There's HUGE differences between the three, especially for a solo artist and each one is gonna affect you dramatially differently.

Album: "The overall picture" of who you are as an artist/group etc. The track layout is critical and the quality has (obviosuyl) got to be on point (called "Broadcast" quality, meaning "ready for radio as is"). Could be any number of tracks. "Album" also puts you in a whole differnet class legally since it implies that the legal on your CD is all straight, meaning any samples are paid for, everyone is credited, all copyrights are in place to their proper owners, etc. "Album" also means that your work is intended to generate more than 1500 copies and intend to make a profit, which means that you're in the line of fire if a company wants to sue you for use of a sample without their permission if they chose to do so, either now, or down the line.


Mixtape: usually full of tracks that can't be cut on an album for mechanical reasons or aren't broadcast quality. Does a great job of building a fanbase, but a bad job of painting the over all picture of who you are since track arrangement isn't critical and usually irrelevant. Tracks can be any degree of rough with any number of tracks as few as you want or as many as you can squeeze in. If your legal isn't straight, and it's considered "not for profit" (meaning intended to promote the artist ONLY, not to make thme rich) it would be classified as a mixtape.


Demo: Demos are ONLY for labels, A&R's, Publishing companies, Independant A&R Co.'s, songpushers etc. They're what someone in the industry will listen to in order to gauge their interest in you. A DEMO IS NEVER MORE THAN 3 TRACKS!! usually one of each type. Industry heads don't need to nor have the time to hear a CD full of tracks by you, and one track alone dosen't tell them about your consistency or overall style and range.


Hopefully this helps to clear up some of the confusion and aid you in choosing the corect title for your work.

And don't forget..ALWAYS COPYWRITE YOUR WORK!!

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