Mixtapes: If you dont know, NOW you know

So the following is an article I wrote up for some friends. Sending it off to a few mags and places. Hope it helps and makes sense. Bless M-U-S-I-C. :) - K.T.

MIXTAPES: Posting
Where, How To, and Things to Consider
So, I was recently approached about the mixtape game, its importance in the current rap market, and what it means to the Indie Artist. This is a subject fairly dear to me and I am only happy to write a piece on it. Normally, I keep the flow of these things narrative, and simply guide the readers through the pages, but since this is intended for “established artists” ­ I.E. if you're still trying to figure out how to record your tracks, or what your “sound” or genre actually is...this isn't gonna help you that much – I'm going to skip the filler from here on in, and give you the meat. Now, while I've recently (within the last week) checked out all the sites and groups listed below, theses statements are only MY opinions and from MY experiences (There are groups and people out there saying even playing the mixtape game is a waste of time, or worse ­ one of the problems with Hip­Hop right now...and I typically web­slap them and move on) so if it doesn't feel the same to you, let me know. Maybe we'll do another one of these. Well, let's break out the fields and get everyone on the same page before I tear apart all the sites you love and some you've never heard of. MIXTAPES: “what counts as a mixtape?”

+ a Mix­tape (mixtape for most of us) is a music release, similar to an album, except the compilation (album or tape) is set up for Promotional Release, not Commercial Release. The difference being Commercial = intended to sell for profit, and Promotional = intended to increase buzz/popularity. Some music communities don't have as big an underground scene as others, and so mixtapes to them are “free albums you download from the internet”, and some places still have tapes as ACTUAL CDS, people and/or shops give out or sell. So there are tapes that go out nationally, that some people end up DL­ing for free, and others buy the thing from a corner boy, and they get the same thing. Some mixtapes are just made up by random people. They slap a generic DJ name on it and post it to sites, trying to get buzz themselves and some legitimately just trying to help out the artists on the tape. *What this has led to though (and this is the one of the FEW points Anti­mixtapers make, I can get) is a large part of the old Album­buyers becoming people who just wait a month (or sometimes only a week) for someone to post a mixtape up from their favorite artists, and they get half of their latest album for free...and THAT does NOT help the artists, who just spent 6 figures on marketing and promotions for their album, so they could hopefully make that back in album sales, and while 150,000 downloads looks good on­line, it doesn't pay the bills. So mixtapes...you made one, you want to give it to the people, and now you want to know WHERE.

