With the music industry increasingly more concerned about profit, some artists are finding labels less supporting and turn to free mixtapes as a form of promotion.
The term "mixtape" might conjure up the image of a 90-minute cassette with selection of carefully spaced tunes, for radio-like immediacy, to create a certain mood. Or maybe the 1980's old school hip-hop practice of self-distributing rap tapes, which continued until late 20th century, when CD-RW drives and mp3 availability killed the practice for everyone except the diehards.
No, the new mixtape is something else entirely. They are collections by one artist or producer that play like real albums, released without concern for copyrights or hand-wringing record label, and beinging offered as free downloads. Something that is proving to be a great selling point, or should that be giving-away point?
Canadian singer-producer Colin Munroe, who made an Internet splash in 2008 with his re-imagined version of Kanye West’s "Flashing Lights,” this month released "Colin Munroe Is the Unsung Hero.”
Why is "Colin Munroe Is the Unsung Hero” a mixtape? These collections only exist as free downloads because most record labels don’t want to "clear” samples anymore. It costs a fortune to get the rights to snippets of songs, especially if multiple recordings show up in the mix. In Munroe’s case, he remixed a Bob Dylan song, quoted Joni Mitchell and covered U2’s "Sunday Bloody Sunday” as a banjo-fueled ballad, all of which would have cost a pretty penny to clear not to mention the time taken chasing all the rights holders.
Artists such as Munroe choose not to directly profit from mixtapes. They exist as products of pure creativity and calling cards for the artists’ talents.
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