Free Vs Paid

I have always liked listening to music on the radio, but the advertisements really bother me. Not only do they offer "products and services" that I am not even remotely interested in, I find them to be VERY ANNOYING.

Local radio stations have been doing the same thing for years where they will play 7 songs in a row, and then follow it with about 12 minutes of advertisements. All the while they keep hyping up that "HEY! We are going to have AN HOUR of jamming commercial free!" when it actually turns out to be 35 minutes of jams, followed by about 12 minutes of air time of them hyping it up, and the rest of it either radio silence, or MORE ADVERTISEMENTS.

But that is local radio stations. When it comes to online radio stations... they have 1 commercial after every single song you pick, and sometimes right in the middle of a playlist you have it set to. Unless of course you pay their monthly fee of 10 dollars.


I myself create music on my free time. I also purchase a lot of music from all kinds of sites like Amazon and such... But I have been getting a few followers to listen to my music and honestly... they are used to getting my stuff for free. At least everything that is unfinished. Stuff that I have for sale though.... While they love and comment about the track on the site where they can easily download it for free.... They just can't pay 1 dollar. I mean 1 dollar to download the final version.

Anyway that is not why I am here. Actually I am here to talk with others about their attempts at getting people to buy their music. And some of the tactics I have seen on a lot of publishers, and artists, use to get people interested in buying instead of listening for free.

I know how spotify, and other various online radio broadcasts work. When someone listens to your track you get like... 1 penny. or sometimes a few nickels per listen. It depends on the ad playing, and your listener base. So you always want people to be listening to your sounds on those radio casts. On the other side of the spectrum you make about 75 cents per transaction made for a digital purchase of your music from Amazon, or google play.

So you'd think you would want more people to listen to your track on those online radio stations right? I mean 1 penny to a few nickels in change per listen? That is every time your music comes up, and an ad plays just before your track. Or after it in some cases. As long as your music ends up in a queue that a lot of people listen to, you get money from advertisement!

But this doesn't get people to buy your track. It gets them to buy the internet radio service.

So how much more money do you make when someone buys the service and listens to your track? You get a flat rate of 5 cents per listen. At least this is what I tested and tried by my own means using spotify to listen to the 2 tracks I have on their service. (So you'd think people would be using listen bots to generate free money for listening to their tracks right? WRONG. You get a max contribution of 10 cents per listener in one month. So... Script kiddies are a no go here. Doesn't matter how many bots you try to put up on listening to JUST YOUR TRACKS. They can't generate that much money for you. And trust me I have heard this from other people who stoop that low to produce artificial hype for their songs.)

But when it comes to getting people to buy their sounds I have seen a few people try different measures to get people to HIT THAT DAMN BUY BUTTON. Seriously it is just 1 #ing dollar. And I get it that people are easily annoyed by advertising, but they can stand waiting a few seconds to hit that skip button on youtube music. But 1 dollar? To never have to sit through an ad again to listen to your music that you like immediately?

I purchase all of my music and put them in a playlist for my shop's speaker system. Everyone loves the music. It is something they "never heard of before" or "never knew existed." Some people even ask me "What is this?" "Oh it's Drum and Bass. This is 'blah blah blah' by 'so and so.'"

But it all comes back down to the tactics being used to get people to buy the damn song.


So... here is what a few artists have tried using a method that doesn't involve being casted into a major movie production.

Before the release of "What I've always waited for" by Nu:Tone and Logistics, or Nu:Logic. They created a bunch of music videos, which I swear looks like a bunch of stock footage showing random ideas of background noise for a news cast. However the songs are cut in half. meaning the total run time of the full songs are actually, intentionally, cut in half. I mean "We Live there" is a 5 and a half minute song, but the official music video and youtube upload is just 3 minutes run time? All of the youtube uploads from the creators are all short version of their songs.

But you can see what they tried to get people to BUY their music! I mean they are very good at what they do, and they are quite popular in the UK and other places. But cutting the jams in half for youtube? Killed it for a lot of people. But some people decided to make a youtube profile, and just upped the full song, with the same title, and people get routed there rather than the official music video.

So that was a failure. Both Nu:tone and Logistics never did that again. But it was worth a shot.

What I have seen some other artists do is put a bunch of cover songs on their album, and make them the center of attraction. All the while the rest of their album is their original work... but it pales in comparison to the rest of the tracks. I have bought many albums that have done this. I couldn't believe what some of these artists do to push an album. Even some of my favorite artists are guilty of hyping up an album that is literally filled with previous works, or works of other artists but just remixed in their own way. Don't get me wrong they have some awesome jams in there that are completely new ideas. But some of the albums I have purchased in the past have left me burnt. Honestly BURNT. TO A CRISP. I will not buy another album from some artists ever again!

Then there are the lucky one hit wonders. And this is throughout history. A one hit wonder will just come out of no where and BOOOSH! trillions of copies sold. Sometimes it even includes full album sales.

Remember "Too Close" by Alex Clare?

Hell yeah everyone remembers that 'dubstep'/'Drum and Bass' song.

Do you remember "the lateness of the hour?"

Chances are you've never heard of this "lateness of the hour." by Alex Clare.

I purchased the album.... and the only song I liked was "Too Close."

It is just my personal taste in music but I honestly felt like I had just given up 10 dollars on a 1 dollar attraction that is only good for a "once around," not ten times around.

