so pardon me here.

I agree with the assertion that people don't value music like they used to, but in the hip hop realm, there was a REAL chasm between what you would get on an album and on a promotional mixtape in the last decade. in that case, the "free" music was so often better than the "for-pay" music (probably through a number of legal mumbo jumbo that was never resolved)... it almost became a rule.

hip-hop might be an extreme case because major labels deliberately influenced mainline artists to come out with blockbusters every time, so that they could recoup