“Free” Thinker: Alligator Record’s Bruce Iglauer
As part of a week long exploration
into the meaning and value of "free", Hypebot asked some of the music
industry's most forward thinkers the value and future of free music.
Here Bruce Iglauer, Founder & President of Alligator Records shares his experiences with "free"
"The use of free music to turn on potential customers to a new artist or songwriter has been in use for decades. We're happy to give away a free download if it will excite someone to buy other music by this artist or writer. Of course, this assumes that we have legal ownership of the master and publishing, or publisher approval. However, ultimately the creators of music deserve to be paid for their creations.
At this point, no model for monetizing music (for example, advertising-based free streaming or downloading) other than traditional royalties has proven to fairly pay artists, songwriters or their patrons/financiers (the labels). So, a free track or stream with label and publisher approval? Sure. Distribution of music without label and publisher approval? Nope.
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As a musician, producer, digital distributor and entrepreneur, I see the valve in Free and believe what Gerd Leonard and others have been teaching as well as myself, that we must create and monetize the pile lines not the content. This generation and the next won’t understand Pay for this or that. They will and do expect Free content.
We have to be as creative as creators and figure out new products to go along with our music, videos and films. We can do this. Yes we can. Jun Mhoon/iamdigitalmedia.com