MSO Mailbag Question 1

New feature of my blog: your questions and my answers.

This question came as an email to our main mso account.

Subject: ....? no free music?

Hey,Why don't you have downloads of some of your stuff? I just heard you on the radio, sounded pretty good, I want to hear some more... no I am not buying a full CD, nor am I going to pay a dollar a download (at this point).Don't you make most of your money from touring anyway (its what I've heard, please tell me if I am wrong)? It would make sense to get people interested in your music by allowing others to share and distribute it freely, that way when you come to a city more people will put out money which actually ends up in your pockets.Thanks for your time, Edmonton Student

My response.

Subject: re: ....? no free music?

Hey (Edmonton Student) - you can stream to whole album freely at http://www.thesoundradio.com/artist/mysisterocean (this link is already on our website in the links section)We sometimes offer free downloads to our street team members and mailing list subscribers.Most artists at our level actually lose money on tours, believe it or not, so merch sales and album sales are important for any type of revenue. While free downloads could in theory help get our name out there more, in the past it's simply meant no one was buying anything, so we've been pretty stingy on the free stuff without getting anything in return (ie an email address on the mailing list).I agree with being able to check out a whole album before buying it, that's why you can stream it in its entirety and not pay a thing. Plus, you can do that as many times as you want. If you like the band enough to distribute songs to your friends, we would ask that you distribute the link http://www.thesoundradio.com/artist/mysisterocean and let them purchase the album or any single at iTunes (or similar sites) if they happen to like it as well.

We offer free downloads every once in a while on MySpace but it's rare and the people on the mailing list, Facebook group, or in our friends list on MySpace are generally the only people who know about it, and it only lasts 1-2 days before we make it not downloadable anymore. But now that Nucularboy is in stores and the single is climbing the charts in radio, we actually haven't thought about whether we'd offer the single for free or not. If we offer it for free, then I really don't think anyone would buy it. And in all honesty, I think it's very fair to be paid for it from people who want it, and to allow people who are on the fence about it to listen to the whole thing for free.

I think if we offer anything for free in terms of MP3s it would be B sides and/or live versions of the songs, that way the band name would be shareable and distributable, without taking potential sales away from the actual album we're trying to sell.

In a perfect world, all the music would be free and the artists could rely on tour revenue exclusively, but at this point, we actually rely on any sales we can get because until you're a household name, tours need funding from government agencies (FACTOR) to supplement the losses most bands incur! We're trying to be smarter about that and being a duo makes touring a lot easier, but yeah, you're assumption about the touring really only applies to a small percentage of bands!

So if you are becoming an MSO fan (which would be great!), all we ask is you enjoy the music and spread the word. We'll have some free MP3s soon of our acoustic performance at HMV yesterday, but we're not planning on offering any singles from the album for free to anyone except people who are active subscribers to our mailing list or members of our Facebook or MySpace group, which I think you'd agree is fair?

Great inquiry (Edmonton Student) and thanks for a great question! Hope my answer A) makes sense and B) doesn't piss you off!

PS: Which station did you hear us on? And when?

Cheers, Holden - My Sister Ocean

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