Day: April 21, 2016

Blog Post #10

While this blog has focused primarily on the aspects of discovering new artists and music, it is now time to shift gears slightly and tie in the idea of supporting artists into the main topic of music discovery. If there is a particular artist that you enjoy and appreciate then why would you not want to help support them monetarily in some way?

If people want to pay money to go see a movie or a play, so why is it that when it comes to the entertainment area of music that people often times never pay money for the music they love? While most people, myself included, would agree that free things are always better; the artists who rely on their music to make a living would disagree. I am not saying that you need to buy every album your favorite artist has ever put out. The reason being is that for most people, physically owning music is a trend that has died out. However, there are still a few key things you can do in order to help support the artists you discover and love. The first and seemingly most obvious point is to avoid illegally downloading, and sharing music. Moving on, if you use a music streaming service, it is a good idea to actually subscribe and pay money for that service. The reason being, artists stand to make substantially more money from the users who pay for streaming services in comparison to users who do not. Lastly, most people completely forget about this aspect of music, but it is one method artists can make a majority of their money and that is through concerts. Live music events provide you the opportunity to experience your favorite artists in person while also helping to support the artist monetarily. It is also important to note that most artists will sell merchandise at their live events and most times 100% of merchandise profit will go directly to the artist. Musical artists provide listeners not only entertainment, but everything from pure enjoyment to true happiness, so why would you not want to help support them in return?

This week’s featured artist is XXYYXX, who I actually had the pleasure of experiencing in person by going to his concert in Denver last December. XXYYXX is the stage name for electronic music artist and producer Marcel Everett. XXYYXX is Originally from Orlando, Florida, and at just 20 years old, as of April 2016, he has already released two albums along with an impressive number of mixtapes, EPs, collaborations, singles, and remixes. I suggest you listen to his self-titled 2012 album XXYYXX from top to bottom. If you like what you hear, I highly recommend you go to one of his concerts as he is amazing to see live!