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The 2010 Plight of Urban Music Sales by Brandon B
Monday, February 1st, 2010 | 9 Comments
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With urban music sale volumes experiencing monumental decreases, its a wonder why anyone would aspire to become a Hip Hop or R&B artist in 2010.
The truth of the matter is, according to last week’s Billboard charts, only two Hip Hop artist (Jay-Z & Eminem) surpassed 1 million record sales, while no R&B artist with the exception of Beyonce, reached that plateau. Even artist such as Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Rihanna and 50cent failed to reach platinum status by several hundred thousand sales.
Some may suggest that the quality of Hip Hop and R&B has declined over the past two decades, while others believe the market is over saturated with free music being leaked by artist and labels. Even social networks like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have been blamed for the low numbers, claiming that the ease of access has detracted from the artists’ mystique, thus resulting in a decreased motivation to purchase an album. The truth is, there are many factors that led to the downfall of urban sales, but none better than the mantra used correctly by Young Jeezy “It’s a recession erybody broke,” which has also negatively impacted the purchasing patterns of urban music’s the target market.
Labels are no longer taking risk, so pretty safe to say that the days of being “discovered” & landing a multimillion dollar contract are over. Quality music no longer equates to success. Labels have become impatient and are unwilling to work with artists to develop their brand. Its crazy to believe that if the Fugees released their debut album today [Blunted in Reality (1994)], they may not have been granted an opportunity to refine their sound, eventually leading to the birth of one of hip hop’s all time greatest groups. For those unfamiliar with the Fugees debut project, it peaked at #62 on The Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums of 1994, failing to land a Top 100 spot on the national billboards.
So the question remains, why be an urban artist in the year 2010, especially with the knowledge that marketing & promotional costs are high, with little to no guarantee of a significant return. The answer is quite simple and could be summarized in four key words: love, impact, freedom & expression. Do it for the LOVE of the art; for the IMPACT you will have on others; and for the FREEDOM or EXPRESSION. To passionate artist, the acronym of these four key words says it all. Music = L.I.F.E.
The intent of this article is not to discourage urban artist from being entrepreneurs or following their dreams, but if you look at music as a “side hustle” or a way to get rich quick, then you should probably consider pop or country, its a much smarter business investment. The facts are simple, the target audience of the urban market is a only subculture of the American population. This is exactly why you see artists such as Eminem and Jay-Z with songs that would be considered pop. In order to make the big $$$ they have to reach a broader audience. Do you think Jay-Z would sell a million records reppin Marcy Projects? The answer is no, not right now. But if you expand on that idea and title the song “New York” and add a few names like Sinatra, and include the Knicks and Yankees in the song, you now have a song that can relate to people of all socioeconomic and cultural subgroups. So while “reppin your hood” will always have a place in your heart, if you are doing this for the hustle, make music for the kids in the suburbs.
I’m not saying this to detract from urban music, I will always love Hip Hop and R&B. I will also continue to support it by purchasing CD’s & merchandise from the artist I respect. I love Hip Hop & EVERYTHING it stands for, because through Urban music gave me L.I.F.E. So give me a backpack, 1000 CD’s and a microphone, and I’ll see you at the next open mic!
Notable Record Sales 12/29/09-1/5/10 Soundscan
Taylor Swift – Fearless – 5,330,091
Taylor Swift – Big Machine – 4,621,051
Susan Boyle – I Dreamed A Dream – 3,099,223
Beyonce – I Am Sasha Fierce – 2,659,051
Nickelback – Dark Horse – 2,533,107
Lady GaGa – FAME – 2,389,976
Black Eyed Peas – E.N.D – 1,787,340
Eminem – Relapse – 1,734,043
Kings of Leon – Only By The Night – 1,708,935
Jay-Z – BP3 – 1,514,281
Zac Brown Band – Foundation – 1,348,638
Miley Cyrus – Time of Our Lives – 1,212,186
Carrie Underwood – Play On – 1,182,518
Twilight Saga – Soundtrack – 964,097
Jason Aldean – Wide Open – 958,836
Alicia Keys – Element of Freedom – 769,963
Rihanna – Rated R – 497,382
Trey Songz – Ready – 438,909
Mary J. Blige – Stronger with Each Tear – 388,806
50cent – Before I Self Destruct – 350,631
Chris Brown – Graffiti – 231,599
Gucci Mane – State vs Radric Davis – 190,604
Young Money – We Are Young Money – 182,762
Brandon Best is a singer/songwriter, currently working on a street album entitled “14th and U” due to debut in March. For more info on Brandon Best follow his twitter at www.twitter.com/brandonbest or lifeloveandlyrics.blogspot.com
Kwame Dance also contributed to this blog.
