where you're playing sold out shows all over the world, this model makes the most sense. Release music for free to promote your overpriced concerts and live act. Also to sell other merchandise like tshirts and whatever.

but then the fans feel cheated because the music doesn't sound as polished as their CD and looking at live people on a stage seems quaint because it doesn't have the visual effects and editing they are used to.

it's getting pretty easy to distribute flac files etc. for free

not to mention most of the newer generations don't really care that much about audio quality.

there is a difference between music and a product; people have an affinity for owning and looking back at books they've read, and similarly, many like collecting vinyl. i don't think technological advancements will have insane effects on these mediums.

taking into consideration mediums like newspapers/magazines or compact discs though, i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these are replaced by files accessible by e-readers and mp3 players, or some similar, underdeveloped technologies.

as far as a business model for distribution of mp3s and documents though, no fucking clue lol

  xxx said:

Live entertainment outstrips my personal ability to purchase it. In the next two months, there's a NIN|JA stop, Morrissey, The Killers, Philip Glass, Max Tundra, Mastodon, Anal Cunt, Cake, GWAR, and George Clinton. I feel like if it were the 90's, I could probably swing all of these because shows were $10-20 but even $20 would've been steep--I saw Nine Inch Nails in 1995 in the same place the circus happens for $14. Even Cake, a minor league act by any measure these days, is running $34 a ticket. And these fucking service charges! What group of cunts is getting gas money for their yachts this way?

well I wouldn't want to see a single one of those artists mentioned. MAYBE Phillip G. but he bothers me some times so I don't think I would.

40$ for the Killers? 25$ at most, what's so special, same setlist, same arrangments, same performance, same entertainment one city to another.

But hey I paid once 175$ for a front seat dead-center Bob Dylan seat. It was well worth it to stand up on the rail and get (what I felt like) was a private show!

  xxx said:

Live entertainment outstrips my personal ability to purchase it. In the next two months, there's a NIN|JA stop, Morrissey, The Killers, Philip Glass, Max Tundra, Mastodon, Anal Cunt, Cake, GWAR, and George Clinton. I feel like if it were the 90's, I could probably swing all of these because shows were $10-20 but even $20 would've been steep--I saw Nine Inch Nails in 1995 in the same place the circus happens for $14. Even Cake, a minor league act by any measure these days, is running $34 a ticket. And these fucking service charges! What group of cunts is getting gas money for their yachts this way?

I'm going to see Phillip Glass! Got my ticket for $18 cause I'm a student =)

Gwar is not "Causual" by any means. 40$ is worth it. TRUST ME....