This billboard speaks the truth

Here’s a thought for unsigned bands who a) are feeling a little squeamish about giving away tracks for free or b) still think filesharing is bad for them.

So when you go to your shitty day job every day, and you’re sitting in the same traffic or on the same train (running late for the 3rd day in a row) do you notice the billboards gliding past you? It’s the same ad every day for weeks on end. You probably forgot about it, but still it’s there day after day, same place. Whether you like it or not, the name of that washing powder if tattooed on you memory despite the fact that you’ll never use the stuff (beer is the ultimate substance for cleaning clothes right?)

Companies pay hundreds, if not thousands of quid for that sort of ad placement. Whether you’re paying attention or not, that advert is making an impression on you. This is an age old and well understood advertising technique, and is used widely in web advertising.

Now let’s imagine another scenario. You’re an unsigned band struggling to get noticed. You give away a free MP3 of one of your tracks and advertise it on your Myspace. People like free stuff, and 50 people download it. Think about what you have there now, before going off half cocked about how those freeloaders should be paying you for that track that cost you 200 quid to record. Your band name is Metatron (Industrial Acoustic Grindcore since you’re asking), and because you were diligent enough to get your ID3 tags set properly on that file it now sits comfortably under Metallica in the “Artists” menu on most people’s iPod. Think about that for a second. You gave up 1 track, and now, every time those 50 people go to listen to Master of Puppets they will see your band’s name (the same logic applies to iTunes, Media Player etc.).

The brain is wired to attribute value to this sort of connection. This is why companies will pay so much money to sponsor music venues. From now on, those folks are going to remember your band’s name, even if they never listen to that track again. It’s like you’ve got a mini billboard sitting in a bunch of folks’ pockets. Now, I’m not going to start banging on about your band as a brand (although I fully intend to very soon), but the more folk’s iPod you can get that track on, the less time, money and effort you’re going to need to spend on raising awareness of your band later on.

Knowing that, if I were an unsigned band, I’d be actively encouraging people to share my tracks.