PROS AND CONS

[TAY CAPONE1]

HOW MANY PPL BELIEVE THE INTERNET FUCCED THE RAPGAME UP??? IT DEFINITELY HAS ITS PROS,SUCH AS: FREE PROMOTION AND CONTACTS ALL OVER THE WORLD BUT THE CONS DEFINITELY OUTWEIGH THE PROS IMO. THE QUALITY OF MUSIC HAS WENT 2 SHITS AND EVEN THE BEATS NOWDAYS SOUND 2 DIGITAL 2 ME. IVE ADJUSTED BUT I REMEMBER WHEN THE MUSIC BIZ WAS BASED ON QUALITY AND REALNESS NOT POPULARITY AND YOUTUBE VIEWS.

 

[Walkin]

the net definitely destroyed the point of creating quality "albums," we're the last generation that gets to appreciate em.

 

[NorCal707E]

yea it has its pros and cons. To me it made a lot of rappers lazy, they make an album and just promote on the internet and put up a digital copy of their album. I like buying at the store cuz i like getting the booklet and seeing who produced what track. I'm 29 and i remember when i was 14, 15, 16 years always being in South Sac visiting family and getting off 12th ave and seeing posters on poles, signs, driving down Franklin Blvd, Florin Road, Mack Road, Broadway and seeing posters on buildings. Also going out to the bay, seeing posters on bulidings, people passing out flyers, rappers and labels actually putting in work so people knew that they were going to be releasing an album. Thats what got me into promoting, I've been kicked out of malls for passing out flyers, posters, selling albums and letting people listen to it before buying, but its the hustle, its worth it. Nowadays a lot of rappers and labels are lazy, BUT with the internet they can go different sites across the U.S. and promote where they usually wouldn't be able to. With every rapper/labels promoting online a lot of people just pass all the promotions cuz EVERYONE is doing it. As for ME, I don't pay attention to a lot of these new rappers that have all these ads on different websites.I just focus on rappers that I already been listening to.

 

[shinobionskiz]

Quantity and popularity killed the game. People started rushing albums. Cats recording whole albums in 1 day.1.Soulja Boy (the fruity loop tycoon) 2.SWAG=(Saturated With A Gimmick) Music definitely made music dumbed down and less creative.

 

[WXS STOMP3R]

I THINK IT SHOULD HAVE HELPED ARTIST'S PROMOTE BETTER AND MAKE THEIR MUSIC MORE AVAILABLE. BUT INSTEAD IT ALLOWED PEOPLE TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF THE ART FORM AND/OR JUST THINK ANY BULLSHIT WOULD BE OK TO RELEASE.

I HAVE PROBABLY SLEPT ON ALOT OF GOOD ARTISTS DUE TO ALL THE SHITTY ONES.

 

[timebomb]

the net has most definetly hit the rap game like crack hit the u.s in the 80's and eaten the creativity and made the real hustlers lazy,and at the same time rappers that do put out quality get there music leaked and put up for freeon websites and blogs but yo its just evolution,the mp3 market is massive so theres ways to push ya product and eat but its gotta be much more of a gamble and struggle nowadays ... and i aint even in the music game but thats how i see shit ...

 

[lopro]

The only negative I see in the internet for an artist is the decline in sales. Otherwise, the internet is beneficial for the most part in my opinion.

- It shifted the idea of an artist's influences, dismissing the idea of a regional sound, which makes for more interesting music imo. This allows for more freedom.

- With the over saturation, it seems more artists strive to find a unique niche to set them aside, creating a more wider range of the genre. (I'm sure Siccness will disagree with this one.)

- For teens, the primary audience, there is no longer a dictator of what you listen to. Radio is dying (maybe reinventing is a better word), music videos very rarely get played on TV; with the Internet, you're given more of an option.

- Music can be found on a broader and more accessible scale.

 

[lopro]

An upcoming artist looking to get out there should be happy that the internet came into play. Your playing field just got leveled out. However, you are more responsible for your success, and will need a game plan. Rather than a label seeking potential in an artist and investing in them to get a buzz, they want to see you pull your own weight to get a buzz before any of that happens. You are your own business today.

 

[MaddDogg]

I agree in the sense that its allowed widespread freeloading and downloading, and that as technology has become cheaper its become easier for more people who shouldn't be rapping to put out tapes.

