Artists See a Future With BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on October 13, 2008The music industry is changing. While the record labels are desperately trying to protect the revenue stream from album sales, a new generation of artists is starting to realize that they are better off when they give away their music for free. By now, we’re all familiar with the industry’s view, but what drives these artists?
Giving away music for free might not sound like a very solid business model to most people, but it is. Most artists make most money from concerts and merchandise, not so much album sales. Even more so, the key to success are the fans, and what better way to introduce people to your music by giving it away for free?
A whole new generation of artists, most of who grew up with Napster, Limewire and BitTorrent, are starting to utilize the power of filesharing networks. This year alone, thousands of albums were released online for free, and this number is growing at an increasing rate. The possibilities are endless. Some artists use sites like Jamendo, others go for mainstream BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova, and yet another group prefers niche BitTorrent communities such as What.cd.
On What.cd, one of the larger music communities with over 60,000 members, artists have found a particularly successful outlet. In fact, the free albums are particularly popular, and often among the most downloaded. The music minded members, of which quite a few are artists themselves, are very appreciative of every new album. This August a compilation CD was released with tracks from 19 artists who uploaded their music to the site. This CD, titled “The What CD” is the most active torrent of all time on the tracker.
At TorrentFreak we have now reached a point where we can no longer mention all the artists that give away their music for free. 
While it was a rather exceptional thing to do three years ago, it has become mainstream today. It is, however, worth talking to one of these new generation of bands and artists who decide to share their music at no cost.
The Pragmatic is such a band. Today, the 5 member band, which was founded in 2006, has released the album ‘Circles’ on BitTorrent and Rapidshare. André, one of the band members, who plays an analog synthesizer from the early 80s, explained to us why they chose to give away their music for free.
“With this first release we really wanted to try out giving it out for free and just see what happens,” he said. “Bands like Radiohead and NIN come out and release stuff for free and have success, but that’s largely because of their already established careers. They’ve built that up the traditional way and they’ve reaped the rewards of that, but their success in file-sharing is more of a perk of that status.”
“Growing up, every musician dreamed of that big shiny record deal, but I don’t think it’s relevant anymore. Labels have had to sober up and re-think what their roles are. It used to be about music, and I think file-sharing has brought that to their attention. By releasing it for free, I guess we could be losing money, but in the long run I think we’re (hopefully) making fans.”
Similar to most other people, André is part of a generation that grew up with file-sharing. It is part of the music industry now, and it exposes people to more music than they would ever hear on mainstream radio. It is probably not what the RIAA wants to hear, or will ever admit, but music is more popular than ever thanks to file-sharing. André agrees, and told TorrentFreak:
“Fans go to shows, buy merch and support bands for all the right reasons. I think that our generation grew up with an almost insatiable need for more and more music. I know I did. I’ve downloaded lots of albums I loved and bought physical versions. I’ve downloaded plenty of albums I hated and deleted. I can’t begin to count how many bands I know and love because of Napster/Soulseek/Bittorrent. File-sharing was never really about stealing music, it was about finding music you loved.”
“Labels will complain and sue their very core audience just to make a dollar. I can’t blame them, it’s the way they’ve built their company. Change scares them, especially when they don’t control it. I honestly believe that I wouldn’t be a musician today if Napster hadn’t appeared. I think Napster fostered the incredible current musical culture and nobody gives them credit for it. I find it very hard for an upcoming artist to get any exposure without being willing to promote their music on p2p networks.”
The clash between artist and labels, and the ever increasing piracy statistics are forcing the big labels to rethink their business models. Nowadays, BitTorrent has the power to promote artists based on their music, not on the advertising budget. It is hard to deny that the music labels are in a crisis, however, music itself is more alive than ever before.
Previously: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
Next: Vuze Reinvents Its BitTorrent Client
29 Responses
I hope it’ll work for most of the new artists.
use music as promotion
use your tour to make money
thats all folks
and if your going ot shove distribution costs to people you better not charge me jack for the tunes
I am surprised that some one like bittorrent.com hasn’t been sued on these grounds that they aren’t paying me back for the distribution costs.
AS IN: song cost in store = song cost online , yet no truck to deliver , no cdrs to stomp etc….
YOU the artist can setup a site and sell custommade cdrs , and ship as you see fit. DO NOT expect to become a millionaire, technology makes things cheaper and people wiser. THe BIG 4 WANT STUPID PEON DRONES. HA too late. THEY FAIL.
