Make Money By Giving Your Music Away

I’ve been fascinated in recent years at the ongoing debate about whether or not musicians can still charge for their recordings. There is a lot of data on both sides of the fence and many artists from the bedroom rocker all the way up to major label bands taken a stance.

For my most recent EP release I decided to try an experiment of my own to see first hand if there was any merit to giving my music away for free. The results are fascinating.

Name Your Price Isn’t The Same As Free

Now I wanted to offer my EP to people for free. But I didn’t want to say it quite like that. I made the important distinction of offering my EP with a “Name Your Price” option. Sometimes this is called “Pay What You Want” but it’s exactly the same thing: a subconscious suggestion.

If I said my EP is “free” then I know exactly how much money I’ll make off it: $0. But when I say “Download my EP and name your price (or pay what you want)” there is a subtle shift in mindset that happens. The customer knows that technically they can download it for free, but part of them feels like the really should pay something.
 
There’s this psychological positioning that happens with the words “name your price” or “pay what you want.” Those words indicate to the customer that this music is inherently valuable. People actually would pay for it. But you (the customer) are in the driver seat, so you get to determine what the music is worth to you.

The simple result of this choice of wording is one way I was able to offer my EP “for free” but still make money. But it isn’t even the best way.

Offer Something More Than Just The Music

Now I didn’t simply offer my 5 song EP with a “name your price” option and hope I’d make enough money off of the people who felt compelled to pay something. Nope. I had a second tier to my plan: offer bonus content.

From early on I knew I wanted to offer a “deluxe” edition of the EP that would include way more than just the 5 songs. In fact, my deluxe edition offered 5 more tracks of original demos, 5 exclusive videos of me explaining the lyrics to each song, a music video, and a 42 minute behind the scenes documentary.

Granted the latter two bonuses are available for free on YouTube to stream, this deluxe edition offered the HD downloads plus the other exclusive content. What did I price this at? $20.

The goal with this deluxe offering was to give my most loyal fans something more in exchange for their hard earned money. They knew they could simply download the EP for nothing or throw me a few dollars, OR they could pay substantially more than a 5 song EP is worth and get a ton more value.

And beyond the value they received, they also had the pleasure of knowing they were supporting an artist who worked hard to deliver new music to his fans.

The Numbers Speak For Themselves

So what were the results of this experiment? I was totally surprised to find out.

In the first 5 days since the EP released, many people both paid for the EP in some shape or form and many others downloaded it absolutely free. But if you average out the total sales income for each “fan” who downloaded something it comes to average of just over $4 per person.

So by offering my EP for “free” I was in essence able to sell it for almost full price ($.99 per song and 5 songs) to each and every person who was even remotely interested. Amazing!

And remember, many of those people were simply curious as to what my music sounded like. They weren’t even fans yet. They were just checking things out. And that’s part of the magic of this process…

You Gain New Fans Easily

Had I not offered the EP for “name your price” I would not have gained nearly as many new fans. Probably hundreds of people would have simply checked out the previews and moved on. Why would they pay for my music? They just heard me for the first time (I’m not THAT special).

But instead they were able to download my music, become a fan, at no cost. Chances are high that they will be interested in whatever I release next.

And the kicker is, I didn’t have to sacrifice income to do this. I still have made good money the entire time. Like I said before, the numbers average out to me selling probably twice what I would have made had I not done it this way.

Give It A Try

Now I’m not the expert on music promotion, but this experiment has sure been eye opening to me. If you’ve ever felt like you either have to charge or not charge for your music and you don’t know which way to swing, try this strategy. It was a win-win for me. New fans, and plenty of income from selling the EP.

Remember, what you have to offer is valuable. If you don’t value it (give it away for free forever) then why should others? But if you only sell it, you might not grow your fan base as big or as fast as you’d like.

Why not do both? It seems to have worked for me!