mixtape

thumb|Artist Lil Wayne, who has a total of 29 mixtapes, is regarded as one of the most successful mixtape artists.

In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists more creative freedom and less commercial pressure. The term has significantly increased in popularity over the years due to high-profile artists marketing their projects as such. Prior to the decline of physical media, mixtapes were defined as homemade compilations of music played through a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist and became significant in hip-hop culture. The songs were typically beatmatched and consisted of seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits. It was then defined as relatively any musical project by an up-and-coming artist. Now, mixtapes have become a label of promotion and marketing for album-like projects. Dictionary.com writes that "the line between an album and a mixtape can be blurry", and that streaming services rely on the artist to make that determination.