The New Media Ark (under construction)

While a lot of the old heads stand in the raging rains waiting for it to pass, we have these new media sites which are becoming an ark. So when the water eventually passes over everybody's head, only those that focus on what's "now" and keep building on their ark will survive.

Everybody knows about declining record sales and feel as though their drowning in their past strategies. From several counts it can be to lack of good music- But with countless different genres and many variations with the lowest near 200,000 and top over 2 million on MySpace artists I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Some call it over saturation which could be the case. Could it be the overall quality?

Well in hindsight we see where we went wrong when we find the finished ark of our new media, but I don’t think there will ever be a finished ark. With media and software always changing, so should the ark. Those who stick to the old ways will fail and those who are late on what's new will just miss the ship (i.e. those who don’t use Twitter, Facebook, MySpace [which is quickly becoming old], Pandora Radio, and/or any other start-up sites that use a word of mouth approach to marketing).

Right now the best sales pitch is friend-to-friend, not billboard-to-billboard on the highway. A lot of new media is free. It's just a matter of standing out, which is why the ark will never be finished, just like in DC it’ll always be under construction. We must continuously be on the lookout for what's new and jump on the ship before its time to build another.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The New Media Ark (under construction)

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)

The Silent "I" in T(i)eam

A team is a compilation of "I"s. I do not believe the phrase “there is no I in team”, which means we all work together and are only as strong as our weakest link. If that is true, than every team sport would completely fail. If there is no “I” than why do we hold stats? What are we bee’s, or ants? No. We are a whole lotta “I”s and until we realize that most DIY’s involving solely one person will fail.

Partnerships
2 guys (or girls or a mix) of "I"s working towards one goal. That's 2 heads that are usually so incompatible with each other that if it was anything else it would not work. With one goal and 2 different objectives to reach it, it could work.

Groups
3 or more people striving towards one goal. Every person though has their own “I”, their own life. While working toward one thing they are a team but every ceo/ leader/ whoevers in charge sometimes has trouble looking at every person…as a person. That is why everything is in a bracket where their are leaders leading down to the lowest positions.

so what?

One thing when I talk to people, I stress the need to work with other people. A lot of artists love working alone, they book their own shows, they do everything themselves. That works fine but as work builds up, so does tension and everything that goes with added workloads. I have a few artists/Dj’s, and other people who read my blog so this is mostly to them.

Find somebody to work with, a mentor, somebody you can trust. Somebody who can help you with your load so you can be the best at the position your at. Multitasking is alright, but we need people for specific jobs otherwise your career will be considerably short or some part of your job will not be as full as it should be.

There should be an "I" in team, because not one person can do everything… well at least anyway.

Open for discussion, let me know what yall think

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

The Silent "I" in T(i)eam

Why Should I Care about your Music?

I’ve been getting bombarded recently by MySpace bands telling me they are the "best" I’ve ever heard (and a few saying they are the worse). As well as at my job where I cashier I had a customer tell me that he knows a great rap group. So I listened to him talk about them, but he said nothing that was out the ordinary, just shit I hear on a regular basis. So I ask you, the viewers of my blog, why should we care about your music or anybody’s when everybody and they mama is now doing music? Just speak your mind and I’ll keep this short.

PS- No spammers

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Why Should I Care about your Music?

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)

Impulse Music

When was the last time you purchased music on impulse? When you go to Target or any grocery store they have candy and other treats sitting there waiting for you to buy outside of your normal grocery list. I work part time at a grocery store and so many times while in line, people purchase those items. They pay hundreds for groceries, so what is 89 cents for a Twix? 89 cents lasts 20 seconds, and 99 cents can last a lot longer, so where has the music impulse purchase went? Why is 99 cents too much for a song? Sometimes 89 cents is too much for candy so people steal it and that is a given. I use to be a huge music-downloader, I won't lie. As time goes by and I have a little more money I can now purchase songs. I just bought the new Anthony Hamilton song "Cool" as a impulse buy since I could not find the full song on MySpace or YouTube.

My point? We need a way to put impulse back into music consumerism. If there was a way where we could sell music with limited buyers' remorse (create higher quality music?) it would be the best way to do it. If we punish, then people will continue to try and get their music for free. There has to be something that makes people feel good enough about the purchase to begin trusting there impulse again.

What would you suggest? How would you make people feel good about music and paying money for it?