But I agree even more in the sense that the internet has allowed rap fans to see the true color of the artists they support. Even rappers from the "golden age" have lost attention and sales not because of downloads but because of their commentary on twitter, internet message boards, interviews etc. Most Bay Area rappers shoot themselves in the foot just by what they have to say and not what they do in the studio.

There's still artists out there that are doing pretty well for themselves. Its not a coincidence that those artists also represent themselves in a way that appeals to their fans when they aren't rapping.

 

[Gas One]

if the internet didnt exist rick ross woulda never been seen as a correctional officer

lil wayne woulda never kissed baby

a fake ghostface wouldnt make fun of drake every step he made

and 60-70 percent of the music out now wouldnt even be accessable

at the end of the day you cant stop the future

ive personally made alot of money i wouldnt have made because of the internet, that in itself is good enough to me to not even trip on how shit is on the internet for msuic, the internet has made it possible for hella hustles to exist that wouldnt have had the internet not existed

theres prolly 50-60 more hustles available due to the internet being there, that should be cool enough for you to live with music sales declining

but its individual to me....some people may find it more positive some will find it more negative...its up to that person to figure it out

i was able to do radio for a year without tripping on making money just putting people on..and it helped the SD rap scene...that wouldnt have been possible without the internet , hell i dont even think half of the SD rappers known right now would be known or even have sales outside of the internet and shit like cd baby

to me the pros outweigh the cons, its done more to further things than it has to make things worse. physical cd's have been replaced with itunes checks , and itunes is cashing people out who wouldnt even have a way to make that cash outside of sitting on the streets soliciting people walking in and out of stores

 

[MaddDogg]

at the end of the day you cant stop the future

"You Can't Stop What's Comin'"

 

[StupidFace]

5 years ago it was computer music programs that were killing rap. Now I guess digital sales are doing it too.

The way I look at it, it's not like the quality is going down but the barrier for entry has dropped dramatically. People can put in far less effort to make an "album".

So basically there's still good music but since it's now so easy to get into the game the ratio of good music to bad is much lower. As a result, it's not like there's less good artists, they are just harder to find in a sea of mediocrity. Like picking a needle from a haystack.

 

[HIM]

I just hate the fact that is has allowed for everyone and their mother to think they really have a chance to make it as a rapper or artist....they think all they need to do is get the right people to view their youtube videos....For some aspiring artists its TRUE, but for many thats not even close to the case....It has saturated the game like crazy...

Since im not a rapper and just a consumer of music, the internet has actually been more beneficial to me. So many artists I am aware today that I wouldnt even have heard about without the internet. For me, the pros outweigh the cons...

 

[thizz]

I think the problem isn't the Internet at all. Back in the day to record an album you either had to be rich or passionate about it. Studio time was expensive. Now because of technology ANYONE can make music. All you need is a computer and a mic. To get an album cover you had to go to a professional. Videos use to be tens of thousands of dollars minimum to make. Now the cost of everything has made it to where people can confuse a hobby with a profession. The Internet just gives these people an outlet for music.

 

[Foul Mouth]

I think the problem isn't the Internet at all. Back in the day to record an album you either had to be rich or passionate about it. Studio time was expensive. Now because of technology ANYONE can make music. All you need is a computer and a mic. To get an album cover you had to go to a professional. Videos use to be tens of thousands of dollars minimum to make. Now the cost of everything has made it to where people can confuse a hobby with a profession. The Internet just gives these people an outlet for music.

you right about that. the only thing the internet did was allow easy accessibilty to "home studio" software. cats used to pay hundreds to record a song, now you can pay hundreds for a computer set up. unfortunatly it flooded the game up with waaaaay below industry standard sound quality albums. even alot of the golden era rappers albums seriously lacked in sound quality compared to the pre-home studio boom. thats the part that helped make me not fuck with rap that much no more. golden era rappers who sacrificed sound quality.

cd burners and music studio computer software fucked shit up. at least in northern california.

 

[KG The One]

I don't think it's so much the internet ruining the music. I think its more the internet ruining the sale of the music. Alot of great independant artist ain't never gonna turn a profit. Why pay for an album when you can just download it on the internet for free. So unless you're touring you ain't gettin money. Your lucky to sell a few thousand copies. We're all guilty of it, i know i've downloaded a ton of free shit off the internet the artist ain't never gonna see a dime for..

