@Rome
Solid post. So lets zoom in on the Chief Keef situation; is he right at this moment considered a 'success' or does he have a great buzz and whether he's successful or not has yet to be determined?
In other words in 2012 has BUZZ replaced RECORD SALES in regards to determining if someone has 'made it'?
I wouldn't call him successful yet unless he can keep the flame lit like Drake or J. Cole. Two guys who were once in his shoes (internet sensations) and are now almost household names. They are definitely "street" names.
I've only heard the "I don't like" song by Chief Keef, so his views and buzz took him to the next level to where he'll no longer just be an HD Cam / Youtube guy, he'll be promoted alongside and featured with artists like Lil Wayne, Drake, Mystikal, Ace Hood on Cash Money Records.
I remember Outkast said that BabyFace made them perform and he was there in a white suit trying gauge crowd response and reaction. The interviewer asked him "If they didn't scream you wouldn't have gotten a deal?" and Big Boi said "No, we wouldn't have gotten a deal" Now it seems views are the new screams (or boos). The ultimate "success" is still to see if someone like Chief Keef can transcend Youtube and keep doing it consistently.
These guys fall into these situations where they are handed the baton and they can either run the race at full sprint or the go sit in the bleachers and talk about how funny somebody else looks when they're running.
There will be more Chief Keef's and there will be an abundance of them. When Soulja Boi did the same thing years ago with Crank Dat... everything was too new. There were no 4G phones, no ipads, no Android tablets. Now with streaming media people are going to tune in to indie vids and tube sites.
The only reason some vids on Tube sites get so many hits is because of the number of hits that are already on that vid. Everybody wants to be in the know, so they click on the vids with the highest view counts. The people in those vids get exposed to more eyes which creates more "buzz" and if the right people see those vids (Birdman), it could lead to bigger things.
People will begin to brag on views, downloads and streams as if they were SALES.
The only problem is that the Tube sites are all so disassociated that I don't think people even know how many views, downloads and streams they really have. People repost vids to bring traffic to their personal sites and the artist never even know about them. I posted a vid of a guy rapping on his porch and it was blowing up. I looked on Youtube at one channel and it was at over 100,000. I looked on a lesser known YouTube channel and the same vid only had 150 hits.
Somebody is going to figure it all out pretty soon and the views, downloads, and streams will eventually mean "people are paying attention to you, who are you and how can we be down?".
Award show will start to sound like this "Over 500,000 views, over 250,000 downloads of his mixtape and 600,000 streams and 300,000 followers on Twitter! We give you Young Flame Grenade Machete' Killa 209 Stockon Stompa!!!!"
^^^ That will be the gauge as to whether or not people are interested in seeing someone because there will not be but about 1000 paid buys of his official record.
Concerts, club appearances, product endorsements will be his only $. Not record sales. He'll probably have "a clothing line", "hats", or whatever other merchandise he can hock.
It'll take awhile but somebody is going to tie it all together.
I got four free mixtapes the other day. Meek Mill, D.P.G., and two more I can't even remember. If it were back in the day and I were a paying customer... I would be in the store with 4 CD's trying to figure out which TWO to buy.
I guess it's like the Sundance Film Festival with mixtapes... they make a movie, people watch it for free, somebody likes it, they say HOORAY because a movie studio wants to feed off that buzz they created.
When all of the phone carriers are forced to offer unlimited 4G streaming due to competition... downloads will go away. How many streams or "clicks" someone gets will be the measure of success... positive vs. negative comments will also come into play as to whether something is a hit or miss.
I just can't bring myself to buy a record now-a-days... sad.
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