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Rap Music Artists Have Got The Business Down Pat
Rap Music Is More Than Just Gangsta Rap
Greed. DMN doesn’t come off saying that rap music artists are greedy. Instead, what they say is that materialism is built-in to the entertainment industry and rap musicians have figured out how to make the most of what they’ve got going. Rappers like Jay-Z epitomize the kind of “greed” that DMN is talking about. By marketing more than their music, rappers open up opportunities for themselves to expand their brands and make more money. Jay-Z, who currently earns more than any other rapper, does so by promoting a combination of interests: rap music, night clubs, entertainment, other rappers, clothing and more. By spreading out the brand image, rappers can make more money simply because they’ve got more cookie jars to get their hands into.
Building Culture. Rap and hip-hop musicians travel in the same circles. Having a rapper appear on another rapper’s album is part of the culture. Including samples from other songs – well-known and obscure alike – is part of what makes rap and hip-hop music unique. In addition, rappers refer to other rappers’ works, use each other’s language and have an ongoing conversation that the fans all understand. It allows the listeners to be part of the conversation and to understand what one artist means when s/he refers to another artist’s work.
Powerful, recurring themes. According to DMN, rap music focuses on some powerful, long-running themes, like poverty, violence, wealth, and sex. These themes are common not only to the rappers, but to the fans, who can relate closely with what the rapper is expressing. By giving fans something they can relate to, rappers encourage them to be loyal listeners, and also provide a way for fans to explore these themes in their own lives.
Last but not least, fans are engaged. By keeping fans involved in the evolution of the music, by feeding their desire to hear more of their favorite artists, by showing them their favorite rappers in movies, television programs and other entertainment outlets, and by releasing significantly more material (mostly free), rap musicians prosper even during today’s deep recession.
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Do Rap Music Artists Really Make Better Businessmen?
Music Production Is One Of The Keys
Collaborate. Collaborations are king in the rap music world, and according to the research, collaborations sell better and are more interesting to the listening audience than tracks (and albums) that feature a single artist. By combining artists, DMN argues that producers can “share” fans and get more reliable and effective exposure for up-and-coming acts.
DJs count. According to DMN, DJs are critical to exposing a new artist to the listening audience. They also create a market for rap and hip-hop music by creating mixtapes that are distributed at no cost to the listener. While some may mistake the mixtape as an outlet for material that’s not good enough to be put on an album, the mixtape freebies actually create an ongoing music feed to the audience and increase demand for the artists’ music.
More work means more music. In the past musicians would work intensely for a relatively short period of time to create enough usable tracks for an album. Today’s top musicians (in more genres than just rap) work all the time. Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga are notable examples of musicians who record daily. Not every track is worth putting on an album; in fact, only a few tracks make it to the album stage, but the artist creates a new product every day. This generates a lot of material that would otherwise not be created, or would be thrown away. Today’s artists give away a lot of their music. For example, Lil Wayne has given away more music than most traditional musicians make in their entire careers. The benefits? Audiences have become very familiar with Lil Wayne and reward him by buying his albums when he does produce one. Another benefit? Lil Wayne can release albums at will. He has enough material available to put out a collection whenever the timing is right.
Rappers Find A Lot of Local Support Because rap musicians regularly pay tribute to where they came from, they get a lot of support from fans in those areas. By building a base of support – which includes regular mentions of the places they’re familiar with – rappers can count on receptive audiences for music sales and tours.
In my next post, I’ll look at the other four reasons DMN says that rap musicians are better at the business aspects of music than artists who work in other genres.
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Mos Def Signs With Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music Label
Mos Def Has An Established Fan Base
This isn’t the first time that West and Mos Def have worked together. Mos Def appeared on West’s “Two Words” a track on the 2005 album College Dropout and again on “Drunk and Hot Girls” from West’s 2007 Graduation album. Mos Def has worked primarily as a solo artist, although his first album, Black Star, featured himself and Talib Kweli. His albums have each been released by a different record label, and one – True Magic – received no promotion at all, either by the record label (Geffen Records) or by the artist himself. He has appeared in several other albums and collaborations with other artists and he’s recently developed his own clothing line.
