As I’ve mentioned before on the site, I wanted to have a categories of posts called “Thoughts” where we can discuss some of the other aspects of electronic music, outside of the music itself.

Previously I’ve discussed whether or not a mainstream audience will ever accept music without lyrics and how this might play a role in the future of electronic music.

Today I want to talk about the “free music” business model that is practiced by many electronic artists, and I want YOUR opinion on whether or not you think this is a good business model for artists to follow, or whether it is done out of necessity.

A few of you are starting to get to know me outside of the music posted on the site, and so you may know that I’m a young aspiring entrepreneur who likes to work for himself, and enjoys things like understanding marketing and business management (fun fact: I’ve only ever had one job throughout college, the rest of the time I worked for freelance and ran a very small business).

I only wanted to start this post off like this not to give you my life story, but to show why I take an interest in this side of the music scene.

You may not care as much, but I can tell you one thing: the artists that you enjoy sure do.

And so I wanted to discuss whether or not this “free music model” of business that you find in practice is a good way for artists to make a living, or if its simply something that they’ve had to adapt to due to the availability of downloads for their music; whether they intend for them to be free or not.

What Is The Free Music Model?

The free music model, in many ways, is tied to the “freemium” model that many web 2.0 businesses have taken in the few years.

In a nutshell: release (much) of your music for free, make money from concert tickets, merchandise, and donations.

I have to add that in some instances, songs have to be released for free, if they include samples that the artists could not attain rights for in order to sell, but did obtain rights to use.

Are Artists Using It Successfully?

This may surprise some people, but yes, a few notable artists have been using this model for years and continue to thrive and make music.

For the sake of this post, I’m going to focus on the most obvious example in electronic music, the Pretty Lights Music label.

I respect Derek not only as an artist, but also as a businessman. Think about this: what kind of confidence does it take to release all of your music for free, with no exceptions, with the hope that the music will be so well received that you will no doubt have people begging to see you live?

I’m not the accountant for PLM or anything, but with the recent signings of new artists, the fact that Pretty Lights is always on tour and a headliner everywhere he goes, and the huge growth in fans that all of the artists on the label have seen has me thinking that Derek and crew are at least able to make a living doing what they love: making music.

Never thought that I would be posting something like this, as it has a few hip-hop artists that I’m not too fond of, but the weird mix of trance and hip-hop just had me listening to this all the way through. The mix definitely picked up for me around 17:50, so try jumping to that part if you’re not feeling it at first. Overall a pretty unique mix and something I thought a few of you might enjoy!

Let’s start out by looking at the standard well-respected guitar packages. You can expect most software guitar lessons to cost around what you would expect to pay for just one regular guitar lesson – about $50. But there do exist a few well-endowed packages that cost in excess of $200 that intermediate guitar enthusiasts really rave about. A guitar lessons package usually does its teaching with clear close-up-shot videos of professional teachers laying out the principles of how it’s done, with actual playing. You also get an online chord dictionary usually that shows you pictorials of how you play chords on a fretboard, a software metronome, and a software tutor to help with one of the toughest parts of learning – tightening and tuning guitar strings just so.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. When you go in the store for the best package of guitar lessons to suit your needs, what would you look for? To begin with, you aren’t looking for something that’ll lick you into shape and turn you into a virtuoso guitarist. What you want is something that will help you enjoy the first few months you spend with your instrument, and that will teach you a few of the basics without rushing you. For this, you need to find something that’s easy to use, that gives you plenty of practice tools and exercises, and isn’t too elementary that you would get bored with it.

With these in mind, let’s look at some of the best software guitar lessons packages they have on the shelves right about now. Charanga Software’s Guitar Coach Deluxe is one of my favorites. It teaches you to play classical guitar and it does this out of the six CDs in the package. It has a CD completely given to teaching you to their basics of the guitar, and the others teach you specific chords and songs. Each specific technique comes with a video of a live guitarist showing you exactly how it’s done. It lets you play along with each lesson, and you get to record your performance. For all this, you pay a grand total of $40.

eMedia’s Guitar Method teaches you to play the guitar – electric or acoustic – and features the work of PhD guitar instructor Kevin Gary. It has more than 150 lessons, and happily, they really go into specifics like how to pick the strings and how to play the chords. The chord dictionary comes with attached sound clips so that you can hear exactly how it’s supposed to be done. I love the way it tries to teach you how to enjoy guitar without needing the software’s handholding all the time. The lessons themselves are just wonderfully explained and laid out, you get all of this for $60.

