There are too many unsigned bands & artists that are desperate for money. When they make an album… they usually sell their albums at their gigs at ridiculously high prices. Somewhere around $10 – $15 when an album should really be $5 or no cost at all. Fans already pay $10 or a little more to get into your show and then they have to pay another $10 or more if they want to buy your album. I have always found that a bit ridiculous. If you want to listen to a band’s music on the internet, they usually do let you stream some stuff for free but a lot of them refuse to let you download it for free. They force you to pay to download the album whether at bandcamp or Itunes or whatever. They would only let you download a few certain songs off the album for free.

Whenever I talk about this stuff online… bands & musicians would usually get defensive. They would usually say stuff that it’s good to get the money back after all the studio time and money you put toward the album — things like that — or they just want to play rock star and try to make some good cash making music. They live in this delusion of being paid as a “professional musician“. They like to see music as a job and not as a hobby or a passion in life.

In the past, it used to be that musicians would just release their music online so they can get feedback and critique from the people. Bands don’t see music in that way anymore. They’re all obsessed with getting paid these days.

I refuse to make money for playing music for a lot of reasons.

First of all, I never saw music as a job. I don’t care to make money for what I do. I’m not worried about money ’cause it’s my way of showing my passion for music. It’s not about the money for me at all. Sure, I’ll accept payment if I play a paying gig but I won’t care how much I get paid. I don’t believe in selling my music to people either. If I make a demo with new original songs… I’ll just burn ’em on a blank CD-R and pass ’em around to everybody. I would also throw my songs on the internet w/ sites like ReverbNation, soundcloud, soundclick, etc.

Secondly, we’re just local musicians. No need to take yourself seriously. No need to spend a lot of money on studio time and CD manufacturing when you can make a halfway decent home recording and just throw your recordings online.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to make a professional studio album with real CD cover and all but if I did that someday… I’m not gonna sell it to people. I’ll just hand ’em out to people for no cost just like I do with the demos. There’s a musician named Joe Nacco who is doing exactly that with his latest studio album called, “Chaos”. Go to http://www.joenacco.com/ if you don’t believe me. We need more bands doing stuff like this. Giving away their albums for nothing.

I think it’s disrespectful for bands forcing people to pay to listen to their music. What if they buy your album and it turns out they don’t like it? If you want feedback on all of your songs… then not making your listeners pay for it is the way to go.

I think Joe Nacco is doing a good thing and he’s going to help change the way local bands release albums. Maybe other bands will follow what he’s doing? If you want his new album, “Chaos”, get a hold him and he’ll send it right out to you.

Remember, this is unsigned music. You can have the freedom to release music however you damn well please. You’re not signed in a label or anything so get over yourselves, please!

Kev