Kevin's Top 5 (#6), Well I Went a Bit Overboard

I think this is a good mix of music! A couple of older songs, but some
of my favorites. I have recently had this thing for Hip-Hop infusion
bands like Lemond and The Streets, hope you like them and let me know
what you think. Also, let me know if you want something in a certain
genre I will see what I can dig up :D

1. N.A.S.A. - Whatchadoin?
2. Blink 182 / Jay-Z - What's my age again (Mash Up)
3. The Streets - On The Edge of a Cliff
4. Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
5. Lemond - Sepia
6. Lemond - Current Affairs
7. 3OH!3 - Starstrukk
8. Michael Buble - Feeling Good
(Hint: Right click and 'Save As'...)

Good luck to the kids finishing school for the semester! See ya under
the sun.

-kevin

Kevin's Top 5 (#6), Well I Went a Bit Overboard

Instructions on how to Fall Fast from the Top (iTunes)

Ok, take a business plan that has worked for years and break it apart slightly to give users a sense of independence. There, that is the full business plan for iTunes. Their thoughts were good you know, just about 5 years late. After all the Napsters, Kazza, pirate bays, and bit torrents already had that idea. So iTunes idea was to take their idea and put a price on it. I’ve never been too much of a fan, but they have been somewhat successful. I mean even I purchased 1 album from them (Anthony Hamilton's Point of It All).

Ok it’s set, they’re following the same plan as freeware with a price and they sold a few billion. People are getting comfortable with this, and their sales are expanding by large percentages compared to falling physical sales. So of course with every business mind, when a product starts selling why not bump the price? I mean it’s a great idea for physical products when it costs more for distribution, but where is the overhead rising in digital music? Does it cost more not to upload? No, that's free. I just don’t see a reason for this price increase. And surprise surprise, their sales are down… again.

Now some songs are cheaper than their original .99, but with all the newest songs at 1.29 its a great business idea, and it looks good on paper if same sales continue.

In general this would have worked great… what, 10 years ago? Nice Try iTunes, its a good model. Just a little late. iTunes will either change their price or fall eventually, but with the low overhead and high profit it may take awhile.

I know I’m a little late on this but some people still didn’t know iTunes bumped their prices up so speak what you want about this.


From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Step 1

- Take an idea from another site selling the same products for free

Step 2

- Sell for an amount to help the artists out (good idea, i mean they still need to get paid)

Step 3

- offer less than what some of the free sites give

Step 4

- After some success, bump the price

Step 5

- File chapter 11 so you can keep your Bentlys and million dollar home

Instructions on how to Fall Fast from the Top (iTunes)

Making Money Off of What has Become Free

In what is slowly becoming a free market, music executives and musicians are finding themselves in need of finding new ways to make money. They have tried everything from Kanye West vs 50, to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" with modest success. Kanye West outsold 50 cent 957,000 to 691,000 (Wiki), while Radiohead sold 3 million copies worldwide in physical and digital sales.

In 2007 Saul Williams attempted to use the same strategy as Radiohead. The following is from his wiki page:

“154,449 people had downloaded 'Niggy Tardust'. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asked price of $5 USD ($141,610 USD Total)”


Let's compare these numbers to Williams' previous self-titled album, which sold 30,000 copies. His recent "pay what you want" release helped expand his exposure. He made less money, but reached more fans than his previous release by using the "In Rainbows" model.

All that is old news, but where has the next "big marketing idea" been for the masses? People come up with ideas for their niche markets, but worldwide sales have declined along with pop artists' talent.

As a former hater of Lil Wayne I have learned to respect him. While he has not the best talent in my opinion, he shows emotion in his music and when he is serious you feel what he is talking about. With a constant onslaught of material for fans (mixtape after mixtape) he doesn't give them a chance to give up. His last album, "Tha Carter 3" sold 2.88 million copies by New Years Eve in 2008 making it the largest selling album of the year. Wayne has built a broad fan base over a long time.

So in an era of music where the value is lost, how do we make money in this industry?

Don’t give up, keep making contacts, and always make content for the fans. Money is not something you can make overnight and if you have true talent, don’t hold it in. You have to let the world hear it.

