Only Adding To Our Legend

Mixtape Mastermind

The way in which music is has been distributed has change drastically in the last ten years. Due to the evolution of the internet music has become instant, and online sharing has become the new means of transportation for new music. So long are the days of going to the record store in order to cop the newest album. With online services such as iTunes and Amazon users can download music, both legally and ~~illgally,~~ in masses with a click of a button. As the internet has changed the way record labels have chosen to sell music, it has also changed the way in which artists choose to produce music.

One of the most popular avenues that artists have chosen to release their music is through mixtapes. Now, mixtapes have been around forever (back in the day they were actually tapes) and are nothing new to the music industry. The main difference between mixtapes and albums is that mixtapes are released for free. That's right; free. With the magnitude that mixtapes now hold there is one question that both music artists and fans alike have been asking. Are mixtapes more important than albums?

Looking back at the recent mixtape phenomenon, the beginning of the hype can be linked to Lil' Wayne. Now although many artists had released mixtapes before him, Tunechi was the spark for the mixtape game going global. When Lil' Wayne released his Dedication series mixtapes with DJ Drama in 2006 he sent the hip hop world in a frenzy. Not only was Wayne releasing quality music for free, but he was taking your favorite rapper's instrumentals and remaking the song so much better that it was hard to remember the original lyrics. Wayne's mixtape campaign gained him the self-proclaimed title as the "best rapper alive", and few were disagreeing with him. As Wayne and others led the revolution of taking other people's beats and making them their own, many rappers began releasing mixtapes with all original music. Hip-Hop's newest obsession Wiz Khalifa grew into a star overnight thanks to his Kush & Orange Juice mixtape. The tape was so popular that it became the number one trend on Twitter worldwide on the day it dropped. Where as before mixtapes consisted of recycled songs with DJ shout outs laced throughout the songs, artists are now essentially releasing studio albums for free in mixtape format. Some of those most critically acclaimed releases this year, including Fabolous' The Soul Tape, Pusha-T's Fear of God, and Big K.R.I.T.'s Returnof4eva, were not albums, but mixtapes given away for free. The songs on these mixtapes have videos to accompany them, and a lot of began to receive more radio play than songs featured on albums. Even R&B artists have gotten into the mixtape circuit, with singers like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean gaining national attention after their debuts through mixtapes.

With albums being pirated so often now it is a necessity that artists make a real connection with their fans. The easiest way to do that is to release their music for free. Free mixtapes show fans that they are appreciated by their favorite artist, and by building that connection they may be more enticed to buy their next album instead of illegally downloading it. It puts it into perspective that if they release the majority of their music for free, when they do sell an album the least their fans can do is go support their effort and purchase it. Mixtapes show that the hunger to make more music is there, and that creates a buzz that musicians can't buy. When a hot mixtape drops it's the talk of streets, and the respect is there. So while artists may be losing money they could have made selling albums, mixtapes create publicity for their music that is priceless.

Mixtape Mastermind

Text Widget

Pages

Sample Text

Sample text

Categories

Blogger news

Recent Posts

Blogger templates

Pages

Labels

Social Icons

Popular Posts

Sample Text

About Me

Followers

Blog Archive

Popular Posts

Featured Posts