I was wondering yesterday what dmv artist has the heart and or even the understanding to put out a "official independent album" for sale. I think some artist are afraid of failure. You don't want to put out and push official albums because in actuallity it probably wouldn't do that well for several reasons. So many of you continue to pollute cyber space with random songs and probably the logic is "I aint failing by giving out free music". But some of you are failing because no one is listening to the free stuff you put out.
On a real note it doesn't really take much to put out a official "for sale" album these days so please don't use that as an excuse. Especially with all the cyber whoring going on there are too many available channels. I hear artist talk all this........ "I got fans", "I go listeners" etc........well if you have so many fans and listeners put something out for sale!
Now what is considered a successful indie album? Well that's up to the artist but in my personal opinion if I put out an album and I sold only 500 copies thats success in my eyes. That's money made off my investment. Where are the albums dmv artist? There are a few out there like the paxtons, wasteland mob and I have the upmost respect for them for getting out there in the cyber merch market. But I think some of you are scared.....................
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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24 comments:
very true, I feel like a lot of people are just trying to build up a buzz to that point, but i dont think that the majority of artists even have that in their sites. good post.
J-$CRILLA - Culture Of Honor 8.25.09
Definitely will support J-$crilla. Hot shit, homie.
Well, I'll just give my take on this as an artist in the DMV. And I'd like to hear other cats take on it as well. I sold about 250 copies of "When Nothing Goes Right" give or take with 50 promo copies I had given out. And the way it was done, I had to guage the costs of how much it would be for me to press it. Internet sales....I got about $160 last year. Its not much but like Judah said, its a success in the end since people actually pay money for your music. I'd say even making one sale off of your music is something to look at.
The latest project (album not a mixtape), "A Day In The Life Of Modern Day Living", I leaked it to get feedback on it for those who want to hear it. We got feedback from those in our circle but, getting it from those who aren't in our camp can give us a different perspective on our music. Physical copies will be limited because of the demand of CDs. Plus, I've never tried leaking a whole project beforehand; its a learning experience. It does something to the value of people wanting to cop the CD. If they like the project enough, they may just cop the album. But thats a dice roll since if they already got the music, they may not want the other shit that costs $5 or $10 to have. Me, I like having the artwork and the actual CD in case the mp3s and wavs screw up.
All in all, I think what Judah said is important. You can't be afraid of failure. In order to achieve success, you're going to have a failure or two to learn from mistakes. Sorry, if thats long-winded but I feel where JUDAH's coming from on this.
Stamp!!!
Me.. I'm not scare.. I put out 2 albums (check cdbaby.com) before I started doing mixtape.. I was against mixtapes til Calico put me on to it. I release several mixtapes ,due for the love and fun of it but put more exclusive track on it. I got my own digital distribution where I'm selling my single such as "Look At Me', "She Got It Goin" and etc is on itunes and etc. and no I didn't get thru cdbaby...they sell my old cd online. I do have an offical album that's coming out in a few month for sale but I'm having fun doing this mixtape thing and giving ya something to listen to till my next 3 offical album drop..That why I drop mixtapes every month becuz again IT'S FUN!!!.
Go to my site: www.gitatme.ning.com
___________________________________
Now if u wanna purchase my album or single go to itunes or any online store and type in Hevewae.. or go to cdbaby.com and cop my old ish.. Til then mixtapes is coming from me and my group.....
__________________________________
The Underground Beast 2 & The Underground Beast 3: Bammas Still Don't Know (The offical album) with production by Mr. Whitefolk, Calico, The Presidents, AOF Production, DX of Ruff Off Production, Ghetto Tunes Production, PL12 production and more upcoming production from DMV, ATL, Jeresy,NY, NC & other location.. ...Coming Up next!!!
Hevewae The Underground Beast
WHITEFOLKZ-"GOD OF THE BLOCK"
3200 SOLD(PAYPAL RECIEPTS AVAILABLE)
WHITEFOLKZ-"ST ELIZABETH BLUES"
700 SOLD(DAMN I WENT DOWN IN NUMBERS EWWWW! LOL)
WHITEFOLKZ-"H.O.M.E."
AVAILABLE NOW AT: ITUNES, WWW.TOPPDOGGHILL.COM AND TOPP DOGG HILL ART STUDIOS LOCATED AT
4911 GEORGIA AVE NW
WASHINGTON, D.C.
I SENT YOU THE LINKS BUT YOU DIDNT POST IT
SO.......
SMART POST! SUNI !
I think it's not fear so much as lack of talent. The reality of the matter is that most of the artists you feature on this page are a dime a dozen...no offense meant, but much of it sounds the same ("swag", chains, "how hard I am," yada yada).
There's little innovation. And because there's little innovation these tracks will continue to pollute the airwaves...because people can make them due to the influx of cheap recording technologies. They'll make them, but they won't get anywhere. Genuine music that's real and about something can get somewhere, especially if it's performed well live.
These live performances are what builds buzz. You can use free singles and such to further that buzz, but if the single sucks, it's of no use.
Once again, no offense meant. Just being real. "If I don't like it, I don't like it...that don't mean that I'm hating."
///je-music.com
DMV Artists that put out ALBUMS!
