I think Lil Wayne has embraced this idea a bit, which is why he's "leaking" his own album later this year.

BTW...

I interact with more people now around leaks than I did in my hermit rap fan days when I picked up records. Props to blogs, IM, message boards, and social networks. That web = anti-social idea is not true.

As always, intelligent commentary.
I'd like to see an established hip hop artist try the Radiohead approach and see what happens.

I would have thought one of these Hip Hop artist would have jumped on that sooner ... create your own website.. link a simple paypal and leak AND get paid.. offer a 128k for a buck and then hit them with better quality deals.. top that off by saying.. since you .. the consumer on the net are special to me.. If you take this coupons I send you because you paid here .. you can cop the real deal (without the DVD extras) for a smaller price.. Top that off by saying IF you by the real.. you get DVD with videos AND ringtones..
Bam .. now your nerd fans love you more therefore they will hype you more. .. The perfect artist to pull this trick Right now? Ludacris!!
and if he or his crew reads this.. Holla at me.. I think like this all day, don't steal from me and not get paid more.. come get all this knowledge.

J,

Can they even be called "album reviews" anymore? shouldn't be called something else since we're getting them in other formats and since the physical was half the experience?

In Chi-town, it was Rock Records and Rose Records and Jazz Record Mart plus a couple others. there's like 2 joints left in the whole city now. Out here in cali now, there's almost none. It's so sad.

BTW: Heard the AG joint--don't have the heart to review it yet.lol.

Also, Depending on how hiphop you think he is, and i do Saul Williams is going the radiohead route. i wrote about it a couple days ago. lemme know your opinion, J.

http://knockthehustleblog.typepad.com/hustleknockin/2007/10/saul-williamstr.html

hey, can i add your video to my blog with a link back? lemme know.

"I'd like to see an established hip hop artist try the Radiohead approach and see what happens."

The Radiohead experiment worked well. 1.2 million downloads the first day.
And now, Saul Williams, spoken word / slam poet / hip-hop artist is seeing Radiohead and raising them with better bitrates. You can download his new album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust for free at 192kps or shell out a few dollars for 256kps or even 100% Lossless files. I sense a pattern emerging.

The real potential of the internet has nothing to do with marketing or distribution of new music. The real potential of the internet is to organize and make music accessible in the way that public libraries make books available.

As we speak, an army of volunteer internet music librarians is hard at work building this library.

This Ill contains the insert that has surpassed the Ill moment of the Smooth singing, “It’s Only A Paper Moon.”

“Don’t front like you’ve never licked a record before.”

Along with the classic quip, “The kind of Chess move that made ... look like they were playing checkers.”

…This Vid is the Ill-est,

Usually i read the comments first, but since i haven’t had time in the last few to view…i ended up watching the Ahern and going straight to (unbeknownst to me at the time) what history will reflect as one of the greatest posts in history.

Oh, and thanks for showing the Grant Green Soundtrack with the graphic of the real Billy Dee and the great D'Urville.

…And the comments section is just as hummin’…

Ya’ll have inspired me to include a whole simultaneous Internet broadcast thing when staging the next “Stay-Awake” Conclave
(in modern Audio Drama) next year at the University of the Western Cape.

These days you can release your book, vinyl record, Internet variations, and video (DVD) at the same instant.
…i love the modern world.

Anon…….anthony – T (from thePatterson’s takingthetraintoTibet.)

Hip Hop artists whose deals are up or close to up that could pull off a Radiohead-like move IMHO: LL, Too $hort, (just about) any member of the Wu, De La Soul, Q-tip, Hiero crew and I think The Roots should stop trying to be on labels and try this as should have the Clipse instead of signing with stupid-ass Columbia.

mmmm.... birds of fire

i'm really really sick of artists and industry execs bitching about people stealing music. yea it sucks, people are taking something that you invested time and money into without giving you any money in return. but that's the reality. and now that people have figured out how to do this - how to get music for free - it's not evereverever gonna go back to the way it was. you're not gonna guilt trip people into buying your music when they can TAKE that shit.

