Your physical product always seems to be on-point and looks like you’ve paid some serious attention to detail when putting it together. How important is a physical album to you as opposed to a digital one?
“It’s still important in my eyes. I don’t personally listen to CDs anymore but of course I’ll still listen to vinyl. But it’s an interesting subject because I have this conversation regularly, especially being an independent artist and being in a position where I manufacture most of my physical copies. So it’s like, ‘Damn, how many CDs and vinyl I should manufacture?’ You know?
“Right now I’m at a point where people have more interest in the vinyl version of my projects than the CD version. But at the same time I still see comments and replies from people where they say, ‘Having records or a turntable isn’t convenient for my lifestyle and I still want the physical, not the digital.’ Some people say the CD version sounds better sonically than what you can get on iTunes so I have to think about that too.”
Some people just like having a physical copy so they can read the credits and who the artist thanks…
“Me too! That’s the type of person I am. I come from that same way of taking music in – reading the credits while it’s playing. I wanna read who they thanked and see who did what, who played what, who produced it, all that type of stuff. So I’m the same way but I understand we live in a different kind of world and I gotta do a little bit for everybody. I’ve heard a couple of artists talk about not doing physical albums anymore, period, and just going straight digital. But I can’t do that. Plus I like art design too, I’m very particular about what the cover art looks like so of course I wanna see what that looks like in real life and not just on my laptop screen.”
What’s your opinion on streaming equalling sales?
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s just a new generation that are buying music and experiencing music in a different way so we have to adjust. It’s all about adjusting and getting over those ways that we’re used to. But in terms of streaming, I mean I don’t love the idea but I don’t hate the idea either. I wanna know who actually paid that $10 or $12, or however much, for the album versus a person listening to my album however many times and it counting as a scan. Right now it just doesn’t feel accurate, it’s not personal, and it feels like it could have too many loopholes in it for people that might wanna beat the system by creating more sales or scans than they really have. The whole streaming and a certain amount of streams equalling a scan is gonna take me a little while to get used to.”
Article Appeared @http://www.gigwise.com/features/107748/black-milk-interview—detroit-touring-hiphop-&-streaming-sales