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Impulse Music

A Brand of Band - Part 2

-Look at the Beetles in their day. They were compared to a religion. They had people who murdered to be able to go to their shows (not literally) and had fans that would camp out just to see them.

- Look at Lil Wayne now. He is huge! People want him on their album and he is willing to put his name out there. Will his fame fade? All depends if he ever decides to quit.

Lil Wayne's Discography

-The Jonas Brothers is now one of the biggest brands. Connecting with Hannah Montana and Disney has been a merchandisers dream.

-Battling the merch and brand even has its branding. One of my personal favorite artists, Immortal Technique is a good example of fighting the mainstream with good results. His music is politically motivated. Immortal Technique connects with millions of Americans on day to day issues that they deal with.

Immortal Technique's album "The 3rd World"

A brand is an image that artists either keep or drop (name another Sir Mix A lot song other than "Baby got Back"). People say artists sell out when they re-brand themselves for the mainstream, so starting with a credible brand is key for any artist or band. A brand of a band is like something you live with. Their are a few exceptions. Instead of hits we have niche’s and demi-hits, and its about finding your own and making it big there. Specific Branding.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

A Brand of Band - Part 2

A Brand of Band - Part 1

Throughout my short music career (about 7 years if you include me writing songs and recording artists through a $20 4-track, and $20 radio shack microphone), I had many artists that were a favorite because of their “off camera” lifestyle. They had a brand, an image that has been latched onto them that surpassed their music and sometimes surpassed real life. Their image made them seem larger than life and it made fans spend money to go see their “god comparative” performances. Where did all that go wrong? It seems now because of the internet, we as fans of music know some things about these artists that they probably forgot. Being a fanatic takes a lot of work and those “god comparative” performances became just something else we can see on Youtube now.

Right now there is no God figure because a god would last longer than a year or two. We saw the god in Michael Jackson try to break out and look what happened to him. What happened to the large marketing teams? What happened to the people that made gods out of musicians? To break a god costs money that not many people have any more. We turned to demi-gods of niche’s, or The Long Tale. I finally got to read this book by Chris Anderson and I’m learning that in today’s world there almost can’t be that “hit” anymore. We broke genre’s up to the hundreds and now they are breaking into their own thing. Underground rap is not underground anymore if billions have a chance to listen to it. Same thing with punk rock. You are fighting the “man” yet you are on Rupert Murdoch’s Myspace!
To be continued...

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

A Brand of Band - Part 1

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

Give a Mouse A Cookie (Keveeno's Look @ Myspace Music) Part 2

After midnight, and a few drinks… I do not see a major difference yet? Now myspace was a site full of music before, and now I am becoming skeptical on how much of a difference maker this will be. Will it be a competitor to iTunes? Or will it fall like every other plan for music that has come out since iTunes launch that is still not successful compared to P2P sites in sharing music, but is the best one when compared to money to the record labels as well as the artist and mouse's.

Will launch a part 2 with a lot more information and a lot less intoxication. Till then…

What has come of a new plan will either thrive or fail but what has come is a new plan. Until we give up, new idea's are needed, so even though the cookie as an asterik*... and until I find more, this cookie comes with a question mark. So before we accept this plan as the 3rd coming of Jesus, we have to remember that it is something that has been thought of but never put into action. So with Myspace's power, this has a chance at an impact and it has me excited. I will check it out more tomorrow with coffee and Advil, and until more information has been found, this is…

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Give a Mouse A Cookie (Keveeno's Look @ Myspace Music) Part 2

Give a Mouse A Cookie (Keveeno's Look @ Myspace Music) Part 1

*May require a service download, a lot of commercials, and the same shit you can hear on the radio free.

Myspace Music will launch for the first time in about an hour or less, so it will launch before I finish this. So I will write about what I know of the leaked version. Basically its a new music service where everything is on myspace, and you can hold up to 100 of your favorite songs (good idea) on your page. Share your music and through a means I don't understand, they will pay the artist (label/manager/distributor/their mama/their rent/and even pay for a new cookie) a sum of less than a penny for a hit. That takes a step back from the millionaire artists to thousandaire artists through this method. Now being a thousandaire is no joke. That can buy you chipotle and maybe a year or 2 of rent. Information on this is scattered, but this is one of the screen shots I got from Tech crunch:

