Do We Really Care About Leaks?
It's 2010 and people are still bitching about music leaks. I won't point fingers at particular artists, record labels or DJs but what I will point a big, red, over-sized finger at is how stupidly flawed the argument is against songs and albums being leaked in the first place. What I'm going to do here is break down biggest reasons we've heard for anti-leaking and spin a case where it has worked to an artist's advantage in some aspect. Because the last thing I want to see when I log on to my favorite hip hop blog is a tearful account from someone who's angry about their music being in the hands of their fans. And you call yourself a hustler.
It takes lots of money to record quality music
The budgets for recording albums have been so inflated in the last 20 years that I could totally see why marketing execs get mad over the possible loss of lavishness that they're accustomed to. It's not a secret that the industry is based on the high/lo system: round up costs so you can sell a 12-16 song CD for $20 at the premium outlets. Not only is that not worth the money (as only 3-4 of those songs actually bump) but it goes to show how much time and effort is put into sustaining greed--this isn't a humanitarian effort with flies landing on random kid's eyeball--this is a business and a very profitable one at that. Instead of recording at the high end studios with millions of dollars worth of pricey equipment and paying exorbitant production fees, why not keep it low tech and encourage more independent recording means? I find it ridiculous that the average album budget ranges from $300,000-$1m. I'm pretty damn sure you can get comparable sound from smaller but still professional setups. And it might help end the decibel war.
It depreciates the connection between artist and fan
No it doesn't. If anything, it strengthens it. The only way I wouldn't be a fan of an artist that I liked just fine 20 minutes before I heard the leak is if the album was terrible. Not the quality of the leak, mind you, but the quality of the music is the only thing that will keep me from buying your record. If the music is good, you will more than likely see some money come from me even if I don't buy the album. I'll buy a T-shirt from the merch stand at your show that I also paid to get into. Look at Wayne's Carter III if you need to see a positive outcome from a leak. He turned that into a situation where he was able to sell a gang of more records than he probably would've otherwise. Not to mention his fan base grew because of it.
Speaking from my own opinion, music leaking is something that has always happened (to a certain extent) and will always happen (to a certain extent). What you do when it happens is what separates you from the cats on the curb. I would like to see it come to the point where artists are giving albums away for free and just charging for the shows. If your record company is taking too big a bite with your 360 deal, go indie and do it yourself. Divorce your restrictive contracts and kick the big guys out on their asses. Y'all just aren't being creative enough.
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