From music to airlines to cell phones, consumer expectations for free goods and services is on the rise.  Yup, free- zero, zilch, nada moolah.  In March 2008, the independent trend firm trendwatching.com released an article detailing this new business movement.

So how can musicians keep up with these expectations without giving away all the fruits of their labor for no return?

“Launched earlier this month, Qtrax claims to be the worlds first free and legal peer-to-peer music service, boasting a 25 million song library from major music labels. Although the songs are DRM’d, Qtrax downloads can be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players such as iPods. Qtrax guarantees that users will never download spyware, adware or bogus audio files often found on file-sharing networks. The Qtrax free music model depends on generating enough advertising revenue to pay the record companies licensing fees based on how many times a song is played. (Source: VNUnet.)”

“Backed by musician Peter Gabriel, British We7 is offering consumers free songs tagged with 10-second advertisements, which are played before the music track starts. Four weeks after downloading, We7 gives the user the option of downloading an ad-free, DRM-free version.”

“SpiralFrog, the free, ad-supported, web-based music service that launched in September 2007 in North America, last month announced that the site had hit one million unique monthly visitors. Italians meanwhile can get their FREE LOVE music fix at Downlovers.”

Free downloads aren’t the only wallet friendly marketing tools in your arsenal.  The access trend, or “ACCE$$ trend” as the article puts it, argues that offering non-copyable, limited access experiences and products is key to creating and ensuring artist revenue.   “After all, if our current consumer culture is all about being unique, then having access to what others in one’s (perceived and aspired) peer group do not have access to is the holy grail.“

For example, exclusive merchandise and exclusive concerts.  Many major artists have already jumped on this trend. In 2007,  Prince’s album Planet Earth was given away for free by being placed inside The Mail, a UK paper distributed on Sundays.  Following that, nearly 3 million copies were sold in the UK.  “It all added to the real excitement: his concerts, 21(!) of them, in Wembley Stadium in August 2007, each packing in 20,000 paying fans.”

And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve head about the latest album by Radiohead: In Rainbows.  Fans were allowed to purchase tracks by naming their own price.  “Allowing people to download the album as DRM-free MP3s at no charge, the band avoided “unauthorized” piracy, and got the music out to everyone who wanted it. Music site Gigwise.com estimates the band ’sold’ about 1 million copies.”

Check out the full length article for a great read on the Free Love trend (and links to many cool, free products).  Got suggestions on ways to offer free love to your fans and consumers?  Comment and share ‘em.

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