For immediate release 18/01/2012
Today, like most days, I spent my whole day trying to figure out how to make a living as an independent musician. Between lining up projects, promoting my band, The Jane Austen Argument, listening to studio mixes and writing countless emails to people who probably won’t write back, I was reading avidly about the Wikipedia shutdown in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act.
Bearing this in mind – I was flicking between my netbank (-$20K and counting) and my twitter feed and watched with excitement as Triple J Hack lead a national discussion on this very topic. I decided to put my money (or lack thereof) where my mouth is – and offer my EP for a $0 donation for the duration of the radio program. Triple J retweeted it, and suddenly 50 people downloaded it for free – a further twenty paid far more than it sells for usually.
This is the economic reality of being a musician in the 21st century. The people who can and want to spend money on your music, will. The people who either can’t or won’t spend the cash will ALSO support you! They will rock up to your gigs, spread the word to their 100 friends and it will ripple outwards and reach unfathomable distances. The possibilities are so much greater now compared to the days when it took being signed to a big label to get you on Video Hits.
It is an exciting time to be an independent musician. And piracy is not the endgame – it is a beginning of a new era of possibility.
To that end – I’m sticking with Wikipedia – for as long as they are dark, my songs are free.
Sincerely
Tom Dickins
You can download the EP, “Peter Pan, 6 Years On” at http://tomdickins.bandcamp.com
Thank you very much Tom! Your support is another voice against this oppression!
Hope to see you soon,
Igor
Hi, I came here via a link on @SleeplessNights twitter feed. I hadn’t heard of you before but after reading your blog post I will make an effort to listen to your music.
I am a ceramic artist and I often give my work away. Even though some of my colleagues are very disapproving I can’t help myself if someone loves my work I want them to have it.
I followed a youtube link the other day to bands website and they had a “choose your price option” which thought was really great. you could download the song for free or you could pay whatever you thought was a fair thing. I thought the cover song they did was very, very clever so I paid $5 for the song. I felt that $5 was a fair trade and luckily for me my netbank said + $17.00 at the time so I could afford it. If I can find the link to their website I will come back here and put it into the comments.
cheers Kim
You are so awesome! I discovered you from the Amanda Palmer album where you sung Bad Wine and Lemon Cake. I love love love that song. I bought the EP a few weeks ago and it is brilliant. I think you have the most beautiful voice I ever heard and the lyrics are so touching. I just got divorced and I think the theme song of my divorce is Stay the Same. I can’t believe you are struggling, you should be rich and famous. .
[...] like this letter from Tom Dickins of The Jane Austen Argument. Piracy is almost essential to keep independent artists like Tom going. Piracy is actually what [...]
I like your stance, and above all I like your music. I found out about your music from a friend of mine, but I didn’t know whether I’d like it until I heard it for myself. I heard it for free on Bandcamp and liked it, this would lead me to follow you on twitter, on the lookout for any upcoming gigs and the releases of any new albums for me to buy.
People tend to want to hear music a couple of times before they rush out to buy it, unless it’s subliminally forced down their throats by a corporate machine. Real music, created by artists and not panels of marketing experts, is hard to sell. A lot of aspiring artists are out there now, giving their music away on the Internet for free, in the hope of people enjoying it and gaining a little notoriety. Many respected musicians like yourself also enjoy having their content available to sample for free online.
PS: I hope you guys are playing Manchester in the UK sometime soon!
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