Imagine a world where music is free: Where struggling bands can survive without charging fans for their albums. It's not a socialist society, and it's not a utopia. It's already happening.
The Suicide Denial, an independent two-member band from Los Angeles, is giving its music away for free. The band's percussionist, Chad McKinsey, said he considers himself to be part of a revolution against the music industry.
"Radiohead made a lot of news when they went on their Web site and said, 'You can pay whatever you want for this CD. We don't care,'" McKinsey said. "And I think Nine Inch Nails did that too."
McKinsey said he thinks once people see his band doing well with this, other bands will want to pick up on it.
Unlike the legendary alternative rock bands Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, the members of The Suicide Denial are giving away their music without reaching the apex of fame.
"I could probably speak for both of us," McKinsey said. "We don't have vacation homes in Hawaii or Mexico."
Still, the band is well-off enough to keep making music. They make some money selling tickets to shows. The rest will be made through a deal with an urban clothing line called 7 Lightningbolt, which will buy albums from the band and place promotional stickers on the corner of the album's wrapping.
Because of this revenue from 7 Lightningbolt, fans can download the albums online for free or pick up free copies of the album at Target. Everyone wins in the end - the band gets paid, the clothing line gets advertisement, and the fans get their music for free.
Furthermore, the band doesn't have to deal with record companies.
"Album sales have been going down for quite a while now," McKinsey said. "And everyone knows how to pirate music in some way. It's getting harder to fight the system, so we might as well go with it."
The band's guitarist, Chad Gerber, said he's glad to break away from the music industry and its major labels.
"The major labels keep blaming all their problems on illegal downloads," Gerber said.
He cited a study from the University of Kansas that showed that illegal file sharing had a negligible effect on music sales.
Gerber said the majority of music sold by major labels is "formulated, canned crap" and mentioned Britney Spears and the Jonas Brothers as examples. The reason labels are losing money, he said, is because "their music sucks" and people are sick of buying it.
Gerber said record labels take the art and edginess out of music and try to lull consumers into a dull sitcom sleep. Now they seem to be waking up.
UF freshman Spencer Simonsen thinks bands should be free to express themselves without being controlled by record companies. He thinks music should be free, but bands should be paid for what they create.
Simonsen created a Web site called IndieMundo.com, which allows independent bands to upload songs and share them with fans. Fans can download the songs for free, but the bands get paid five cents each time it happens. Running the site and paying the artists costs about $175 each year, which comes out of Simonsen's pocket.
For now, the site hosts 41 bands, 66 fans and 30 users labeled as "both." When the site gains momentum, Simonsen plans to sell advertising space so bands can get paid more and the site can financially sustain itself. Gainesville, with its thriving independent music scene, is the ideal launching point.
Aaron Wessling, a Gainesville musician, said his band gets more views, downloads and friend requests on MySpace after it joined IndieMundo.com. His band, The Early Twenties, has recorded one album and plays three to four local shows each month.
"We're more concerned with getting our music out there any way possible than making money at this point," Wessling said.
He said he likes the idea of bands getting paid to give out free music but warned that it may lead to unforeseen problems, just as the original formula of record companies did.
Both bands, The Early Twenties and The Suicide Denial, agreed that it's not worth it to deal with major record labels.
If presented with the chance to sign with a label, Wessling said he would chose an independent label because it's more accessible to local artists and gives more creative control.
Cameron Taylor, a promoter for No Idea Records, an independent label based in Gainesville that coordinates the popular music festival The Fest, said the majority of artists signed under major labels don't get much money anyway. Besides what gets spent on recording and distribution, most of the money goes to the labels, forcing the artists to survive off shows.
Taylor said music might as well be free because society has technologically passed the age where music can be protected.
"You can write all the computer code you want to protect your MP3s," he said. "But in the end, someone is going to get around it, so I don't see the point in bothering."
