Yes, you read it right. If you're involved in the music industry at any level, you've got to consider the benefits of giving away your online music to listeners. After all, music is generally broadcast on free-to-air radio and television, so why not the Internet? Many bands are already heading in the right direction by allowing MP3 downloads of their music, while sites such as MP3.com attract huge amounts of traffic to their site by virtue of having a huge catalog of music to download for free. One thing is clear, the listeners want their music for free. Don't you?

The philosophy behind allowing people to download music for free is quite simple. It's a great promotional tool for a band to have something tangible to offer the listener. In the old days of .wav files, there was a legitimate excuse for only offering short exerpts of songs. But, nowadays, there's no reason why you can't offer full songs for download.

But bands aren't going to make money, I hear you say.

Not making money wouldn't be a first for bands is one pithy response, but realistically there is money that can be made and it involves concepts such as tribalism and Serialized Songs. If you're not sure what we mean, hands up if you own any official band merchandise! You can read all about it at
www.hitsquad.com/smm/news/9907_125