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Why give your music free in mp3 – 5 reasons

It is not a feel good article for musicians where getting famous seems so easy that you nearly can see all those hysterical fans fighting to get your sweaty t-shirt you have thrown to the crowd. It is a feel bad article, but it serves a good cause – getting your music to the listeners’ ears.

If you want to hear the usual bullshit they peddle on all those “band promotion tips” websites (normally 80% of this stuff is useless, remaining 20% will do more harm than good) –  go somewhere else and keep dreaming of fame and glory.

Ok, disclaimer done, to the point, here are the 5 reasons why you have to give your music away free in mp3:

Reason 1 – you are competing with “illegal” downloads anyway
Your music, even if free, still competes with all other music in your scene – with the best, well-known bands. Every song can be downloaded for free in seconds – legally or not. It is difficult to get people to download your music for free if they do not know it, but giving downloads is a step in right direction. If you do not make your music accessible, nobody is going to bother with you. You are losing potential fans and gain nothing in exchange.

Reason 2 – you are not going to get signed to a label
Holding off publishing free mp3 download in a hope to get signed to a label and release your stuff officialy? Abandon all hope. In 99.99% of cases you are not going to get signed. Take this as a solid base for your decision. Instead of acting based on hope and dreams, do something that gives opportunity to get people to know your band.

Reason 3 – you have nothing to lose
If you were so smart and self-released your CD (your attic is full of it) you may think that if you give free mp3 you are not going to get back any of the money you invested in professional CD.

You are right to some extend – you are not going to get your money back, start giving the CDs away to free up the space in the attic before your mom starts giving out. Set it free, you have nothing to lose. Chances are, that some crazy fan will fall in love with your music and buy a CD off you.

Reason 4 – are you in it for money? No? So what is stopping you?
Well, if you are not go ahead and make your music free. At least you are getting a chance that somebody will hear your stuff. I know, you may think that by giving your music away you are placing your band among all those desperate who are dying to get heard of. Well, if your rockstar status is to suffer, you should probably think twice. But if you are reading these words it is more than likely that you are not a star or anything of the sort. Again – go ahead, make it free.

Reason 5 – face the reality
The reality is that your band is not known. It has little fan base and giving single songs or even worse, 30 second previews will not do you any favor. People really are not dying to hear your stuff. They are bombarded with news from bands begging people to listen to them. If you restrict the access to your music in any way, your chances to build a fan base is zero.

Let us say you are convinced by now and give your music away as free mp3 download. Will it make people interested, will it get you fans? Absolutely not. By giving your music away free you are just avoiding one stupid mistake that some bands still make.

We at Halotan Records practise what we preach – read this article.

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