Yes I Can Steal Your Songs - Deal With It

We live in a new media world. In fact it's not that new. Shawn Fanning and Napster screwed everything up in June 1999. That's almost 10 years ago people! I have been getting free music on my computer, burning it to CD's and streaming sons on my computer for almost a decade. Everyone does it. Your mom can steal music if she wants to. My 7 year old cousin steals music without knowing it. It's almost 2nd nature to him.

Deal with it. Or better than dealing with it is learning to use it to your advantage. Look for other means of monetization. Look at is as a magazine article or newspaper review. You are getting free exposure.

So if I can't make money by selling my music, which I just paid a producer my savings plan to record, what do I do?

Dammed if I know.

Seriously, start taking advantage of the traffic that free music brings to you. By offering free music on your site you are taking the first initiative. Traffic on BitTorrent does you no good. By having a fan drop in an email address and a zip code in exchange for some free tracks you now have some metrics. You have a tangible trade that you see, record and use for future monetization.

Look for CPM or CPC advertising. Some of the local bands here in Orlando are receiving 10,000+ hits / plays a day on Myspace. Bring that traffic to your blog or website, get paid for page views, give away a song for that e-mail and then a few weeks later hit them with a newsletter with your tour info and new t-shirt designs.

Get creative. The hackers and internet users are. Why not level the playng field. Play to what your fans want, which is free music! Just be sure to create value by getting something in return.

What are your thoughts on free music? Where would you like to get your free music? What are you willing to give up to get free music? Let's get the community talking!

Greg Rollett

photo courtesy of all the good names have gone