In this post I want to discuss about the music distribution model pursued by some artists which, inspite of free music distribution, makes them money, besides providing a direct connect with their audience.
Lucky Ali decided to break his hiatus of five years by releasing long awaited album Xsuie. While some of the songs were available since September 2009, the album was officially launched in March 2010. Xsuie meaning “at your own pace”, is a fusion of music ranging from balladic to anthemic, to lyrical. The mega album is in 3 parts and contains 24 tracks of Ali's works including Dil Gaye Jaa, O Rahi, With You, Sea of Life, Yeh Zindagi and others.
Xsuie is not only an unconventional name for an album but also has a unique way to distribute it. Lucky Ali chose to break the conventional medium of physical album distribution so that fans can listen to the music without depending on labels for promotion and physical distribution of CDs. These songs and the album are available as downloads online from aggregators such as nimbitmusic.com and bluefrogsounds.com. Anyone can listen to the songs for free. However, if the listener chooses to own the music, there is a download fee. The album has plans to go online at itunes, amazon, rhapsody, cdfreedom etc in the coming months as the songs become popular.
Explaining the online distribution of his album, Lucky Ali said, "I have deliberately avoided distribution in physical format in the form of CD or tapes for the present moment as well as the mobile market. The online medium empowers the artist to interact with his fan base directly and connect with music lovers the world over and hence there being no compulsions to be adhered to (apart from the obvious ones) there's scope towards greater creative freedom and awareness". He further added, "Trends are changing faster and people are more digital savvy. The present time demands change and the digital media platform is the present future. Moreover, the digital media is very accessible. One does not need to rush to stores if they don't want to, in fact it's the other way round, the store comes rushing to you on your mobile phone or through your computer." Lucky Ali also added environmental angle and said that he hoped to save the plastic and paper that will be wasted for making CDs.
While Lucky Ali promotes songs from his album to be listened for free, Indian Ocean has gone a step further. Their latest release “16/330 Khajoor Road” will be entirely available for free download, a first among Indian bands. The album named after their jam-pad in Delhi’s Karol Bagh, 16/330 Khajoor Road – a picturesque 100-year old bungalow - where the band has rehearsed and composed since 1997, comes a full five years after the band's previous album - Black Friday. Their business model is a prompt acknowledgement of the fact that in the age of unpreventable piracy and post-glory days of original music CDs, free content is the only solution.
The decision to name the new album was taken almost three years ago, and the decision to give away the songs for free evolved over the last year and a half. The Indian Ocean website mentions that starting 25th July 2010, one song will be given away free every month as free download in mp3 format on the band's website. Listeners will have to just log on to the website, register, and will get an e-mailed code that shall let them download the song. Thus, one can download “Chand” – the first song of album, from 25th July till 24th August, and starting 25th August, one can download the next song for a month and so on. The last song on the album will be available on 25th January till 25th February 2011. The idea behind the one-song-a-month is to “prolong the process, get more people involved,” said Sushmit Sen, member of band.
After February 2011, when each of the seven songs on 16/330 Khajoor Road has had its turn, the physical CD release will follow. This will be a double CD with the second CD containing versions of songs and some practice session recordings. The business model does not rely on making money from selling CDs as Indian artists hardly make money on album sales or royalties. The CD launch is because there are people who would like to own a hard copy and still treasure the physical possession of a CD. In India, the real source of revenue for bands is live shows and that is where the band would like to make money while giving the songs free to the listeners. A lot of people (specially younger people) do not buy music any more but rip or download from the web, so this will make their lives a little guilt-free. Also, this helps in reducing the distance between the band and its listeners. In addition, this means no more negotiating contracts with record companies and fighting over copyright issues, no worries about bad distribution, albums not being available at different places and so on. Corporate sponsorship and sale of merchandise are other revenue generating options.
Both the examples remind me of Mike Belmont who produced movie We Are the Strange without a cast, crew, or budget in 2006. Mike Belmont (pseudonym M dot Strange) used his self-invented “Str8nime” process (strange + 8 bit + anime) to create the fully animated feature, We Are the Strange. Belmont wrote, directed, co-edited, and produced the movie over three years, mixing and matching multiple animation techniques, including 2D, rotoscoping, stop-motion, and 3D, among others. The movie is a mixture of old-school video-game graphics, 8 Bit music and Japanese anime-inspired animation that tells a somewhat confusing story of a sad girl and an odd, big-headed doll that become friends — and face demons — in their quest for ice cream.
After making rounds of various film outfits looking to distribute the film, Bilmont decided to reject a studio deal. He said that it would have forced him to give up all his rights and, given the limited niche audience, not get any money in return. Instead, it went straight to DVD, and from there it was just a small step to torrent sites. When he heard that his recently released animated movie had been leaked onto torrent sites, he immediately fired up his email client. But he didn’t send out DMCA takedown notices to stop the unlicensed distribution of the movie he had worked on for three years. Instead, he thanked the pirates for the free publicity, “I’m glad to see it being released and possibly finding more strange people who appreciate it. In the future, filmmakers like myself will work together with torrent sites when releasing films.” He realized that money had to be made on sales of merchandise and, if possible, in case of DVD sales.
Times are changing. Sometimes, giving away for free can be profitable.
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