Comments on: How Bands Can Make More Money By Not Putting A Price on a CD

By: Want to stop the decline of music sales? Then do this | Pampelmoose by Dave Allen of Gang of Four

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:45:42 +0000

[...] fan can afford to pay. Don’t take my word for it, ask this relatively unknown band – it works. Ben Taylor, on tour, did it and he sold way [...]

By: Praverb

Praverb — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 03:24:53 +0000

Thank you for the article…great work

By: Blueskies

Blueskies — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:14:53 +0000

Thank you very Dave, for taking the time and sharing. Will definitely keep your technique in mind !

By: Constantine

Constantine — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:48:14 +0000

This’ll probably come as a complete shock to most…but not every musician likes/wants to tour. Not every musician likes/wants to perform live. Some musicians are (like their visual-FX counterparts in the movie business) “studio wizards,” and are massively gifted at the art and science of crafting truly brilliant musical recordings. I’m one of those guys (OK…I’m not sure I’d classify my recordings as “brilliant,” but with 20 years of studio experience, I most def own up to the moniker of “wizard.”) Anyways- I write, sing, play guitar, bass, piano/synth, drums…all myself. Logistically, how in hell WOULD I play “live?” Even if it made practical/monetary and artistic sense to play live, I’m not really interested in slogging gear from bar to bar to bar just so I can maybe sell some t-shirts, keychains and a few posters. I’ve got nothing against the new music economy. More ways to expose, especially new artists – and to monetize the craft of music totally rocks. But if it (the new music economy) continues to morph the art of recorded music – forcing musicians and, particularly, COMPOSERS into becoming de-facto professional party planners, blogger/Twitterers and trinket salesmen…we’re all going to lose out. The business of music is, of course, business. Amen! But the soul of music is art. If we’re spending all of our time approving “friend” requests and size-sorting hoodies, when in the hell will we find the time, energy and focus to be artists?

By: mark cool

mark cool — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:16:53 +0000

Awesome discussion! I love the thoughtfulness, variety of ideas and viewpoints, and passion. Someone said, that all is valid until the dust settles. I’m thinking that the dust may never settle, at the rate that technology is advancing. With individuals increasingly able to wield more influence, not needed big dollars to make an impact as with napster, how will any paradigm be held static? The days of the ‘big boys’ are over.

when i read all of this stuff, i get overwhelmed. I feel like the only way I can make an impact with my music is by playing in front of people and connecting, a few people at a time. When everyone’s a musician, and everyone has a band, how can i yell loud enough on the web to get noticed?

By: Joe Wallace

Joe Wallace — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:19:31 +0000

reading the ongoing comments here in December (from a thread that started in Feb!) is fascinating. @Dave–I honestly think a Dave Allen version of a tome like Tour Smart by Martin Atkins would be a big undertaking, but well worth the time investment. You’ve got a lot to offer the indie musician and this thread of back-n-forth shows quite a demand.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:36:27 +0000

As a cog in the works of an Indie label, and an musician myself, I think these ideas are really interesting.

It takes a while to get your head around the idea that you can make money by giving things away – but free samples and “buy one get one free” offers have worked for years in Supermarkets, so why are we any different as “artists”?

Now I’ve just got to persuade the rest of the staff…

By: Febrele

Febrele — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:47:19 +0000

People make me laugh…

So, they are in a bar, drinking beers like water at 5$ a bottle, but they are too poor to buy a CD or a download to put on their 300$ iPod… haha yeah riight.

Maybe this thing can work NOW, but I garantee you, once it becomes mainstream to “pay what you want”, it will lose its “coolness” factor, and most people will expect to “pay what they want” all the time, and the amount they will be ready to pay will go down day by day.

Good luck…