January 18, 2008

Free Music: Fan Dream or Industry Nightmare?

Posted by Jamilah King at 12:18PM

• 2 Comments
• Email
• Print
• Reprints
• Share

Free albums are, like, the "in thing" now. It seems like artists of all shapes, genres and record sales are succumbing -- or embracing -- the digital evolution of music and the new ways that internet savvy listeners interact with albums. The timing couldn't be any better for me -- a perpetually broke music head. I spent my college years being late to classes waiting for my barely legal music files to download. After being on the receiving end of dozens of "food-is-more-important-than-music" lectures, I had to take a long, hard look at how much time, money and effort I put into my music collection.

Now it seems like the universe -- and the industry -- are on my side. One of the more glaring examples is Radiohead's latest release In Rainbows, which was available to audiences at a name-your-rate price (read:free) for the first few months after it was released. The album earned widespread acclaim after its initial release on the internet. On average, 38% of people around the globe paid for the album, with people in the U.S paying about $6. The downloads didn't seem to hurt the band too much when, after puling the freebies off internet and putting the CD's in stores, the release ranked as the top selling album in the country. There are other examples, such as so-called underground heavyweight Saul Williams' The Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, Atmosphere's Strictly Leakage and Dahlak's Double Consciousness*. What's behind this sudden recognition of the power of the internet? Is the digital evolution actually winning?

I sat down with Tunji, half of the hip hop duo Inverse, to talk about the matter. The group is based in Los Angeles and recently released their debut album So Far: The Collection for free on New Year's day.

WireTap: First, congratulations on releasing the album. I think it had 1,000 downloads in the first three days. Why did you decide to offer your album for free?

Inverse: Well, first off, this is a pre-album project. The way the industry is going right now, people aren't really checking for you, even if you're dope. We were also really impressed with Radiohead's free album release. We've always had a good following on the internet, especially after launching our blog, and we realized that for us it was the best way to try to reach a lot of people. Maybe someone would hear it and go "Yo, this is really good music, and it's free!"

The days of getting discovered on your own are over. Now, you've gotta do it yourself.

WT: How do you think listeners interact differently with digital music than they would with discs? Do you prefer one over the other?

IV: I think listeners have more of a connection with a CD, but at the same time, I've always been a downloader. The experience of buying a CD is definitely more in depth. You get more of a sense into the artists' vision with the album artwork and the order of the songs. The listener takes part in the artists' storytelling. Part of me is afraid that people are valuing music less and we're turning into more of a singles culture than an album culture.

But what matters is the music, and there's never been so much public love for music where you can share your art with people around the world at the click of a button. I think we're at an interesting place, though, because people aren't buying music like they used to.

WT: The goal of most free online albums is to create a necessary amount of hype before an otherwise "official" release. Does offering a free album to audiences increase the pressure to create a good project? Or does it allow you the freedom to experiment with new sounds you might not have done before?

IV: We're always trying to make great music. It's funny because The Collection just sort of happened. We were sitting on all this good music and we wanted to put that out there and be honest with our listeners. We did experiment a little bit, though. There are some songs on there that we wouldn't necessarily include on our real album, but we threw them in there because they were fun and catchy. We're that underground group that's good for folks who don't really listen to a lot of hip hop because our songs are catchy and at the same time, they mean something. We're also that group that can please long time [hip hop] heads.

WT: Does it bother you that you didn't make any money off of those first 1,000 or so downloads? Is it about more than money?

IV: [Laughs] We know underground artists don't make money off of their albums. They make money off of merchandising and touring. A huge part of offering our album for free was trying build up our fan base. We think of it as an investment. If people hear the intention -- two young, hungry dudes doing it for the love and not the money -- they'll respect you and, most likely, buy your product later.

*Note: some -- well, most -- of these albums are no longer free for download. Whoops. Sorry. But I'll stay on that music geek tip and keep readers posted on when some new freebee's come my way. Meanwhile, if you, dear reader, know of any you should leave a comment and share. Go ahead. Don't be stingy.