Buy, not stream.

Mixtape Gorillaz is a music store run for independent artists. You buy a song here and the money goes straight to the person who made it. No label, no middleman, no cut.

Why we built this

Streaming made music easy to find and hard to live on. An artist can rack up thousands of plays and still not cover the cost of the studio session that made the song. The math was never built for the independent artist. It was built for catalogs, labels and the platforms in the middle.

We think a fan who loves a record should be able to pay the artist for it, directly, and own it. That used to be normal. We want to make it normal again.

How it works

Artists set up a page, upload their singles, albums and mixtapes, and set their own prices. When you hit Buy, you pay the artist through PayPal. The payment lands in their account, not ours. We never hold the money, we never take a percentage, and we don’t wait 90 days to pay anybody out.

Artists pay us a flat monthly plan fee to be here, starting at free. That’s the deal. It keeps us honest: we only do well if artists think the site is worth it.

Mixtapes are always free. So are a lot of singles. Free downloads come with one short video ad, and that’s what keeps the lights on for the free side of the site. You never need an account to buy or download. Sign up only if you want to rate music and join the conversation.

What we stand for

• Artists in control. You set the price. You choose what’s free. You keep the money and your masters. Leave whenever you want.
• Fans who own it. Buy once, keep it forever. No subscription that disappears your library when you stop paying.
• Independent first. No major-label placements bought onto our homepage. The featured spots belong to artists on this site.

Where we come from

Mixtape Gorillaz started the way a lot of good things in hip-hop do: with mixtapes passed hand to hand, artists hustling their own CDs, and a belief that the music on the street is just as real as the music on the radio. The site is the next version of that table at the front of the show. The gorilla is the attitude: strong, independent, and nobody’s pet.

Collaboration is part of it too. Artists can reach each other with a Let’s Collaborate request, because independent doesn’t have to mean alone. Producers find singers. Rappers find DJs. Somebody in Louisville ends up on a record with somebody in Houston.

Buy, not stream.
Support independent artists.