radiohead definitely adapted and innovated with their recent release. but i can't think of any other artist out there poised to make the same move they did. they have an established (and obsessive) fan base of millions around the world. that album was gonna sell extremely well no matter what. but even if it didn't, it wouldn't have mattered because they're millionares. they had also finished their obligation to capitol with 'hail to the thief'. so not only were they rich, established artists, but they were contract-less. and on top of that, they are critically acclaimed across the board, which means they could get whatever help they needed on this endeavor.

so i mean, they definitely presented a good answer to this problem of file sharing and what-not, but it's not a route many will be able to follow.

yo, that was a dope reckoner mix. i caught it. woo.

Yo,

Can you make these vids available on iTunes or sumthin'? I'm sure something can be worked out.

I cain't believe you got the mahavishnu orchestra up there!

You disrepected the shit out me.

Now lemme go back and see what you said.
============================

And then you continued to disrespect me by adding the "Are you ready" Beatnuts classic at the outro.

Just for that,

That's why I got both volumes of the Street Level instrumental album.

And the Intoxicated Demons jawn. Instrumental.

Now.

But yo, that's word em up on the buyin rekkids tip.

It's been put out there that I'm a vinyl junkie.

Word to Jared at the sound library.
A-1 rekkids.

My old head Kevin Donan out here.

(and corny ass Amoeba rekkids. the walmart of rekkid stores on sunset).

I'm on a roll now.

Peace to all my peeps and all my favourite rekkid stores.

(and peace to Prince & Jerome for spellin' it out in under the cherry moon: "wreka stow")

But yo,

Chino at Funk o mart on market street in philly.
where I bought my first rekkid.

supa lover cee and casanova rud "get's no deeper remix" with the chubb rock treat em right bassline. produced by paul c. who used the drums for give the drummer some.

who else?

ohhhhh shit! my man joey blanco from Armand's rekkids who really understood my
pete rockaholocism and for puttin me down with the Soul Jazz comps namely 200% dynamite.

er'rybody's fave girl stef tataz at cue. I 'ont think she there no more.

but cue rekkids even when it was footworks.

and rue's rekkids across the street and my man who used to always have long religious debates with me. I'm painted as a science guy and he's the christ dude. miss them days.

oh yeah, the lil new jack jawn up on 40th street by Upenn where I met my oldhead black the 9th man
what's the name of that rekkid store? Oh! The Marvelous.

who else?

The record collector out here on Melrose.

And the lil jawn over there Olympic.

rhino rekkids before amoeba put them outta business.

aarons rekkids before amoeba put them outta business.

oh yeah and the dirty rock and roll rekkid/book store on south street around the corner from the gap.

Support the vinyl (re)revolution.

Last rekkids bought?

Saturday I was in Amoeba and I bought Frankie Beverly and Maze.

Two of them.

the one with "when I'm alone" on it and the live album.

the live album aint that rockin.

amoeba ain't got no listenin stations

OHHHH I almost forgot.

the turntable lab over on fairfax. got that east coast feel. and they got listenin stations if you leave your license for a catridge.

what else I get, Oh yeah best of sam and dave.

and in the mail I got get up, get down get funky get loose from teddy pendegrass that I won off ebay.

but yo, I got schooled because I ain't know on the other side is the jawn YOU GOT YOU GOT YOU GOT WHAT I NEED!

and I got the original last night a dj saved my life on the brown, beckett rekkids/sound of new york label.

now!

Stop playin wit' me.

I'm tryna tell ya I'm old school! I'm tryna tell ya.

this is the first thing i read today that sparked me.

good looking out, smooth.

Peace to dusty groove in chicago, finyl vinyl in ny
both fat beats the one here and the one in the vill.

=================================
See it was disrespectful for you to throw that mahavishnu jawn up there cuz I got one of those.

My bollywood east indian section is sick.

I'm gonna hafta buy a camera and start taking pics.

(but technically that album ain't that bangin. unless I slept on something.)

the jai santoshi ma soundtrack is what you've really been lookin for your whole life.

you just ain't know it yet.

