Free: The Growing Business Model

I like free.

In today's skyrocketing market, "free" is sounding better each day. Especially for the broke college student. In the May 10th issue of Billboard, the article, "Free For All?" praises Coldplay's decision to give away the lead track from their new album for free. "Violet Hill" was downloaded 600,000 times in only 24 hours on April 29. Compare this to the first week digital sales for the lead track, "Speed of Sound," off of their last album, which was only 44,000. Kinda not fair since the new release was free, but the results from this move is heavily evident. "Violet Hill" is topping the BBC Radio charts and seeing heavy play time over here in the states as well. Last.fm is making reports saying that Coldplay's new single could be the most played song ever tracked on its service with around 33,000 listens in slightly less than 24 hours from its launch.

To make sure that people understood the concept of free, Coldplay will be playing two free shows in large arenas promoting their fourth album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," in London and New York. Their manager, Dave Holmes, has confirmed that there will not be any sponsors for the shows.  He expects that merch sales will help cover the costs of the shows hopefully let the shows pay for themselves. 

I personally think this is an awesome idea. If you would have told me of these plans before Radiohead's release of "In Rainbows" last Fall I probably would have looked at you funny, raise one eyebrow and backed away slowly. But times are-uh changing. Radiohead has inspired other bands to pick up the same plan or something similar to it like Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails.

NIN recently announced that they wanted to thank their fans by giving away their next album, "The Slim," for absolutely free via their website. I, of course, did it and found downloading it was easier than putting my pants on in the morning (or afternoon). After much thought, I realized that by letting fans download an entire album, it addressed a problem I find growing larger each day in the industry: singles vs. albums.

Back before the age of iTunes and Napster, fans and consumers had to purchase an artist's album to listen to the single they would release- for better or for worse. It was always a treat, though, when I would buy an album for the lead single and then end up liking other tracks of the album even more so. I could gauge how well I thought a band was if there were more tracks on the album that were better than the lead single. But then the age of iTunes appeared and the option to buy just one song off an album took over. This is, in my opinion, slowly killing the album as an artform. Bands may release an awesome group of songs that will never be heard because the single is the only one people will buy (of course, this does not include the die hard fans). 

So NIN releases their new album for free. Instead of people downloading just the songs they know, they will be able to listen to all of the band's efforts on the album- FOR FREE. It's a win/win situation. Unfortunately, this is not a realistic approach for most bands in the music industry, especially new bands. Nonetheless, it's an issue that growing larger each day and I thank NIN for tackling it head on. We'll have to wait and see how well this works for them to see if it could work in the future.

One last concern brings me back to Coldplay's decision to host free promotional shows in London and New York. This initially surprised me. The way for an artist to earn a living is leaning away from music sales and more toward touring and merchandising. Holmes wasn't sure if a free show in Madison Square Garden would affect a future show in the market. He did assure Billboard that it was going to be compared to a "buzz gig" and that it would not be a full set or production. Even for a well-established band like Coldplay, it's still a risk, but in a struggling market, risks are what is going to lead this industry into bold new directions. 

I like risks.