Buying Music
The amount of people purchasing music is drastically decreasing. Most people stream for free, or download the music illegally. This gives us the consumer less reasons to purchase anything, "Why should I buy this album, or this song when I can just get it for free, or listen to it on YouTube." With two-thirds of the American population having a smartphone in their reach they can do a quick information search on Lupe Fiasco, and they will find his free mixtapes, some free songs, and albums for sale. Typing the word "free" in the search bar you can find every song in his catalog available to download to your device for free. With the way things are now, this is routine response behavior. People are downloading music for free all the time.
Downloading music illegally is now part of the music culture, and this forces artists like Lupe Fiasco to put out free music to, what I think, to appease fans and attract those who are involved in the music, or those "who have their noses open" because those are the people that will make purchases. Our value for music also decreases because of this, that's why the music industry seems full of gimmicks and faked personas, a game now must be played to be able to sell their work.
People of pasts generations, usually refer to present day music as "trash, terrible, weak, lacking" and this opinions have to be coming from somewhere. I believe there is a lack of appreciation of the art of music, the amount of effort it takes to make a good song. I personally enjoy bodies of work, like an album or a mixtape as opposed to listening to the redundant radio songs. My favorite albums is Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. However, I first heard this album when I was 14-15, I didn't have money of my own, and just really starting to get into hip-hop and I didn't buy it. I listened to it on YouTube and I found appreciation of Lupe's music. That consistency of appreciation led to trust in the artist himself so when I purchase an album the day it is released I know it isn't money wasted. I think with more appreciation for the art, we will undoubtedly be more supportive of our favorite artists.
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