exploremusic

If you’re a professional musician, you have to choose between two sides when it comes to distributing your music.

The first is traditional.  You record albums and sell them to the public on plastic or through legitimate download stores.  The second is the exact opposite:  give away as much free music as possible in hopes of gaining a fanbase who will come to your shows, buy your t-shirts and evangelize what you do.

Gama Bomb is a Dublin band that gave away their album, Tales from the Grave in Space.   They saw their popularity rocket upward.

Then there’s U2, a billion-dollar venture that got to be that big because they were able to do things the old fashioned way.

Which way is the way forward?

Here’s a great article where Gama Bomb front dude, Philly Byrne, takes on U2 manager Paul McGuinness on the future of the music industry.  Pick your side.

By the way, this is what Gama Bomb looks and sounds like.