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  • » Name: Amanda Bassa
  • » Location: VA
  • » Member Since: 09/21/07
  • » Bio: student, future change maker, and everything you wouldn't expect me to be.
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The Undisputed Truth

Viewing Posts Tagged "art"   View All

To Buy? Or to Download? (Pt. 2)


September 28, 2007 | Tags: art, Downloading, mixtapes, free, album sales

Now that we’ve established the fact that I think illegally downloading music can be a benefit to the artist, rather than a loss (although I think some of you missed or forgot that point…whatever though), let’s take the concept a step further. Theories are nice and all, but they remain nothing but a theory until you have proof. And it’s about time I give you some, rather than just throwing my nutty, insomnia-induced ideas at you.


In my eyes music is an art (and apparently in brooklynJUICE’s too. Thanks for reading my mind!). Just like putting my words out there for you to read is my art. I can’t draw to save my life and I can’t make some sculpture with one arm and a leaf for an outfit. But I can take the words I have running through my head, put them onto paper (uh..pixel form?) and try to paint a picture in a reader’s mind. And the simple fact of the matter is that I enjoy this art. I’m not in it for money because, frankly, I’m not getting any from it. Yeah, I’m just a broke, pissed at the world, college student. I do this solely for the enjoyment of it, which is what any artist should be doing – if they don’t enjoy their art, it will show through in the finished products of their efforts. So ideally, artists in the musical sense of the word should have a deep passion for what they do, which will probably surpass their desire for money. I mean when it comes down to it, you can always get a job on the side to help pay your bills if it means you get to do what you love.



One of the best concepts to happen to rap music since the internet has taken over our lives is that of the cyber-distributed free mixtape. Remember, the downloading generation is full of lazy, cheap farts that flock to things labeled “FREE!” faster than a day laborer runs when he hears the word “immigration”. Don’t take this as a shot at that generation though – I’m one of ‘em. And damn if I don’t jump all over free shit myself. What I’m getting at with this though is that the artist doesn’t HAVE to give their audience free shit. But it’s the artists like this that I believe really care about their art. They put out these mixtapes not to make money off of them, but so that people hear them. And it’s not even like the mixtapes being put out these days are full of a bunch of low-quality filler tracks that just didn’t make the cut for the artist’s next album – some of these mixtapes are some straight fire.* They want you to download this shit. They could make money off of them pretty damn easily…but they choose not to. And the only reason they would choose not to would be because there is a benefit to this – whether it’s satisfying your market’s desire for freebies and in turn solidifying their dedication to you as a fan, getting your name out, or satisfying their own desire to just simply make good music.



So if these people can sacrifice money for their art, what’s up with the rest of these rappers who are only out to get the consumer’s loot and never wanna do anything just for the sake of doing it? It makes me question their dedication to the art, and says to me that perhaps they aren’t so much artists as they are the art themselves. Art in the sense that some industry executive thought they had a good face/overall image (read: insane accent, goofy looking face and utterly poor fashion sense) or some sort of marketability factor and that the rapper is now merely a money-making pawn to their superiors, that is.



To sum it all up, my main point in this is that if certain artists who haven’t even made it big yet (like Wale…see below) can cave and afford to put out a solid, free mixtape, then it baffles me as to how the amount of albums you sell is going to make a difference in your life. Until I see these musicians riding around in early 90’s era Honda civics where the heat doesn’t work anymore, I’ll remain sick of hearing them bitch and complain about some money that they lost off album sales because people downloaded it instead.



[[Let it be known that my aforementioned theory about this is only intended in reference to mainstream artists – I understand that the underground scene is one hell of a hustle and works a bit differently.]]



*One of the best I’ve heard in a while, and that I’ve put a few people onto, is Wale’s “100 Miles and Running” mixtape which you can download for FREE from Wale's myspace page. Big ups to Wale for all his accomplishments and for giving the DMV (that’s the DC, Maryland, and VA for you outsiders) some much needed shine. Watch out for this guy.





The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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