Why Mixtapes are an Important Marketing Tool
For many years now record labels have looked at mixtape popularity, sales, and now downloads to determine the potential success an up and coming hip hop artist. A great example is 50 Cent, he made a very big name for himself in the hip hop world just by putting out a series of back to back mixtapes. 50 Cent had built such a name for himself by the time his first official album “Get Ready or Die Tryin” dropped that he nearly sold 1 million albums copies in his first week. That is just an example of how mixtapes have been secretly been on the frontline of hip hop record sales.
The mixtape game has evolved so much throughout the years. DJ’s have gone from recording mixes on cassette tapes in the 80’s, thus getting the name “Mixtape”. Then the mixtape game caught up to the CD era in the late 2000’s and DJ’s were able to put their mixes on CD’s, but still it still retained the “Mixtape” name. Now the mixtape game has evolved full scale into the digital generation and now DJ’s and MC’s can now market mixtapes online through the internet and reach a greater amount people on a vast scale.
There is a psychology to the “Mixtape” game. The biggest misconception new DJ’s or artist make is thinking that they are going to make a lot of money off it. There is a potential to make some money but a DJ or artist would have to build their way to that. Do the benefits outweigh the cost? The answer: Absolutely. A well put together mixtape may not make you rich or even close, but the positive exposure can come back more than 5x. What I mean is that for every 1 person that has a copy of your mixtape, he/she will let at least let 5 of their friends listen to it. Now even if the person that is listening to the mixtape is not into your music, they have now heard of you now. My main point to all this is that exposure is the main benefit of a mixtape to any DJ or artist. Many artists invest money into mixtapes just to give away. After all would you pay money to listen to an artist you have never heard before? Most likely not, but they will listen to it for free and if they like it they will opt to by it next time. All artist give out samplers for one reason. It’s the laws of attraction. People want to know that you can give them quality music on a constant basis.
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