Mixtapes are a great way to get music out to the general public

Rap artists in particular are setting the trend.

March 26, 2008

By Matt Lindberg

For the past few years, the music industry has struggled with sales due to illegal downloading. This is why I love the idea of the mixtape. For those of you who don't know, mixtapes are promotional cds used to promote artists and their upcoming work. They are supposed to be for free, but you can buy them on the streets of New York.

Rappers have been using mixtapes to their advantage for years. Some say rapper 50 Cent is the mixtape king, as he put out mixtape after mixtape to earn credibility which resulted in rapper Eminem hearing one and signing him to his label with Dr. Dre.

It's great for up and coming rappers as well, because they can get their voice heard in places they normally wouldn't be heard. My suggestion is that artists outside of rap try this mixtape thing.

A lot of the time, mixtapes really plug an artist's upcoming album and can result in better sales. With so many groups and artists coming out and failing. I could only imagine mixtapes helping their cause. What if we saw your favorite artist or band in rock or country putting out a 12 track mixtape with their latest single and some exclusive content? Wouldn't that only encourage you more to buy their album when it was released.

Now if any of you are interested, try going to www.datpiff.com. The website offers users to download all the latest mixtapes buy R and B and hip-hop artists. You can also choose to buy a subscription which will allow faster downloading abilities, although I do just fine with the free one. I really encourage you to check it out, they have a lot of cool mixtapes and it has allowed me to hear some of my favorite artists' music that I wouldn't have been able to hear, as well as discover new artists.

Happy listening to all!

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