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[ModTomIT]

Speaking as someone who offers most of his music for free only as IT files, and also has some available for whatever price people are willing to pay, including nothing, I was wondering what people thought about free music? The idea of free culture is big here I've gathered. We all need to eat, but should maybe music become something that people do just because they want to, to make others feel good, unveil forms through art, explore the imagination, impress the opposite sex, etc, without money being a factor? I can't sell music anyways because you have to not be afraid of humans to sell music and sell yourself, so I make free music by default partially.

I was making music with FL Studio and got pretty good at it but I went back to tracker music because as I got older I stopped using stuff I didn't have the legal right to use and I can't afford a modern DAW. So I went back to OpenMPT, which I started using back when I was a young teenager and it was called MODPlug Tracker. And I've used the other trackers and it's the best tracker then and now, hehe. So I guess my modus operandi is free, but legit.

If you make music for free, what do you think?

[Saga Musix]

Music is about being creative / having fun and not making money for me, and it's apparently the same for the majority of artists whose music I listen to. As with software, I have a critical view on buying "pre-made" music. That is, I think it is perfectly valid to ask for money if you are giving a concert or someone asks you to write a certain piece of music (or software) for them, but making music (or writing software) and then just hoping that someone will buy it (and shart complaining when people make digital copies instead) just feels... wrong to me.

I have quite obviously spent a lot of money on music gear in the last 9 years or so, but that doesn't matter because it's all a hobby for me.

[zzo38]

You can do it free or money or whatever, but not DRM please. I myself put all of my stuff public domain, which means you are even free to modify it if you want to. However I personally do not like software such as OpenMPT and FL Studio and whatever to write music; I use stuff like Csound and AmigaMML and ppMCK and so on (all of which are free software, although so is OpenMPT).

While I do have some CDs, I have music on computer in .MOD and .IT and .XM format and so on as well, and also .NSF and Vorbis formats, all of which are free anyways (and legal as far as I know, but some old stuff I might not have even kept track of properly); only the CDs are purchased.

As with software, I have a critical view on buying "pre-made" music. That is, I think it is perfectly valid to ask for money if you are giving a concert or someone asks you to write a certain piece of music (or software) for them, but making music (or writing software) and then just hoping that someone will buy it (and shart complaining when people make digital copies instead) just feels... wrong to me.

Well, I agree, it is valid to ask for money for the service (concert or if someone ask you to make something), or even for a physical copy I say, but I agree it is wrong to write music/software just in order to hope someone will buy it and then complain when people make digital copies instead.

[fuzion_mixer]

If you prepay the person a sum of money, who knows what the song will sound like. Personally, I don't listen to pay-to-listen music because I might not fancy the song/ genre. Better to be absolutely than possibly. You can apply this to your songs too. Will all of the listeners be satisfied with your creation? Yes, maybe and no. I try to make my music easily accessible and at no costs, just because I can receive constructive criticisms without anyone being on the losing trail. I think that people who charge listeners money is just ripping them off, because -refer to the first sentence-. But, at the same time, this is business, so I can't blame them for earning money off their creations...and dissatisfying some, maybe most of those people who pay.

[Saga Musix]

I think that people who charge listeners money is just ripping them off, because -refer to the first sentence-.

That is not necessarily true, most of the time you have a chance to preview what you are buying - and with great sites like bandcamp, you even get a full-length preview, which is the only way to go IMO.

[Ceekayed]

I'm a huge proponent of the "pay what you want" concept that services like Bandcamp employ. It lets the artist decide the minimum price they're willing to sell their music at, but gives the ultimate decision of what the music is worth to the listener.

As far as the "pre-pay" format goes, nothing wrong with that either. Crowdfunding enables for artists to cover their production costs without needing a record company or any other middle men in the process, which makes the whole artist-fan relationship much more intimate, which I think, is ultimately far better than the alternative (= not having any funding at all or having to employ middle men).

That is for the stuff that I make just for myself as a hobby, it's a completely different thing when someone wants something specific from me (be it a media production, game or anything else), then you need to pay adequately for my expertise.