It shows the music player looking different. Can't tell but it seems you can buy the DRM free (meaning you can transfer it anywhere) from amazon.com and it has a add function that if added hopefully can pay the artist per play as well. Imagine a top hit song, added by a million people, played 20 million times… that can get the artist maybe a few thousand dollars. Which is good considering CD's probably will not get you anything anymore, and after free… most people don't want to pay anymore (the majority does not pay, and if you do thats good. But by "majority" I mean people around the teen to older teen (24 and below). We'll see how this goes on launch, and I call it "give a mouse a cookie"* because after being able to download music for free, why would you want to listen to it with restrictions and all these rules after pretty much being able to do anything. They should start calling them Record Labels* because do they even want records as their main income anymore?
To be continued...

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Give a Mouse A Cookie (Keveeno's Look @ Myspace Music) Part 1

What is your Definition of Success?

It's a race to the finish. Are you in the 50 meter or 100 meter dash? Or are you in a 10-20 mile long triathlon with the race changing every few miles? It all depends on where you have your mind set as to what "success" is. Do you finish an album, share with a few people and have a lot of congratulations? Make $20 on iTunes or CD Baby and hope the music changed at least one person's life? Or maybe you want to live like a rock star? Everybody has their own vision of success and each has their own road to it.

If you go onto CD Baby, the average album sales for an artist/group is $340. Now that number is off a lot depending on how much work you're willing to put in. If you only wanted to make an album that the world has a chance to hear, than your job is done. You made $20 and can now eat Chipotle for a few days. If you decided to promote it yourself (depending on your talent), you can sell near the average of $340. Now if you put the album out, do some shows, promote, and build a fan base this is where the numbers push the average. You may sell over $5,000 (CD Baby had around 50 people sell over $10,000) and you become a mini rock star and you can not only eat Chipotle for all 7 days of the week, but pay rent for a few months.

Success is defined by Webster as "a favorable or desired outcome". So it all depends on what you want to do. Music is not a career for everybody, so getting recognition is not always top priority. If it is your career then recognition is of the utmost importance, because how else would you be able to survive? Even if you want to work in the background of things (i.e. studio musician), recognition is still important to be able to show that you are willing to help people out.

So putting into consideration your definition of success, how much work are you willing to put in?

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

What is your Definition of Success?

The Story of Limbo after Graduation (part 2)

Continued...
But no worries. This industry is in a flux and if one takes it too seriously they have serious issues. Music is suppose to be fun and it will be fun again. Bring it back to the days of Mo Town and The Hit factory where it wasn’t just a science, it was artists showcasing true talents. I want to bring that back, but true artists are some of the most difficult people to work with. Even Joey had a problem keeping his artists on check with groups breaking up, great talent singers never calling back, and when he got hard on them they just didn’t have the passion themselves. How can a person working on the business side have passion in a artist that does not have the passion themselves? Inspiration is needed in music, for if you lose that, than what's the point of doing it?

Joey on the side of working with the internship and job, is putting what he does best on a list to try and figure what he can truly offer these artist other than connections and a dream. He is good at speaking individually to an artist, but lacks the ability to put the ax down when its needed. Planning has always been a plus because of how he was raised, but finishing up and making sure others follow is another thing. Joey is now looking for motivated artists outside of genre’s he has grown comfortable with to grow comfortable with them. Joey knows not to quit and that being in limbo is never a reason to quit your passion. Its a matter of setting new priorities and not sticking with plans that will not work anymore, sometimes it’s also getting your head "out yo azz" and going beyond any comfort zone you have set yourself.

This limbo is a bubble that will either burst or float depending on the winds surrounding it. Joey will either crash under pressure or continue strong. In Tupac's A Rose that Grew from Concrete he states, “you not gon’ say, 'Damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from concrete', You gon’ be like, 'Damn! A rose grew from the concrete?!'" Another quote, “it is not the destination but the journey” is one more that pertains to limbo. No matter how you put it, life is not easy for anybody. The rich have mental issues, the middle class have a little bit of every issue, and the poor have to overcome so many obstacles that it’s amazing what people can achieve. Some people have limbo for life, so overcoming this bubble of a limbo shouldn’t be so difficult, but it takes the best out of people. Just never give up on your passions, because even if you do… your heart never will.

From the mind of

Keveeno

If you read this and you have a similar story, make sure to put it in the comment section.