9 Comments »
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Where is the money going? I guess artists need to be prepared to become actors, dancers, tour and sponsors of colognes and other apparel to earn money. Perhaps deciding to earn money on the local circuit might not be such a bad idea. Good article.
Comment by Musiclover — February 1, 2010 @ 4:51 pm
“the market is over saturated with free music being leaked by artist and labels”—>
that has some truth in point.. and so does Jeezy’s statement. Speaking as an aspiring Hip Hop artist I do see the reality of it all. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to go to school and get a degree in Fashion Merchandising. You always gotta have a back up plan. I do music simply for the love of it and as eloquently as you put it, for the L.I.F.E. of it. When I first started embarking on such an over-saturated career choice, money was no where in the reasoning behind my decision. Of course, it’ll come into the picture somewhere down the line but love and empression together create the foundation. But to anybody that doesn’t have either of those in whatever their chosen field, what’s the point? are you really going to go through life with get rich quick schemes? People are selfish, they don’t have to invest in your success. Without passion for your craft you’re just wasting your time. This was a very well written article and I enjoyed reading it. =)
Comment by Lola Maxwell — February 3, 2010 @ 3:55 pm
Very well written Mz.Maxwell
Comment by Brandon Best — February 4, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
Very well written article. I think as the recession lets up in the future, the market will be more lucrative again. The days of hip hop and r&b artist getting millions off of just record sales are over. If you build your self as a brand you will be more successful, and more opportunities will land your way!!
Comment by DMV Life — February 5, 2010 @ 6:31 am
DMV Life that definitely makes a lot of sense…
Comment by Reefaman — February 5, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
Don’t blame the recession on bullshit music. the quality of music has changed and people are no longer fooled by the crap we here on the radio, enough is enough fans will not continue to spend their money on whack ass cd’s. so they pick and choose what single they want off the album and purchase that, each album thats coming out only has at least two or three good songs out of 14 songs on it. I got four words for you “THE JIG IS UP”
Comment by exquisite entertainment — February 7, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
Here is some advice for all u up and coming artists focus on each and every song as if it was the single and stop putting crap on your album just to fill the slots. Stand out be different they don’t want to hear the same shit all the time and start to focus on mainstream more as well meaning pop because like the article states thats the only music thats selling right now but make sure its good music overall. “Dare to be different”
Comment by exquisite entertainment — February 7, 2010 @ 1:50 pm
We can’t forget that each generation has its own era of music that appeals to that target audience. I’m sure if you ask a peron who is 45+ they will say the 70′s had the best music, just like if you ask someone who is 25-35 they’ll probably say the 90′s. Music is meant to appeal to the times, and while yes there is a lot of BS out right now, I can honestly say that for every “bad” artist out today, I can name an equally “bad” artist in the 90′s 70′s and heaven forbid we talk about the 80′s (worst music ever)! However, at the end of the day I’ll just be giving my opinions. We cannot negate facts or give blanket statements of “horrible music” for opinions.
Comment by Brandon Best — February 9, 2010 @ 10:12 am
Have you ever noticed that Rock albums/groups are usually writing about some aspect of the lives of young people in general; be it foolish or deep. They have abstract titles and hidden meanings, etc. Hip Hop and R&B; not so much! We are pretty much always on the cover of the album flossin’ and that about it. We create beefs, in-fighting, brag about meaningless shit, and talk about being the best ever! Are we only concerned with big ticket items, is that it? I mean damn, the average black person has a lot more to worry about than that, don’t we. I think the largest part of the problem is that our people are not as connected with the music as white people are with there music. In my opinion this is the reason why dance music and party hip hop sell but other hip hop does not. People will always love to party, so party tracks will forever be a good move, hence the success of NEW BOYZ, Soulja Boy, etc. Other than that there isn’t really much our people can connect with in popular hip hip/r&b.
I honestly believe that creativity and honest is lacking in hip-hop/R&B. Bring some of that back to the forefront and we will see more fan loyalty. We are actually failing them (as a whole not each of individually) by not giving them something great/new/refreshing to listen to and reminisce on in years to come. We are way too creative a people, to be settled with making “more of the same”old music!
Brokeness is definitely a huge factor too, but I can remember times I was broke and spent my last on some music that I knew was going pull my through. I can think of a bunch of CD’s from high school and college, but only a few from the last few years. This is tragic! I’m an artist but I neeeeeeed music too.
I wrote an honest album that you may want to hear if you feel anything like how I feel about music: here is the link http://www.reubmuzik.com/
If you feel like putting me on to some great music – feel free to hit me up and share, cuz lord knows I’m struggling over here
Comment by reubmuzik — February 9, 2010 @ 10:19 am