"The Free Download Concept Isn’t A Frivolous Act"
Fun Friday brings free downloads for our readers. The band Harvey Danger cordially requests your presence to download its latest album free and asks you to share it with your friends. Technologist Tim O'Reilly approves.
The band writes:
"We embark on this experiment with both enthusiasm and curiosity-and, ok, maybe a twinge of anxiety. Why are we doing this? The short answer is simply that we want a lot of people to hear the record.
"However, it's important that people understand the free download concept isn't a frivolous act. It's a key part of our promotional campaign, along with radio and press promotion, live shows, and videos. It's a bet that the resources of the Internet can make possible a new way for musicians to find their audience – and forge a meaningful artistic career built on support from cooperative, not adversarial, relationships.
"We realize that digital files are the primary means by which a huge segment of the population is exposed to new music; we also believe that plenty of music lovers in the world will buy a record once they've heard it – whether via radio or computer.
"We also believe there's an inherent qualitative difference at work-not only between MP3s and CDs, but between clicking a mouse and finding a record on the shelves of a good record store. These experiences are not mutually exclusive – they're interdependent facets of music fandom, and equally important considerations for a band in our position. "
May 21st, 2007 at 10:54 am
At the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish, making records has never been about making money for this band. If the worst thing that happens is a whole bunch of people hear Little By Little… and no one buys it, we’ll know our experiment was costly. But that won’t make it a failure.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I like the end part: ‘This is by no means a manifesto [...] We’re just trying to be smart capitalists so we can sustain our lives as musicians.’