Distribute your music on BitTorrent and P2P networks
October 24th, 2007 by Nico Ramon
In the aftermath of Radiohead’s In Rainbows album first week downloads one very interesting phenomenon was noticed - even though the album was free to download through inrainbows.com, around 240,000 people downloaded it through BitTorrent trackers on the day it was released. This implies that it doesn’t matter anymore if the music is free or not - the new generation of music consumers are grown into free online content sharing culture and will continue to use the same content sharing networks that they have gotten accustomed to. Record industry has failed to take advantage of this phenomenon, but that doesn’t mean that unsigned/indie artists couldn’t take advantage of it.
More and more music consumers, who want to get music on their mp3-players, head to BitTorrent websites or use peer-to-peer software. In many countries it is illegal to download copyrighted content from these services, but apparently that factor is not stopping their growth and the increasing user amount. I’ve said many times that recorded music should be used primarily as a promotional tool and the next idea requires exactly that kind of methodology.
Create BitTorrent files of your songs and albums, and share them on your own website and on the largest BitTorrent websites such as The Pirate Bay, Mininova, TorrentReactor, btjunkie etc. When you release new music make sure you also make it available on peer-to-peer networks and BitTorrent trackers. That’s where many people will first search it from, when they first hear about your music from their friends or radio, read a review of your newest single/album or see your music videos on YouTube. There are not so many ways to promote your music inside BitTorrent websites and peer-to-peer networks, because people usually know exactly what they are searching for from those services. However, they still offer an alternative and easy way for people, who are accustomed to using those services, to get your music.
If you want to try to promote your music with the help of BitTorrent technology you could always try a Firefox plug-in called AllPeers, which integrates social networking and torrent file sharing. The service seems like a very potential way for artists to share and promote their music, because you can add friends and send them your own torrent files. AllPeers allows you to make also private torrent files, which means that you can choose the people you share your files with instead of sharing everything with everybody. However, the service’s amount of users has to go a bit more up before it can offer any real promotional value for artists.
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it’s obvious that you are a consumer, and you are not a musician and have never tried to make your living being a musician…
fred said this on October 24th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
You are right about the last part fred, I have never tried to make a living being a musician. However, I would consider myself as a musician since I’ve played guitar for over 10 years, composed songs and recorded songs along the way. Keep in mind that this blog is meant to be just an idea platform for unsigned artists and my posts are meant to serve as an inspiration rahter than a complete guide. But please, do explain to me your view of making a living as a musician since you apparently have more experience of that.
Nico Ramon said this on October 24th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
First, since you’ve never tried to make your living being a musician your blog about what musicians should do and shouldn’t do is complete CRAP! It has NO relevancy b/c you have NO experience! It’s just your gibberish to boast your ego b/c it’s based on what you THINK musicians should do from your obvious and biased desire to have free music, which is also BS! Stop promoting this kind of immature thinking. If I paint a picture for you, do you think you should have it for free?! It’s the exact same argument with music dude! The only difference is that b/c music can be stolen and moved around easily with the internet, people think they should get it for free. It’s complete nonsense! Just because the internet makes it easy doesn’t make it right or give you the right to have it for free. Secondly, being an indie artist means selling my art. It’s as simple as that, and NO one has the right to take that away from me from places like BitTorrent, which you so blindly support. I’ve been playing live for 2 decades, that’s right 20 years, and I might not get rich doing it, but I have the right to sell my music!
fred said this on October 24th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
First of all I’m not telling artists what they should do, I’m telling them what they could do. There’s a big difference. And the fact that I haven’t tried to make a living as a musician doesn’t necessarily mean that I couldn’t give good advice about online music marketing. It doesn’t really depend on the person if an idea is good or not, it depends on the idea itself. In the worst case lack of experience affects only on the credibility of the idea’s presentator. However, I do have experience in working on a record label, music publishing company, concert booking agency and I also study music management in a university. I’m not here to boast my ego, I’m here just to share my knowledge and know-how.
I have never said that it is right to download copyrighted music illegally, and yes fred, you have every right to do whatever you want with your music. The thing just is that the amount of music pirates is only growing, and some of them might actually listen to your music. I’m just trying to think “outside the box” and think of a bit different approaches to this situation. Besides, this BitTorrent music distribution idea has already been used by quite a few artists. Check out this article for starters: http://torrentfreak.com/bittor.....ie-labels/
Nico Ramon said this on October 24th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Experience has a great deal to do with your ideas, b/c if you’ve never walked in a professional musician’s shoes, which you’ve said you haven’t than your ideas are unfounded, and this is the problem with all of your posts about free music.
By merely promoting BitTorrent on your blog as an avenue to get free music you are promoting stealing an artist’s music (period!). Look, it doesn’t matter if everyone at your college was jumping off the cliff and into a bowl of fire, does that mean you should do it. Statements like “the amount of music pirates is only growing” only shows your immaturity. It’s growing because people like you are perpetuating it. If you want to think “outside the box” then be a leader, and not a follower. Tell your friends that they should buy their music and not share it ILLEGALLY!
