Bootleg Blogs: Criminals or Pioneers?

By: R.M. London

 

Three days before Erykah Badu releases her fourth full length album, "New AmErykah Part 1 (4th World War)" a leak hits the internet, and within hours it is plastered on countless blogs, file sharing websites, and torrents. 2 months before their group's debut release, eMC's (Masta Ace, Punchline, Wordsworth, and Stricklin) "The Show" was made available to anyone who knows where to find it on an endless stream of blogger accounts associated with the blogspot and wordpress monicker. On one of the most popular "bootlegging blog" sites there has already been a total of 600+ albums uploaded since opening day of the new year-- 320 albums uploaded in February alone. From Pete Rock's new record to Nicolay and Kay's latest collobaration, from Edo G and the Bulldog's debut release to a rare Living Legend's album-- this blog has a mom and pop record shop sized database of new, old, and rare hip hop records. Are these the people that are slowly killing record sales?

While file sharing websites such as Zshare, Rapidshare, Megaupload, Mediafire rise in popularity between the online music community, new album releases continue to zoom back and forth between broadband connections and onto the hard drives of rabid music fans around the globe at no cost. At this very moment I could type in just about any hip hop album ever created and a find a download link within minutes. A searching method that has become extremely easy for internet surfers to use and manipulate.

Recently, at my college campus, I asked a few random students how much illegal downloading they have done within the past month. Twenty out of twenty students said they had illegally downloaded a song or more, while twelve of the twenty students questioned said they illegally downloaded one full album or more. Kris Lekos, an avid indie rock and electronica fan equipped with two 30 gigabyte mp3 players, said he has "downloaded around 260 albums since the beginning of the year. 25 of them being new releases from 2008." A handful of the questioned students said they still buy the actual physical records after they download. A majority of the students frequented numerous blogs that host these free albums.

While artists like Ghostface Killah, who made a video on tour for his "fans" that expressed his disgust for the lack of sales from his new "Big Doe Rehab" release, and Torae, who recently wrote a blog on HipHopDx expressing his discontent with file sharing and bootlegging, whine and express their anger towards their fans and lack of record sales, there are established artists like Murs and Louis Logic who appreciate and encourage the rapid sharing of their music.

Which brings me to the big question: Are these blog-bootleggers doing the industry a service? Are they helping the artists, or hurting them? Are they criminals, or digital pioneers?

I got in touch with, Krooked1, one of the main contributors of HipHopBootleggers, the most popular hip hop album download blog on the internet that has received an amazing 1.5 million hits since the summer of 2006, and asked him that very question, he confidentally told me: "Well, if you look at hip hop at the moment the record labels do not do enough to get their artists the promotion they want and need. We get artists asking US to promote them, and they even resort to sending there albums to us to post. I don't think we're doing anything wrong. If it wasn't for the internet a lot of people would not know about what has been released, or what is due to be released. Yes, we are doing a service to the artists who do not get what they deserve (promotion wise). If you are signed to a record label, your album is about to come out, and the label is not doing shit about it before its release-- what is that? What is the artist to do at that point to get their name out? Yea, we put it online, but if we like what we hear we will purchase. Artists moan about their shit getting leaked on the net-- they should just not send it to the press."

The press-- magazines, websites, blogs, and newsletters-- who dedicate themselves to industry news and artist promotion are also apart of this new wave of free download blogs. Numerous interns, album reviewers, and staff, who handle the incoming music that is sent for promotional use, also have their own blog websites where they upload unreleased songs and albums to the public for free. But, are they really doing anything wrong? Or are these un-paid music fans providing artists and labels with a brand new kind of free promotional service that is giving them a leg up?

Despite what the RIAA and a handful of artists and labels believe, these bloggers ARE doing a service to the artist and consumer. By providing a free download, the blogs allow the consumer to hear the music before its release date and gives the consumer a chance to hear the product before they exchange their hard earned cash. With a music industry that is flooded with myspace rappers, netcees, bedroom singers, and wannabe garage rockers that all have an album for sale, the blogs provide a free "listening experience" that weeds out the garbage and puts the best music into the hands of the buyer. Which means, there should be no complaints about the free promotion as long as you're making great music that is actually worth a purchase, right?

Do you not believe me? The very night I wrote this article I found this. Check this recent study at NYU:

Blog posts can triple future album sales, according to a new study from researchers at New York University.

NYU Stern professor Vasant Dhar and former student Elaine Chang sampled 108 albums released between January and March of 2007 to determine the impact of blog chatter on record sales. Using Amazon.com sales rankings, albums were tracked four weeks before and four weeks after release.

Researchers found that when an album got mention in more than 40 legitimate blog posts, sales were three times the average. If those albums were associated with major labels, sales jumped five times the average. Albums that got more than 250 blog mentions saw sales increases of six times the average.

The number of MySpace friends the artist had also improved album sales, but researchers said there was a weaker correlation than with blog chatter.

Now what do you think of HHB? Instead of going after college students and innocent internet surfers it's about time that the artists, labels, and industry suits ride the wave of change. Instead of grasping at old trends and continuing to do things the "old fashioned way" it is time to set new trends and not be so afraid of going outside the creative boundaries that have been set for over 25 years. You are nitpicking at the people who actually love your music, rather than nitpicking and manuevering around the mistakes that were made by the industry when a little company by the name of Napster emerged from the cyber-womb.

Are these blogs and bloggers criminals or digi-pioneers? Embassy the Hitmaker, a producer on the rise that recently worked with Murs on an independent project that was massively bootlegged, summed it up best: "For indie acts more exposure takes priority over sales because touring is where the bread is at, but i dont blame them (the bloggers). This is an issue the indsutry brought upon itself and it has to live with the consequences until a solution arises."

Until that solution emerges and the brains of the industry finally come together and morph with the current trends and shifts, there is only one thing that we as music fans can do...

Support the artists. Buy the records if you like them. Support their live show when they come to your city.

The rest is in their hands.