Hard work, authenticity, and a love for what you do is a winning formula for having a lasting career in the music business. This holds true whether you’re on the creative or the business side of music. How these attributes work together to put you on that path is expressed superbly by Randy Lennox, the President and CEO of Universal Music Canada.
In this video, hip hop and R&B producer, Bryan Michael Cox, talks about the range of opportunities that exist in the music business that can generate income for artists, producers, and songwriters.
Kevin Shine is an A&R consultant for Jive Records. Kevin has dedicated a large part of his time to teaching up and coming artists about the inner workings of the music business. In this video, he makes it plain about what an A&R does and shares his distaste for those who abuse the position.
Great interview of Chamillionaire talking about everything from how he’s been able to be in control of his business to the power that comes with being a successful independent hip hop artist. I wish we could get more in depth interviews like this from hip hop artists instead of the typical bullshit about beefs.
You may remember one of our live chat guests from this April, Ann Bernard – you can watch the archived video to jog your memory. She’s been behind some online start-ups like Why Go Solo and Tickets With a Twist.
I read her most recent blog post this morning about how she has made the difficult decision to take those two businesses offline for good. The most difficult part of entrepreneurship is probably how easy it is to become emotionally attached to the success of a Read the rest of this entry »
Ignorance to an industry that you claim is a big part of your life as well as your livelihood is a major mistake. This type of ignorance can ultimately lead to you being mislead, taken advantage of, and at worse screwed out of money and royalties. Understanding the difference between a beat maker and a producer is the Industry 101 lesson of the day.
This video is a promotional video for the site www.indiepower.com. This is not an endorsement for the site or a review. I haven’t had the time to look at it thoroughly. I will though. What I did want to share from this video was the statements made artists with a deep history of being in the industry, about where the music is going and why artists should remain independent. Legendary hip hop producer, DJ Premier, DJ Don Cannon, Ray J and others chime in on the subject. Check it out.
About 4:30 into this video Prince gets it in about major labels and how they get over on artists. He also talks about restructuring the way artists deals are made and much more. Prince has been around a long time, seen it all, and was one of the first artist to leave the major labels to sell his music over the internet. There’s definitely a lot learn from this dude.
Eddie DeGarmo is the president of EMI CMG Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee. In this video clip, Eddie discusses who gets paid from radio plays and the different types of royalties that create a revenue stream for artists and songwriters.
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Don't miss another opportunity to share your music or network with a good contact because you didn't have your music or info on you. Way too often, I've checked my wallet to exchange info with a contact only to say, "Sorry, I don't have any more business cards." You can avoid mishaps like these by always having a few things with you. Here is a short list of them.
1. Business Cards: In this day of great technological advancements, this old school way of passing along your info is still the quickest and most effective. It's a pain in the ass ...
7 Ways to Fuck Up Your Start-Up Hip Hop Label
Running a successful independent record label takes lots of hard work. A good business plan, good talent and proper management are essential to making this possible. Here are 7 things to you should avoid when running your independent hip hop label.
1. Choosing a name for your record label before you check to see if it's already been trademarked: Can't tell you how many times I've seen this happen. Someone chooses a label name, puts out CDs under it, and then carpets the office with the logo and name dead in the center, only to find out that someone else ...
Why You Should Trademark Your Name
Ever wonder why Common is no longer Common Sense? Or why Soulja Boy is now Soulja Boy Tell 'Em? Well, the answer to both of those questions is, the failure to acquire a trademark.
Common Sense, after building a sizable fanbase and an impressive body of work, soon learned that a reggae band owned the name before he did. Soulja Boy was sued by a hip hop artist who also owned the name first and had to either change his name or modify it in a way that was legally acceptable.
Related posts:4 Laws of Choosing the Right Artist Name Choosing ...
How to Properly Send Your Music Over the Internet
I felt the need to write this post because so many artists fail to send me music correctly. This can be an annoyance to DJ's, bloggers, podcasters, or anyone else on the receiving end of your delivery. You need to make the process of downloading and listening to your music require the least amount of effort. If this becomes difficult for the receiver, you may very well miss an opportunity to have it heard. Here a are a few dos and don'ts to take note of when sending your music out.
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5 Ways To Get Through Writer’s Block
We've all experienced it right? Those annoying moments when it seems like your brain is on deep freeze. Can't find a concept...can't start a beat..can't find that next hot line. Sometime ago I decided that I'd find a some ways to work though the drought. Here are five.
1. Write hooks and come back to them later. Don't try to complete an entire song. Sometimes the hooks are the only thing you can get off at the moment. Why stay stuck on one tune when you can shoot of a dozen hot choruses that you can fill in later?
2. Listen to ...
5 Very Bad Twitter Marketing Habits
There are a lot of independent hip hop artists on Twitter that are wasting their time by using it ineffectively to promote and market themselves. Twitter is a great tool if used correctly, but it can be totally useless if not. Here are 5 Twitter marketing habits you should avoid.
1. Sending me an @ reply with only a link to your music. If I don't know you and you didn't take the time to introduce yourself, I'm not going to waste my time clicking on your link. It's spam and it's annoying.
2. Letting 3rd party sites use your account so ...
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