Showing posts with label viacom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label viacom. Show all posts

12/5/08

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
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10/13/08

Money, Get Away!


All I’ve heard about for the past couple of weeks is how money is destroying our lives.

The people that had it, lost it, those that don’t have it still don’t have it and the folks that need it, can’t get it.

Reports from the entertainment industry have mirrored the general markets. As of October 10th, the numbers for the major music companies are as follows:

• WMG - $5.95 off a 52 week high of $11.50
• Sony - $23.51 off a 52 week high of $57.19
• Apple- $88.74 off a 52 week high of $202.96
• Sirius XM - $.40 off a 52 week high of $3.94*
• Viacom - $20.68 off a 52 week high of $44.95
• Live Nation - $11.74 off a 52 week high of $24.03
• RealNetworks - $3.63 off a 52 week high of $7.61

*NASDAQ normally de-lists sub $1 stocks, but the exchange is considering an exception based in current market conditions.

This looks very depressing but on the other hand, we can’t give up on our entertainment. What keeps us working day in and day out is the thought of Friday night’s rock show, catching a good flick at the theater, buying that awesome home entertainment package and inviting good friends over for a entertaining evening!

Let’s take some lyrics from the classic Pink Floyd tune, “Money”:

Money, its a crime.
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise its no surprise that they’re
Giving none away.

To solve this problem, I vote for Emma’s plan on the latest episode of “News and Views”. She encourages us to put our cash in a shoe box and stash it under our beds. That way we are responsible for our own piggy banks and can get back to the basics of enjoying our short time on this earth…

Jodi
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