Words By K1NG

The music we love is a part of a business.

That is one thing that we must remember as consumers of the art forms we respect and love. Business in a broad sense consists of two things: Supply and demand. The only way to determine the demand of a certain product is the sales of that product in the marketplace. So it would make sense that, as consumers, we should just buy the music we enjoy right?

It sounds pretty simple, but we all know that this is not how are world works here in this era of the internet. Now, I’m not suggesting buy everything that looks tempting without sampling it first, because with the net it’s very easy to listen to a whole album without dropping a dime. But if we don’t purchase the music that we do enjoy thoroughly, then those artists who create the music will most likely retire prematurely out of financial necessity.

I remember back in 2007 when I wrote an article that professed my love for the musical stylings of a woman named Chrisette Michele. That same day that article was written I went to my neighborhood record store and spent $11.99 of my hard earned cash on her debut album in an attempt to exercise my purchasing power.

Now, two years later, I signed onto my outdated and rarely accessed MySpace account to find a bulletin with a link to her second effort at Def Jam Ephiphany on Amazon for $2.99. Now we all know times are tough, but I dare one of you pessimists to give this album a full spin (which the label is allowing via imeem) and not deem it worthy of three bucks. If I had not entered that store two years ago and other people like myself didn’t either, then I would probably have nothing to write about today. Now, my fellow music fans, let’s not let this beautiful songstress slip through the cracks like so many before her and make sure she get’s her third one out there too.