The Roll-out of "Mercy" and the Continued Efforts of the Labels to Monetize Music

It has been an exciting few days in the rap-blog world. I mean, Kanye hit us with "Theraflu" (which you can guarantee will be stripped of its annoying DJs, and saddled with GOOD Music spitters), I hit you with the best "Theraflu" meme available (no boost), "Mercy" dropped, Nicki shook her ass, Drake re-upped, then went artsy, and... I'm officially sick of linking you to stuff. If you want to know what happened, check out KWT. Duh!

With the release of "Theraflu" & "Mercy" there were a few interesting things to note. Namely, how difficult they were to stream on Youtube and download sans tags. It's kind of sad, but the labels are starting to figure out this internet thing.




Having seen the hype and insane download numbers surrounding Kanye's GOOD Friday series, Def Jam undoubtedly thinks they can employ a similar scheme, but this time turn a quick buck. Which is why instead of download links, we've been supplied with iTunes links, and instead of user-made Youtube videos, the songs are available to stream on Def Jam's site. This has been noticeable more and more with big songs, as the days go by. When a song drops, it's increasingly difficult to get it. I'm sure there's teams of techies flagging Hulkshare links, getting Youtube videos taken down, etc.

One, this obviously sucks for the consumer. And two, I think the labels are going to realize it sucks for them.

There is still no realistic, easy method for grabbing a song off iTunes. You need a gift card, or a credit card. You can't type in your debit PIN or slip a five into the old laptop. Which means, in my mind, you have a lot of kids trying to get the song, but unwilling to pay for it. A song like "Monster" got popular through the taste-makers ("bootleggers") and then crossed over into the mainstream. People who check blogs have songs months before they blow up. Getting a song, then spreading it to your circle (no Google+) is our new-age answer to the street teams of yore. It's an all-important step and the foundation for a breakthrough song. G.O.O.D Music isn't the Biebz. 13-year old girls aren't begging their parents to purchase "Mercy" the day it comes out.

But of course, Def Jam doesn't care. Free? Are you fucked in your head? Labels hate free anything. They'll get to mixtapes next, just you watch. But by trying to get paid for every listen, the labels are shooting themselves in the foot. Simply, it's going to get in the way of success. By hampering people's ability to share what they like using the Internet, the labels are being overly greedy, and this mentality is going to prevent songs from naturally growing and blossoming into the kind of hits they so desperately desire.