Why Free Downloads Are Considered Great In Digital Marketing

The problem with music industry for the past few years since the days of Napster getting A&M Records upset has been downloading music. The major record companies that were once able to re-coop on the money they have spent on major artists are having to shift their ways on how work in the digital world within their means on a budget. The one thing that has helped with free music is that it is a good way for you to market music. It was a good way to drawn in a fan base even though it has its risk financially.

Lets look at a few websites that offer this free service to their audience. There is a website by the name of www.datpiff.com. It is a urban music genre based website that specializes in the distribution of mixtapes over the internet; primarily focused on hip hop. I inquired about their prices once because they usually allow people to upload their music on their website for free. They give special treatment to mixtapes that are sponsored with the cost of $50 to come with the particular project. For a feature, it is $500 but the company reviews the material first then contacts the artist once a decision is made to see if the mix tape would be able to be presented as a feature. The thing that helps datpiff.com is that if you do a search on their demographics, you will find that they are a successful site (http://www.quantcast.com/www.datpiff.com). Techinically, as for digital marketing, datpiff is a good website for artist would like to have their music up for digital download.

Then you the option of variable pricing through a site called www.bandcamp.com. Bandcamp appears to give artist the option to charge for the downloads or to have them given away for free. Or have the audience to name their price if they were to download the music. On the major level, this mostly would not be looked at as a very good option. You would have to take into account of the money invested in an artist since there would be an expected ROI (return on investment) estimated. Such groups like Coldplay or Nine Inch Nails for example were able to do this with some of their previous efforts because they were branded as successful artists and could afford to take that risk. However, it has been stated that more independent artists and labels should try this method in order to grasp what their audience is willing to pay as far as their product is concerned.

In conclusion, the age of free music in the digital world is nothing. If Lil Wayne can give away tons of music for free and become recognized for being one of the top stars in music, then it must work in some fashion. Now that music is being digitally marketed, you have wonder what can be profited from it? Merchandise? Shows? Advertisements? More than likely, all of the above.

Reference(s):

http://elemental-consulting.com/blog/will-variable-pricing-ruin-the-music-industry/