Limbo affects 76% of the population, and if you have a limbo lasting longer than 4 years please see a doctor for it may cause a unsafe drop of well being over the years.

The Story of Limbo after Graduation (part 2)

The Story of Limbo after Graduation (part 1)

*This story may or may not relate to me or anybody else, but it will relate to the growing trend of fatigue from recent graduates working their way into the music industry.

Joey graduated from a school specializing in music and production. He got a full entertainment business degree from the school, and came out with aspirations of running his own business and making a lot of money while helping artists get what they need. He waited a month after graduation and got a great internship from an indie label, but it was non-paid. Joey loved the job but he needed to pay rent. He believes that to become rich you have to have that mindset that you will get it eventually, so Joey is a few thousand in debt, not counting the loans piling up and rent that is being paid right before late fee’s apply. He refuses to go back home on the far west coast, because of the fact that he knows if he does, than his music dreams will die and he will go back to the same things he did before he moved to the place he is at now.

The school he went to lead him on with big dreams of making it with a few teachers showing that it is not that easy. Now Joey also has a non music job with the music internship and that job is fatiguing him worse to the point where paying the rent and bills is all that matters. Music is slipping from Joey’s mindset when that was all that was on his mind. Its the limbo of a graduate, and what to do now? The internship is great, but the job pays the bills. If he doesn’t pay the bills, and he moves back home, then music and jobs will not be the only thing he has to worry about.

So I do not know if this story relates to most graduates, or if it relates to anybody. Limbo happens to most after graduation, but its about the motivation and passion of the person to keep going or fall. Some fall worse than others, and some have backup plans. Joey’s one passion is music, but with bills to pay Joey is becoming passionless. Priorities are becoming less and less a priority in the fact the priority list is now skewed. Has the music industry become so fucked right now that with so many opportunities there is almost none that are open? What will Joey do when the day job takes over his passion as it does to so many?

To be continued...

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The Story of Limbo after Graduation (part 1)

The Resurrection of the "Boy Band" (insert scary/cool looking font)

I am a little late on reporting this, but I'll still discuss the resurgence of this "brand new idea" of boy bands. Websters definition with the Keveeno explanation of a boy band is; a band acumalitive of mainly boys with the subtraction of a female presence meaning that possible there is a female presence within one of the boys soul, hence the Lance rumors. Boy bands usually are used as marketing around a female pop sensation (See Britney and N'Sync/ Backstreet Boys). Today they go younger to try and resurrect record sales with artists like Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers. So pump up the vocal enhancers, hide the wardrobe malfunctions, this is the resurrection of The Boy Bands.

(Image: New Kids on the Block, the O.G.s of the Boy Band phenomenon)

Without looking up the statistics, I'm pretty sure with the hype the Jonas Bros are getting more profits from touring than than selling records. This all shows a striking resemblance to when I was in Middle/Highschool and N'Sync was huge. The girls at my school were more into Usher, B2K and more of the RnB pop sensations, but there were a few that caught on with this boy band craze. Well, as with these political debates right now, it gets old. There was a break where they pushed artists who just were not ready as there was a steady decline in record sales across the board. I guess there was a breaking point where they needed something… anything. They found it in The Jones Bro's.

Success in todays market is strongly pointing toward a more live performance rather than cd driven business model. When will the statistics of billboard top 200 become irrelevant and selling out shows become more of what defines success today?

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The Resurrection of the "Boy Band" (insert scary/cool looking font)

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

The Music Investor

I have read about several websites that have this idea of investing into the artists music, and I have written something about it awhile ago that I have actually removed by accident. I will say it again that it's almost like the entertainment stock market. You find a artist you like, and you put money into them hoping they can do something with it that could possibly get you money as well. It's all good until you realize the state of the industry and the fact that this artist is working on art…NOT a business. Music is a business, but most artists do not see it as such, and dissipate after awhile for steady income jobs elsewhere. Lets say you have a favorite artist and you invest a large amount, lets say $20,000. The artist goes to the studio and records a nice EP that is fully mastered, has a great marketing plan, and the album goes on iTunes and sells under 5,000 single sale copies, with a few hundred album copies. Lets say the artist we'll call, The Electric Italiano, makes around $2-3000 in a month. Thats a good months salary and now you want your money back. You make just under a grand back with a $-19,000 mark in your checkbook. Now what?

