Artists such as Killer Mike, El-P, and Lyrics Born have put their albums up for free streaming, and Big K.R.I.T. has joined them.
In a recent interview with SOHH.com, the Mississippi emcee explained why he allowed fans to get a free listen of his album Live from the Underground.
“Still being the kind of person that didn’t mind [letting] people hear the album, I built up the confidence [that] they’re still going to purchase it,” said K.R.I.T. “With Krit Wuz Here, Return of 4Eva and 4Eva N A Day, even when we were giving them away, people were actually looking for ways to buy and support the [projects].”
K.R.I.T. continued, addressing specifically the choice to stream on NPR. “Even by streaming it to NPR [National Public Radio] — which is still a great look because a lot of people that didn’t know about my music might visit NPR — it was still a great way for people who didn’t know it.”
AD LOADING...
The emcee explained that the stream was not exactly the same as the studio release. “They might like ‘Porch Light,’ they might like the ‘Praying Man’ record, you never know. It just shows them the album is going to be what they wanted, and at the same time, I explained to them it’s still going to be a lo-fi stream so in order to really hear it, you had to hear it in your car or you had to buy it on iTunes because it has so many sounds you’re still missing.”
“I think people still wanted to support, and that was beautiful, man. But they know how I am, man. I just want people to hear the music above everything.”
