I was at a used book/music store the other day and I saw two of my favorite Jay-Z albums (the Blueprint & American Gangsta) for $2. So, you know I had to scoop them up. (side note- I had the albums, but not on CD). Later that night as I was about to hit the bed I thought, “I’ll listen to Jay-Z tonight as I fall asleep.” My iPod with the Jay-Z catalogue was out of juice so I grabbed my phone to bring up spotify only to remember that Jay-Z’s music isn’t on Spotify! And I don’t have Tidal.
Shoot. So now I’m laying there with no way to listen to Jay Z. So what did I do? I listened to Nas.
As I listened to the Queens Bridge mc I couldn’t help but think about streaming. Should artists stream their music? They don’t get paid hardly anything for it monetarily. But, it does give listeners easy access to the music. I think it is obvious that most artists choose to make their music available on all the major streaming platforms (If you are an artist and need help with this, let us know).
However, some don’t. And others make their music exclusive for a time period and then release it on streaming outlets. That’s where we have landed here at Everybody’s Hip-hop Label. We want to ensure that anyone that wants to listen to our music can. At the same time we want to honor and reward those of you who contribute money every month. So we release the music to you first. Then, after a while we will release it to the general public.
The mixture of holding it close and exclusive to a select few for a while and then releasing it to the general public feels right to us. It gives people (like you) who care enough about our music the opportunity to receive it exclusively for a small fee (as little as $1 in some cases:). It also gives people outside of our members the ability to enjoy the music too… just a little later.
What do you think? Do you like our model? Do you appreciate when artists keep their music exclusively for their followers? Do you like when artists provide their music on streaming platforms?
Peace,
MC Till