GOOD ADVICE FOR YOUNG BANDS

Over at Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee continues his ongoing meditation on all things metal, now by offering some advice to upstart metal acts: get back to the mentality of the tape-trading days and give your first album away for free.

“In this age of downloading,” Lee writes, “people are hardly willing to pay for albums by established bands, much less up-and-coming ones.” He then continues:

Andrew Dubber, whose blog New Music Strategies tackles industry questions head-on, has this bit of insight in this post:

Don’t try to make money from your music, make money BECAUSE of your music

Payment of anything is a powerful barrier to music consumption now. What would a band rather have — a handful of sales each month with pocket change revenues, or no revenues upfront but many fans familiar with the music and potentially buying merch at gigs?

While I understand the temptation to sell your music and attempt to make some cash as quickly as possible, especially now that home recording is so easy even a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey can do it, Cosmo’s advice strikes me as so dead-on as to be a no-brainer. Because I do think there are ways to make money in the music business these days, but I don’t think much of it will come from record sales – especially not when, as Cosmo says, you’re a young band with no following.

Read the rest of Mr. Lee’s thoughts on the matter here, then come back to discuss. As always, I’m curious to hear what the professional musicians think, and maybe even more curious to know what members of young bands make of all this.

-AR