I personally have my first official project coming out in first quarter/early second quarter 2020. I released a mixtape when I was 16 but that was only a year after I started rapping and they were songs that should have never been anything but practice and so I completely removed it from the internet. So I consider this one my first real release. And I’m calling it my debut album, when at first I called it a mixtape and then said naw f*** that this is an album.

The common distinction is “Albums cost money, mixtapes are free” but a quick example of that is Drake’s IYRTITL. He officially said it was his mixtape but yet it was still being sold in stores like an album at full price.

So to me, a mixtape is exactly that. A mix of songs that don’t necessarily sonically, aesthetically, or lyrically sound like they belong together as a package deal, but are nevertheless a compilation of songs thrown together.

While an album is more concise, more predetermined, more planned out, and has a common reoccurring sound or vibe that runs thru the entire project and makes it sound like a soundtrack that all belongs to the same movie.

That’s why I decided to call my personal project an album. And it will be free. So a free album. But sonically, I feel like I accomplished the vision as a whole that I wanted to put out, and put together a dozen songs that feel like 12 chapters of the same story and feel like they belong. To me it doesn’t sound like a random collection of songs that I created at random times and so I won’t call it a mixtape.

What yall think?

Theres no difference to the public nowadays if its available on streaming services

If its only on soundcloud then yeah thats you would def call a mixtape