I stopped listenning to music in the 80s. Not that it was trash but much of it was great. The cost of buying what was in the stores become cost prohibitive. The big music industry and their big dogs just priced themselves out of business. That is all. No longer are great musicians determined by how much air time they get in my books. No longer do I watch music awards or movie award shows for that matter. They don’t pick the best, they pick the best money maker for awards.
I think it would be great to judge a band by their music and not the label they signed on with.
The one problem I see is how do you get air time with radio stations? Are they permitted to play it for free on air? If they are, then good, the music label industry (NOT the music industry) is going down in flames.
To alot of people.. were just thieves..
Although copying isnt stealing.. we wont go into that again.
I WANT TO SPEND MONEY. I WANT to support my favorite artists.. and thats what everyone forgets.. but give me something to spend my money on!
No I dont want your plastic discs.
Yes I want to see them in concert.
No I dont want your DRM and rootkits on my comp.
Yes I want to buy merchandise.
No I dont want to have to watch MTV to discover crap music.
Yes I want to explore music on my own on the internet.
If you dont give me what I want.. I WILL TAKE what I want. No exceptions.
Just like the RIAA would rather see my life ruined.. I rather see the RIAA go bankrupt.. then play along in there monopoly.
Strange, was in the middle of writing an article thats related to exactly this, will update it and link back here in a little while, check back at http://www.eZee.se in a few hours.
Cheers!
Joe
Neat! RIAA and MPAA, are you guys reading this article?
Glad to see more artists are realizing P2P promoting potential. i hear something great, i share it. then they share it. then 50 people have it. endless advertisement.
Music is the Food of Love and MPAA and RIAA are twobit thieves.
Interesting perspective, I just posted something along similar lines over at Drowned in Sound.
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4135420
This is not really new though. There were quite a few artists on OiNK who gave their music away for free, it just wasn’t as publicised on there.
When CD’s first came out, we were told that they cost twice as much as vinyl records because there were only a couple of plants who could manufacture them. We were told that, as more plants came online, the price of CD’s would drop. Well, that was a fucking lie. CD’s went from $12 to $18, while the cost of manufacturing them plummeted to just pennies. We have seen through the lie, and refuse to participate.
Heck, with a vinyl record you used to get pictures, credits, lyrics, and you could roll a doobie on them. With overpriced CD’s, you got none of the above, and in the last few years, the sound quality is even worse than vinyl. So, the industry loses money because they lied in the first place, and STILL don’t give fans what they want. But since the record companies have fired everyone who gave a damn about making music, only the overpaid ass-kissers and ass-coverers remain, and guess what, they’re all lawyers. It’s no surprise then that they do what lawyers do, which is SUE people, But who to sue? The fans of course! And of course, that makes no sense. But you’re not a lawyer, so why should it.
It’s a painful pleasure watching the record companies die. Those who make the music are beginning to figure it out though, and they will survive. Because making music is a compulsion for the musician, and a need for the fan, and lawyers need not apply.
Just because America has more lawyers than any other country in the world doesn’t mean we need so many. I look forward to the day when 99% of lawyers are running a stall at the local flea market. Then they will be filling a real need.
Great article.
Thank you Ernesto :)
I am downloading the What Cd right now. You know, I think these sorts of albums could be good for the pro-filesharing cause.
What if we made an album with songs submitted by readers of torrent freak. The blog could have a contest and readers could submit their songs. Then other readers and visitors to the blog could vote on the best ones, and then the winners would appear on a torrent freak album to put on bit-torrent. What do you say, Torrent Freak? This would further the cause, and attract readers to torrent freak.
Wow #4… that was so deep. Were you smoking a hookah and wearing horn rimmed glasses while you wrote that? Do you have dyed black hair combed over half your face? I can see it now.
Yeah so free shit is good, although from what I understand Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” barely touched the success of their other albums, and that’s to be expected. It seems awesome when bands release shit for free, but honestly I don’t think they’re raking in the cash.
@ 14
Not really sure how you gathered all that from my comment.. unless you just have emos on your mind.
Sorry to inform you, but making fun of emos while at the same time having a myspace.. makes you just as much of a tool.
It has become a standard.. Myspacer = Immature loser.
