The Confusion
I saw two or three separate rants today about how artists (mostly new) should push their music. It made me realize we have no unified front.
On the one hand, I read a rant about how giving away free songs and mixtapes is killing rap music. It’s true, it is the only genre that has that real of “give it away to get attention,” why is that? Over-saturation? Large quantity? Large demand? Plain desperation that someone will like it and give you a chance perhaps? I 
think it’s a combination of all, and like the ranter said it cheapens the value of what you do. It’s hard to just give, give, give, and then when you feel you’ve reached a certain level, ask those people who are so used to received to compensate going forward. With the over-saturated market, often people will then resort to piracy or someone else. It’s a sad cycle we have dug ourselves in and we are to blame with fantastical stories or signing contracts on the spot, off of youtube, and the long-forgotten myspace. We have created a false image that if you keep churning it out in some way, you’ll get lucky one day and people will invest in you. That’s so not true.
Know your worth…
And the other rant I read was the “we are artist, and you should be ok with giving some things away because you love it” argument. This is a difficult one to challenge because every fan is going to agree with this; I mean if you don’t love to do something for free, why would you expect people to pay for it. You have to view it in the right perspective though. Yes, you should be passionate about your craft, you should want to be that rebel, that voice, but that doesn’t mean your voice has no value. True, you are never going to get rich selling songs and CDs unless you are some contract-writing, marketing genius, but that does not mean that material should be considered worthless and the only way to recoup is shows and other ventures. As an artist, everything you touch should have value to a fan, a fan should recognize that. A fan should recognize where passion is, and have no problem supporting that. I’ve had people pay me for my work without me asking, that is a blessing and I appreciate them recognizing that it is an exchange and they are willing to risk that exchange.
From my view I’ve done both… I’ve given away plenty of freebies and I’ve asked people to take that risk and contribute monetarily. The cold hard fact is, you cannot survive without investors or revenue, unless you want to be the best homeless artist there is. It is a balancing act of exchanges and communication to survive in music. There are times when you shouldn’t expect compensation in exchange for expanding your network and there are times when you should ask “why am I not getting anything for everything I’ve done?” Every situation is different and there are very guide honest guides to follow because everyone’s story is different.
The most blatant thing to me though is we lack consistency in rap. We don’t all have the same goal or passion and that has led to a huge lack of confidence in our product. Now every song, every lyric, every hook is questioned for authenticity, analyzed to find the motive of the creator. Art is art, yes, but Rap music has emerged as an influence on culture in many facets of life, it is now a business. Know your worth, set your value and be consistent.
Tags: Art, Culture, Music, Rap, Thoughts
