The Digital Era (Californiyay #1)

One thing comes to mind when I hear the question “Has the digital era killed the music industry?” There are two ways to look at it like is the half full or half empty ya’dig? It’s undeniable the digital era’s given power to the artists that make the music you hear but has the digital killed the industry beyond revival? Let’s look at it from both perspectives.

The half full perspective: There was a time where if you weren’t on a label, or if you were on a label but did not have a push from that label your music didn’t reach people on a wide scale yet you could still make your own tape & hit the block. If your music was dope it would circulate & through generations of dubs that tape might find its way to other cities both in & outside of your region. Now an artist can upload music directly to the world wide web & guess what they’re international. With website banners, email blasts, ring tones, myspace etc. The cross marketing potential & the circulation possibilities are endless.

The half empty perspective: Lets run some numbers. More than 840 million digital tracks were purchased during 2007; an increase of 45% over 2006. Digital album sales reached the 50 million for 2007; up 53% over the previous year and accounted for 10% of total album sales compared to 5.5% in 2006. Digital track sales surpassed 42.9 million in 2007. The previous sales record was 30.1 million in 2006. Now these numbers & interesting facts go on & on but lets really look at how this affects the hip-hop generation. Does it take at least 3 times the exposure to move physical units? Meaning if you move 10,000 units do you have to have efficient marketing to at least 30,000 people? Does being able to download an album within a few minutes take away the magic of opening up a CD? Plus it doesn’t help that everyone raps & uploads their shit online. Artists don’t have to press CDs or press up vinyl to put their music into a scene. How can a scene bubble without artists in the streets, at the clubs, or what’s left after all the local record shops disappear?

The web has no doubt caused the rap genre to get saturated at such a rapid pace but what does this mean for the future? Plain and simple artists have to manage their own careers better. Adapt!!! Learn how to run your own site learn how to send out mp3’s find your niche online & capitalize. Tour!!! Hit regions with quality merchandise but don’t burn that scene out at the same time. Hit it once or twice a year & go for the killing. Basically STAY IN THE STREETS!!! Do you & the masses will follow. Show people that YOU HAVE what THEY WANT & your brand is something to count on. Stay consistent & listeners will come back when they need that fix. I’m a believer that hip-hop will find its way as it always has. The culture is rooted in struggle & that’s what drove its purpose from the beginning. In the digital era it’s on us as artists to not let the system swallow the music that we make. It’s ours until we forfeit ownership.

Until next time ya’ll
Lefty (www.thebashbros.com)