But what if you aren’t a real beginner, and you need guitar lessons that are a little more in-depth. Guitar Magic Evolution is your thing then; this package goes into guitar theory, and the esoteric world of chord formations. They offer 170 lessons, dozens of songs and revealing videos.

My choice for the beginner would then be eMedia’s Guitar Method. And for an advanced learner, Guitar Magic Evolution is hard to beat.

At first glance, Rhapsody looks like an offer that he could not possibly want more out of. You pay your few dollars (between $10 a month and $15 a month), and stream all the music you could ever want on your computer or your phone; they have nearly ten million songs, and all of it is practically in your mobile device at any time. You can even set up an online library right on Rhapsody to listen to your unlimited subscription downloads. If you want to own your MP3 music downloads, it’ll cost you something like 69 cents. So all of this seems fine; what is my gripe? To begin with, Rhapsody hates the Mac. You can use it on the Mac, but everything is so badly designed for anything but the PC. It also, the whole subscription streaming service ends up charging me several dollars every month for the rest of my life. I’ll never get a song the moment I stop paying. And may confine in a little secret? Those tantalizing unlimited subscription downloads? I never found out how to actually get them.

Grooveshark is a great and innovative option; and the interface is basically that of a playlist; but it tries to turn you into your own DJ. It works perfectly, signing up is quick and painless, and you can look at what everyone else has on their playlist.

eMusic has about 7 million songs, and you get to buy songs to keep for about 41 cents each. What am I complaining about? You don’t buy these mp3 music downloads
one at a time; you pay for 75 songs every month, whether you download them or not. And your quota doesn’t roll over to the following month.

Pandora is somewhat different; it finds out what you want, based on what you already like. It conjures this information based on its input from the Music Genome Project, and you even have an iPhone app to go with it. Pandora comes up with suggestions all the time, and once you understand which ones to use and which ones to leave alone, Pandora gives you great discoveries. You can buy the songs you want, and it’s cheap.

I happen to like Zune Pass best of all – sometimes even better than iTunes. You pay a flat $15 a month fee; you can listen and stream as much as your little heart desires, and you get 10 DRM free MP3 music downloads every month. To me, that’s a deal that can’t be beat.

The rapidity of wma converter doesn’t depend on the length of the songs. Even large files can be converted in some seconds. Your own collection of favorite song can be made at ones. You don’t need to choose carefully what king of format to download in order to be recognized by your kind of music player. Just make list of your favorite songs and there will be no need to pay attention to their format. This mp3 converter is very simple in usage even for those, who have never worked with this kind of programs before. You will understand the process of the converting files simply because of comfortable interface of the program and its understandable menu. You just need to get this program, choose the songs you need to convert and the format that is compatible with your player. That’s it! Now you may listen to the music anywhere, with any kind of hard drive you have. It’s very easy and quick to install the wma converter to any kind of computer; you just need to pass some simple steps by following the advices of the program. If you download the program ones, you will never be disappointed and certainly will never think of searching for some alternative. This program is the best solution, which will make your life much more comfortable and easy and will help you to enjoy every moment of it.

Get also as soon as possible a couple of Los Angeles Clippers Tickets. To get cheap Los Angeles Clippers Tickets now is not an easy job but it’s not impossible.

Among the bands that make New Moon’s soundtrack unforgettable are Death Cab for Cutie, Muse, Band of Sculls, The Killers, Ok Go, and other musicians such as Lykke Li, Anya Marina and others.

Enjoy the live game of your favorite players with a pair of Los Angeles Lakers Tickets. At the season when we all try to surprise our loved ones with an unforgettable gift, probably the best choice would be to get some cheap Miami Heat Tickets. Create some great memories for yourself!

The tie doesn’t look out of place in the office and comes in three different colours – black, dark brown and light grey, matching the colour of the cassette tape and thread used. There’s a skinny version for the young fashion victim, or a slightly broader version for the more seasoned wearer. A tutorial by the creators shows how you can listen to the limited-edition tie. Although a little pricey, this novel accessory is suitable for livening up any conservative function with its brilliant audio twist.

When you think of how much electronic waste is lying around in the ordinary house, products like the cassette tape tie seem like a pretty smart idea.