Freemium Music Business Models: a Case Study – Corey Smith

Posted on April 24, 2009
Filed Under art, community, creativity, marketing, new business models, online music, p2p, social media, social networking | View Comments

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In the music business Corey Smith can be considered a case study, as he has been capable of raising millions of dollars giving away his music for free and building at the same time a closer relationship with his fans.

What’s even more interesting is the experiment of last summer.
Corey’s tracks are also on iTunes. When they took the free tracks down from Corey site, iTunes actually went down. So they had to put the free tracks back up online, and the sale started rising again.

In Corey’s words, from one of his lectures:

“Musicians in the future are going to make less money, and they’ll have to depend on a variety of different streams of revenue in order to succeed.
Don’t be afraid of people pirating the music. Whenever someone downloads an album for free, if they like the music they’re going to come to the show, they’ll buy the ticket and you get your money back, and if they buy the t-shirt you can actually double the money.”

With his new business model, Corey says he’s been actually thinking less and less about business, and more about music; also, the connections with his fans reached up to another level. People email his manager Marty Winsch everyday asking for a track.

I’d be glad to get some feedback on this issue, also as an unsigned musician myself
What do you guys think? You can share your thoughts in the comments.