I received a message from a MySpace ‘friend’ who is an independent artist working on his third album – a two-disk concept album (remember those?). We’ve been having an ongoing discussion in which I wondered aloud whether CD was the right format. He’s now thinking about making his music available for download – but wondered what an independent artist can do about piracy.

Here’s what I replied:

Hey Steven,

I wouldn’t worry about piracy. The people who copy your music were never going to buy it in the first place – and chances are, the people they play it to will like it enough to seek it out by heading to your website.

Add to that the fact that anyone who does copy your music is likely to be a fan – somebody that you can have an ongoing economic relationship with. They might take your music – but they’re exactly the people who are likely to buy your t-shirt or attend your concert.

The notion of the ‘lost sale’ is a hangover from the pre-download days. It’s not like CDs where there’s a limited amount of stock, and when people take one there’s one less to sell. You have an infinite supply of your music. Of course you should be paid for what you do – but a copied mp3 is potentially of more promotional value to you than the sale of a single unit online.

And of course, the alternative is much worse. Not making your music available for sale online rules out an entire revenue stream that’s open to you. Why give up £1000 worth of business because you might lose £50 of it to piracy?

Finally, don’t get suckered into ‘protecting’ your music with Digital Rights Management (DRM). Your audience will hate you for it. DRM software gives you the ability to control how, where and on what machines your audience can play your music. Let them have it on their computer. Let them burn a disc to play in the car. Let them send an mp3 to a friend in an email that says ‘check this out – I think you’ll really like this guy’s music’.

People hear music, then they like music, then they buy music. It only ever works that way. So give them every opportunity you can to hear your music.

The download thing is all about making money while you sleep.

Good to hear from you.

Cheers,

Dubber

In other news, there’s a brand new political force in America: The Pirate Party. Based on the Swedish group of (more or less) the same name, they’re a bit of a one-trick pony – and it’d have been great if they could have squeezed in a few green policies and social economics. Even so, it’s important that someone’s taking this debate seriously. Even if they do have a stupid name…