[Thomas W. Bethel]

Normally we do not do free mastering samples but one of my interns suggested starting to do them to see what happens. So far the experiment has been a dismal failure. We have had very few request for free samples and the couple we have done have gone back to the clients and they have never taken the time to get back in touch with us,

I am just wondering what others are doing about giving out free samples of their work to potential clients who request them?

[Hermetech Mastering]

Offer to send back 50% of the track with the full track on payment. I find that immediately gets rid of 100% of time wasters, and you don't spend any time mastering tracks for nothing.

[Twerk]

It's based entirely on my workload. No sense in interfering with my paying customers if things are steady. But when things get slow, I'll take on the occasional "mastering test" mostly because I consider any time spent at the console, means I'm hopefully getting at least a little better or more experienced at mastering.

One thing I don't do, is send back an entire song. I know people have mixed opinions on that, but that's what works best for me.

[djwaudio]

Time and soul vampire.  I'd rather be out living life than giving away my skills hoping for work to come of it. Time would be better spent keeping in touch with the people who actually send good projects, or going to a client's gig supporting them. 

[djwaudio]

This percentage is then applied it to my liking very much the same.

Come again?

[John Scrip - MASSIVE Mastering]

Looks like a drive-by bot, but I have no idea what for... 

[mroessler]

We only offer a test master for possible albums or ep's but not for singles. Also we cut off the last minute of the track and fade it out so the test song can't be commercially used. That has worked best for us to attract serious clients.