In a world of free digital music how can musicians make money?

My recent advocacy of free digital music and my ongoing battle with a certain major label figurehead have drawn a lot of attention and reaction, public and private, positive and negative.

It would appear that there are many people out there, mostly musicians, artists, photographers and other creatives, who have one huge problem with my argument. A problem that leads to the following question being asked over and over again.

If all digital music is free how are we supposed to make any money?

It’s a question I’ve been asked many times and answered many times, although I haven’t ever taken the time to answer it here at Upstart Blogger. Perhaps, given that Upstart Blogger has over 10,000 unique visitors a day and in light of my recent free digital music initiative, now is the time to do so.

First of all musicians, and all artists, need to understand a few truths. These may be hard to swallow but, as a musician myself, I hope any artists reading this realize that I am speaking from the heart and from experience.

Truth number 1. The major labels have devalued music making the majority of the public feel perfectly happy to download music for free. This is a sad situation but is the natural result of an industry that pushes junk and then expects people to pay for it. Worse than that, the industry punishes people who do pay by imposing restrictions such as DRM further persuading those people to download for free by any means necessary.

Truth number 2. The only way to get your music heard is to make it easy for people to hear it. Years ago this meant getting your music on the radio. Now it means getting your music online and letting people hear it for free. The major labels don’t want you too do this because they know the power is in the hands of those whose music is heard. That is why the major labels are so scared of free digital music in all its forms and will do everything in their power to stop it.

Truth number 3. In order to profit from your art you have to let people make an informed decision about whether or not they want to support you financially. If people like your work, and like you, they will happily support you financially as long as you give them the opportunity to do so.

Once these truths are accepted it’s time to move forward and make money.

The first step is to make your music available for free. This is easy. Start a blog, give away your music in any way you like and in as open a way as possible. Here is a great example of a band giving music away for free in the right way. You must never, ever, expect your audience to jump through any hoops. Don’t make them signup for a mailing list, don’t make them pay, just give them your music so that they can hear it whenever they want to hear it.

Don’t make the rookie mistake of thinking that giving music away for free passes over the ownership of your copyright. It doesn’t. No more than listening to the radio gives you ownership of the copyright of every song you hear.

Next, use Twitter to generate buzz about your music.

Join some more social networks if you wish. However, I strongly advise against using Myspace for a multitude of reasons, including their policy on who owns any songs you upload. Facebook also has a habit of shifting its policy. It is entirely your choice but in my opinion, Facebook and Myspace simply cannot be trusted.

Once you have an audience listening to your music, engaging with you on Twitter, enjoying your blog and generally becoming what most people would call a fan base it is easy to make money.

And there are broadly three methods that you can employ to make money once you have a fan base.

Method 1. Sell you music. Yes, I am aware that I have just told you to give it away but it is still possible to sell your music, even to those people who already have it, if you add value to the thing that you are selling. Add extra tracks or other digital content and use PayPal to handle the transaction. It’s easy. And here is an example of it working for a band who are giving away their music whilst at the same time selling their back catalogue as an album download.

Look at the sales page. Look at the sales copy. It’s easy when you are open and honest.

Grab a massive chunk of Enormous history for just $7.99. Electric Baby Grand: The Enormous Early Years, a colossal download pack bursting with high quality, variable bit rate, DRM free goodness.

Want to hear the songs before you go any further?

Of course you do.

Press the obvious looking buttons, turn the speakers up and open your ears.

Method 2. Micropatronage. I use this method here. It works brilliantly because it makes people feel part of the process. Micropatronage, for the purposes of this example, can be defined as a way of attracting support for an activity while that activity is still taking place. In this example I attract support while I write and record an album. Once the album is finished it is given away for free to everyone who supported me.

Micropatranage is absolutely the best way forward for musicians who want to sell music that is currently not written or, as is the case for me, where they are embarking on a new phase or direction and do not have music to give away for free that accurately reflects and represents their new phase or direction.

Method 3. Advertising and sponsorship. This is simplicity itself. Put advertisements on your blog and contact companies that you feel may be interested in sponsorship deals. I contacted a microphone manufacturer to talk about the possible endorsement of a Rupert Neve sE RNR1, a high end ribbon microphone, and they sent me that high end ribbon microphone along with a rather nice firewire interface.

Big companies want to sponsor independent artists. All you have to do is ask. And advertising on blogs, via affiliate programs, works particularly well on the blogs of independent artists since people trust individuals more than they trust companies.

It isn’t difficult to make money online and it certainly isn’t difficult to make money as a musician, or any kind of artist, online.

Allow your music to be heard, build your audience with a blog and social networking, monetize your fan base by giving them opportunities to support you via micropatronage or direct purchases and monetize your blog and social networking traffic with affiliate marketing, advertising and sponsorship.

Ashley Morgan is a UK jazz trumpet player and owner of independent record label 447 Records. Ashley Morgan is the trumpet player with Enormous.