+ Just like sites for music artists have become an over­saturated field (over 1,000 at least semi­legit independent sites), there are more and more Mixtape Hosting sites popping up – some started by artists/labels just trying to get their own tapes more attention, and some genuinely just trying to hit the niches all the other sites skip other, as THERE IS NO SINGLE PERFECT WEBSITE...FOR ANYTHING, in my opinion. Different people are looking for different things in their sites, so here are the things I think ANY/ALL artists focus on, and we'll go from there:
1. USER BASE – how many people actually use the site. There's no reason to post a tape to a website that nobody goes to. Many sites have a LISTED number of fans or users in the 100,000s, but VERY FEW of them actually have that many people active on it weekly, or even still using their accounts. Even if they do clear 100,000 users a week, there's no guarantee how many of those people search through for new mixtapes and non­major artists (again the “free album a month later” concept). Most artists work against this by dropping a tape across many sites and forms, and by dropping them SIMULANTEOUSLY (mixtape has a Release Date) or in SUCCESSION (tape drops on a primary site maybe without big promo, and then hits another site each day or each week, etc, building up). This can lead to sites sometimes pushing you to the same people multiple times, or covering a wide area and leaving smaller gaps in your niches. As with anything else in life, CHECK BEFORE USE – search a site yourself, if they have forums or something see how long ago posts were put up and what kind of response they get (if its been over a month since someone put something new, you might wanna NOT have them as your primary).
2. EASE OF SITE – from the audience (downloaders/listeners) AND the artists perspective – how many clicks must be made, pages scrolled through, or boxes do you have to fill to actually get the tape downloading and/or uploading? Is an account required to download or can anyone get them, and keep getting them without a limit? Does the site have frequent tech support issues? All of this is EXTREMELY important because the whole reason this group of listeners is searching this site, is because they didn't want to spend 20 minutes working out ish to get free music. ANY LEGIT site WILL require an account and login to Upload as an artist, so you (or your label) can be in control and monitor ish (and hopefully handle what are your REAL mixtapes and one random “fans” cut together) ­ * there are independent sites where ANYONE can basically upload ANYTHING, and just click a “I have right to this, blah blah blah...” and it's DONE, but none of those will be talked about here. Basically – LESS HASSLE = MORE PLAYS/PROMO. If you need to go through 5 pages before you get the box that lets the actual download start, it might be a problem. Also, some sites allow the tracks and tapes to be heard directly from the site and that usually takes care of annoyance if there DO happen to be a lot of pages to go through.
3. UPGRADES – one of the biggest reasons artists do the mixtape game is because they simply CANNOT afford to do an album release the “RIGHT WAY”. “What's the wrong way?” JUST MAKE THE TAPE ­ “What's wrong with that?”. Nothing, if you dont plan on that album doing anything. The #1 expense in music (and really entertainment as a whole now) is Promotions/Marketing. If a tape cost 5 figures to make ($20,000 = studio time, appearances, exclusives on everything, paperwork, etc) they probably want DOUBLE minimum for PR ($40.000) if not QUADRUPLE ($80,000). A national release, plus pressing up 200,000 cds for people to buy, getting the cds into stores, etc, will easily push a project into 6 figures, and every dollar counts, so many major artists still drop tapes to stay relevant, leak tracks, and cut down on those marketing dollars. Some of those same Majors throw 6 figures of PR at their mixtapes even (example: Chris Brown and Tyga's “Fan of a Fan” tape – great tape, but they DID shell over $50k on its PR). “What does this have to do with upgrades?” Well, depending on the site, some let you pay for greater exposure by putting you on their Frontpage, some have music connects and will send your tape to Djs, promoters, and more, some have radio stations themselves and will add you to the rotation, and some do work with Majors and will rate/review your tape and see if anyone wants to buy something off of it, so Upgrades done RIGHT, with a good­a** tape, can help an indie cross “The Divide” (that infinite pit that swallows artists DAILY, who try to jump from Indie to Major), and if they don't quite make it across, the artist hasn't blown his yearly budget on a risky jump.
4. MAJOR/INDIE* – this is important to some more than others, but how much of the sites' users are other independent artists trying to climb, or are there some already known names using it? This is sometimes REALLY HARD to check, since a lot of Major mixtapes are now just non­related people posting artists' tracks (example – Evil Empire and Lil Wayne ­EE DOES NOT know Lil Wayne, or anyone really – they have access to their tracks through business dealings/shady ish, and promote THEMSELVES using Weezy name). SLAUGHTERHOUSE (Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Royce da 5' 9”) tapes and the solo artists (in the group) tapes are almost ALWAYS legitimate and made up WITH the artist and the artist having a say on where and when the tapes drops). Basics – the more Majors on the site, the more likely the site has HIGH traffic, but that doesn't mean the traffic is going to give YOU a chance.

**These sites are NOT mixtape hosting, but CAN HELP with free promotions, and have other features – Headliner.fm – if you have a MySpace, Twitter, and/or Facebook, they give you “promo bucks” for the fans you already have, and you get more anytime you accept a promo from other artist – no Actual cash being spent by you. ­ Ping.fm – if you're on a LOT of websites and you want them ALL connected and organized for postings, use Ping.fm, simple. ­ NextBigSound – if you have other 10 websites you're on (or over 30 for some of us) you're probably tired of trying to keep track of them all and their usefulness - NextBigSound will track them all FOR YOU, give you charts to track how their doing, send you reports, AND you can type in Major Artists and see how you're doing in comparsion LIVE. Oh and again its FREE. Register YOURSELF if you don't pop up in search, which leads me to one other place...WIKIPEDIA – if you got people who use it, get one of them to CREATE YOUR WIKIPAGE – dont do it yourself, looks bad and takes too long, but if you have one of these...it can ONLY help.

