Tuesday 30 November 2010

Hip Hop Artists Can Distribute, Promote and Buy Beats Online

By Kyle Artzt


Everybody seems to be talking about how the music industry is crashing and it's impossible to come up these days, but with the ability to buy beats online, distribute yourself worldwide using the internet and promote yourself for free using websites... I'm not exactly sure where their information is coming from. Sure it's true that illegal downloading and cyber pirating has become somewhat of a problem in the past couple of years, but it's blown way out of proportion and it's definitely not the reason why the major industry is seeing so many less sales. The music industry is going through some dramatic changes but by no means is the rap game, hip hop or music in general dying out.

Everybody in the media likes to talk about how sales are declining for major artists and how somehow this means that the rest of the industry is doomed to a fate of crashing and total annihilation. They don't want you knowing the truth about what's happening in the music industry and so I'm here to clear that up for you. The major industry is losing sales dramatically and they're not doing as well, that's absolutely true. But that doesn't mean a thing because if you look at the independent industry, it's actually never done as good as it's doing right now! It's doing better than you could possibly comprehend while majors are indeed falling off.

In 2009 Billboard magazine estimated that 50% of all album/single sales made that year were by independent record labels and artists! That's a huge number considering that for most of music history there has been an undeniable domination done by major record labels. The reason the numbers are shooting up for us and down for them is because people are starting to appreciate independents more, but also because independents are able to promote themselves much easier in today's industry. As people start to flock towards the independent music scene, the major labels are slowly losing their touch and seeing less sales every project they put out.

The internet has been labeled the criminal that is responsible for all the crazy mayhem going on in today's industry, but it's actually a great saint that has helped us enormously! Even with the introduction of cyber pirating, are you aware that 80% of music lovers still buy music? That means that a tiny 20% of sales are seen as a loss due to illegal downloading, which is a lot, sure, but it's not nearly as bad as everybody seems to be trying to make it out to be. Since the major labels are indeed selling less records, does that necessarily mean the industry's crashing? Quite frankly I like independent music better anyway.

The internet has made it possible to promote yourself online for free, so it's no longer necessary to have a big budget to get yourself heard. Websites such as YouTube, MySpace and Twitter have made viral marketing easy to achieve and more websites like this are coming out every day. Not only that but the internet has also provided many more enormous opportunities for hip hop artists and musicians around the world. For instance Tunecore, an online distribution company, has now made it possible for artists to get themselves on major mp3 retailers such as iTunes, Rhapsody and more for a low, affordable cost that even poor independents can find a way to afford. Plus being able to buy beats online has changed the game completely.




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