MGMT stream their new album for free – should more bands be doing it?
With the unbridled success of the iPod and the up-take of MP3 as the most widely distributed (or ‘shared’, to add a degree of political spin!) file format for music, the debate has simmered over the moral, legal and commercial relationship between music the internet – whether legal or illegal.
The expansion of social interaction and media on the internet – commonly refered to as ‘web 2.0′ – however, has caused the debate to shift into overdrive as music becomes exponentially more accessible to all. No longer is music on the internet as one-dimensional as downloading and listening to a track; users can now share music with like-minded people, debate the latest releases, collate their thoughts on a specific genre into a distibutable playlist and a whole host of other endeavours.
Of course, such activities can only be a good thing but we all know of the rather seedier side of the coin – illegal file sharing. Such stories as the $1.92m fine handed out to an American file sharer are becoming increasingly common and many artists have recently come out and voiced their concerns and anger over the illegal distibution of their music. Other artists have gone down a different route and openly embraced the idea of ‘free music’, most notably Radiohead and their album In Rainbows. They must be applauded for nothing else if not trying out a new idea.
And so it was announced yesterday, that MGMT are streaming their sophomore album ‘Congratulations’ in it’s entirety for free on their website a fortnight early, after it was leaked. Vampire Weekend also took similar steps in January, with their album ‘Contra’ being made available on MySpace.
It’s fairly rare nowadays for a mainstream album NOT to be leaked (at least to some scale) before release so the merits on which the bands belatedly offer up their music has to be questioned but one particular part of the announcement from MGMT struck me as refreshing.
“We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn’t make sense to anyone but us.”
This got me thinking – why would a band, especially one the size of MGMT, want to give away their music for free?
First, there’s the simple fact that it makes them appear approachable and pleases the fans (see also, celebrity Twitter feeds). Everyone loves something for nothing and if it’s being handed out by your favourite musician, that’s like all your Christmases in one right?
From a commercial perspective, it’s a fairly commonly acknowledged principle that the split is 90/10 in favour of the record company when it comes to dishing out revenue generated from album sales. Therefore, the band themselves aren’t actually losing out on a great deal if someone decides to listen to their album online rather than purchase it from a shop. And who really cares about those nasty greedy fat cats at the record labels anyway?
Bands make their money predominantly from touring, playing sell-out shows. This ability to sell tickets simply CANNOT be negatively impacted by someone logging onto their website and having a listen to the latest track – it’s free advertising.
From a personal pespective (and I’m probably in the majority here), I’m unlikely to walk into a record store and buy an album from a band I have little to no knowledge of. If, however, I heard of the band on Pitchfork and then looked them up on Spotify (a nod to social internet) and found I liked them – well that’s a whole different ball game. The same concept applies to tickets for concerts.
So, under the surface, bands have a lot to gain from offering free streaming of their music, if only for a limited period of time before their album actually goes on sale. Now, the MGMT guys seem pretty sincere in their efforts to ‘give something back to the fans’ but their move also makes pretty damn good business and PR sense!
On the flip side, the recent accouncement by Warner Music that they are to remove their artists from free streaming sites smacks of a gross misunderstanding of their consumers. Statements such as “clearly not positive for the industry” and “not the kind of approach to business” will hold little water with fans who connect with music on a personal level and despise commercial interference.
Of course, artists spend far too long recording and record companies far too long time promoting music for it to be simply ‘stolen’ by file sharers but the steadfast refusal of record companies to step into the 21st century, engage with their customers and embrace the trends and listening habits of music lovers is a very sad fact indeed.
Without wishing to get into a different debate, this selfish attitude probably in some way stems from the Simon Cowell ‘huge-exposure-with-minimum-investment-to-exploit-and-make-a-quick-buck’ style of management and promotion. A sensible move may be to learn from MGMT’s refreshing approach rather than sapping every last penny from their customers. Speculate to accumulate and all that.
