I'm a bit of a lurker on these forums - used to be a lot more involved in the "chip community" but then 8bc got weird and I found that music is music is music is music. So these days I still read a lot of what happens here, but don't really write often.
Anyway, here's an email I wrote to Bandcamp, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys as well. Opinions and random abuse welcome.
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Hey, guys,
First of all, thanks for a great site. I've been using bandcamp now for around 3 years and have done a few releases using your service for download. I'm part of a relatively unsuccessful but generally happy with life electronic act in South Wales (the old one, not the fancy-pants Australian one). We're called Kinetic Monkey.
Anyway, the first reason for my email was just to say thank you. Thank you for providing a website that does what I need when I need it, and nothing more (unlike myspazz). Thank you for creating a space that I can quickly and easily make beautiful (unlike soundcloud). Thanks for taking fees only when I sell stuff and doing it in a way I can understand and that makes sense to me (unlike iTunes). And most of all thanks for doing all of this without filling my page with adverts. You guys can't be breaking even yet - so my full respect to YOUR respect for undiluted artist's space.
Secondly, and this is why I'm at my laptop tonight, I wanted to tell you about a new development (for me anyway) in giving my music away. It might be really useful to other artists, but I know around two dozen artists, and you know a lot more, so I'm leaving the knowledge in your hands. The skinny is that is that I've started GIVING AWAY PHYSICAL CDs. And it's working.
For a while Bex and I have done some free downloads, and some pay for downloads. We play in cafés and venues that hold 50-100 people. Some people listen. Some don't. I'll maybe talk to half a dozen strangers after each show. Two or three of them might buy a CD. A few probably find us online and stream our music. A few less will then download it. Fewer still will pay, but they don't have to and that's okay. This is probably the same story that 90% of independent artists could tell you.
Now I've been giving my music away online for 3 years. But when I print off a CD, that's different. That CD has COST ME money. Now I'm a bit of a raving ecologist, so the CDs that I sell come in recycled card wallets that I print locally, so it doesn't cost me much, but in bulk these CDs do end up costing cash. So I charge people for them. Not much, because often the same EP is available for free online, but just a few quid to cover costs and pay for a beer or two.
Yesterday I played to a really mixed crowd at a really cool all-day event in Swansea. There was an artsy mix of maybe 80 teenage kids, students, professional artists, social workers and bored retirees. You know the kind of crowd. But I really connected with these guys and they really connected to our music. I had a bag full of CDs and I thought to myself that some of these people wouldn't have cash on them for a CD, but I'd love to share my art with them anyway. And I thought that some of them might miss my art in a space that was full of art, but a connection with them might prove to be fruitful in the future. So from the stage we said that we had CDs with us, and that people could give us whatever they thought they were worth, and if people wanted a CD for free, they'd be welcome to take one.
Uno. A lot of people wanted a CD.
Dos. Quite a few of them were happily handing over a tenner for an EP. Now we usually sell our ALBUM for a fiver. So to have people insist on paying £10 for 5 tracks - Whoa.
Tres. There were people that had brought enough cash with them for a drink and for the bus home. Usually I'd never connect with these people. Yesterday I chatted to them and gave them a piece of art that they value.
Cuatro. The quality of conversation that I had after that gig was incredible. People were not only more interested in the music, but they were also more at ease and more appreciative that we'd come to share with them.
Bottom line, we sold more CDs for more money, and where people couldn't pay we gave them something that they now value, but that cost us pennies to make.
Giving my music away online revolutionised the people that I connect with online. Giving my music away in the physical world has now revolutionised the way that I connect with people at my gigs. Maybe people are already doing this all over the world. Maybe I'm a latecomer to the party. But more bands need to do this - it'd be great if you guys could blog about this or communicate this in some way - because if I write about it, 12 people will listen. You can reach more artists.
Thanks, and mucho monkeylove.
Drift
@kineticmonkey
kineticmonkey.bandcamp.com
