free promo a good idea?

[Recessive Trait]

been toying with the idea of giving away an ep of my bootlegs, since i'll never be able to release them anyway. aimed mostly at the local market to drum up a little more excitement for my live sets. of course, anyone anywhere would be able to download it.

was thinking of getting it out there soonish as i will be relasing my first single some time later this year. thought it might help drum up some interest for that as well. but could it work against me?

good idea? bad idea? pros/cons?

cheers.

[skwiggo]

I think that would be a great idea as long as your not putting any of your new stuff that your releasing later in the year on the bootleg ep as people will less likely buy it if they can already access some or all of it for free

[Sharmaji]

very good idea. use bandcamp or some other service-- think of it as a trade for contacts, fans, whatever, not just a 1-sided giveaway

[Recessive Trait]

advantage of bandcamp over soundcloud?

[kontigobeats]

i was also thinking about this, ive got some tracks which have been getting good feedback and some told to send to labels etc, but in order to get my name out there etc i thought, give a couple of tracks out for free first? get on the promo from there. any tips from people on how they started out would be good?

[Over7hink]

advantage of bandcamp over soundcloud?

- people can download whichever format they want
- if you end up selling physical merchandise, you can do it from there as well
- sound quality is better...I think so anyway.
- you can request emails, it's good to have that contact list. Someone I know used to love seeing that someone from Chile downloaded their shit, as well as people from Russia, US, UK, Estonia, Hungary, South Africa (!!!!)....random places. Admittedly the most he ever got was like 50-100 downloads but whatever! 50-100 people enjoyed that shit.


there's no social networking aspect to it beyond collecting people's emails and contacting them that way.

however I've only ever used Bandcamp...I'm just listing things I like about it after using it for a very brief period, rather than claiming these are advantages over soundcloud

**I put something together which I'm thinking of sending around...one of the methods might be posting in the main DSF Forum. What are your thoughts on this ? (anyone). Do you think it will just get flooded out by other threads and ignored or is it worth posting it there. I suppose I could just try lol....but I'd like to hear your opinions.

[joekool]

this is a really tough question.

i would say network in real life with the people that you know in the area. go to your gigs, play out YOUR dubplates. those are your secret weapons as a DJ and a producer. if you give them away for free, you're devaluing them. if someone wants a copy of your tune, tell them that you'll trade with them for another exclusive. that's the best way to build your arsenal, and if your arsenal is heavy duty, then the people will come to your dance, and they'll hype your dance FOR YOU. a good tune promotes itself, ya know? it takes much more patience and a good sense of timing, but i feel its often the most natural and organic way to get things done. just my two centz