digital sales

a small piece of research on my own showed that ;
for a small independent label, the income on digital sales account after all deductions and encoding fees are 19% of gross earnings. Imagine you are an artist that takes 18% royalties; you better give it away for free.

IN this example im talking about a small label that i know that has a struck a deal with one of the biggest digital distributors in the world.

But would giving it away for free increase attention? well, at least what keeps an unkown costumer from getting the record, cause now its for free. more people listen your record, more people might go to your show, buy your merch etc. Free music is the future