You've seen it pushed on every forum and industry blog from here to Timbuktu - give your tracks away for free and wait for the money to roll in. 'Free' is better than 'paid'. But is it really? Does it work, and should you give it a whirl? Read on.
Over the last few years, and especially recently, the idea of giving away free tracks has become very common. In fact, it's pretty much the established wisdom - you have to give something away free to the bloggers, the hungry masses, and this will help you boost your profile. People have even given away free albums, or on a 'pay what you want' basis. It's everywhere now.
So, it's everywhere, and you for that reason you shouldn't dismiss it, but don't just jump in head-first. First, it's important to think why you're giving something away for free, and what the 'angle' is. If you're just giving something away, for the love of it, then that's fine - but it won't necessarily help your profile. You can't put something up on your Soundcloud account, not really promote it, and wait for the hits to roll in; there are lots of people doing exactly the same thing. The fact that it's free doesn't really set it apart from all the other free things out there. But if you're releasing a single or EP on a label, and are prepared to give away one of the tracks, that's a different thing - you're setting yourself slightly apart from the other million releases out there, and that's something you can emphasise in your promotion campaign.
Blogs aren't always interested in mails that say 'my track is out now in shops'. But if they can offer something more to their readers, then they may help you promote your release.
You'll notice the mentions of 'promotion' there, and this is something that's really important now. It's no longer the case that a free
track alone is enough, and will generate its own publicity; you have to promote it just as much as you would if it was a 'real' release. You should be sending it to blogs - lots of blogs - posting on forums, hitting up your mailing list if you have one, getting your friends to tweet about it, and so on. As such, of course, if you're going to promote it like it was a real release, you need to make sure it's as good as a real release! The last thing you want is for it to work against you - someone checks out your free track, it's a bit substandard, and instead of winning a fan, you have just persuaded someone that you're not very good. So quality control is extremely important.
Another thing to consider is what you can expect, results-wise, from the process. A good free release will certainly boost your profile to a degree; if you can get it on plenty of blogs, websites, magazines, and into free music archives, you can expect a significant bump in people's awareness of you; you can check this with google insights. If you're diligent with your promo, you may even see a lift of 50 - 100% in searches for your artist name. This will, however, be extremely transient - maybe even for just a week or so, such is the internet generation's constant hunger for the new.
So if you're not getting money from it, and it only lasts briefly, is there a point? Yes; but only if you build on it. You need to make sure that you're able to direct all this traffic to your website or facebook page; you could even set up a topspin or bandcamp account that will collect an email address from downloaders. If you do that, though, make sure people can preview the track before they have to give up their email address, as it can put some people off.
What you can also do, however, is to use it as proof; mail some local promoters and ask for gigs. Mail some local papers and try to get a small feature in the night-life section, based on how this local artist is getting global coverage from their DIY promo efforts. Also, as you make contact with blogs and websites, use it to build a relationship - as you say thanks for the coverage, ask if you can do an exclusive mix for them, offer them something in return. This may serve you well in securing future mentions from a friendly blogger.
We can see, then, that getting hits from a free release is not an end in itself, but it's something you can incorporate as part of a wider effort. So plan it carefully - what will you do next? How will you build on it? Which sites and blogs will you target? And when will we be seeing your free track out there on the net?