-Blilzack Pilzeople

I think that you touched on a really good point, the music industry's business model is DYING. Radiohead did a great thing for music, and I really think hip-hop needs to up its innovation and have one our top artists do this. The music industry has completely screwed themselves over, and used money for litigation to make people that download music HATE the record companies, rather than marketing to point out valid reasons why they still might WANT to buy CDs and records.

CDs and records are superior in sound quality to MP3s. CDs give you a lot more sound (although their problem is over-compression to keep making every album sound more "hot" aka loud and quality-degraded). And seriously, you just can't beat the warmth of vinyl, as well as its superior capturing of sound due to its analog nature. The music industry could've just as easily accepted MP3s from the beginning, not gone after Napster, and started a campaign like this:
Here are MP3s, you can get them free, but the quality isn't as good. But, all you hip-hop heads who love your music, if you get the illest high-quality sound system, you're gonna feel the music more, and it's going to sound noticeably better. This effectively turns tangible music items into LUXURY goods, that people would want to own.

There are 2 ways that record companies can rebuild their revenues:
1.)Make people actually want to pay for music, either by making them feel good in any of 3 ways:
-Getting better quality
-Supporting artists
-Getting meaningful additional content (sidenote: the doublesided CD/vinyl album a band just put out is a dope gimmicky idea that I’d like to see a hip-hop artist try)
2.)Adjust their business model to something like the open source software model (give away the music but ask for people to donate, a la Radiohead) or the online advertising model (give away music and make the money on the ads)

In the near-term, #1 is clearly the answer for them, but in the future, as people start supporting more independent music and there is less need for major labels, as more digital formats become available that are even better quality and as more time passes from our analog past, it will be #2. Places that people will get their music from are online stores and sites that specialize in the specific artist (like Radiohead) or genre (like AmalgamDigital), with communities behind them.

Yes. But this also hurts those of us who make a living off of designing CD & LP covers (like me). I've personally already have felt the effects. Labels "outsource" aka freelance out the work to starving artists, and normally make a big stink about the asking price. If everything goes digital only, there's less and less need for people like me. Except maybe to design "promotion use only" CDs, posters and web imagery. And these days, since you can bootleg an MP3, people bootleg Adobe programs and call themselves "designers". There goes my rent money. :(

I think talent wins out in the end, Kupi. Granted I'm not an expert in what you do, but if you're a talented designer, there is always going to be work. If not for record labels, for ad/promo/PR agencies, web sites, etc. As far as music promotion, concerts will always need flyers (even with sites like Going), there will always be a need for posters, banner ads, promotional materials like you said. Maybe in the future you can be a freelancer (if not already), and with less power in major record label hands, you can negotiate more favorable rates for your work.

A lot of people do bootleg Adobe programs (me included-hey, I'm a struggling MC), but that doesn't mean they have the skill to be a legitimate designer. And all but the best of those people are followers stylewise, whereas professional designers are creative people that make new styles that intrigue people.

Back in middle and high school, whenever we found out about someone having a record or cassette that we were interested in hearing, we would have that person dub it onto a blank tape for us. If it was really good, we would try to buy it if we could get up the money. If it only had a couple of good songs, those couple of songs went on to a mixed tape and into the stash, or the whole thing was taped over with the arrival of our next curiosity.

That's why I found it so funny when all the record companies started complaining about their money being "stolen" via the internet. It sounded exactly like the dubbing we did back in the day, just on a grander scale. Except this time, the record companies considered every download a loss of revenue, inferring that everyone who downloaded a song would have actually purchased that song if it had not been available for free on the web. What a bizarre perspective.

Most of the time, when we had a record dubbed so we could hear it, we were embarking on a treasure hunt, trying to find something that especially spoke to us and could enhance our lives in some way. My older brother (10 years my senior) used to gather with friends and have listening parties in the 70's. Was every set of ears in the room a loss of revenue to the record companies? Of course not. It's free advertising, if anything.

