New album & political statement

I'd like to inform you about the release of a new digital album, which is now available on bandcamp. "TALES FROM THE VAULT" is a collection of cover songs and tracks which have never found their way on any album until now (and never will in these versions). All songs on this release were recorded sometimes between 2011 and 2015, some have been remixed while putting this release together.

You can download "TALES FROM THE VAULT" here FOR FREE: https://gardenofgrief.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-the-vault

Now why is this album (and more important: ALL other releases in digital form) offered for free? You may say this is a political issue. With the announcement of the new streaming service apple music I have seen quite a lot of articles, new and old, which all say pretty much the same: musicians seem to earn too little from digital music. To understand how much bullshit this actually is, one must ask following questions:

• why do people buy physical releases?
• why do people listen to music for free instead of spending money on physical or digital releases?
• what is the consequence of this choice for musicians?

The advantage of physical releases over files is quite obvious: it's a physical item with (hopefully) great artwork on good quality material, nicely designed and produced AND it contains the files which you can also take with you on other devices if you want to. If you want to spend money on music you will get the most with physical items. Of course you need much interest in exactly THAT band, to spend money on their music in the first place - which brings us straight to question number two.

If you are not interested enough in a certain band you won't spend money on them. Another reason for not spending money on music is because you are (at the moment or in general) not able to spend money on all bands you would like to support and need to make choices. In both cases you won't spend money, no matter if you find a way to listen for free or not. In other words: you are not a source of financial gain for the musician, no matter if you listen to his music or not.

The consequence for musicians is not too hard to understand: people who do not want to spend money on your music or who are not able to spend money will not provide financial gain - they will also not cause a financial loss if you still let them listen to your music. Why? Because FILES CAN BE REPRODUCED AT NO COST, a hundred or a million times, it doesn't matter. Therefore digital music MUST be offered for free. If fans willingly spend money on files it is great for you and a reasonable percentage of people will indeed do so. 

Some might say "But the music costs a lot of time and money to write and record!"...but seriously: you don't know if ANY person will want to spend money on your music before you write and record it and you will do it anyway. So the music IS already made before anyone can even decide for or against spending money on it. This is a bullshit argument used by the music industry to trick you into believing that somehow everyone who records anything is entitled to financial gain, no matter how many people really want to buy their shit. You can be streamed a million times, if no one wants to spend money on your albums (be it digital or physical) you can not, should not, must not except to live from your work or even expect any financial gain.