Through Artist empowerment Rap/Hip-Hop & R&B artist, Ryan Leslie, is seeking to rehabilitate 100,000 download Pirateers with an approach which is as much avant-garde as it is independent and labour-intensive.
'Outlaws', 'Junkie's' or 'modern era, land-fairing pirate's of the cyberspace autobahn's'; whichever your preferred title, illegal downloaders have comprehensively lay siege to the once largely impregnable business model of the entertainment industries channels of consumption. Be it due to not wanting to further line the already luxurious silk, hand-stitched pockets of Simon Cowell and Co. Or simply not seeing the logic in paying for something you could take for free, isn't that important. Whatever the driver, music artists of all tiers of popularity, have felt the kickback of these pirates who continue to fiscally devalue the art they produce.
Solutional efforts are primarily targeting stricter law enforcement and the pursuit of facilitators to such downloading. However, before such a course of action can be ratified, there are two seemingly unnavigable minefields which instil apprehension. Foremost, how do you undertake such a process of prosecuting hundreds of thousands of individuals, under potentially hundreds of different national jurisdictions? And as a stand off to this, what affect will the artist prosecuting the fan have on their future marketability and potential for commercial success?
With such unnerving obstacles to recouping lost revenues, one man endeavours to independently rehabilitate and recruit his fans, and in the process, overhaul the music industries methodologies. Imagined in the mind's eye standing tall in a blustering gale under grey skies; a caped crusader with the functionally obsolete, yet stylistically paramount black shades of all great rapper's, Ryan Leslie is taking on the issue in a decidedly more mutually beneficial, if a little unorthodox, manner.
Forging a musical career from behind the black and white keys from whence so many greats have stepped, Leslie's indubitable and multifarious virtuosity saw him fulfil the role of a producer and music writer. Producing for the likes of Fabolous, Cassie, Red Café & Booba, this would seem a natural progenitor to a solo career. Although, in a career which has yielded 6 solo albums to date, with a labour intensive work ethic he continues to produce, recently seen with California hot shots YG and Nipsey Hussle.
As an independent in an industry saturated with contracts, legal jargon and a scarce enough availability of get-out clauses that Lil Wayne still cannot escape Cash Money Records, R.Les has defined his success. 100,000 units sold whereby he, or an artist he works with, personally knows each of those 100,000 people.
The offensive strategy for such a challenge spotlights three converging avenues of fan-rehabilitation. Call the first 'WhatsApp Ave', and remember to be open to new concepts as you approach it. It gleans its hypothetical title from Ryan's publicly shared cell digits, and subsequent place in thousands of loyal fans WhatsApp contacts; or if you prefer, email lists. Derived from the mind of a Harvard graduate of just 19 (yes, we're still talking about Ryan here), he has sought out the inherent loyalty in relationship. Remaining hypothetical then, imagine a situation in which you could communicate briefly once in a while with your favourite artist. Then remember that you only just read it was actually possible.. If Les happens to be your favourite that is. After establishing a rapport akin to that of a friendship with a slight distance, he releases his new album (MZRT, to be released March 2015). But how can the outlaws set sail in their pirate ships in search of an illegal download? You can't steal from friends..from homies..
Shift laterally a couple of blocks and you'll meet with 'Experience Avenue'. An avid proponent of a live performance > studio record hierarchy, and a believer in artists as performers first and foremost, he's a champion of the tour lifestyle. Maintaining the recurring theme of access, and reaping the added impact of a capacity crowd with a tinnitus-inducing speaker system. Catch a stop on his world tour and you'll witness the personal level aspect which defines his hustle. Glimpsing faces and regurgitating the name of opposite-side-of-the-Atlantic Renegades ('Renegades' being his fan base). Conversing with the crowd for views on a track, demonstrating perfect posture seated at his keyboard and laying down the melody before rattling your brain with an energised performance to a self-composed, self-produced instrumental. The albums are outputted to bring you to the concerts, as opposed to the concerts being a way to sell more albums, even if this occurs as a direct result.
Sandwiched between these two is his 5th Avenue; Independence. Facilitator to freedom of action, and from red-tape. A construct conducive to such experimentation, testing of avant-garde theorems and environment to affirm his tautologies. Hence, no longer can you purchase his previous album from iTunes, 'Black Mozart', or from any other retailer for that matter. Access to download can only be granted with a $12 Renegades membership on his personal website. This being a means to create acquaintance, with a similar structure for purchasing the new album, MZRT, being sold solely from the same website. Independence is his gravitational source around which all other foci are birthed and revolve.
From this same central gravitational hub however arises his obstacles to success. Could it be that this hybrid approach will only work at his plane of popularity? And is his degree of independence only facilitated by his broad skill base which spans through all compositional elements of music production, marketing and business acumen? The kind of skills which many label-reliant artists simply won't posess. Even despite such musical proficiency, does this approach contain within it a capability to grow with a growing fan base? And at what point does the personal contact element shift from being labour intensive to simply being impractical? Such a take on change is as much organic as it is hybrid. Maintaining a system by which thousands of wannabe artists are attempting to come up in the industry every day, only scaled-up a few hundred times.
As a first generation 'hybrid artist' it may appear to be a system that is functional under specific circumstances, but which will not cope well with growth. However, surely the mind which conceives and believes in ventures through previously only dreamt up solutions is the most powerful, and contains within a capacity for self-assessment and self-correction. Look at Apple; you can bet your last chip that they'll sell millions of their smart watches, but more through beautiful marketing than through product necessity. The likelihood of a perfect product first time out is inconceivable. Beginnings for great minds are always small when compared with their endings. And so we can witness the growth process of both of these potential greats..
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