The Future of Music.... is Free.

@victorgodot posted a great article on his site giving a short chronicle of an experiment done by guitarist Cory Smith. Apparently when Smith removed his free music from his own site, his iTunes downloads drop; when he put the music back up, the paid downloads went back up. Whaaaaa??

Although a simple experiment that could be a coincidence, advocates of the "music as a promotional tool" movement (which includes Smith) conclude that this demonstrates the fact that people ARE still willing to pay not only for the music itself but also for ancillary products that can't be pirated. In many different ways, this experiment has already been proven time and time again over the last few years - while recording industry execs have been crying over "lost sales," touring musicians are singing all the way to the bank. Music fans today will still pay for certain aspects of the music industry, including recorded music. Many people don't want to deal with the uncertainty of torrent networks, including the older demographic, and other music fans (that understand how the cash flow works in the industry) will still pay for music based on principle. Is this enough to account for the financial loss the recording industry has sustained over the last 10 years or so? Probably not. However, I think Smith is right in saying that folks in the industry simply have to accept that they're going to make less money than they used to. They're fighting a losing fight and only alienating their consumers in the process.

Even if recorded music is treated a promotional tool in the future, it hardly spells the demise of the overall industry. Concert ticket sales are doing wonderfully (not that Ticketmaster is helping that, but that's another story), and artists are becoming innovative with regard to how they're making money, including well-placed sponsorships, endorsements, etc. In the long run, I think this age will be viewed as a health"cleansing" of the industry; filtering out the folks that have lost sight as to why we do this thing - it's about the music before all else. We don't have to live in cardboard boxes to pursue that dream, but we may not do it in McMansions, either.