What’s Up With This Free Music

Rumor on the street is that we are currently in a recession….an economic state of emergency.  Okay, calm down! It isn’t a rumor, in fact it’s a very scary reality.  People are losing jobs at an astronomical rate, houses are being forclosed on, the rate of  unemployment has sky rocketed and music artists aren’t selling any records.  With the exception of artists like Mary J. Blige or Eminem who sold over 600,000 in their first week of sales, most artists are barely reaching Gold status.
As you can see, everyone is suffering so when I was lucky enough to download three free mixtapes this week I was forced to ask myself one simple question.  Are artists secretly selling records and not reporting them to soundscan?  I thought the idea of “No Bootlegging” was to force people to go out and buy your album.  How is giving music away putting money in your pockets?  I understand that by compiling mixtapes and then distributing them to your fans you are taking your power back but you’re losing major money. True, the album may not have sold what you’re accustomed to selling, but isn’t something better than nothing at all?  So as I listen to my FREE copy of Raheem Devaughn’s “Art Of Noise” mixtape I can’t help but think, “this music needs to be on his next album, because it’s off the chain!”  Let us not forget the Ocean’s 7 Mixtape courtesy of Jermaine Dupri.  His line up of Johnta Austin, Usher and Trey Songz can easily make a nice amount of change off their names alone and I haven’t even named the other guys in this talented collective.  The only mixtape that I feel is a true mixtape is the one released by Slum Village.  This very nice collection of Slum Village songs is just that…….a collection of previously released material rearranged.  I will never understand what goes on in the minds of others, especially men, so why try. So instead of complaining about how much money these guys could have made, I guess I should be thankful to them for providing my much needed summer soundtrack at no additional charge.  Good Looking Out Fellas!