Head-Roc
The Package
Noyeek The Grizzly Bear
DJ Eurok
Ardamus
Diamond District
Oddisee
Kev Brown
Shamballa
Dave Watusi
J-Scrilla
Dirty Water
Cool C Brown
Kokayi
Rico albums available
A Day in The Life
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_dmusic?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=rico+A+day+in+the+life
I AM HIM
http://www.amazon.com/I-Am-Him-Explicit/dp/B002FWZGFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1247767742&sr=8-1
Both also available on itunes as well as www.blaqonline.com
To Joe:
I feel u but at the same time everyone in the hip hop/rap game is saying the same thing.. I don't care if u are a gangsta, backpack and etc. Everyone is saying the same thing but in a different way.. So we can based on that... If Rapper A rap about recession, time to build, and get ya mind right, black people unite and etc..but Rapper A became popular... But Rapper B-Z was rappin the same ish but in a different way but they not as popular az Rapper A.. The same ish we rap about now.. is the ish that was rapped about back in the late 80s, and the 90s but in a different way... In the 80-90: we had the biz markie dance, the pee wee herman dance and etc.. Now : crank dat dance, batman dance, and etc..
man u gotta put that shit in the streets....bump that shit in ppl face and dont be scared of the feedback. Nobody knew they'd like crack til they smoked it. all im sayin is if u want that love u gotta make it rock. My observation is that there is a great lack in terms of originality here. theres a ton of creativity but nobody jumpin all the way out there....I hate sayin this but we got go go. thats our shit nobody elses so naturally the consumers want that heavy percussion...some of these rappers need to go to a live go go show and check the atmosphere...MFs is partyin hard....and dont tell me u gotta bigger scope than the DMV. If the city felt it u'd love the ppl but if they dont they just hating right...WTF???? Ask all these damn ATL artists what gettin love in your city can do for ur career...all i kno is we dont want no NY shit(dont have enough bounce)and no ATL shit (too distinctive to their region). Honestly, its alotta talented jokers doin they thing right now in the area it just aint linked up right. Everybody gotta homie who rap so instead of workin wit somebody talented, they'll work with they sorry ass homie because they have more creative control. Man if they spittn tell em and if it knock tell em and if the shit aint right tell em it aint right. This the land of a million hustles so get ur mind right get ur grind right and sell ur product just make sure u cook it right first.
Good post Judah. I think another thing though too are artists having rights to their products. A lot of them don't. With mixtapes, you can get on anything and have no prob where as albums you can't. Distribution (if they're moving hard copies or whatever), production, mastering, etc...Politics as usual.
Much respect to the aforementioned artists who did/do release albums.
I put out an album in 05...I was happy with the sales I got off of it...I haven't put out one since because afterwards I felt it was much more I could have done to make that project better artistically and business wise...with that being said I think I am in a good place right now to release something...
Three Part EP Series:
The Cave: Volume 1 (estimated release date ~ October 2009)
The Awakening: Volume 2 (estimated release date ~ January 2009)
The Epiphany: Volume 3 (estimated release date ~ April 2009)
TESE FEVER:
THAT WAS A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GOOD POINT
H.O.M.E WAS THE FIRST ALBUM I TOOK THE TIME TO REGISTER WITH BMI. IT TOOK ME HOURS GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS TO GET IT DONE.
THAT SHIT IS SO TIME CONSUMING AND DIFFICULT
SO...YEAH THAT PROBALY TURNS ALOT OF ARTISTS AWAY FROM ACTUAL ALBUM DISTRO
Word to Top Dogg and Tese Fever. Very good points made about ownership of your actual music.
OWN YOUR MASTERS!
I FEEL YA..BUT ITS A BLOWER TO THROW 3 G'S INTO A INDIE ALBUM AND U DONT EVEN MAKE A CERTIFIED G BACK..THATS CRAZY..THEN ITS SO FICKLE WIT "FANS"..U CANT JUST LACE A ALBUM ON ITUNES AND AMAZON WHIT NO FANBASE..I RATHER GET A BUNCH OF FREE "SO FAR GONE"S..THEN PAY FOR AN ALBUM THAT DOESNT EVEN HAVE A SINGLE..AND THEN ITS THE VISUAL EFFECT...JUDAH..I RATHER TALK TO U THEN TYPE THIS STATEMENT..CUZ I HAVE IT ALL THE TIME...
This is soo off topic but JUDAH (or anybody else that may know the answer): That Heavy mixtape you have on the home page, is the dude "Wali" from Fredericksburg, VA?
Found this easier than shooting you an e-mail.
if you cant move enough to recoup or re-up, then you hustling wrong
K-BETA - Sober 12.09
if you do it, do it all the way.
@ anonymous.
Respect to your opinions, but everybody in rap isn't saying the same thing. There's a spectrum, and on that spectrum are artists as varied as Souljah Boy to Lupe Fiasco.
When you listen to the radio, for the most part you get recycled beats, sayings, and "swag." Many DMV artists see this as a formula to success so they just repeat and release.
But there are plenty of artists who are bucking the trend and talking about stuff with substance, not hiding behind some false sense of bravado...just being real. Lupe comes to mind, Phil Ade, Wale (his new singles not so much)...these are people who innovate. And in Ade's case, I think people will relate to the music b/c it's not claiming to be anything it's not.
I went off on a major tangent...
I'm just tired of hearing the same played out ish.
Just wish people would innovate! Buck the trend! Go against the grain! Think beyond simple ish like chains and money...there's more to life than that. Speak on it!
Well we never put out a mixtape. I think alot of dudes just follow trends. Thats one reason why the streets dont support DMV artists. Contrary to popular belief, most people dont want to hear somebody spit a verse on something somebody else already ripped. Its like Jays D.O.A joint. How are you gonna come behind that. Dudes still throwing they verses on there though.
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