It remains to be seen whether Mos Def will become more productive or mainstream on the G.O.O.D. Music label. Despite his limited album releases and movement from label to label, the hip-hop artist has had an undeniable influence on hip hop music. Working with West and his growing collection of rap and hip-hop artists may finally allow Mos Def to achieve what many see as his true potential.
In the mean time, the hip-hop music world waits for another bright star. Many new artists are entering the business on their own, thanks to the availability of music self production tools. Even as little as ten years ago, self-production was relatively unheard of in music circles, because self production is only half the picture. Promotion is what sells records, and weak self-production tools and poor self-promotion channels meant that new, independent artists had little chance of being heard.
Today, all of that has changed. Self-produced music is much more common, and tools like Sonic Producer make self-production easier than ever. Self promotion is available through the Internet, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and sales channels like iTunes. In terms of music, there has never been a better time to be a self-producer than right now.
Sonic Producer is available for download on both the PC and Macintosh platforms. Download your copy today and see how easy self-producing your own music can be!
Photo Credit: Poopenheim, via Flickr
Hip Hop Music May Be Recession Victim
What Does This Mean For Hip Hop Music?
Some analysts attribute the decline in sales to the recession and music piracy. Digital distribution is also cutting into album sales, but digital music sales are also reported to be down. The album format isn’t as popular as it may have been at one time in part because digital distribution enables people to buy the songs they want without having to buy an entire album.
The popularity of music services like iTunes should convince at least some people that consumers are willing to buy music. The advantage that iTunes offers is that it enables people to buy music economically and choose only the songs they want to hear, without having to pay for songs they don’t. It’s popular because it delivers exactly what the consumer wants.
Still, industry analysts are left with the nagging impression that music sales should be higher. They base this conclusion on the fact that there are a lot of MP3 players, and sales of MP3 devices are relatively healthy. They reason that if people are buying the players, they should also be buying the music to go along with them, right?
MP3 players are for more than just digital music though. A lot of people have converted their existing music libraries to digital format. This provides the listener with what they want at no cost since they’ve already purchased the media. People choose to listen to other audio products like podcasts.
People also choose to produce their own music. Self-produced music is growing in popularity and people now have the tools they need to make the sounds they’re interested in hearing. Sonic Producer is a great example of a complete music production software suite. With Sonic Producer, even a novice music producer can create the sounds s/he wants to hear and export professional-sounding results to MP3. Don’t believe me? Download your copy of Sonic Producer today and find out just how easy it can be to self-produce your own music.
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Fat Beats Closure Just A Sign Of The Times For Hip Hop Music
Digital Music Catches Up With Fat Beats
At Fat Beats, it was not at all unusual to find professional and amateur DJs, and fans alike crowded around the store’s turntables to hear the latest that the musical genre had to offer. DJs and MCs were free to promote themselves among true hip hop aficionados. New sounds and new techniques were the order of the day at Fat Beats and many new artists found their inspiration there. The staff were hired based on their knowledge and love of hip hop,
Scratching has given way to electronic sampling and sound generation. Selling music has also been replaced by the digital download. And ultimately, that’s what’s brought Fat Beats to its current state. When it comes to music, digital is the way to go from production to distribution. Electronic music formats make not only professional production and distribution easier, it also enables self-publishing for individuals who – no matter how talented – escape the notice of the music publishing industry.
Fat Beats has closed its last retail store, but the company isn’t gone. It’s merely moving into the next phase of its existence. It has reinvented itself as a music label, and an online music retailer. Yes, it will still sell the vinyl that made its name, but it will also distribute music. Hip hop music fans can still count on Fat Beats to provide the best hip hop music collection available.
Digital distribution outlets like iTunes and Fat Beats give self-publishers a real opportunity to make the kind of music they want to make as well as an opportunity to be heard. Self-published music defeats the record label “‘gatekeeping” system that’s been established. The traditional system of music publishing meant that “hit” sounds and styles were copied precisely because the originals were successful, even though it meant that other original sounds – which might have had more public appeal – went unnoticed or unpublished.
Today, self-publication makes music anyone’s game. Anyone can come up with a club hit, a YouTube smash or just consistently good music that’s followed by a limited number of loyal fans.
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