If a band wants to get discovered, upload your music to BitTorrent.
The Record Labels have been keeping us from hearing great bands for decades, it is time to break free.
if you are not on the file sharing networks then you are a nobody
*great article, some stunning comments, no argument
You should check out Aralie.com theyre a new pay-what-you-want music service, artists can also set a minimum on their music. I think a model like this has alot of potential for artists to fight against piracy.
They give it away for free because the public won’t stop stealing it.
Heck yeah man! I am all for keepin it Free. I have not bought an ablum this year and REFUSE to cause I am sick of the RIAA and other idiots. If others would stop buying CDs and other music media, they would feel the pinch!
Jiff
http://www.privacy.de.tc
the oracmatic rules, the CC bands will domain the future
and if the riaa dont see will be death!
“use music as promotion
use your tour to make money”
this isn’t a panacea solution that can be a applied to the entire music industry. not all music tours well. hiphop for example; most shows are a whole bunch of acts splitting the revenue of a medium to small sized venue. it’s money to eat off, but might not be enough to cover the initial financial investment of producing the music and doing the promotion.
and you’re not paying that much for distribution costs. most of a release’s budget is for marketing and promotion. when you’re dealing with small artists trying to generate buzz and get recognized, yea you can use the internet and promote for free. but once you’re past that point of breaking into the mainstream, you still end up needing to use traditional means of mass media, which are expensive.
J-jax these thieves don’t want to listen to any logical reasoning so don’t be surprised when your comment is completely ignored.
and this quote from some other guy:
“if you are not on the file sharing networks then you are a nobody”
…is the most blatantly IRONIC comment i’ve yet to see on torrentfreak.com
What about the netlabels? Has nobody heard of them or something! There are plenty that put out free music for the masses to download.
I wanna become a musician later myself but I’m kinda worried cuz as much as I want people to listen to my music I think giving it away for free won’t pay any rent or anything and as mentioned before, just touring sometimes does not even make a good profit. In fact, most big tours are mostly a losing deal to the actual presenting company, for example Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge (ex CREED) has always stated that they lose money on tour and that all he ever wants is just to come even, cuz he has to finance a lot out of his own pocket with the money from back in the days with CREED.
Last but not least who wants to see the ticket prizes for a show go up and up and up cuz it’s the only way left for a record/promotion-company to make a bug…
I think just giving your music away for free is not the final solution.
One idea of my mine was, to create a download portal (probably run by the copyright owner, so the musician himself) with a ratio-system like on a private tracker, where you balance the amount of downloading with money. So you can download a record and if you don’t like it you don’t have to pay for it. And when you’ve found one that you really liked you pay a little bit more to support your favourite act. The ratio system should then prevent abusing of this with deleting those with a ration below … let’s say 0.85 or something similar.
Anyway just giving it away for free can’t be good for a final solution because only balance makes things work out and that is no balance, it wouldn’t be fair for the musicians.
greetz CREED0R
W00t!!! I’m on the what CD! The Annual Falling - Rise and Shine.
I organised The What CD and The What CD Volume 2 is landing very soon, so keep an eye out.!
This time we’ve had more submissions and an even higher quality of tracks, so the next one will be even better.
And CREED, in response to your comment, some musicians don’t care about money. We work for a living like everyone else and make music in our spare time.
If you loved your music enough, the only reward you would actively seek for it is the fact that people are listening to it and liking it, not that they’re willing to pay for it.
I know I uploaded my ebook into mininova last night, and I could not be happier with the response it has gotten, while it might not equate to better sales, what does make me very happy is that it is being downloaded in Africa and in impoverished countries.
That would so be my personal good deed for the day if it helps lift one person out of poverty, and helps them understand ecommerce a little bit better.
Frankly, as an author, I am just overjoyed at the response the book has gotten with almost 1000 downloads in the last 19 hours. Great response, global distribution network, chance to change someones life, it was good of my publisher to recommend giving the book away for free to see what happens.
Thanks to mininova too for offering a free CDN and an easy way for an author/artist to upload their stuff.
Why did I do this? I have the book free on my book’s web site that gets 25 people a day, I sell one book a day on average, I have already beaten the odds for a self published book, and I have another book coming out that I want to focus on, this was also the best way I could think of to also get feedback from the users.
Hope that helps anyone who is thinking of doing the same thing. I personally could not be happier with my experience.
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