Growing up being a superstar producer like Kanye West was my only dream. Making soulful beats, being innovative, and spreading good music throughout the culture. But like nearly every other industry, the internet has nearly diminished all the dreams of those once so inspired kids growing up.
The internet has literally shifted the way everything is done. The biggest advantage of the internet is its accessibility, the biggest disadvantage of the internet is its accessibility.
From a producer’s perspective, having the internet allows networking to be that much easier. Allowing a producer to display their work digitally makes everything that much more effective, whether it comes to sending beats, sessions, looking for samples, or even becoming in contact with major artists, or even being informed of possible opportunities.
Because accessibility has become so convenient it has increased the competition by large amounts. Because competition has become an obstacle, the difficulty of being able to identify yourself and becoming an outstanding producer is that much more difficult. Producer’s desperation to stand out has lead to them undervaluing their work and causing them to give out their production free of charge. With a surplus of producers willing to work for free, this has made it difficult for the producers that do decide to charge artists a fee. Artists feel it unnecessary to pay when they can surf the internet and get beats for free at the click of a mouse.
Justice League spoke on the issue by claiming that Chance the Rapper did not pay the producers from his recently released project, The Coloring Book. The League voiced their opinions in a twitter rant with statements such as “Y u think we aint been working with ur favorite rappers lately?” They followed this statement by discussing the racism that is very existent in the music industry.
Rappers remember; Pay your producers!
