"The artists you mention are all already famous and can write off the time spent on doing free mixtapes as a promotional expense."
True, they are famous now, but all of them used mixtapes to become famous. Wiz came up as a rapper through mixtapes. Lil Wayne released "I'm Me" as a mixtape, which was supposed to be "The Carter 3" but it was leaked so he released it for free. Not to mention, he pretty much invented the "free mixtape to use a marketing tool" which I think he did by accident. His music sucks now, but The Carter 2 is a great CD and I don't think I would have found out about him at 16 unless it had been for his mixtape work.
True, they are famous now, but all of them used mixtapes to become famous. Wiz came up as a rapper through mixtapes. Lil Wayne released "I'm Me" as a mixtape, which was supposed to be "The Carter 3" but it was leaked so he released it for free. Not to mention, he pretty much invented the "free mixtape to use a marketing tool" which I think he did by accident. His music sucks now, but The Carter 2 is a great CD and I don't think I would have found out about him at 16 unless it had been for his mixtape work.