Music Chat

[Mohd_S]

will we ever see mixtapes by artists such as hip-hop artists on spotify? i mean will spotify only host official albums

[Richard]

Hey, check out the Def Jam app. It might be just what you're looking for.

[Mohd_S]

Richard,

Thanks for the reply but thats not exactly what I am asking about.

I think the link below best describes it

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mixtape

Some very popular artists release underground albums called mixtapes with some tracks rivaling many of the mainstream 

tracks they give to their respective record labels (which are on spotify). 

I was just wondering if it was possible to get the mixtapes on as well since they are widely considered as part of the artists work and will make the list of tracks on spotify truely comprehensive. Thats ultimately the objective, right?

[Richard]

Well the problem is that we can only provide content licensed from the labels.

Unofficial mixtapes and bootlegs etc. wouldn't be part of any official release so we wouldn't be able to make them available I'm afraid.

[militaryhelllbo]

They are official mixtape releases...mixtape music is legally free so im sure spotify can use it...plus mixtapes sometimes have better songs than those on albums. Richard look at these recent ones from popular artists.  

http://www.datpiff.com/Meek-Mill-Dreamchasers-2-mixtape.339288.html

http://www.datpiff.com/Fabolous-There-Is-No-Competition-Death-Comes-In-3s-mixtape.291573.html

http://www.datpiff.com/Jadakiss-Consignment-mixtape.340926.html

[Richard]

Well it would be up to our content team to get these if they're able. There might be some reason they can't if they haven't already, or it's not something they're thinking of doing it (we don't have podcasts in Spotify right now, for instance, though I'm sure we could if we really wanted).

[krikelin]

Please note that even if a track is published to allow the public to remix it or like, you are not authorized to rip it from Spotify as the Spotify TOS prohits downloading any content from Spotify.

The same applies to sound effects on Spotify. You must acquire them from the publisher directly.

[fynnmcpherson]

I think this is an incredible opportunity for Spotify to expand their user base and provide a truly comprehensive service.

Almost every hip hop artist uses OFFICIAL mixtapes as a medium to release studio production quality music to their fans for free. These mixtapes can often constitute a significant portion of an artists discography and often they will be used as teasers for an upcoming album release or just as a gesture of appreciation to their fans.  This is a long-standing tradition in the hip hop community and Spotify would do well to include this music in their archive.

Datpiff is a forum where rappers officially release these mixtapes (they are marked official) and while their service is useful and you can stream music on their website and download for free, they deal exclusively with mixtapes.

Since Spotify is the most comprehensive streaming music archive already, adding mixtapes would be the final step to music service domination. 

I know there are sometimes copyright issues when artists use unlicensed samples (Frank Ocean's Nostalgia mixtape for example) but there is still incredible scope for legal, licensed releases from extremely popular intentionally unsigned artists whose current Spotify profile is pitiful (Freddie Gibbs).

Serioiusly you could change the world of music with this!

[militaryhelllbo]

amen

[militaryhelllbo]

You guys (Spotify) should at least make an attempt to integrate these in. If you cant then tell us the official reason why you cant use them because these are free OFFICIAL mixtapes that are already availible to the public for download. Thus why cant they be availible for streaming. It would make the service that much better. At least let premium subscribers get them directly from spotify.