The Mixtape Game
The music business is much like any other business model, there are several aspects of it and you have competition on each and every one of those. Let’s take Hip-Hop and rapping for example, in recent years this genre of music became ever more popular, thus resulting in an oversaturated genre of music with a lot of high-grade to low-grade artists. Now that is the problem, because the market is oversaturated with low-grade artists, any new artist that actually has talent will have a hard time making a name for himself. However there are a couple of methods that we will be discussing regarding new rappers and how they can make it to the top, or at least make a name for themselves.
The first thing that we should mention is the fact that any new artist doesn’t have enough money to buy studio time in order to make a high quality record which can be sold later on. With this said it’s safe to assume that any artist that is looking to make it big time starts with homemade mixtapes in order for him to make a name for himself. When it comes to mixtapes and mixtape covers in general there are a couple of things that you need to be aware of. First of all mixtape purchases are purely what you call “impulse buys” this means that people who actually buy your mixtape are the ones who do it because they are curious and the price tag is right. It’s important to understand that at this stage of your career you still didn’t make a name for yourself and the odds of a person who purchased your mixtape knowing you are slim.
Let’s take a look at the whole “impulse buy” thing for a moment. Why did the person in question buy your mixtape instead of any other record? The visual representation of your mixtape, meaning your mixtape cover has to do a lot with it. The fact is that if something looks nice people will spend a lot more time looking at it, and that increases the probability of your mixtape being sold, this can go a long way in terms of gathering the needed funds to buy studio time that you need.
Designing a mixtape cover as a marketing tool
The term “designing” should not be taken lightly under no circumstances. Examples of rappers taking this aspect of marketing to lightly are all over our music stores including iTunes and various other programs. Everybody who even attempted to listen to music encountered a mixtape cover that lacked overall quality and immediately disregarded the product that was in front of him as something that is simply not worth the time, without ever listening to it. Needless to say that this can be a huge problem to someone that is trying to make a name for himself. Another thing that we feel that we should mention is the fact that the disregarded music gets labeled as “trash music” or more popularly called “clutter music” with low quality and not soon after these unlucky pieces of art fad away from existence.
How to design a mixtape cover
The first thing that you should be aware of is the fact that you are a rapper, and not a professional mixtape cover designer. So needless to say that you should hire somebody that knows exactly what they are doing. Jour job here is to revise the following.
- What is your genre of music
- What emotions does your music bring you
- What is the theme behind the music you make
Only after you have grasped the concepts of the previously mentioned feel free to start looking for a designer to make you a mixtape cover.Your cover art places a big role in your project when it comes to getting new fans and listeners especially if they have never heard your music before you need graphics that will grab their attention. Another thing is make sure you don’t get overcharged by a designer for your design the average designer charges anywhere from $50 to $100 dollars which is a great price as long as they have a quick turnaround and provide unlimited changes if needed.
Also make sure you checkout the designers portfolio to give you an idea of the type of work he or she does and make sure it fits the style you’re looking.. Needless to say that all aspects of your music need to be integrated in your mixtape cover, the ability of the final product to represent itself is key here, and if you and your designer did the job to the fullest extent regarding your mixtape cover, it will be your own private personal salesman.
Promoting With Email Marketing To,Managers,Booking Agents And More
It is a well-known fact that that every rapper which is trying to make a name for himself sends a lot of E-mails to various record companies around the world, it’s a free way to promote your music and yourself and by any chance you aren’t doing the previously mentioned, we recommend that you start now!
When it comes to sending mass E-mails you need to be aware of the fact that it’s much easier to see than it is to listen. What we are trying to say is the fact that if somebody actually opens your E-mail and sees a link to a YouTube video the odds are that they will most probably move that E-mail to the spam folder. On the other hand, if that somebody opens an E-mail and sees a picture of your mixtape cover and actually likes it, they will click on the link in the E-mail as well. Visual representation of a good mixtape cover can go a long way, especially in the early stages of your career.
In conclusion
As you undoubtedly know by now, mixtapes as well as the mixtape covers that represent them, can be a powerful marketing tool when trying to make it to the big leagues, especially when it comes to music, so under no circumstances should you disregard the importance of all the previously mentioned aspects of your marketing and promotion.
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