Why be cheap ???

[supportlatinartist]

??? If you like an artist why would you go and try to download that artist music for free ? It does not make sense to me. You would think that you would buy the music so the artist can keep making music. I see this especially with latin artist,poor CD sales in all genre. You may have seen the prove on the billboard charts for years now that it is always white or black artist with the big CD sales. You would think that with the spanish population growing this would change.

[Purple Dreams]

I've noticed the sales in Latin music are extremely low. In the recent years I can think of only Juanes (and now Daddy Yankee) who manage to sell more than 300 000 copies.

[strong4PMB!]

I only download music legally.

Considering that Hispanics make up about 1/10 of the U.S. population, it makes sense that sales by strictly-Latin artists would be considerably lower than sales by mainstream artists. I don't think it has to do with more illegal downloading done by Latinos. That assumption is hella racist, stereotypical, and offensive.

Furthermore, most of my Hispanic friends only listen to mainstream radio, watch mainstream TV, etc., anyways. They don't even know their fellow Latin artists. And other than Shakira, most Latin artists aren't well known among the mainstream crowd. With that in mind, I don't know why you'd expect Latin artists' sales to be as high as mainstream singers' and rappers' sales. ???

[supportlatinartist]

Well I would like to add that we-all spanish speaking people- are the largest minority and growing like crazy. Sure there are other factors like you mention, like MANY spanish people don`t even support there own kind or know of them. They go and buy everyone else`s music, especially rap. I don`t think my point of view is racist, is just the facts.

[How Do You Do?]

I don't believe that the illegal downloading and/or pirating is a bigger problem with Latin music in America. It is a bigger problem in Latin America however. Brazil used to be the 6th biggest market for music, now it is not even a player due to pirating. As for Latin artists who have sold well, I believe but can't verify because RIAA's website is down again, Enrique and Paulina Rubio both went 2xP at the Latin Standard, which is 400,000 for their last albums. And that was Paulina's most successful album in the U.S. to date.

[Control]

supportlatinartist said:

Well I would like to add that we-all spanish speaking people- are the largest minority and growing like crazy. Sure there are other factors like you mention, like MANY spanish people don`t even support there own kind or know of them. They go and buy everyone else`s music, especially rap. I don`t think my point of view is racist, is just the facts.

yeah, i think that's pretty true.. i'm not hispanic, but i know spanish well enough and i love latin music, and i know more about it than most of the friends i have that actually are hispanic

but i wish latin music would become more mainstream and widely recognized in the US.. if all latin releases from major latin artists could be promoted like Shakira's latest, that would be great, i'd love it

[strong4PMB!]

supportlatinartist said:

I don`t think my point of view is racist, is just the facts.

I'm glad you didn't mean it the way I interpreted it.