Phree Phish

Phish is giving away a free download of every song from last night's show in Hampton Virginia. It’s really good too. It’s kind of a repeat of their classic Hampton Comes Alive show from 1998.

You can get last night’s show here.

This is one of the reasons why Phish can sell out any show that they play. The fans come first. Giving away concert recordings doesn’t hurt ticket sales. It boosts them. It boosts album sales as well. If I get to hear last nights concert, how good they are right now, of course I’ll want to see them when they hit my town next week. But most bands can’t see this. They have a severe case of tunnel vision that forces them to try and get money out of every song they play. It doesn’t even occur to them that they should give anything away. What’s in it for them right now? Instead they should put the fans first. Give people what they want for free and they will come to your show, buy your CD, and get it on vinyl too.

I wish more bands would do this. The only problem is that they can only play their own songs. Otherwise they would have to pay the statutory mechanical royalty (currently 9.1 cents) for each track downloaded. So they can’t do Dark Side of The Moon. But who cares when you’ve got a catalog like Phish.