Unsprung Media

My version of what Bob Lefsetz calls stunting is to spend money giving away music.  One of the things I am measuring is the effectiveness of various keyword campaigns using Google AdWords.  I have noted that the competition pitching FREE MUSIC is intense!  Is this the wisdom of crowds telling us there's money in FREE MUSIC? 

 
THIS IS MY ADVICE TO ARTISTS ON FREE MUSIC:
iPods are the new radio, and getting spins on the radio is one of the best ways for an artist to obtain recognition.  If an artist is unrecognized, he or she will never be able to sell the things that will make him or her money (tickets, shirts, premium music, etc.).  Holding out for MP3 download revenue doesn't make sense when an artist needs spins on the “radio” to get noticed.  I believe it should be the goal of every new artist to be in 200,000+ iPods.

Will giving away your songs spell doom for the music industry or your career?  Absolutely not.  You will never make money selling MP3s.  The industry will introduce new products that will restore profitability to artists and labels.  The only thing you gain by holding out for download revenue is to slow the spread of your music and that's a mistake. 

NOTES ON MY GOOGLE CAMPAIGN

CLICK TO ENLARGE May ad is in the red square.  My bid is .50 cents a click (temporary test), my cost-per-click (CPC) is averaging around .30 cents.  I am hoping to convert 10% of the clickers into fans.  Furthermore, I am hoping that the music is shared widely; thus driving down my fan acquisition cost (FAC).  You will also see that I use the sentence "Recorded in a top studio."  Does this matter to anyone?  I will let you know.  We are running multiple variations of the same ad.  I should know in about a week.  Also, just about every clicker downloads some music.