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I have been doing a lot of building and interviews for the media lately since my Forbes gig and the BBC honor on one of my niche sites. totally scared the hell out of a group Thus little time until now to blog.
One of the scariest things I have introduced since my time away is a thought to my online music business students about FREE. One of the many sites our company has launched this year is called BIZ4DaSoul which is a site that teaches people who want to make money online with their music.
I asked what if you gave away 90% of your music? Sell the 10% at a low price but make that 10% premium stuff they can’t get anywhere else.
The 90% would be used to get more live gigs and concert ticket sales and create online sales of other types of merchandise. The prerequisite is that you need an actual following but besides that you are set. Like Seth said in the article below. I know your music is worth a price but here is another way to look at it. You could create a greater crowd on the front end. And a lot of FREE publicity/ word of mouth. The wealthy are wealthy because they did what their competition didn’t.
Sam Walton was building where Kmart wasn’t (little towns and rural area’s)
Like Seth said flip it. No matter what your niche or area of expertise you should flip it. In this current economical environment what have you got to lose?
Flipping abundance and scarcity by Seth Godin
I think it’s dangerous and often fatal to put free on top of an existing business model. Things fall apart.
People look at the free revolution and say, “oh, that could never work. If I gave x, y or z away for free, I’d fail.” They’re right. They will fail… If they keep the model the same and just give away stuff for free.
The way you win is by reinventing the model itself. So, for example, lululemon doing giant free yoga classes in New York. The more people come, the more clothes they’ll sell… it’ll become a movement. Or Crossfit, publishing their insane work outs online. The more people do them, the better the scarce part (private coaching, etc.) does.
We spent a generation believing certain parts of our business needed to be scarce and that advertising and other interruption should be abundant. Part of the pitch of free is that when advertising goes away, you need to make something else abundant in order to gain attention. Then, and only then, will you be able to sell something that’s naturally scarce.
This is an uncomfortable flip to make, because the stuff you’ve been charging for feels like it should be charged for, and the new scarcity is often difficult to find. But, especially in the digital world, this is happening, and faster than ever.