+ So now we know what to look for, what we can do assuming we have a few dollars to through at
it, and what to be wary for. So now, here's my list of mixtape sites. It's NOT perfect, if you're upset your place got left off the list, CHECK FIRST your site doesn't fall into one of the groups we've already talked about, then GET AT ME: (in no particular order)

+ Datpiff -­ Well­known, Limited open (no login) DLs, accounts upgradeable, Major/Indie

+ Mixconnect - Fairly new (less than 2 years), accounts required, upgrades available, Pretty much Indie

+ MixtapeFactory - Fairly new, accounts required, upgrades available, *Charged for hosting (you're not charged for posting, but for them keeping your uploaded files running on their servers...fail)

+ Mixtapes.tv – Fairly new, basically another Datpiff in the works, except *no new artists being currently accepted – supposedly a tech thing and their upgrading themselves

+ Muxtape­ – Still under construction, and they only take artists by INVITE, so you gotta get someone ALREADY on there to get you in

+ Mixtape Torrent -­ Well­known, accounts NOT needed for DLs, not really upgradeable, and requires STRONG POST* (ALL album information needs to be known, filled in on each track, and have a file for the album) and requires the tape as a .torrent* (torrent info at bottom), mostly Majors but they have a indie section

+ Mixfiend – Well­-known, account required, no upgrades, mostly Indie. Requires .torrent

+ Rapidshare/zShare – Well-­known, these technically are NOT mixtape hosting sites, but rather on­
line storage. FREE, lots of room, upgradeable, and you can post the stored tracks/files/etc anywhere and track DLs. Majors/Indies use them both to give another secure site, as well as do leaks and they have Live Players so most people can check your stuff BEFORE DL­ing.

**If you've never messed with torrents, these sites will explain it all, and give you the needed tools.
http://www.ehow.com/how_6867905_make­mixtape­torrent.html
http://www.mixfiend.com/
http://www.mixtapetorrent.com/how­to­upload­mixtapes

** Besides Direct Hosting Sites, there's your music sites (MySpace, Facebook, iLike, Ourstage,
RateYourDemo, Music Xray, Coast2Coast, Jango, Last.fm, PureVolume, Amie Street, ReverbNation,
etc) most of which will have the same features and connect to each other, but only some of them let you post ENTIRE TAPES, and some only do SINGLES.

So everyone, I hope that clears a lot of questions out and creates a few new ones like “where should start?” “what budget should I shoot for?” “which is better – weekly single drops, or a monthly tape?” And these are things as an INDEPENDENT ARTIST (hint hint) only YOU and YOUR PEOPLE can answer, because YOU are the ones who will live with the results. Bless the music. Stay up people.

realtalk if YOU (or people you know) have INSURANCE ISSUES...I can NOW fix them (including $$). Staff Writer for 2 Mags, and Im supposed to have time to SET UP A MUSIC VIDEO...Help?...PLEASE? newbusy is killing my family time :(

Assuming papers clear, Im just became an InSphere Insurance Agent! :) "Run It Back", Wasps Not bees", "SET" are mixtapes. Couple of articles to write also...HIT ME UP if you want me, 'cause Im just getting BUSIER newbusy @ktakatheo BLESS

had a GOOD music day yesterday "Run It Back" mixtape being sent to Boston by Sept. "SET" in the works, and "Follow My Tweet" VIDEO SHOOT moved to mid-September. JOB INTERVIEW* in a few hours - prayers please. Bless