RIAA-speak: artist promotion = crime

Mixtapes are a vital part of musical artist promotion, especially for certain genres such as rap. Unfortunately, the RIAA thinks that distributors of mixtapes that don't play by their rules should be locked up. That's what has happened to DJ Drama, whose "Gangsta Grillz" mixtapes are famous for breaking new artists. There is a bit of hope that there is an end in sight to this intimidation and stifling of artistic creation: the author of the above-linked NY Times article closes with:

It also seems clear that mixtapes can actually bolster an artist’s sales. The most recent Lil Wayne solo album, “Tha Carter II” (Cash Money/Universal), sold more than a million copies, though none of its singles climbed any higher than No. 32 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. That’s an impressive feat, and it’s hard to imagine how he would have done it without help from a friendly pirate.

Let's hope that the rest of society will soon wake up and see that the negatives of the RIAA's actions clearly outweigh the positives.