I'll admit that I sense something is lost with the digital format, but I'm not quite sure what it is. Maybe it has less to do with the format than it does with my opinion of the music within the era of the format. Yeah, the sound is crystal clear, but, to me, it was never about the quality of the sound, only the quality of the music. Maybe it's that I'm not actually sharing the music, or that experience of first hearing the music, with friends anymore. Anything "digital" tends to be more solitary, in my experience.

Fascinating post, Jay. Much respect.

I didn't know about your blog until I watched a video posted by YBb at Myspace.
Better late than never...
I think your thoughts on this issue are fascinating - and true!
I'm 30 now.
I can relate to how you described your experience of going to the record shop to get the latest records and being so excited. I loved the whole experience of going there and also listening to some records right there.
The whole interacting thing, the talk with the shop owner, the exchange of information, opinion etc. all of that has obviously changed.
Which doesn't mean the younger music nerds do appreciate music less than we do. it's just different.
Me personally, I still don't have the same feeling of excitement when I get a downloaded album. I know this is kinda old-fashioned.

Anyway, I love the way you describe and analyze the whole situation.
You should be teaching at some university - or write a book (don't knwo if you did that already ;-)).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Can't wait to hear more.

Greetz from Berlin-City
Alia

I didn't know about your blog until I watched a video posted by YBb at Myspace.
Better late than never...
I think your thoughts on this issue are fascinating - and true!
I'm 30 now.
I can relate to how you described your experience of going to the record shop to get the latest records and being so excited. I loved the whole experience of going there and also listening to some records right there.
The whole interacting thing, the talk with the shop owner, the exchange of information, opinion etc. all of that has obviously changed.
Which doesn't mean the younger music nerds do appreciate music less than we do. it's just different.
Me personally, I still don't have the same feeling of excitement when I get a downloaded album. I know this is kinda old-fashioned.

Anyway, I love the way you describe and analyze the whole situation.
You should be teaching at some university - or write a book (don't knwo if you did that already ;-)).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Can't wait to hear more.

Greetz from Berlin-City
Alia

Check this out
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029

good stuff

are u rockin a half mustache?

i knew jay would be the only one who could make me feel bad about downloading music :D

i think people forgot the main reason why people generally started downloading like crazy. THE PRODUCT SUCKED! and the record companies (and all of those who are so opposed to donloading) seem to have forgotten about BOOTLEG TAPES! remember, ever since we were able to duplicate a recording at home, getting music for free has been going on. i feel the only reason bootleg tapes didn't really jump off like downloading has (aside from availability) is the sound quality sucked, more people still enjoyed reading the linear notes, them being much cheaper than cds (and sometimes tapes depending on where you bought them), but more than anything, they were tired of buying a tape and the music stunk to all hell [(the only song that was worth buying was the one that made them want to buy the tape/cd in the 1st place, which a lot of us ended up taping off of the radio anyway (remember that?)]. tapes where eventually phased out, and we inevitably forced (thanks record companies) to cds, and nothing changed. people got tired of buying a wack ass cd. the only problem was that we were now spoiled by the sound quality of cds. but wait... what is this? the CD-R?!?!?! and now here comes the bootleg cd. an the reasons behind people buying the bootleg cd is the same as buying the bootleg tape. fast forward to today, and we now have bootleg... well now it's called downloading. and the same reasons for all of the acquiring music from anyone other than where you're "supposed" to obtain music HAS... NOT... CHANGED.

people, bottom line, you give the buying public a reason to WANT to buy the music, they will buy it. it's obviously that people are still buying music. we're just tired of wack ass music. unfortunately, things are to the point where it's to the point where it's almost expected to just wait to download what you want as opposed to buying it. i don't trust the average artist that comes out now. period. i miss the days of marking on my calendar when an artist i heard about from a radio show/friend/word of mouth was dropping some new music. not anymore. now, you start at the source (all of these wack ass artists getting signed because of a wack ass... whatever it was that got them signed. take your pick), and mybe things will change for these record companies and they can stop whining about not making any money. well, maybe...

