‘Why Is My Music Free?’

TThis guest blog post comes from a Finnish drum & bass producer Fanu. You can read some of his earlier entries here: On Patience, Hard Work, And Being An Artist, On Getting That Work Done!

Question

Why do you give your music out for free? Why should anyone pay for your music when you’ll be giving it out for free at some point anyways? Aren’t you devaluing your music – and maybe music in general – by doing that? I’ve been getting these questions recently.

Answer

I’ve given loads of music out for free, and will continue to do so. For me, it’s by far the best way to reach people – old fans and new. Along the years, I’ve tried hard to get myself and my music out to the media – big and small – and especially those whose word would do me good.

Why is my music free?

I’m getting virtually zero support from those, and trust me, I’ve tried, and still do, although there’s no response.

A small artist like me makes VERY little money from music sales – especially considering how much time and effort I put on my the whole Fanu/Lightless thing. Every time I do a free download frenzy, it earns me way more than having music out there selling for any price, I’m not lying.

In fact, unless I do a campaign like this, there’s not much coming my way. I can tell you I try to put a LOT of time on music even though I have very little time for that: I do have time-consuming real jobs as music is not a considerable source of income for me (getting very few bookings these days).

It may be hard for any non-artist out there to understand how f***ing hard it is for any artist out there today, and I’m not lying one bit when I say that honestly, giving music out is 1) one of the most rewarding things I can do as an artist and, to be honest, 2) one of the best ways for me to do marketing – as that’ll allow my supporters to do valuable marketing for me.

In today’s world, you can get any released music online for free, so why should we pay an artist, then? In my honest opinion, giving artist some money for his music is not the same thing as putting your coin into a slot to get that can of Coke. It’s about supporting an artist who you would like to see continue his/her work.

If anyone feels cheated or offended by my way of doing things, I’ll only say 1) you should try to understand my position and 2) you don’t have to buy anything from me as I won’t make you.

If you want to support Fanu, you can buy his Daylightless CDs for 6 EUR a piece as well as get some label merchandise at fanu.bandcamp.com. Also, his new digital Fanu EP is coming out on December 3 – and, it won’t be free.