Greetings DMV Music Lovers,
The past few weeks have brought about a lot of great mixtapes and online album releases from the wonderful artists of the DMV. I’m always eager to get full length projects in my inbox, as much as I enjoy getting singles. But with this influx of mixtapes/albums, I’ve also been receiving an influx of the same problem…people are sending in their mixtapes/albums without a tracklisting or back cover to let people know what selections are on the project. Several times in the past weeks, I’ve had to email artists back and tell them to send in either a back cover or tracklisting to post with their mixtape/album projects. Why should I have to do this? Including the FULL work of your project should be a given.
I don’t think people value how much the covers and tracklisting helps in promoting your full length musical selection. Especially on a site like this where people are logging on to discover something new. Your tracklisting lets the music consumer see what it is that you have to offer. It may be a consumers first time hearing of you, but if they see from your back cover/tracklisting that you have songs with their favorite artists and/or producers, or even freestyled to a hot beat, they will be more inclined to download your mixtape.
Let me break it down this way. Say that you go to a restaurant that you’ve never been to before. It’s all nice and beautiful. You’re ready to indulge in what the restaurant has to offer, but there is one problem…they don’t give you a menu. So here you are in this nice beautiful restaurant, but you have no idea what they are serving up. That’s exactly what you’re doing by submitting mixtapes/albums to blogs with no tracklisting, or a back cover that includes the tracklising. Heck, there have been times when artists have submitted mixtapes/albums with NO covers at all. Why would people click on a link with no info?? Sounds like a hack job to me.
If you value what you’ve created, make sure that you give people that full value and not just a small percentage. Sell yourself to the consumer. Show them what you have to offer. Remember to send in those front AND back covers, or tracklisting if by any chance you don’t have a back cover. NEVER EVER sell yourself short. And definitely never sell the music consumers short. Get those back covers/tracklistings in from now on, people!! 
DOMO!
Comment on March 17, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Good Article Heat! Let em know!
DJ Heat
Comment on March 17, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Thank you.
Torkaveli
Comment on March 17, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Plus the tracklisting makes it google searchable!
Arts Roundup: “Children by the Million Sing for Alex Chilton” Edition - Arts Desk - Washington City Paper
Pingback on March 18, 2010 at 8:45 am
[...] DCMumboSauce.com reminds purveyors of mixtapes: Include a tracklist! [...]
Overok
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 10:51 am
Music has become disposable and people put no effort into what they do. As Heat stated here, it’s the little things that count and get noticed.
Note to artists: Pay attention to what you do. Do you want a car with 2 wheels?
Ajani Truth
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 11:09 am
So simple but so many people forget this. Another thing is not properly creating the tags for the songs. Then the listener places in Itunes and it pretty much disappears. There is too much music out here for people to find and listen to and artists are making too many mistakes. Get out of the booth sometimes and organize.
DJ Heat
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 2:15 pm
A car with 2 wheels would be kind of dope.
Southeast Slim
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 2:20 pm
A car with 2 wheels would be a motorcycle.
DJ Heat
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Touche’.
Deron
Comment on March 18, 2010 at 8:46 pm
It’s a play on both sides. The artist is probably thinking, “no one is really going to download this anyway so what’s the point?” Regardless of how much pride they take in their music. If you have no budget to barely buy studio time, let alone have a graphic designer make a front and back cover, or even print mixtapes, you probably aren’t thinking about it. That’s the case for a lot of emcees out there who really care about their music.
Dreams like these cost about $40,000 each. Every artist doesn’t have good financial backing to get things like that done.
But great article HEAT!
#thatisall
DJ Heat
Comment on March 19, 2010 at 3:24 pm
It doesn’t cost anything to type up what songs are your mixtape.
Overok
Comment on March 20, 2010 at 9:55 pm
A car with 2 wheels is not going anywhere. A motorcycle is a motorcycle.
A human resource is worth it’s weight in gold. In this climate, your skill is your budget. Find a way to get things you need.
Drastic example: You are stuck in the woods with nothing but your clothes. The first thing you are going to look for is water, a food source and shelter.
Treat music the same way.
djeurok
Comment on March 22, 2010 at 12:35 am
“It doesn’t cost anything to type up what songs are your mixtape.”
TRUTH!
DJ Heat, I just gotta say I love that you helping provide some knowledge to the aspiring artists on the rise!
I just figured out you can copy and paste song titles out of itunes? just make a playlist, select all and paste into a text editor.
Deron
Comment on March 22, 2010 at 11:12 am
Touche’ Heat…
All I’m saying is… in addition to tracklisting and all of that…
I think artists should take a deeper respect overall for their presentation…
Where the track list may be fulfilled, then the cover is lacking.
Then from the cover to the packaging.
you see what I mean?
If you haphazardly distribute your material with poor presentation, it makes a difference in how people receive your music, from what I’ve seen.
Why not go the full 100% with something that “so many” love “so deeply”?
DQ
Comment on March 24, 2010 at 10:13 pm
a car with two wheels would be a segway with a roof, so like a segway with an umbrella attached would be like the two-wheel droptop, pretty ballin imo