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WHAT’S A MIXTAPE?
A Mixtape, also known as a “Street Album” is a carefully curated collection of songs. It’s a mashup of an artist’s hits or a few tracks of new music. Mixtapes are made up of any genre of music, but they are most commonly connected to the hip-hop scene.
Distributing mixtapes was once a “love language”. Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a prominent part of youth culture. Back then, people didn’t have the luxury of plugging into Spotify and listening to ad-free music. They had to wait by the radio, waiting for their favorite song to come up. With the help of a cassette tape, they used to record songs by their favorite artists. They would then give these tapes to their significant others as gifts. A gesture of love indeed!
Mixtapes were widely popular as they were free of cost and easy to distribute. So, Artists took advantage of this to gain buzz around their music or an upcoming album release. They popularized their music at shows, and clubs, passing them out by concert promoters on the street.
The purpose behind this was to get more people to listen to new music by emerging artists. It was the best, cheapest way to familiarize people with up-and-coming underground musicians.
In the modern world, cassette tapes evolved into CDs and flash drives, with music in the form of MP3 files. Although we don’t have cassette tapes anymore, mixtapes are still prevalent in the form of mashups, compilations of different songs, and themed playlists.
Today, Mixtapes are a standard promotional tool. Musicians today use this tool to reach a wider audience. Established artists may release a mixtape just for the sake of their fans or to give audiences a sample of what’s to come as they work on new music. Some of today’s most successful hip-hop artists started by giving away their mixtape music for free. Drake’s So Far Gone is a popular example.
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WHAT’S AN ALBUM?
An album is a collection of 6 or more songs running over 30 minutes in length and is considered to be one single product. Artists usually issue albums on compact disc, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution.
Compared to mixtapes, an album is a professionally produced, artistically focused collection of songs belonging together in one place. It is more polished. Musicians make them with the intention of making money off of the singles that are released. Due to their format, mixtapes typically have a shorter length than albums, which is another way they differ from albums.
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WHICH IS BETTER FOR YOU?
So, closing the gap between the two, which one will be beneficial for you as an upcoming artist? While Albums are beautifully organized sets of music that help you make money, mixtapes have a global appeal. If you want to reach a wider audience, Mixtapes are the way to go!
There are several artists who rose to stardom by first releasing mixtapes. Who knows? You might be the next Drake!
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