I’m sitting in a MinneBar presentation by Thomas Bohmach right now, and he’s bringing up some great arguments in favor of bands giving away free music. While I haven’t figured out exactly what I’m going to do in terms of selling or giving away the next Cryns #3 album, I am leaning towards making it open source. I even plan on asking for interested mixmasters to download the album and help me to produce the existing tracks (currently 7 are recorded, with 7 more to go).
The old business model of selling music doesn’t work for small bands like ours. It turns the moderately-interested listener and prospective fans away. So, I might just start giving everything away under an open-source license, which would allow for anyone to use my music for free for their videos, websites, mix tapes, etc., so long as my music isn’t used commercially.
On another level, I might open up my finances – something I kind of did on my last record – in an effort to promote openness within the community which my band fosters.
It’s kind of weird, because on one level, I don’t care what y’all think about my music, but on another level, your opinion means everything to me. Being a songwriter is a weird dichotomy of opposites sometimes…
Thomas suggested reading “1000 True Fans“, which I plan on doing later tonight.
What is your opinion on all this? Should I do this?