Tasmin Little's Naked Violin is Latest Free Download

A constantly increasing trend in the music world has been the digital download. In fact, these days, digital music has been a point of controversy and contention. Popular online music sellers such as iTunes, eMusic and Rhapsody offer downloads of entire albums or individual songs from the albums of almost any artist. It's been argued that this means of selling individual artist songs has hurt album sales as a whole. Not only have individual MP3 sales contributed to the slow death of the compact disc or record, but the constantly pirated MP3 downloads and P2P file sharing have also contributed.

Several artists have decided to take a next step in the digital music era by "giving away" their albums. First it was Prince, who had copies of his album Planet Earth given away as CD copies to British fans who bought the Mail on Sunday newspaper. When this occurred, Sony/BMG put distribution of the album by Great Britain's record stores on hold. It caused uproar as retailers felt it was supporting the idea that music is free. Prince still profited from the initial and original idea. According to a Wired.com article, Prince was given an undisclosed upfront payment for copies of Planet Earth, which went to over 3 million newspaper readers. So the music could have helped boost the paper's sales as well as interest in Prince, rather than hurt music sales. Prince got an early jump on the new trend in music giveaways, while still promoting himself and his music.

Radiohead adopted an "honesty box" policy when it first released its album In Rainbows to the internet. The alternative rock band offered the album as a download and encouraged fans to pay what they felt was fair for their work. A fan could conceivably take the album for free without paying, but it was encouraged that some compensation was given. According to reports, Radiohead's In Rainbows was a critically acclaimed smash, even praised by Time magazine. The album also has sold over 100,000 copies of a special box edition priced around $80 each, so the band has not been hurt by its innovation. According to The Globe in Mail's article, some estimate that the band's per-copy share is no less than it would have been through a conventional release with its old label, Parlophone/EMI. .

Now a classical musician has decided to go a similar route as Radiohead and Prince, except violinist Tasmin Little made her album The Naked Violin a completely free download, with no "strings attached". So far it's proven to really help spark interest. According to a Reuters article, Little's website impressions have jumped from 5,000 to 150,000 and thousands of the free tracks have been downloaded since it was announced. Reuters also notes that the sale of digital downloads of classical music are also up 47.7% as of 2007, and account for 7% of the genre's total sales. It make a great case that new, or lesser known musicians can offer a free EP, song or entire album to promote their other musical works. Little has even encouraged fans to buy more of her works and email her their feedback about Naked Violin.

It's also been argued that allowing albums to be downloaded for free is a bad idea for musicians. As seen in the case of Little's recent offering The Naked Violin, it's helped her site www.tasminlittle.net and music gain exposure. But it can be argued that the Radiohead "honesty box" idea, Prince's free CD, and Little's free album download might not be the greatest ideas, because they gives fans an excuse to "take" music legally, and possibly encourage more pirated music downloading. In the case of both Prince and Radiohead, they are big artists with loyal fans who are willing to pay for their albums already. Prince and Radiohead put their albums on sale soon after allowing the free giveaways, so it started with good faith but gave way to old fashioned sales. Little, on the other hand offered her album and gained more exposure for her musical career.

Julian Lloyd Webber in his article On Music: the price we pay for free music makes a further point that music is moving away from a physical product which includes artwork and liner notes on an item you actually hold in your hand. While Prince allowed this with his CD giveaway, both Radiohead, Little and other artists have not done so digitally. With the invention of the iPod and Mp3 players, you now can put hundreds of albums and thousands of songs in the palm of your hand. Artists will definitely continue to find new ways to promote themselves and profit as digital technology continues to advance. There's already talk of less mainstream artists such as Big Head Todd and Pennywise giving their albums away as free downloads. Legal and free album downloads are not an ethical issue for this writer because they provide more music innovation and promotion as we move forward. And, when it's "all said and downloaded", it's really up to the artists how they choose to promote or provide their music. For now the jury is still out on whether or not free downloads will hurt or help the cause of music as a whole.

References & Sources Cited:

Hazel Davis, Classical artists embrace digital culture, UK Reuters

Julian Lloyd Webber, On Music: the price we pay for free music, www.telegraph.co.uk

Elliot Van Buskirk, Prince Points the Way to a Brighter Future for Music, Wired.com

Heather Adler, EXCLUSIVE - Radiohead: We're Not Revolutionaries, Dose.ca

Robert Everett-Green, After the storm comes Rainbows, TheGlobeandMail.com