For those in the business world: Just because you can’t find “marketable artists” as available as before, it does not mean that the industry is dead. We just need something new, so find artists that sound different. As I told many people recommending artists who sound similar to Lil Wayne, “when his career is dead so will yours be”. Artists have to make their own sound and they’ll make their own path.

It’s not about strictly talent or marketing anymore, but drive as well. Never give up. For every person that does quit there's somebody who hasn't.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Making Money Off of What has Become Free

Finding Love Through Music

Now this is for all the married couples, or couples in general. Here is something that has been bugging me for awhile. Is the main reason yall "clicked" because of music? Would you ever have loved your soul mate if they liked a different style than what you like? I am doing a little research to figure this out and write a follow up a little later.

I feel music is strong enough to deter some people away from somebody who has everything else in common. Everybody has a "song" and what if they never get that. What if there never is that one song they can agree on for the wedding or there's never that song that reminds you of when you met? If you had a favorite song or a favorite artist your girl hated, what would you do? Let me hear what everybody has to say. Personally, music is the first topic I bring up with a girl and second of course is family. Most don't get past the first before I lose interest.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Finding Love Through Music

The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

So why are we still utilizing services like Limewire and Morpheus? Because we feel entitled to. We want to take the music with us in our cars, on our iPods, and throughout every step of our lives without being confined to the chairs in front of our computers. But that's not fair. It's not fair to the artists either on major labels, who yes, have had many of their expenses taken care of, but will have to recomp the label for them once the money starts coming in, or on indie labels and self-releases, where they truly have put up their own hard earned money to do what they love and take the music as far as they can, to our own ears.

We like to say that technology has created so many opportunities for artists that would have never had them before, and in some cases, it's true. Studios are relatively cheaper to create and easier to use than ever before. With the advent of Myspace and Youtube, it has become easier to communicate with people around the world, to network, to be noticed. But with all of that has come a much easier, and sadly, socially acceptable way to take music without compensating the people who created it. We all make excuses: I'm a poor college student, I would have never actually spent money on this particular album so picking it up for free isn't that big of a deal, I just want to know if I like it before I spend money on it... but the truth is, those excuses are baseless.

You know? Someday, I hope to make money in this industry. There is nothing I love more than popular music. I love to sing it, play it, write it, and I'm learning to love the business side of all of it too. And how pretentious would it make me to expect to get the music I listen to for free and still expect others to pay me for mine?

Money has been tight for me lately, and I have had to add many, many albums to my wishlist rather than running right out to buy them like I'm used to doing. It's honestly painful, but I absolutely can't fathom stealing music anymore. It doesn't feel right to me.

It shouldn't feel right to you either.

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)

I honestly can't say I've met anyone of my particular generation who hasn't stolen music. Yeah, I admit, I've done it too. The problem is, as long as we're not picking up a physical CD at the nearest Target and walking out of the store without visiting the friendly cashiers first, we don't see it as stealing. It is. We need to convince people that not only is illegal downloading wrong, but the quality of music is eventually going to suffer for it.

I don't honestly understand what has led people to feel so entitled to music for free. What other services will expect not to pay for next? Should we visit a restaurant without tipping a server who did his or her job remarkably just because, hey, that's the job? Should we walk into an accountant's office and expect him or her to do our taxes for us, free of charge? How about seeking out a lawyer's service? Should he or she have gotten through years of expensive law school just to dispense free advice in all cases?

There are new services bringing entertainment into our homes for free-- and TV is the first thing I think of when I think of this. Services like Hulu.com and TheWB.com are offering full episodes of a variety of TV shows free of charge to the viewer--but they've found a way to do it legally, by obtaining licensing and including advertisements to make the funding possible. And when you think about it, watching TV this way isn't much different than watching it in the traditional way, because you're still paying for one main service (cable, satellite, or the internet), and the advertisements are still helping to fund the experience, so it's not really free.

Internet radio has made some of this possible in some cases for music: Pandora.com, iLike.com, and Last.fm all offer different ways to listen to the songs and artists you like, allowing you to create playlists, listen to stations based on a certain artist you love, or just search, song by song, artist by artist, and listening to what you please. The reason this works, though, is that those plays are all being recorded, and the artists, songwriters, and other associated with each song played are still earning their royalties. You're not paying, really, but they're still earning, and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
To be continued....

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)