Starve the 'Freeloaders' Feed the Downloaders! A Wakeup call to Artists, Music Promoters, Managers and Instructional Gurus... by Bob Schott 5-31-10

The Major Labels are suffering, Indie artists aren't getting paid properly for their music, RIAA is suing, etc. etc. Well, no wonder. Having been in the entertainment industry for over 25 years I've seen more and more people shoot themselves in the foot with their sabatoging marketing methods. It's very simple; Indie artists and Labels alike are self posting 'Complete' songs all over the Internet or allowing their clients to do so. Then they want to whine that no one is paying for their music. How many artists you do think are really making money on MySpace? See an indie artist with 100K visitors to their site and a Zillion comments, they've probably earned less than $100, that's if they're lucky and all because Freeloaders can listen Free, and the artists and promoters are feeding them - 'period.' While Major Label aritist get the bulk of the airplay due to the deep pocket control by the Record Labels, Indie artist give their music away to have it listened to, but for free!

"give it away and you'll reduce the value of your product..."

Many listen to  Music industry experts who send out the message to new artists that "people haven't heard of you yet, so you need to get your music out there."   This maybe true, to a certain extent, but at what cost? Obviously these music advisors either don't understand or bother to explain the basics of human nature, "give it away and you'll reduce the value of your product."Spielberg never showed the Shark until the middle of the show. Recently I watched a DVD of a seminar given by a couple of Music advisors in the Replicating and Promoting business. One of the artist attendees in the audience raised his hand and asked the question "How long of a clip should I post on my website and MySpace, :30 seconds, 1 minute, a minute and a half?" Well, this artist had the right idea, but the Presenter responded by saying that since they are new to the music scene they should post their entire songs, all of them. At that point I shut off the seminar.

There are time tested historical marketing methods that work. Baskin and Robbins made a fortune with all those flavors of ice cream. But, go in and ask to taste a new flavor, "you ain't gonna get a two scoop cone with toppings, but you will get a sample taste." Go to Disney and try and get to see the full version of their latest film, you'll get a 1-3 minute trailer clip. Well, it's time to start playing tough and smart and start starving the Freeloaders if artists ever hope to start earning from their craft and preserve the integrity of the Indie industry..

Scenario; if every indie artist, forget what the labels do for a minute, post all of their songs in 1 minute clips, that should be enough. Again, whenever a Feature Film is produced the Film company produces a 3 minute Trailer, or less. This is always posted Free on their site. There is NO difference. If someone can't listen to a minute of a song and figure out if they like what they heard so far and want to buy it, then giving them the full meal isn't going to work!

There are two basic rules here:

Rule #1 - Give it away for Free and de-value your product.

Rule #2 - You can't change Rule #1

To all of those 'Freeloaders' who say, I want my music free, let them go pound sand because they 'ain't' your fans anyway. If they're so cheap they won't pay 99 cents to download a song of yours and support your efforts and investment, what makes you think they're going to buy your album for $14? If you believe they will you probably need brain surgery with a jack hammer. All they're going to do is tell more of their cheap, thoughtless Freeloading friends where they can get your music free without paying. Do you really think this is 'Smart' marketing to qualified fans?

Most of these Feeloaders have no talent, no clue to what resources, time and energy it takes to develp your career, have no idea of the life long dreams most artists have, the struggles and sacrifices it takes to practice their craft they go through with little or no resources and the hardships due to the time and costs of producing their music. What's sad, even if they did, most of the Freeloaders wouldn't care anyway. It's time to wake up to reality turn off their faucet and put a stop the 'Freeloading' now! You can work hard at marketing or work smart at it, it's up to you.

stop the 'Freeloading' now!...

What do you think would happen if these Freeloaders showed up for work one day and their boss says, "by the way, I want to watch you work for free today." They'd be whining, yelling and screaming all over the place. Well, that's exactly what they're doing to the artists that they do file sharing without paying on. What's worse, most indie artists have been mislead and simply do not understand sound marketing principles.

“my songs are good and have value”...

Example: Out of every album, let's say with an average of 14 songs, only 1 song is posted in its entirety and the rest are all posted in 30-40 second clips, you protect your image, your career and your investment, tease your audience, send out the message that “my songs are good and have value” and generate a mystery about you and your work. By posting only a portion, ie; 1 min. of your song, you're shutting off the Free Ride on the file sharing of your best songs, and the Freeloading as well. Now you're encouraging Downloading.

Think this policy doesn't work, then you don't know anything about Hollywood. If you wanted to see Elvis, you had to pay, you wouldn't see him even on TV interviews or talk shows. You don't see Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and the like appering on TV series. Sure, maybe some think that, “hey, this works great for established super stars signed by major labels, but what about unknowns.” Again, give it away and you'll have to fight your way to the top all your career, but if all artists pitch in then maybe, just maybe, everyone will finally be able to start earning their just rewards from those hard earned years of perfecting your craft and start to win.

Sometimes it's often good to exaggerate a point to illustrate it better: Let's say every single indie artist followed this procedure, 'one' complete song posted with all others in 30-40 seocond clips per album posted on the net. How is the Freeloading going to continue? Well, the only Freeloading would be a mass circulation of your Advertisement, that being, your music clips of a particular song or songs. Now you've just turned those Freeloaders in to Promotors and that's great promotion isn't it? If some people are so damn cheap they can't spend 99 cents to download the full song and support the artist, are they really what you care to call fans? While this trend is now starting to happen in small spots all over, it's not promoted strongly enough by those in the music promotion industry.

To those who make the statement that they get to hear the artists on the Radio for Free, so why shouldn't the Internet be any different. Well, another jack ass statement from more boneheads. Hello, is anybody home?! When an artists gets airplay, they get paid through BMI or ASCAP as all Radio stations are monitored for licensing payments/royalties through these organizations. Further more, if they're songs catch on they get into the rotations and now they've got something going, also, you usually ONLY hear 1 or 2 Songs on a new album being played in their entirety by the Major Artists - Labels, a big difference isnt' it?.

"Starve the Freeloaders and Feed the Downloaders!"
Wake up Musicians and artist managers and promoters, stop shooting yourself in the foot and urge your clients to ban together to protect your/their work. Post a 'Trailer clip' like the Movie studios do and stop leaving the keys in your parked car and start earning money on your career. Then you can feel comfortable in posting ALL of your songs up as only clip/trailers would be posted. Then the Freeloaders and file sharers would at least have to Pay for one or all of your songs before they copied and shared it illegally.

I urge you to spread the word so more Indie artists can start reaping the rewards from their hard earned work instead of giving it all away free.

Bob Schott has been and Actor and Producer in feature films and broadcast TV and Music for over 25 years, has  made distribution deals for Award winning Television shows and was inducted into Marquis Who's Who in America's 2006 Diamond Edition and Who's Who in the World Silver Anniversary Edition 2008.

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