I have been blogging, talking about how the major industry is going to shit and indies are the future, individual artists are coming through tough times, and there is a future for music yet. I have worked out a few idea's than and out, but now I want to do something as well. I won't get into detail, but I would like to make a social networking site (waiting for gasps as something so revolutionary as that), but instead of joining networks, you join artists. We allow artists for a one time fee to build a full fan site with different levels and we put a price on the levels. Fans can join for free for the basic, but for different prices or "investments" they can receive benefits such such as a free concert tickets, free cd's, free posters, tee's, and more. This is a new idea to my head that has probably been done, but I will do more research.

If a fan who enjoys an artist's music so much that they purchase an album, why can't they get to know the artist more? Know why the artist wrote each song, the background of the artist past their bio, a chance to speak to the artist such as The Electric Italiano (a combination of The Electric Fetus (a record store here), and Italiano Coffee… words that I randomly saw on the wall here), and possibly a chance to meet up with other fans of the artist. I want to bring fan interaction to a whole new level, but set it up as a template like a social networking site that would literally be for networking instead of picking up underage kids by the likes of copycat Michael Jackson (myspace). I will have a full blueprint that I will work on, and hope nobody takes this idea because it is only partial on what I have an idea for in the back of my head.

Remember music is a way to express your soul, and it can get to be expensive. Most fall out the game because of money problems, but those who stick it out and call music a career and not a hobby will prosper. It's a matter of patience and perseverance, for outlasting this depression in the music industry will be difficult, but if we can find a way to settle differences we can do this. Music will once again be a source of enjoyment instead of stress soon. We just have to work together.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The Music Investor

Why Myspace is Still Essential

Alright so I have a lot of artists who come to me, and ask if they still need Myspace. Some come to me and ask if they still need any physical distribution of their music. Personally, I say why not do both, but just like in college have a major and minor. Figure out which one you will devote 80% of your time/money, and 20% to the other. Going in 50/50 has gotten a lot of people fucked (excuse the language, but its just the truth). Going 100% in one direction is no good either for your losing revenue from a potential of millions. A potential because it all depends on talents and consumers' tastes.

Now comes Myspace. This to me seems a little low, but all the statistics are from January 2008. Myspace has over 110 million users around the globe, with an average of 300,000 new people a day. There has been over 14 billion comments, and more than 8 million artists.

How do you stand out with 8 million artists? Easy, be better than them. Have the 7 second rule for your starting song, if the song just doesn't catch my interest within 7 seconds I move on. There has been a few successes, but do not use your Myspace as the only selling tool for your album. You can promote it, but don't have people buy off Myspace. Instead you should link them to your official page. Myspace is really a promotion site for your artists, not generally a selling tool. Every artist I have seen selling off their Myspace using Snocap or something else doesn't know of the better tools like Nimbit, Reverbnation, or even Amazon. Plus why should I be interested in your music if the artists themselves do not invest the time/money into their art? I mean doing a little research can be great. You can find so much great stuff that can be essential to an artist's career, but not too many people do that. Why? They think "talent" alone can get you a deal and make you money. Wrong! You need sites like Myspace/Facebook and other social networking websites to network and get your music in the ears of listeners.

Myspace is so over saturated that every time I get a band's request now on my personal page I just decline it unless they have a cool name or profile page looks legit. On my business page, I accept everybody but rarely check their music unless the friend request is followed up with a comment or a message. This shows you're interested in every fan. Mass friend adds is so "last year". Now you have to express personality with the message. Anybody can copy and paste to make it personal, but what if you search for… let me say a random artist, Jay-Z. Lets say I still hate Jay from the studio beef between him and Nas, so in my favorite artists section I put, "Nas is the best, fuck Jay-z" (excuse the profanity again, that was taken from somebodies profile as is.). Now you do a search of profiles for Jay-Z fans, and my name pops up, and you say Hey, saw your a fan of Jay, I sound similar check me out. I would probably delete and report spam just because your trying to be personal and your not.

So pretty much, use myspace for a marketing tool to promote your music/shows and have links to pages where fans can purchase music/tickets. Merchandise is in the same boat. If you do all of the above and you still are not getting a piece of those 14 billion comments from your fans now "friends", than check your style of music, the way you added people, your quality, or just the people you send the request to. Be smart with your Myspace, and Myspace will pay you back. Be dumb with your Myspace, and your one of the people who still think it doesn't matter. It's just a tool, use it, don't live it.

