1. Your Mixtape Sounds Like It Was Rushed - You need to spend a
little more time on creating your product. It is so annyoing to listen to a
mixtape that was rushed resulting in poor audio quality. Just because Nas or Jay
Z are able to make a great track in one take recording sessions does not mean you can do that too.
Make sure that the people can hear your words and that there is clarity
in the vocal recording. Hip hop lyrics is what seperates a great
professional industry artist from a whack rapper. There is no way around
it. Your lyrics must be good and on point. And If you can deliver great
lyrics let them be heard. It is so disappointing when the first song
you are listening to on the mixtape is of poor quality audio or you just can’t make any
sense of what the artist is saying. Plan out your mixtape, take your
time and be critical of every song. Test some songs on YouTube and soundcloud. Ask people for feedback, not just for your rap lyrics but for when
you are buying beats for your mixtape.
2. You Had A New Mixtape Out Last Week
- Come on. People let the music digest with your fans after they
download mixtapes. You got to ask yourself how much time did you spend
promoting your last rap mixtape. Some people churn out mixtapes every
week and never promote their mixtapes at all. Then they go on forums and
give out that nobody is listening to them. If you have a lot of music in
you pick the best tracks and spend a couple of months promoting that
mixtape. If you bring out a new mixtape every week how is anyone going
to take you serious? If I am going to download and listen to your
mixtape and you didn’t bother doing any promotion like mixtape reviews, it shows your fans
that this mixtape didn’t mean anything to you.
3. Poor Mixtape Cover Art
- If your going to make a great product then make a great cover. People
buy with their eyes. I think that many people don’t see the mixtape
download numbers that they want because they have a terrible mixtape
cover. A picture of a microphone from the Google image search doesn't make a mixtape cover. If you have a concept for your
mixtape then the mixtape cover art should reflect that. You don’t
have to break the bank. Find out your budget for your mixtape and all the costs that will be associated with its creation and plan out how
much you can afford. If your completely broke, it is time to start doing
odd jobs for people. Hit up some mixtape cover artists and tell them
that you will write articles about their service or give a great review
in exchange for their services. Most people will network with you if you
can do something for them.
4. Low quality beats or beats that are over tagged
- It is so common now to hear mixtapes on datpiff and hear the
producers tag riddled throughout a rap song. There are some great beat
selling websites out their were you can find great beats to rap to. If
you can’t come up with $10 – $20 for a couple of beats that don’t have
the producer’s tag advertising their website every 20 seconds maybe it
is time that you try something else. You can get great quality beats
from top online producers for cheap. If you use beats with tags on them
over and over again people will never see you as a professional. What if
you were asked to play a show some where would you use these tagged
free hip hop beats in a venue have the tag “GET HOT BEATS AT
BEATSFORRAP.COM” every 20 seconds live at show. Hell no! I hope not! It
might be your last show. Do a background check on the producers you get
beats from. Ask some friends and fans what are their views on the beats
for sale on this music producers website. Some beats might be banging
but haven’t been mixed properly or over compressed leaving little room
for your vocals. This is a common problem with some rap beats on beat
selling websites. So do some home work.
5. You Haven’t Built Your Online Presence Yet
- I could go off on tangent on this one , but you need certain tools
that will get people warm to your brand and personality. Having your own
website / blog is a must. Website are dirt cheap today and it is your
social hub of where your fans can focus on you. This website will keep
them away from the clutter of social media pages. They will make people
download mixtapes on your site. The best thing about having your website
is that it belongs to you. Facebook pages and twitter pages don’t
belong to you. And you could lose them or they could become irrelevant
at anytime. I bet that you just laugh at that statement. That facebook
is too big to fail. You never know these days. I am not saying that you
shouldn’t use social media. Social media is an amazing tool to get more
downloads for your mixtapes but, do not rely on social media or any site
that you have no control over. You need to place some personality into
your online presence. When you upload your mixtape videos to youtube add
additional videos on speaking about your mixtape songs, how you wrote
them, how to write a rap song, who produced the mixtape beats and why
you chose to buy beats from that producer. With these additional videos you show your fans who you are and it gives you way more credibility
when building an online presence, thus creating more ways for people to
download your mixtape from your website.
I hope that you take some of
the points I have outlined above on board. If people are not downloading
mixtapes that you put out, it might be time to start building your
online presence. I am sure that if your numbers are low, these are some
of the reasons why people aren’t downloading your free mixtape.
Thanks
for reading and I hope that learned a little something. Share with your
fellow artists, if they are having a tough times getting the numbers
they would like to see.
