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~ ~ ~ Pay Walls Will Kill Your Audience (IRL example)
12 years ago
General
Hiiiii
Fans want to support artist who produce content they attach some sort of value to. The exchange of money for music is now considered a mutual exchange, where the money spent will go on to support the artist, to allow said artist to continue what they do.
http://bandittheraccoon.bandcamp.com/
This guy's music isn't bad. It's soundly produced and is probably something a DnB fan would probably like, but $7.99 is too much for an album by a someone whose music isn't very grabbing on the first listen.
Establishing a Pay Wall could easily block a significant amount of potential audience members who might actually really like an artist's music, if they had the chance to listen to it. This isn't the wrong way to promote yourself as an artist, but this is the far-reaches of the internet.
Things work differently here.
You could charge $8 or $10 or whatever for an album once you have recognition, once you've built a fan base and have a group of people that would gladly support you. But the best time to charge $10 for an album is when you make music worth paying for.
IMO
http://bandittheraccoon.bandcamp.com/
This guy's music isn't bad. It's soundly produced and is probably something a DnB fan would probably like, but $7.99 is too much for an album by a someone whose music isn't very grabbing on the first listen.
Establishing a Pay Wall could easily block a significant amount of potential audience members who might actually really like an artist's music, if they had the chance to listen to it. This isn't the wrong way to promote yourself as an artist, but this is the far-reaches of the internet.
Things work differently here.
You could charge $8 or $10 or whatever for an album once you have recognition, once you've built a fan base and have a group of people that would gladly support you. But the best time to charge $10 for an album is when you make music worth paying for.
IMO
I work with artists every day...independent, small label, big label, production and distribution deals, up and comers, established, you name it.
Our mantra is that until you have a fan base to support you, at MOST you release music Pay What You Want, so those who don't know of you can try for free (many tend to pay later!) or if they like you already, they can maybe even drop more than the $8 you may ask.
I don't fault this guy for wanting to make money off his music. Lord knows sales are shit (a major label artist we work with right now has had national airplay, a cross country tour and lots of marketing bucks, and has yet to break 500 sales...most of which were done off stage at shows) so hats off to him, I REALLY wish him luck, honestly. If he can make money then he's doing well.
My thought is that until you're super well known, it's better to get exposure than paid, but that's just me with my experience. He may know something I don't :)
once you've got a deal or a rightfully set EP THEN you should chose to charge a bit for it!
can't expect to be rich and famous right away, just be patient.