Interesting Perspective on a Music Industry Alternative
The Heretic’s comment: I love a healthy debate and talking about the music industry always fuels one. In light of the Rebecca Black phenomenon, Justin Beiber fever, and Brittany is back I stumbled across an interesting article that peaked my attention more so than anything else going on today did.

Nick Krob at the University of Northern Iowa wrote an interesting article for his school paper. Granted I dibble and dabble in the world of academia, I can’t help but to draw you all in whether or not academia is your thing. It is always interesting to hear what both sides are thinking (scholars and the street)!

Mr. Krob says, “Despite its overwhelming popularity in this country, many people complain about the quality of music today. Yet no one seems to see the reason for its prevalence. While nothing can be done to prevent tweens from swooning over the likes of Justin Bieber and high schoolers from bumping to LMFAO, some- thing can be done to control what we hear. If people truly believe popular music today is the result of capitalist principles, they should have no problem implementing an actually capitalist system.”

Record labels only care about what sells at a given time. They care about popularity and money, nothing else. And frankly, some bands are easier to market than others. It doesn’t matter to a label which artist makes the best music; it matters which music will make the most money. Just look at Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Voted one of the best albums of the decade, they were dropped from their label prior to its releases.
With this system in place, we are subjecting ourselves to having access only to the most marketable music, not necessarily the best. We, as consumers, allow record labels to dictate the marketplace and are content in either approving of or rejecting their selections.”

In essence what Mr. Krob is saying is correct in my opinion; and that is independent artist should have the same accessibility to consumers as major recording artists do because their music is most likely better than what we’re offered by the labels. And we as consumers should demand to access to those independent artists by not supporting major labels marketing efforts of their artists.

Check out the Mr. Krobs story by clicking the link below and tell us what you think.

http://www.northern-iowan.org/a-music-industry-alternative-1.2528280

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Indie Music Month on MTV

The Heretic’s comment: As part of MTV’s Indie Music Month, they premiered videos from some of the most exciting indie artists in the music business. The series of videos featured artists from various genres from rock to hip-hop. For Indie music to have a full month of recognition speaks volumes to where the industry is destined to be. The diverse music offered up by extraordinary artist featured on MTV’s Indie Music Month, set the tone for what we can expect to see in the music industry in the very near future.

So how does one get the opportunity to be featured on MTV’s Indie Music Month? Though I have not officially obtained that information I can only speculate that it has something to do with the popularity of the artists and their music.

For instance, MTV featured Brooklyn MC Theophilus London and his video for “Why Even Try,” the second single from his Lovers Holiday debut EP. One YouTube, Mr. London’s “Humdrum Town” has a little over 500,000 views. I saw and viewed about nineteen of his videos. His music is hot. His website coincides with his musical style and he connects to his fans via various social networks.

Cake’s featured video was Long Time. This rock group hails from Sacramento, CA and indulged in animation in the sad, bizarre clip for “Long Time.” Cake has a huge following, their song “The Distance” which has over 3 million views on Youtube. In fact, most of their videos posted on YouTube have over 1 million views each. Their website is awesome. They tour, featured on various late night shows and aggressively engage their fans.

http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/tag/indie-music-month/page/2/
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Final Four Parties in Houston

The Big Dance
Sublime with Rome, Kings of Leon and Kenny Chesney will headline a three-day free concert series at Discovery Green in downtown starting Friday. If you plan on being among the thousands who attend — organizers will block off nearby streets and could extend the perimeter if more room is necessary — officials say the easiest way to get to and from the venue will be on public transportation.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority will offer a shuttle service from four park and ride locations around Beltway 8. For more details visit www.ridemetro.org/finalfour. The concerts will begin at 4 p.m. Friday, and organizers have set up extra sound and video systems in case Discovery Green is overwhelmed.
Market Square Park presents the Final Four Viewing Party & Beer Garden:
Saturday, April 2, 3 pm – 11 pm
Monday, April 4, 6pm-11pm
Don’t have tickets to the Championship games? Don’t sweat it and join the Greeks for some mega madness. We’ll be bringing in flat screens and serving up Greek food, beer and wine all night long. Semifinal games begin at 5:30 pm.
Sponsored by Niko Niko’s Market Square.

