Idolator
Are EPs Extending The Buzz Of New Artists, Or Giving Them The Short End Of The Stick?
In the high-risk, low-reward business of trying to introduce new artists into a slumping marketplace, hip hop labels have a lot of coping mechanisms at their disposal. The most common approach, of releasing single after single until one does well enough to assure decent first-week album sales, is still as popular as ever—as is the method of simply dumping the album in stores with a nonexistent promotional budget and then blaming its failure on the artist. But more and more over the past couple years, a third way to screw both the artist and the consumer has emerged as an alternative: EPs. More »