 

[Gas One]

id say the conversion from ipods to CD's killed music way more than the internet...that really had less to do with the internet than we think....bootlegging went on way before the internet...now of course the music became easier to get due to the internet but the tool was made before the internet became the engine

we would have went about getting free music some other way

i remember when everyone wasnt privy to where to find msuic....when it was more like some shit 'hackers' did...you used to get music for your mom and dad on a cd and theyd be all happy and shit cuz they didnt know how to do it...

my mom can sign on to itunes and buy a mariah carey cd. my dad can find a james brown album he had to look for at a record store for months.

steve jobs probably killed the music industry singlehandedly

but really maybe not, lets look at it like, gigabyte hard drives made it possible for people to store libraries of music, high speed internet made music downloadable in minutes (remember when it used to take hours on a 2400 baud modem?) and movies in an hour

so basically, people came together to make music easier to get, easier to find, easier to get a hold of. would we really want music to be hard to find? would we want to not be able to hear music from every city and state without driving to it or being part of a mail-order system? is it fair that DJ's and peopel who worked at record stores were the only ones to recieve 'promotional' copies of CD's in which they were nto allowed to duplicate? shit was getting leaked like that. i worked at virgin megastore, we got promos before it came out. i refuse to believe that only i should have had the right to find music early.

lets keep in mind of other generations when having this talk, because the intertnet is multi generational, its easy enough for older folks to use now.

the MAIN ISSUE is that musicians and music industries have not figured out a counter attack against their profiteering, for instance, you used to be able to download video games on the internet, and the video game industry found ways to counter attack that, and thats why modern warfare 3 has people lining up to buy it, sells millions of units and online play costs money, they figured ways to get your money, and the music industry hasnt. because they were never that smart to begin with

cd's are duplicatable but xbox and playstation figured out ways to stop you, basically people wanted free music and made it happen, in the same way that peopel wanted to buy weed at a store and made it happen

 

[TAY CAPONE1]

WELL SINCE THE INTERNET BOOM I'VE NOTICED THAT WE HAVE A MILLION INDEPENDENT COMPANIES OR ARTISTS AND THE ODDS OF A NEW ARTIST GETTING A DEAL ARE 1 IN A MILLION.MATTER OF FACT I DONT KNOW 2 MANY ARTISTS WITH DECENT DEALS ANYMORE SO THE GAME HAS PRETTY MUCH BECAME A CUT THROAT HUSTLE ON ALL LEVELS.THERE ARE LESS LABELS WHO ACTUALLY HAVE A ROSTER OF ARTISTS AND INDIVIDUALLY MOST PPL JUST DONT HAVE ENOUGH LONGEVITY 2 MAKE AN IMPACT.THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CLASS ACTION SUITS AGAINST LIMEWIRE,ETC. WHICH HAVE COMPENSATED ARTISTS LIKE MYSELF BUT EVEN NAPSTER STILL EXISTS AND WITHOUT BUDGETS 2 WORK WITH A LOT OF ARTISTS TALENTS ARE JUST GOING 2 WASTE...IM AN "IT IS WHAT IT IS" TYPE OF GUY AND ACTUALLY ENJOY THE NET AS FAR AS ACCESSIBILITY GOES BUT I THINK THE GAME AND MUSIC WILL ONLY GET WORSE. THE LAST CD I BOUGHT WAS CHARLIE WILSON.LMAO

 

[YOUNG BREW]

i dont see how the internet could be blamed for music quality going down..the internet isnt responsible for a person creating wack music

 

[thizz]

I think there isn't as many labels with rosters because people think they can do it theirselves and start their own label. Too many chiefs not enough Indians. I feel that comes from all of this technology not necessarily just the internet. The artist makes his own beats cuz of Fruity Loops. He records himself cuz of protools. He does his own graphics cuz of photoshop. He even makes his own CEO business cards on his computer. His Potna shoots his video on a DSLR camera. So now rapper A thinks he is the next Jay-Z and then goes to the Internet. I think the Internet is making it tough for artist that were around before it hit. But I think that 97% of people rapping now wouldn't be if we still had to record on reel to reel.