Internet Downloads:Is The Platinum Selling Era Over?

June 2, 2009

Is the day of platinum selling records over? Its obvious the music business has changed drastically over the last 10 or more years. This change is due mainly because of the internet. With the internet providing absolutely everything at your finger tips, it is very easy to obtain music. This makes it nearly impossible to have sucess as a music artist putting out an album. Music has been bootleged for years, dating back to cassette tapes…so this is not a new issue at all. Today it seems so acceptable to just simply download your favorite artist album and you get to listen to it before the product is released. There was a day when unsigned artist could sale their mixtapes on the streets for the typical five dollars, that day is gone now. If you want sucess in that regard you have to give your mixtape(in which you paid to have mass produced and pressed) away and also make it available for free download online. If consumers do not want to buy mainstream artist music, ten times out of ten they will not buy an artist they have never heard of music. As a result the only artists who still reach platinum sales are the heavy hitters. Once upon a time good artist who was not regarded as a “mega star” in the music business but still made equally good music would reach platinum status.

In the world of hip hop only certain artist reach platinum like a Lil Wayne, Kanye West, or a Jay Z. Then you have good rap artist like a Common or a Jadakiss who do not always go platinum which is not due to the quality of their music. This brings on a conspiracy. Despite internet downloading why does that not effect certain artist? This really makes you wonder what does it take to get to that level where you are considered one of the top mainstream artist. I have a theory of my own. If you want to sale platinum records you have to make a well rounded album. Meaning you have to make some tracks that reach the masses. Unfortunately the urban community is responsible for this bootleg craze and they are not the ones purchasing albums. The non urban crowds are the ones willing to go to Best Buy, Target, purchase on Itunes, ect and obtain the music for twelve to fifteen bucks. Since they are the audience who actually pay for their music, you must appeal to them. I.e Kanye West makes music that all would love. On his “Graduation” album he had hip hop, pop, and rock sounds all through out the entire album. Kanye made people want to go out and purchase his album which is why it did well.

My advice to the up and coming artist or fairly unknown new artist is market yourself. The internet is a gift and a curse, so use it as a gift. Get yourself a video camera and record everything you do. Record anything from video blogs, your studio sessions, everyday random footage, and also record you own music videos and have them video and edited profesionally. Once you have video content you need to flood the internet by uploading your video on sites such as youtube and place your embed code on the social networks i.e thefacebook. The next step would be to promote to any and every one you can. Doing this can create a buzz which may get the right peoples attention. Once you have a huge internet presence this gives you a start(just ask Souja Boy) and may get you a record deal. But having a record deal does not guarantee anything, I think it is very important to make creative, innovative , and timeless music that reaches the masses. This improves your chances of going platinum but if you do not reach that platuea you always have your shows.

Alot of artist make a ton of money touring. This may even help an artist eventually reach platinum because they may gain popularity from people who become fans from going to their show and falling in love with the music. As far as platinum sales coming to the point they were with the internet I do not see that happening. Unless laws become stiffer and more strictly enforced. This only means that artist must work harder and find more innovative ways to sale records and get signed to deals.