The Galleria and kids
The Galleria will host a half-rink shooting contest from the Ice at the Galleria, along with a set of basketball-related activities for children.
The NCAA will also offer free basketballs and T-shirts to the first 4,000 children who register for the Final Four Dribble at 2 p.m. Sunday, when thousands of kids will dribble basketballs from City Hall to George R. Brown Convention Center. For information on this and other NCAA events, visit ncaa.com/finalfour.

Bracket Town
If you happen to make it to Discovery Green, it may be worth visiting the NCAA’s 450,000-square-foot activities and exhibition hall at George R. Brown Convention Center. The venue will host a “coaches cook-off,” a video game challenge and a celebrity HORSE shooting competition featuring NFL and NBA players.
There will be a 3-on-3 basketball tournament and an interactive showcase of several NCAA sports. College bands and cheerleaders from around the nation will also be at the event, participating in a “battle of the bands.”

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The Label behind Rebecca Black and the “Friday Video – Mr. Patrice Wilson and Ark Music Factory
The Heretic’s comment: Ok I’m doing research on Ark Music Factory now because I’m not sure if critics, media and bloggers comments are valid. Here are some of the comments I’ve heard and my thoughts on those comments:

1. It’s been said that Ark Music Factory charge for their services and that what they are doing is exploiting kids.
• Mr. Wilson says he charges between $2,000 and $4,000 for his services. I would say that amount is reasonable for the work that he claims he does for the artists (music, video, image & promotions). My question is does he deliver on his promises and are these children under contract? Is the contract in accordance with California statutes – does he have trust accounts set up? Is he doing business in a ethical manner? But wait… isn’t that pretty much what major labels are doing? Major labels charge for their services too, they look for young talent that target the tween and teens market. With a record label deal you will not pay any upfront cost but you will surely pay on the back end.
• In response to exploiting children – since the beginning of time there have been teen recording artist and actors. Parents have to give consent for their children to participate in the entertainment industry and the activities that accompany. Mr. Wilson’s company is located in California and the state statues are set up to prevent children from being exploited. Don’t you think that if there was any shady business matters going on that it would have been reported by now? Also, many famous and wealthy parents nudge their children into the entertainment industry – are they exploiting their children. Let’s look at a few… Will & Jada Smith have two children in entertainment, Billy Ray Cyrus now says that his childs career ruined his marriage, Matthew Knowles who was just fired by his daughter after managing her career from the beginning of time, Steven Tyler’s daughter Liv Tyler has been in the industry since she was a baby.

2. Some think that what Ark Music Factory is doing is detrimental to pop music and music in general.
• Have you listened to the radio lately? Some of the stuff that’s called music is very disturbing. There are tons of artist who annoy the heck out of me with their lyrics, voices & images. Rebecca Black and other artists on the label have catchy clean fun lyrics. Their music is geared toward the tween market. No vulgar or inappropriate lyrics. Isn’t that what Disney offers it’s tween market? Plus these young artist have time to develop their vocal skills and talents so that they can pursue viable careers in the industry. Who are we to discourage them from following their dreams (well that is if it actually their dream – some may be their parents dreams).

3. Mr. Wilson is preying on kids who believe they can be stars without talent or hard work and the parents who won’t tell them otherwise.
• More than likely the parents make the utimate decision when it comes to these matters. I venture to say that perhaps his target market is questionable – but another side of me says this is a business strategy because after all every business is in it to make money. There are tons of companies and products that seek this cash cow of a market. It is a growing trend. Is he is going after the tween market because it is a hot money maker right now? Business anaylist would hope so.
• What are the income levels of the families he’s targeting? (Wait…well now it does make good business sense to go where you will make a higher profit – ethical issues could come into play though only because of the ages of his clients)

My summations is – How many other companies out there offer the same services? I am sure that there are tons of companies that offer similar services but haven’t had a viral video put them in the spotlight and on blast. There is one promotional company I know of that is run by a white female who targets indepedent hip hop artist. This lady offers promotional services to independent artist who have dreams of getting a recording deal or distribution deal. Her packages start at about $20,000 and go up to $100,000. She only promises to help you make industry contacts. I had a client who was ready to pay her $100,000 just for the opportunity to meet her contacts without a promise that he would get a deal.