From the mind of

Keveeno

**Based on stats found HERE

Why Myspace is Still Essential

The Breaking Point

I am an avid blog reader of the music industry. Before I even thought I was reading blogs, I was enjoying them. The original blogs are reviews. Thats what blogging is right? A review of a certain point, a product, or even a review of how people dress. Well I loved reading music reviews, editorial reviews in magazines, and even reviews in the comment section of what people thought of that review. All that was what blogging was back in the day. Now its a market, with an industry, with people making a job out of it. I don't know the exact figures, but I'm pretty sure its competitive with newspapers and magazines going out of business. Which brings me to my point, I'm here to review a collection of blogs I've read over the past 2 years that have a similar topic, but is missing something. They all say that the record industry is failing miserably losing 20 some million dollars every year. They are all missing the breaking point.

When a business loses money, they look to find a way to keep their doors open and if they can't find it they close the doors. I wonder if people finally realize they can make their own coffee (or cawfee, however you pronounce it), would Starbucks close their doors? They closed 600 of them, but if people stopped giving them money, then what would their breaking point be? Would Starbucks close all of their doors? Or would they finally go back to their roots and make coffee thats actually coffee? Will KFC ever make non genetically mutated chickens if people learned how to genetically mutate chickens themselves? I mean people already know how to make music on their own, how to get it for free, how to burn and bootleg it, and even how to get free promotions from fans. What is this breaking point that will come of this industry? I said it before, I'll say it again, downsize to Indie labels or DIY if you want to work business and music, which is difficult as hell. Now when I say "downsizing" I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean there are people who do one thing then retire, and they should not be getting more than a quarter of a percent of royalties. Thats why I like Indies, because from what I've seen everybody is a family working together. The majors pay a lot of people and here is some stats I got from Coolfer.com, from their Tuesday Business link section, and their other blogs.

"Digital distributor The Orchard reported a loss of $800,000″

"Napster has an accumulated deficit of $199 million."

Thats just this week on their Q3 earnings. Every week though, they state who was the #1 artist this week on Billboard and compare sales to this time last year. Sales are almost always lower than the previous year. At this trend will their be a year it just stops? Nobody buys music anymore and people who go to shows have been hindered by the rise of gas and ticket prices. I can go on about this forever, about how the major industry's are failing, if their going to collapse, how Indies are increasingly becoming a much better option, how even though Michael Jackson looks like an ugly woman he still does better music than most people, and how this recession is messing everything up (I won't get into politics because I get enough of it in life), but I'll just say that every business has a breaking point. Ex, Tower Records and Simon Delivers. WHAT IS THE RECORD BUSINESS' BREAKING POINT?

From the mind of Keveeno

The Breaking Point

WMG Mafia Tactics

This just in, Warner Music Group wants more money for music video game sales!

Just when things look up with Rock Band's 12 million sales of tracks, WMG's chief executive, Edgar Bronfman, states, "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small."

That all may be true, but isn't it a little late? They already sold 12 million tracks for the game, do you think that in later games people will be willing to pay a larger price? Price from what I've seen is already around $1.99x + $159(special edition). Add a dollar to the equation and chief up there thinks "whats going to be the difference?"

Money drives all industries, and I'm sure the company that owns Rock Band is using the money to expand on their games, which will help push more artists for majors and indies. Just because WMG's stocks have fallen, Sony BMG is now SMEI (Sony Music Entertainment, Inc), and indies have grown past what was expected, they want to increase their prices to a successful business in mafia like standards. I would think that if Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and other games like that helped raise awareness of bands and increase record sales, they would keep the cut they are getting or charge less to get more benefits later on from improved games.

Hey, chief, I guess in that nice business chair that maybe lost a wheel, or that nice fedora hat that let a screw drop out your head, you are getting nervous that a growing trend in the music industry is making more money than you thought, so you want a larger piece of the pie. I'm not going to lie, if I was expecting to make a small pie, and it ended up bigger than I thought, I would want a larger piece too. At least I cooked the pie, and didn't just take a larger slice when I saw my friends slice may be comparable to mine.

Inspired by the Billboard.biz Article - Warner Music: Music Video Games Must Pay More

From the mind of
Keveeno

WMG Mafia Tactics