All this talk about Music Sales and Hiphop vs other genres, etc. Got me Thinking...

[Maschine_Man]

I was just reading that Adele thread where she sold 7 million and its gonna be the end of urban music ...blah blah blah.

But why doesn't anyone really acknowledge the fact that Rappers killed their sales themselves?

What other genre of music just gives away so many free mixtapes and songs like its nothing, then turn around a month later and expect you to BUY their album?

Before, artists used mixtapes to try and get put on or trying to get in the game, it was their demo. But nowadays artists are using mixtapes as an album and just giving that shyt away.

And I'm talking about Major artists...like Rick Ross and lil Wayne,etc.

How does anyone expect some dude on the come up to sell an album when Majors are giving away music for free?
who wants to go out and buy music when these artists don't even value their own music enough that they just give it away?


You know why Adele and Taylor Swift,etc sell so much? cuz they don't give that shyt away for free. you wanna hear Adele? you need to go buy it. (I'm talking about listening to music legally) You wanna hear umm the Foo fighters or something go buy it.
mumford and sons? go buy it

Rappers be just giving that shyt out and wonder why their albums selling so poorly.

 

[1/2OfDaBruinz]

Breh, rap sales didn't decline because of mixtapes

 

[Maschine_Man]

Breh, rap sales didn't decline because of mixtapes

tell me they didn't add to the decline bruh....you can't

 

[Love Sosa]

The only rapper with star power right now is Drake and he's a tadpole compared to the landscape of people the early 00s if we're talking about star power and sales. Rappers don't take their time with shyt anymore whatsoever. There aren't as many eyes on hip hop anymore. Since when was it about sales in the first place though?

But then again there aren't very many people with star power right now period in any genre. I think of Bieber, Adele, and Swift.

 

[1/2OfDaBruinz]

tell me they didn't add to the decline bruh....you can't

Naw, I can't say that they didn't have a part in the decline, and to be honest I can't tell you the exact reason or reasons why the sales declined. But I don't think that mixtapes were a major factor at all. I think an often overlooked aspect of hip hop sales decline is that, at some point, these labeled started drastically reducing their marketing budgets

 

[thernbroom]

How is album sales even counted these days when 50 % of us get it from a streaming source, and you can stream them for free on spotify :drakewtf:

 

[arel]

All these penny scrounging cacs smh. Praise the generosity of rappers.

 

[Da King]

Mixtapes did kill hip hop sales


Other genre fans are simply not given free content at the rate hip hop fans are, it has trained hip hop fans to expect free content

 

[THEREALBRAND]

This might be a legitimate theory if rap was the only genre that was struggling with sales, but there's a handful of artist in any genre that are doing huge numbers.

 

[Maschine_Man]

Naw, it's true. Mixtapes really hurt hiphop.
Of course all genres aren't sellin as much. But every other genre is still selling better than hiphop.

Even lower tier hiphop dudes sold decent before.

 

[Nostalgic]

How is album sales even counted these days when 50 % of us get it from a streaming source, and you can stream them for free on spotify :drakewtf:

Heres your answer right here.

The fans kill sales in hiphop people don't get of their azz go to buy albums anymore.
if there was a why sneakers and iphones could be ''leaked'' the sales would plummet also.

Edit: And before anyone gets started with this whole ''Rappers don't make good music anymore'' bs
there's still good rappers out today the majority of them are on the indie circuit, so kill that noise.

 

[Wild self]

The oversaturation of mixtapes caused people to take rap music for granted. That's why Gucci Mane albums never sold as much as Jeezy. Or Future barely selling what J Cole sold first week.

If you don't develop a hard core fan base, forget about it. You doing Fetty Wap numbers, at best.

 

[T.H.E. Goat]

The Internet damaged hip hop sales and mixtapes killed them, and I'm pretty sure artists understand this which is why their focus is now on touring and merchandise

 

[KathleenJohnson]

Adele has a much broader fanbase (40-50 age demographic) who have more disposable income

 

[STFARN]

IYRTITL was the hardest album to get for free in recent years when it came out

I swear whenIYRTITL dropped EVERYONE was tryna download it