So, yes Mr. Wilson is a questionable character however, is he doing anything different from what’s already being done in the industry?
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Inside the Music Industry with Hip Hop Veteran Steve Lobel

The Heretic’s comment:  Steve Lobel is a music industry veteran who has managed or been associated with some of hip-hop’s greatest acts over the years, including Run-DMC, The Outlawz, Bone Thugs N Harmony , Nipsey Hussle, Mann and more.  Boss Lady snagged a one-on-one interview with Lobel.  Lobel says he is the “white Russell Simmons”.

Lobel says he is blessed to stay relevant in this industry.  He is still managing artists and running a label but before he takes on an artist he has to like them as a person, they have to be family oriented and ‘want it’ more than him.  He is building brands with his artist.  The artists he manages must stay consistent and have consumers emotionally attached to their brand.  He says you have to stay creative and innovative.

The notion that the new generation artists have a different grind led Lobel to say that artists should still use the old school, grassroots marketing tactics and mix them with new school (social networks and the internet).

I enjoyed the interview and what I took away from it is; In order to survive in the music industry one should never get comfortable, have a great team around you, stay humble, never take no as an answer, stay persistent, want to be relevant, innovative, creative, give back and STAY HUMBLE.

http://musicindustryreport.org/?p=31431

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John Mellencamp: ‘I’ve Never Gotten Along With Any Record Company Exec’

The Heretic’s comment: There was a time when every musician wanted to sign to a major label.  Not knowing the ramifications and pitfalls of being tied to a label later leaves artists with a bitter taste. One artists shares his feelings openly earlier this week

Industry icon John Mellencamp spoke at New York City’s 92Y Monday night.  Talking about his life and career with Rolling Stone writer David Fricke, the famous 59-year-old singer-songwriter, admitting that his feelings “range from angry to angrier,” took yet another opportunity to rail against the music industry.

“I have probably never gotten along with any record company executive ever, except maybe one,” declared the singer early in the evening. “And if they were such good businessmen, why aren’t they running Coca-Cola or other major corporations now?”

When asked about the worst thing he ever did to achieve success, he wincingly replied, “changing my name to Johnny Cougar.” But, he added, “I had to do what they asked me to do. They had me in a headlock.”

To hear Mr. Mellencamps feelings is a queue to aspiring and seasoned indie artists to learn about the music industry. Signing to a major label isn’t all that’s it’s trumped up to be.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-mellencamp-ive-never-gotten-172286

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Amazon’s Cloud Drive Riles Music Industry

The Heretic’s comment: On Monday, Amazon announced its cloud based music service that allows users to store their music in a cloud and access it from anywhere.  The Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Amazon are offering are online “lockers” where music, images, videos, and documents can be stored and accessed from different sources. The Player streams music — which may have been purchased on Amazon, or uploaded from the user’s own library.

Google is internally testing similar services to launch but ran into resistance from the music industry i.e. record labels. Record labels have not given in to licensing their music for these cloud services. So how is it that Amazon were able to launch their services while Google’s attempt have been stalled.  They went forward without the consent of record labels.  The record labels are not thrilled about Amazons move.

The contention from record labels is that these Cloud services give way to file sharing and could result in revenue losses for labels.  In actuality, ‘Cloud’ services are similar to your hard drive except it is more accessible from other peripheral devices. While labels debate that these services will hurt the music industry.  Many offer the other side of the debate. Sara Jacobsson Purewal from PC World gives this example: “I go out and purchase a CD from Best Buy–the record labels get their (absurd) cut–and I go home and upload it to my desktop computer. Then, I sync my iPod to my desktop computer. Now I can access my music from home and when I’m on the go! Are the record labels going to come after me and demand that I purchase an extra license for my iPod? No, because that’s ridiculous. That the record industry even thinks they deserve some sort of say in where people store their music shows just how much they’re grasping for straws to remain relevant.”

As with any innovative service or product coming to market preparation is key.  Independent artist must take note of these services and prepare for better or worse. Any creative artist could strategically plan the use these new services, look for opportunities and extract value from these services. In order to immediately begin the preparation process, be sure to affiliate with both a PRO (like ASCAP or BMI) and with SoundExchange.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/223696/amazons_cloud_drive_riles_music_industry.html

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Johnny Depp the Man of Many Faces

Johnny Depp is known for choosing dark roles that interest him. His latest film venture ‘Rum Diary’ tells the story of a divorced journalist who tires of New York and America. He escapes to Puerto Rico and lands a job at a rundown newspaper operation.  Paul, Johnny’s character  begins to lose himself in booze and drugs then gets involved with a major hotel scheme. This film promises to be filled with adventure, Johnny Depp style.

