"So, my name is Kyle Cox. I'm 25, from Orlando, FL, graduated from the University of Central Florida with a business degree but now work full time as a worship coordinator at a church here, and love writing, recording, and playing my own solo music. I really started getting "serious" about my solo music while I was playing in another band, Poverty Branch, here in town. We had been playing together for about 2 years and were doing pretty well, having a great time, had a few small breaks here and there, but things just fizzled out over time. After that, I decided I was pretty over the idea of being in a band as a job, so I just kept writing my own stuff for fun.
Now, there are many other reasons and philosophies of why I give my music away for free and it's something that I love discussing with anyone who will listen, but all of those reasons would take way too much space to type out. So I'll try to keep it to a few main reasons. Pretty simply stated, I don't think people will by music if they have no clue who I am. Very rarely do I buy music from a band or artist I've never heard of, so I don't expect anyone to do that with my music.
Another reason for giving away my music for free is that there's very little of my own income invested in my music. I have been very blessed with extremely talented friends who have been willing to record, mix, master my music for very little or even free. I also have been blessed with an incredible job, consistent pay check, doing what I love, so as a result, haven't needed to rely on my own music to pay my bills. Some people would argue that this would be a great opportunity to make more money since I have so little invested in it (and they would probably be right), however, I just see this as an opportunity to use those blessings that have been given to me to maybe bless others with free music which they might enjoy.
Lastly, this is all just so fun...playing music, so why not give it away? I've also been trying to do my best to play as many free shows as I can. I just really like the idea of people sharing what they love to do just because they love to do it and not letting money be the driving factor behind their craft. Now, being a business major and understanding how that world works, I understand you can't always give things away or expect things for free. People have to eat, people have bills to pay, and if music is someone's full time job and that's how they make a living, you better support them and not steal their music. But it is not how I pay my bills and I've been very fortunate to be able to continue to do music, whether recording, playing shows, buying gear, etc, for a very low cost if any at all...so I have decided to make my music available for free as long as that's the case."
Kyle Cox is currently recording his new video. Get a preview at it here:
Thefreemusic.net Introduction To...Kyle Cox