Can Internet Buzz Translate To Real Record Sales?
As announced on his blog, Charles Hamilton will be dropping his first album, The Pink Lavalamp, on December 9th – the final step in what he has called “the Hamiltonization process”, which has seen the release of four separate mixtapes over the last few months.
With drops from Scarface, Common this year and Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z next year, why should anyone care about the debut album of some cat that wears Sonic The Hedgehog gear and a whole lot of pink?
Because this will be the day where we find out, definitively, whether buzz on the Internets can make you a successful artist in the traditional sense (i.e. record sales).
More so that any other artist on the come-up Charles Hamilton has utilized the Internet to promote himself and spread word of his music. From what I know, Hamilton has never been promoted as most artists are: large ad buys, appearances on TV shows, a guest verses on a major track. Or at least I’ve never seen any of the above – which would suggest that the budget is small enough that a head like me missed it. And if I missed it, then most would have as well (word to the Big Dogs).
So, Hamilton has relied almost exclusively on viral marketing to create a name for himself or to get people to check for his joints. There has been a substantial amount of debate as to whether or not Internet buzz is legitimate and whether online support is actually real support. Legendary cat and more traditional thinker DJ Clark Kent broke it down like this:
Smart dude. And Kent makes an important statement: “if you can get on the Internet and turn that into tour sales, and sell your album when on tour, that’s something.” I think he’s right. That would be a significant leap – something that has not really happened in rap thus far. Many heads and industry types are skeptical and rightly so. The virtual nature of the Internet legitimately calls for the question to be asked: what is online buzz worth? Is it, as they say, a bunch of kids in their mom’s basement running 10 different blogs or websites? Or are there real numbers (and really fans who make real purchases) behind all the chatter?
I think to the greatest extent thus far, the record sales that Charles Hamilton generates will largely (or ar least partly) answer that question. That is why Lavalamp is a significant release for hip-hop. With all the XXL covers, the HipHopDX chatrooms, the blogspot.com postings, free mixtape downloads and flipcam interviews, this is where the “rubber hits the road” as it were.
Now, I’m not laying the fate of Internet marketing at the feel of Mr. Hamilton. I’m just saying that a lot of the talk (and so far, that’s all its been) have been theories, either for or against. With Lavalamp , there will actually be precedent to point to when discussing how to market an artist in the Internet era. This story is worth following, whether to thing Hamilton is dope or not.
Tags: blogs, Charles Hamilton, Internet Marketing, Sales