But when it comes to the tactic used to get people to hit that buy button? He went with a style for the bass that sounded like dubstep.

And it worked. I mean dubstep came like a tidal wave that crashed through a barge. And I say this literally because after it did so, we were left with a considerable amount of trash in the waters. Don't get me wrong I like dubstep... but this tidal wave hit way too hard on a barge way too big. basically the number of dubstep artists nearly sky rocketed after 2011. And not everyone is that special.

But it got people to buy a sound.

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So.... With all of this happening in the past 20 years that I have been listening to music.... I have been trying to find a means to satisfy both ends of the spectrum that I have sort of created with my followers.

How do I give something away for free, that resembles the final piece, without giving them all of the benefits?

So I know cutting the song in half only annoys people a lot more than usual. Only because they want to hear the complete song.

Covers work to attract people to their albums, but if they don't have enough good stuff people will just think you make great covers.

if you have a one hit wonder, SELL IT AS A SINGLE.

Radio stations offer an opportunity to generate money over time... So leave this option as always open.

You also need to satisfy your most loyal listeners on the platform they go to first. Like other, non main stream, audio sites.

It all leads me to try one of these four methods next:

1. Release the final product on the store, but have the free version of this final product encoded at 92 KBPS. The lower quality will get people to listen to the sound just enough to buy it... By doing this they think they got it for free, but what they have is an inferior version compared to the full version.

2. Release the final version on the store, but have the free version missing all of the dynamic range. This means compressing the absolute hell out of the track so it sounds like a flat pancake.

3. Release the final version on the store, but have the free version remixed with different instruments for all of the parts. Like tweaking the sounds to sound completely different, but sort of the same. Like a rip off bootleg movie.

4. Release the final version on the store, but have the free version missing all of the filters and effect generators. Detune it a little so it doesn't sound too horrible, but just enough for them to notice the difference in the store version sounding better.

Which one do you think I should try first?

originally posted by: GiulXainx
Which one do you think I should try first?

You should try the part where you upload your music to streaming sites so that people have to cough buy ahem it.

Give your music away for free to create a following, perform locally for cheap to gain local fame. If your talented enough and work hard enough you can perform larger shows in other cities for more money. If you know other artists collaborate with them so their fans will follow you, be original think outside the box. Most artists make their money on performing live and selling out venues nowadays.

a reply to: GiulXainx

there are different type of buyers the one that want to support u the one that want the product and the one just window shopping

so prob abit of every platform to accomdate em all

a reply to: daniel2sxc

The thing is.... I am an artist. But I am not creating music for money.

As much as I would love to be the person up on that stage with all of the lights flashing in the crowd.... I sort of don't want to be.

I am one of those artists who would totally love to be a main attraction, but I would have a stand in going to all of the shows.

No seriously I would. Let them take my music and just play it. I would have them pretend to be a DJ. They could have all sorts of equipment looking like it was plugged in, but all he would be doing is just twisting knobs.... hitting random buttons... All sorts of stuff. I would just rather be sitting at home making some new tunes.

Honestly techno is nothing more than a computer producing all of the sounds. And doing things live? Most of the time they would sound very flat.

Like for instance Dirty Phonics. I love their music. I love how they create it. But if you hear them mixing something live it sounds flat. As you compare it to the sound they sell online it sounds very vast. Open ended. It has dynamic range. Why? because they spent the time perfecting the sound for hours upon hours.

Hearing them live for the first time I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A brand new track that sounded so flat I couldn't stand it.

But my followers like and download my music all of the time. I never get any comments, or any accolades. I don't need them because I am not trying to get rich off of the sound. I just want some spending money really. Just a little. Not much.

I work by night as a shop keeper. I am really good at my job. And honestly the thought of doing live shows for money, and traveling the world. It does not interest me. I've done enough traveling in my life, and have lived in several different states, and have been in the biggest house, all the way to the tiniest apartment. It just doesn't suit me.

But with that said.... Nobody listens to techno... at least not so much in the US.

I remember talking with the Triad Dragons. And they asked me why I don't go "pro." I tell them that it just doesn't suit my lifestyle. I just like hearing my music getting out there and hearing what other artists come up with after they have heard what I have done. And well.... Thats why some of the songs you hear now a days are so different... Different in the sense that they are becoming very simple. No more going crazy with the bass, or trying to get as many samples on the same notes as possible to get that nice symphony orchestra all playing the exact same melody. I am so sick of that.


but it doesn't stop me from making more music. I just wanted to try something different.

The best way is to brand yourself on social media, on all of the platforma. Once you have a following everything is easy. Maybe upload YouTube videos

a reply to: GiulXainx

a reply to: wizdumb1986

I stay away from Facebook at all costs. Only because of the people who frequent the site are all a bunch of pussies. Honestly they are. I went to MySpace to get away from people blocking me because of what I said.

If what I type into your comments offends you, then you yourself are nothing more than trash. I have a twitter, but I don't use it. I have a big YouTube channel, but I use my music as background music all of the time. Am I big and famous on youtube? No. I was a part of the console wars on youtube. Just a bunch of senseless plastic worshiping. It was fun making fun of plastic, and the people who worshipped them like some sort of end all answer to gaming.

I have profiles on reverbnation, unsigned, my music is on Spotify and amazon. And honestly the other websites I post up on are content sites. I have 3 main sites I upload to and I do get featured in video games, and in some cases anime shorts. Even some short indie films.

But honestly... I never made a single dollar from it.