Oooarrr the pirates have seized my EP!
Turns out some people decided to put my latest EP ‘Move’ onto a website for free download. I feel there is no point in even trying to fight against people pirating my music as it won’t get anywhere. All I can say is that if you want me to carry on making music then PLEASE support me by buying the release off iTunes, Amazon (US only) or Napster. On iTunes the entire release only costs £3.16 so please, if you like it – buy it.
It raises a really interesting question as to why people think music should be free in the first place? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and as a person who fully supports both free music via Creative Commons and paid for releases (by independent artists/labels mainly) I feel I have a fairly unbiased approach to it. I reckon it’s just because the general public are simply not aware of the huge amount of effort, energy and money independent artists have to put in nowadays to releasing their music.
A lot of artists (even some fairly established ones) are going DIY now, including myself. This means that the artist handles everything from admin work like sorting manufacturing, distribution, promotion, organising tour dates, creating and managing a full live band (in my case), handling accounts, handling royalties, plugging releases to radio stations/magazines, organising artwork for releases, organising mastering, merchandise, mailing lists etc etc etc and then on top of all this; making the actual music.
Then someone comes along and steals your music because they don’t feel like they have to pay for your hard work.
I can also see why people want music for free and I am flattered that people want my music to the extent that they will take distribution into their own hands and post it up on blogs, torrent sites and so on; albeit in an illegal manor. I understand that a lot of people don’t support the iTunes music store, I don’t much either due to the constriants it imposes on its products, but the only reason I am plugging it so heavily is that is one of the most widely used audio players and integrates really well with web links. On the plus side, the ordering process is dead simple and they take a minimal cut from the sales (think it’s around 17p).
Some may ask why I decided to start charging for my releases. To put it simply, being a full time uni student and making electronic music is hard. Gear costs so much (that’s another rant) that a lot of us struggle to afford anything by NI, Apple or so on. Out of principle, I do not use pirated software so I make do without a lot of stuff (buying Reaktor 5 was the best thing I ever did). The problem comes when you try to buy gear for the live shows on a student budget. This is why I set up iambic music to release the Move EP so I could get an income to pump straight back into my music.
Anyway, please buy my EP. haha!
Buy on iTunes for only £3.16!!!