The Answer: Diversify(Major/minor Sytem)

Viacom the owner of MTV has recently cut 850 jobs in the rise of this recession. This recession has also allowed anybody to be apart of the music industry… WMG’s stock is at $2.67 a stock. People claim it is an old business plan, others say music is not a monetary market anymore. Every week I keep seeing album sales drop, but digital sales have been steadily rising. Kanye’s single sold 1.3 million times on iTunes to date (2/4/08). So is digital the answer?

In Business, sales have to show growth and improvement otherwise stocks will drop and investor confidence will drop as well. Usually when a business grows too fast (or even a decline in growth) it strikes fear. There will always be this wall that all businesses hit where they have to cut some expenses to continue growth until it can not make money anymore. That is where the flaw of iPods come in. If everybody has an iPod, where can the growth be? What improvements can they make? iPod sales drop now, but that is expected and still people lose confidence in them. Where to go when you hit the top?

Music is a business like any other, and no matter how much you market something, if people don’t need it they won’t get it. You can make it all pretty and everything, but if people can get it for free they still will. Digital sales, album sales, all music sales are close to failing soon, and I believe it is an end to ‘music sales’ but not an end to music. I see labels changing to the 360 deal which I believe is great to keep income and allow labels to not give up in pushing their artists. Yes, it is still mafia tactics where if you can’t get revenue from one place, you squeeze em in other area’s. The more I study business and marketing, the more I realize that without the push of a strong team, nobody can make it. As a more entrepreneurship mindset comes across America, we are becoming more DIY, but DIY can only get you so far. With the help of the internet everybody can DIY, but than comes the ego with that thinking your as strong as a label.

The way to a new beginning is not the end of an old. Every day should be a new beginning in expanding from what was of yesterday. People settle for one plan, one product, one everything. That is why I love places like Target. They can get income from many places. They do not have everything in one product which is what most labels do. We need to learn to do more than just music, artists need to expand from just singing/ rapping whatever they do. 50 Cent invested in Vitamin water and got close to half a billion dollars.

My point is, it is the end of one sided music. We need to learn to multi-task more than what we are already doing. Regular grocery stores should expand with music, and more mainstream items for kids, teens and more. Record stores should sell more band merchandise, open up a place for shows and etc. Places need to come on a major/ minor system where they are mostly "this", but they also have "some of this". Most places have that, but it needs to become more apart of the business plan, rather than just a side thought

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The Answer: Diversify
(Major/minor Sytem)

Memories

In a world where everything is based off of what has worked and what has not, it shows that no idea can ever be completely original. It is all about taking on the challenge of what has worked in the past and using it in the present to make it work for the future. No idea should ever be the same. The work should never be done. What worked yesterday will not work today, but pieces of it will.

Take the music industry and how it is working today. It is a mutated mix of what has worked in the past. No longer do the majors have the pull that they have used to monopolize the industry. The indies have come up from bands managing themselves to smaller versions of majors with less overhead and more chances at free publicity, but at the cost of having to battle countless others for consumer attention. What costs will the music industry have to incur to get back into its original form or a mutated version with the same results? Do we give up on plans to recreate the original results thanks to everybody's true love, the internet? Or do we not only change the process, but also our expectations and expand the process to include other ways to at least recreate past success?

Another question: Do we redefine "success"? In music, can "success" be the artist that is heard by millions of people, making a million bucks, or just having a huge crew that live and die by their side?

You live by the past, you die by the past. In industry, no matter which one you are in, you need to take past memories that you have experienced to allow a change. I've always said "out with the old, in with the new", but I was only partially correct. Out with the original blueprints, but in with updated versions. You need to take the past to change them into something that is new rather than just follow the old plan.

Yesterday, everybody is on myspace. Today, take it and add the friends and than converse with them.

Yesterday, people started to write blogs. Today, take your blogs and converse with the people who comment to argue your point.

Yesterday, we had a president with another generation of experience. Tomorrow, we need change

Yesterday, we had a business strategy that worked, made people billions. Today, that same plan does not work but people still pimp the old way. Tomorrow we need change.

Take your past memories and expand, but never let the memories die...

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Memories