Mr. Depp has come a long way from his days on 21 Jump Street. He is in a class of only a few actors that only choose projects of interest to them.  Johnny’s personality seems to have commonalities with a many of the characters/roles he portray in movies. From Edward Scissiorhands to Rango, Johnny is a sensitive misunderstood soul that is comfortable off the beaten path.

When Johnny was 15, he dropped out of school and attempted to reenroll after two weeks. The school principle reportedly told him he would be better off perusing his music career.  I bet Johnny is glad that the principle gave him that advice. Johnny Depp endured many hardships in his journey to the top, but those experiences made him into a man that is pure genius!  Johnny has at least five projects lined up within the next couple of years, including the fourth leg of Pirates of the Caribbean.  We can be assured that he will receive at the least another Academy nomination for his upcoming work.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/03/johnny_depps_rum_diary_finally.html

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Lawn guy bringing hip-hop artist to Local Club in his Town
The Heretic’s comment: I like to see ordinary people doing extraordinary things. This story is both heartwarming and inspiring. When we talk about grinding in this industry – here is the perfect example. We are nominating him for the ‘Grind of the Year Award’.
Thanks to Nancy Verschueren at The Muskegon Chronical in Muskegon, Michigan for sharing this story. Tommaine Irons of Muskegon Heights, MI is a local business owner. He operates Tommaine’s Lawn Service. He wants to help local artist (R&B and Hip Hop) – so he is throwing a party at Frauenthal, a local club by bringing in a nationally known hip hop artist Lil Webbie. Local artists will have an opportunity to open and set the stage for the big show.

Now as simple as this feat sounds, keep in mind that Irons has never done anything like this before. He has never planned an event or promoted a show and invested his own money. However, he says that he is determined and nothing will stop him he only wants to offer local artist a platform for a potential shot to go on tour with Lil Webbie and possibly make back the money he invested.

We wish Mr. Irons all the best – and if you reside in the Grand Rapids and Muskegon area please go out and support his efforts. Please be advised that Lil Webbie lyrics are explicit if you are taking children.

Here is the info:
What: Lil Webbie Skee Town Bash
When: April 8, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
Where: Frauenthal Theater, 425 W. Western
Tickets: $38 general admission; available at the Frauenthal Box Office, 727-8001, or any StarTickets outlet.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/03/muskegon_lawn_guy_bringing_hip.html

Atlanta’s DBS Sounds I & II To Host In Store Celebrity Event “National Record Store Day” on Saturday, April 16^th

The Heretic’s comment: It is great to see that people still appreciate local owned business.  For the past 17 years DBS Sounds I & II has called Atlanta, GA home. Owner Tobago Benito is the backbone and on the front line for recording artists and labels in the Southeast. Since the beginning of most popular artist’s careers, Benito has provided an outlet to consumers for both majors and indies.

Folks this is why it is of vital importance to support our local record stores and other businesses because they support you – the recording artists.  Patronize their businesses so that we can remain a thriving community.

DBS is making this a time for all music lovers to come together, celebrate longevity, camaraderie and impact local record stores instill in the community. Last year’s Record Store Day at DBS I and II brought out artists; Rasheeda, Jody Breeze, The Outlawz, Maceo, Sommer Melody, Mr. Coli Park, Vistoso Bosses, Tity Boy of Playaz Circle, DJ Farenheit, Hard Head Jacob, Mick Starr, Alexis Jordan, Dem Get Away Boyz, Vandarray, Lowell Pye, The Syndicate, Platinum Producer Chris Henderson and Kokane to name a few!

This year there will be performances and appearances by various mainstream and local celebrities, DJs, radio personalities and recording artists. Invited and confirmed guests include; Tiffany Evans, Waka Flaka Flame, Trina, Vashawn Mitchell, Gail Holmes, Killa Mike, Jody Breeze, Ray Lavender, Rick Ross’ Maybach Music artists, Block Entertainment Group, and independent artists, Scotty, Mykko Montana, Kelz Holaday and Soulja C.

We wish DBS I & II a great National Record Store Day!

http://www.hiphoppress.com/2011/03/atlanta%E2%80%99s-dbs-sounds-i-ii-to-host-in-store-celebrity-event-national-record-store-day-saturday-april-16th.html

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