Copyright

Johnathan Coulton a singer song writer based in Brooklyn refers to his music as an experiment in new ways in which content will be distrubuted and disseminated as a result of the internet. In his own words is that, ‘I give away music because I want to make music, and I can’t make music unless I make money, and I won’t make any money unless I get heard, and I won’t get heard unless I give away music.' Jonathan Coulton has all of his music available to stream to stream on his website, as well as many of the songs available for free download. Customers are then able to buy the song and can also make donations via paypal or amazon. Jonathan says that some of his songs have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, 45% of his income in 2007 was from paid digital downloads. He believes that most of his success is because he was able to give away free music and allowing his music to be used in music videos made by fans and posted on Youtube which some has recieved high views. Fans have also created cover versions of his songs, artwork, dances, plays, card games and even guitar instructional videos. This has enabled him to getting free publicity, Coulton believes.

This case study's argument is for music copyrights as it shows that giving music out for free helps spreads the word faster and gets the artist more noticed. It shows that by giving free money doesn't always results in poor outcomes instead more profit is made if music is given alway as it will ensure that his voice will be heard. Many may argue that this means artists could lose out in a lot of profit if music is given out for free, however this case study shows that making more profit can also be the case as it shows that his music has also been downloaded many times. Having given out his free music this has enabled fans to create music videos, cover versions, artworks and many more which has helped in getting his music out there more, ensuring a bigger audience.

I also agree with this method and think that it is a clever and better way of getting music out to fans. By having his music out there for free encourages more people to listen to it which gets him out there. It also helps as fans can then use his music to create music videos, cover versions and so on. Therefore, giving him a worldwide audience which then can lead to more profit as people from different places/county download his song. However, I do believe there is negative side to this. That being he could lose out on profit since he is giving his music out for free which might prevent people from buying it. But as proven by Coulton, free music could also be seen as positive.

Here is evidence of how worldwide he has gotten (the views) by giving out his music for free:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8