Also, No one is disputing that people are using BitTorrent to distribute their music, but the fact is that artists have been forced to do this because people like you want music for free, which is total CRAP!!! Again, I’ll ask you if I paint a picture, do you think you should have it for free?! This is the exact same argument with music b/c it’s a type of art wwork, and just b/c it’s digital doesn’t mean you can have it for free! Musicians are only in this position now because of people on the Internet stealing our music, and that’s the bottom line!
fred said this on October 24th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
In many cases on my blog posts I’m not the inventor of the idea, I’m only analyzing already invented ideas and I try to take them a bit further and more suitable for artists like you. Of course there are also some of my own ideas on this blog, but as I see it I’m not promoting piracy in any way. I’m suggesting that artists themselves willingly share their recorded songs for free, and use them mainly as promotional material (like music videos) rather than a revenue source. It is true that artists are pressured to do this, because music consumers are getting more and more unwilling to pay for music. However they are not forced, as you express it, there is always a choice. The bottom line is - you can do whatever you want with your exclusive rights to your songs. You really don’t have to read my blog if you don’t like my ideas or analyses.
Take a look at Creative Commons licences for example, they give you ready-made packages to sign away your exclusive rights to your own content: http://creativecommons.org/
Personally I’m not a fan of Creative Commons licenses, but my point is that due to the massive violation of copyrights by music consumers there has to be also alternative solutions. To answer your picture question, of course I don’t think I should have it for free. It’s yours to decide what you do with it. But tell me, why would I even want to have your picture in the first place? That’s the dilemma fred, also with music. How to get people listen to your music. Giving it away for free is one way, but most of the times even that is not enough anymore. Nowadays, you have to even market free music. Isn’t it a strange world.
Nico Ramon said this on October 25th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Just to pipe in here for a sec. I don’t think music should be free however using technology such as Bit torrent to give away a few songs as promotional is a great strategy. Think about your album decide which songs to give away and throw them everywhere you can. I believe you can tag files on Bittorrent so through that means you can tag your free songs that you placed online with a URL or E-Mail address where people who liked the song can purchase more.
Sorry Fred if you are more interested in fighting reality then thinking outside the box on ways to use it. I do advocate organization and for every 5 songs you set-up for sale offering 1 for free to promote yourself. I also believe in using your music to add new fans as an example http://netvalar.blogspot.com/2.....shows.html
Netvalar said this on October 25th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
As a former musician - 20 years - and businessman, I’m thinking you’re both correct. In my mind, it’s been the major labels that have blown this whole thing by punishing folks whether they steal - through suits - or don’t - via DRM. It’s a sales, marketing and communication disaster.
Music can’t be truly free, there are costs involved in producing it and there’s HUGE value in the talents of the artist.
Yes, making a living in music is a challenge, it always has been. But there came a time when the buggy whip manufacturers became engine manufacturers. Those musicians who take advantage of the HUGE opportunities of the global 24/7 connected world will reap huge financial rewards even if they operate in a small corner of it.
Read Chris Anderson’s take on it here:
http://www.longtail.com/the_lo.....-in-t.html
Steve Grossman said this on October 25th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
well, i’ve been a pro musician for 14 years and 9 yrs since i had to stop playing and producing recording and mixing for health reasons. Almost all of the Artists here in my country doesn’t live on Recordings, they make living on concerts and presentations as well as the rest of the “mortal musicians”. Recording is just a way of promoting themselves and I’m seeing that the same phenomenom is happening in the rest of the world. Now that I’m doing New Media I love to put on my corporative podcasts musicians that send me their materials for promoting and some of them i finde them because are giving away a couple of songs. Fred, i understand your point but you can´t really make a living on records. maybe you can give a free paint but if I love your paintings I’ll be happy to buy you some more. I can advise you to learn to market your music if you want to make a living out of it.
Antonio Salgado Leiner said this on October 25th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
i left the majors in the eighties and started my own record label, beachwood recordings. i have been making independent recordings since 1985. i have sites on the internet, national distribution, and i tour whenever i put out a new cd. what has happened in the past two years is i am consitently selling one cd for every two people in my audience. and it seems to never be less and is frequently more. i am also on every download site that i know of that pays for downloads. i write the songs, i produce the sessions, i play many of the instruments, i book myself and the idea of giving away my music is simply not appealing to me. i have released 23 cd’s and they have all sold well. make good music, make good recordings, tour and don’t sell yourself short. you don’t have to give away your music…unless it’s not good enough for folks to want to actually pay for it.
james lee stanley said this on October 26th, 2007 at 3:50 am
i don’t think fred got the point.
if an artist releases his own music on bittorrent, what’s the problem?
i release all my music for free. i dont intend to make money on it,
but as has been mentioned here, the real money is in live playing.
there’s no way to deliver a live concert experience through p2p networks.
uu77 said this on October 26th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Interesting comments. This is an extremely complex debate and neither side can claim that they are absolutely “right.” Fred is also not alone in his thinking as seen here:
http://musicmarketing.typepad......-arti.html
It’s also important to note that copyright laws are not going to go away, but neither are P2P filesharing communities, so all this begs the question: where is the middle ground that will make it viable for both parties? I think Larry Lessig is hinting at a possible technology (to be developed) that will not only utilize P2P filesharing networks, which will most certainly be an integral part of Internet growth, but will also protect the rights of the artists, while promoting them at the same time as well, which could even mean monetary transactions. You can watch what he’s hinting at here:
http://musicmarketing.typepad......-of-f.html
This kind of dualistic community is already being experimented with companies like Spiral Frog:
http://musicmarketing.typepad......-adve.html
Here’s looking to a bright future for indie artists!
Snap Music
http://musicmarketing.typepad.com
Snap Music said this on October 26th, 2007 at 4:56 pm