Music Business 101

Music Business 101: Who’s The Enemy? (by Don P of Trillville)

Posted by | Music Business 101 | One Comment

This week, guest blogger, Don P, gives some advice to up-and-coming producers about ghost-production or co-production with more established producers. Always great to get some thoughts from artists/producers in the industry. If you didn’t know, Don P is a member of the platinum selling group, Trillville, and he has produced for several artists including Yung Joc, Roscoe Dash, T-Pain, etc. I think he knows what he’s talking about. You can hear more about his experiences and advice via his blog site, DonPBeats. Read the article below.

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The 360 Record Deal

Posted by | Music Business 101, Vinny Kumar | No Comments

via Nahright. As an entertainment attorney, I see things like this… and I have mixed feelings. Are the record labels really bloodsuckers for taking what they should’ve taken in the first place? i.e. a portion of record sales, merchandising, publishing, touring, etc. Let’s face it, back in the day… they f*cked up. The record companies are pumping thousands and thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars into an artist to develop their brand… why is it so surprising that they’d ask for ancillary income derived from their investment? Not only is this now the standard for major record labels (WEA, SONY-BMG, Universal, EMI), but it is also trickling down to the independent production companies that develop these artists. Trust me, if you decide to start a record company and you want to sign artists, you’re probably going to want them signed to a 360 as well. With declining record sales, it seems like this is the only way for the majors to survive. Interestingly enough, I’m pushing a lot of people to go independent these days. It’s now a LOT easier for new or branded artists to independently market and distribute their music themselves. If record label owners are knowledgeable about the various income streams in the music industry, there is a lot of money to be made. Anyways, just my thoughts. Feel free to chime in. -Vinny

For Artists: How to Promote Music in the Digital Age

Posted by | Music Business 101 | 2 Comments

Lately, I’ve been having discussions with several peers about how modern-day consumers are able to find out about new music. In fact, I just had this conversation with my buddy Amir Windom from Atlantic Records. It’s interesting because we are no longer “forced” to watch music videos on MTV, BET, VH1, etc. Instead, we are provided with music videos and streaming content on blogs, which most people only sample (maybe 15-20 seconds?). If they don’t like something, they move on. Back in the day, if we wanted to watch MTV/BET, we had to WAIT for the next video to come on. Now we log onto WorldStarHipHop or YouTube, and we watch whatever seems interesting to us for a few seconds. Also, most artists accept the fact that they have to give away a certain amount of free music in order to promote their upcoming albums. At any rate, there was an interesting panel with several major bloggers put on by the Future of Music Coalition and Words Beats. The panel included Meka from 2dopeboyz, Dallas Penn, FWMJ, Jason R. (from Okayplayer), etc. They address such topics as: 1) How an artist can succeed in a digital environment, 2) the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 3) Reading vs. Visuals, 4) Posting content from a blogger’s perspective, 5) Labels vs. Blogs (i.e. Cease & Desist letters). Check out Part 1 below… Part 2 after the break.

If I Ruled The Blogosphere Part I:

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