i think people forgot the main reason why people generally started downloading like crazy. THE PRODUCT SUCKED! and the record companies (and all of those who are so opposed to donloading) seem to have forgotten about BOOTLEG TAPES! remember, ever since we were able to duplicate a recording at home, getting music for free has been going on. i feel the only reason bootleg tapes didn't really jump off like downloading has (aside from availability) is the sound quality sucked, more people still enjoyed reading the linear notes, them being much cheaper than cds (and sometimes tapes depending on where you bought them), but more than anything, they were tired of buying a tape and the music stunk to all hell [(the only song that was worth buying was the one that made them want to buy the tape/cd in the 1st place, which a lot of us ended up taping off of the radio anyway (remember that?)]. tapes where eventually phased out, and we inevitably forced (thanks record companies) to cds, and nothing changed. people got tired of buying a wack ass cd. the only problem was that we were now spoiled by the sound quality of cds. but wait... what is this? the CD-R?!?!?! and now here comes the bootleg cd. an the reasons behind people buying the bootleg cd is the same as buying the bootleg tape. fast forward to today, and we now have bootleg... well now it's called downloading. and the same reasons for all of the acquiring music from anyone other than where you're "supposed" to obtain music HAS... NOT... CHANGED.

people, bottom line, you give the buying public a reason to WANT to buy the music, they will buy it. it's obviously that people are still buying music. we're just tired of wack ass music. unfortunately, things are to the point where it's to the point where it's almost expected to just wait to download what you want as opposed to buying it. i don't trust the average artist that comes out now. period. i miss the days of marking on my calendar when an artist i heard about from a radio show/friend/word of mouth was dropping some new music. not anymore. now, you start at the source (all of these wack ass artists getting signed because of a wack ass... whatever it was that got them signed. take your pick), and mybe things will change for these record companies and they can stop whining about not making any money. well, maybe...

Oh, Lord. Make me show my age, why don't you? Damn.

I remember waiting for record releases like it was yesterday, seriously. It was SUCH a big, big deal. I'd save up $7.99 and head down to The Colony (and in later years, Tower Records) to buy the object of my aural desire. I was known to ditch school in favor of being the first on my block to buy a particular record. The last record I remember buying was "Around The World in a Day" and it's a good thing, too: That cover DEMANDED to be viewed on a 33 1/3 scale.

These days, it's just downloading to my hard drive. Not nearly the same.No joy. No thrill. UNILL Radiohead came along and did its thing. I haven't been that excited to hear a new record in years.

I can't wait to see who else is going to hop on the Radiohead wagon and change the industry.

Mahavishnu Orchestra! Final Comedown by Grant Green! Good picks, haha. My music-obtaining memories are only for CDs but even that is something I feel annoyed that so many people don't embrace or care about. The new UGK and Kanye had an event-like feeling to them for my friends and I and it was really fun texting and calling one another commenting as we digested it...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7082627.stm

illdoctrine.com is as great as your radio program the Underground Railroad. You are one multi-talented man.. and smart too if I may say.. i've seem about all of your videos, and i'm shakin' my head 'yes' 100% of the time

i agree with your analysis, ie the Radiohead move was definitely the correct move for 2007 (i paid RH 7 bucks for my download, though i was gonna just give them 4 thinkin they don't need anymore - but I did 7 'cause i didn't want them to be punished for this offering).. too bad they've pulled the d'load option from their site.. the deals done everyone.. peace Jay, and again, in case anyone wasn't sure - you are definitely the man!

What about when that Sugar Hill Record came out. When the needle mistakingly fell from your fingers and scratched the record, it was like you had meningitis in your spine-or something. Man when I brought that, "Heartbeat, you make me feel so real" 45 home, you couldn't tell me nuffin, what I'm a girl. Ok, I know this is like incredibly stupid-like some SCI FI. or something but what if hip-hop turned the hands of time back and started coming back out with records or 8tracks. You think we could single-handidly transform the industry. I know too much spare time right.
PS- Jay I swear you make inellectual commentary the new sexy. (hope I spelled everything correctly)- NyraJane

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