CHECK OUT B.o.B IN BILLBOARD/ MARCH 13, 2009
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Gucci Mane & Young Jeezy possees allegedly duke it out in downtown Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shots were fired, though no one was hit, during an altercation between groups affiliated with local rappers Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy that closed Walter's Clothing in downtown Atlanta for about 30 minutes.
The fight started around 4 p.m. Thursday when Mane's group walked into the store -- popular with celebrities -- and spotted Jeezy's associates, said witness Patrick Morrison.
"There was a physical altercation inside the location between several men," Atlanta Police spokesman James Polite confirmed to the AJC. One of the men produced a weapon "and as a result a private armed security guard of a local entertainer discharged his weapon."
Polite said the security guard, employed by local rapper Waka Flocka, has been detained.
The fighting was intense, witnesses said. "They just started going at it," said Morrison, a Walter's employee.
Waka Flocka, aka Juaqin Malphurs, is a member of Gucci Mane's 1017 Brick Squad. His pseudonym alludes to the sound of cocking a semi-automatic pistol.
"Whoever he is he's got a big swollen eye now," Morrison said.
In January, Malphurs was shot in the arm while washing his car on Old National Highway. Police said he was approached at the Bubble Bath car wash by armed men demanding his jewelry.
Meanwhile, Gucci Mane, aka Radric Davis, is serving time at the Fulton County jail for a probation violation. He is set to be released in May.
His dispute with Young Jeezy dates back to 2005, according to Allhiphop.com. Their feud supposedly ended last December during an appearance on DJ Drama's Gangsta Grillz show on Hot 107.9
DJ Drama, who recorded several mixtapes with Young Jeezy, became involved in the feud when he decided to record with Gucci Mane in 2008, the site reports.
via ajc.com
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Music Won’t Feed You - But Merch Might
Say what you will about shlock-rock band Kiss, but they understood one thing: There’s lots of money to be made by selling nonmusical merchandise to music fans.
Now that music fans aren’t spending as much on music itself, several commentators, including Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, have suggested that “merch,” as they call it in the biz, is key to bands’ survival in the new millennium.
In decades past, only artists’ of Simmons’ stature were able to create T-shirts, lunchboxes, figurines, posters, mugs and other tchotchkes, but the democratization of manufacturing means anyone can design and sell physical products. Once designs are added to CafePress, Zazzle, or other sites, all that’s left to do is find an audience for them — often through Facebook and other social networks.
This process just got a little easier for bands looking for a way to design and sell merch on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere. ReverbNation — a music marketing tool used by about a half-a-million artists, managers, record labels and venues to chart tours, manage fan e-mail lists and the like — plans to announce a deal Wednesday with Audiolife to let bands create and start selling custom merchandise in minutes, as the video below demonstrates.
There are no upfront costs or inventory risks associated with this type of manufacturing, because bands need only pay if something sells, and nothing gets made unless it has a buyer. Bands can sell T-shirts, sweatshirts or hats, as well as music merch (CDs, downloads and ringtones) through an embeddable widget, at whatever prices they wish (above the cost of production) on a variety of sites — Facebook, MySpace, blogs, their band website, or wherever else HTML is used.
In the video example below, the band only makes $3.60 from a $20 T-shirt.
Soup cans, T-shirts and 1,200 plastic Uzis.
ReverbNation COO Jed Carlson said that represents 100 percent of the profit from the shirt after manufacturing costs, but it still might seem like a relative pittance. According to some estimates, however, the typical band only makes about $1 from each $17 CD sold through normal retail channels, so this represents an upgrade from that deal. And in order to increase their profit margins, bands can gamble by prepaying for bulk orders.
Some bands and labels have taken this concept to the next level, by selling soup cans, T-shirts and even plastic Uzis containing music or download codes. Earlier this month, Topspin boss and Get Busy Committee manager Ian Rogers said the 1,200 plastic Uzis were nearly sold out, and that he was ordering another batch.
Not only is physical merchandise impossible to download through a file sharing network, but it has the ancillary promotional function of turning the buyer into a walking advertisement, as Kiss knew all too well. Every time a kid brought one of the band-themed lunchboxes to school, he or she marketed the band to the rest of the class.
via wired.com
As urban (hip hop / r&b) artists and djs we need to take advantage or MERCH to make money! Rock groups do it everday...how come we dont???
iTunes Store Sells Over 10 Billion Songs
press release
Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 10 billion songs from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com), the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 10 billionth song, “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As the winner of the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs, Louie will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world and features the world’s largest music catalog with over 12 million songs.
“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”
The iTunes Store has a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod® and iPhone®, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iTunes, iPod and iPhone are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: Apple
B.o.B. Shares Details on New T.I.-Produced Single [With XXcLusive Video] | XXLmag.com
During a red carpet interview at BET’s Rip the Runway, B.o.B. shared details on his new T.I.-produced single, “Fifth Dimension” with XXLMag.com
According to the ATLien, the song was co-produced by both Tip and Grand Hustle’s Lil C and will be featured on his debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray.
“It’s a ‘banger,’” the 2009 XXL freshman class alum said, referring to our Web site’s music section. “We got in the studio just playing around with some drums and loops and guitars and some asteroids and we made up ‘Fifth Dimension.’” [Watch below]
As previously reported, the Atlantic release, which was originally scheduled to drop on May 25, was pushed forward to April 27. “I released a mixtape… and for my fan base it kind of built the anticipation and we really trying to ride that wave and ride that anticipation and make the climax appropriate,” he said of the new date.
B.o.B. performed his first official single “Nothing on You” featuring Bruno Mars during Rip the Runway, which taped this past Saturday (February 27) in New York City. The show, which was hosted by Pooch Hall of the TV show The Game and Nicki Minaj, will air on BET on March 16. —Brooklyne Gipson with reporting by Amber Mckynzie
via xxlmag.com
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Artists: Label your songs, or you won't get paid
Getting paid for digital downloads from iTunes, Amazon, or other stores is pretty straightforward. The artist or label submits songs for download, perhaps through a distributor like TuneCore or The Orchard. Each time a user buys a download, the store takes its cut, the middlemen take their cut, and the artist gets the remainder.
If you don't register with SoundExchange and give them enough song metadata to find you, you could be leaving money on the table.
(Credit: Psychonaught, via Wikipedia)But there's another potential source of revenue that a lot of artists are missing out on: streaming Internet music. This includes thousands of standalone Internet radio stations, personalized radio services like Pandora and Slacker, and broad-based distributors like MediaNet. Here in the United States, a nonprofit organization called SoundExchange is responsible for collecting the money from these streaming services and distributing it to artists based on the number of times their songs are played. SoundExchange also collects money from satellite radio (Sirius/XM) and cable TV companies (which offer their own dedicated radio stations), and Congress is considering allowing it to collect from traditional over-the-air radio stations as well. (Traditional radio has been historically exempt from paying royalties because copyright owners viewed it as valuable publicity. Now, with other forms of revenue like CD sales declining, they're no longer sure this is a good deal.)
But if SoundExchange can't figure out who owns the copyrights on a particular stream, it can't pay. Writing in Billboard this week, SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson explains that the organization had about $40 million in royalties in 2008 that it couldn't distribute because artists and copyright owners didn't attach enough information to the song. At the very least, Simson pleads, every song should include metadata identifying the group, song name, album name, and label or copyright owner. The group was also holding about $39 million in escrow for artists and copyright owners who simply hadn't registered with SoundExchange yet.
For artists, the lesson is simple: don't be lazy about labeling your work, and be sure to register with SoundExchange. This will become especially important as streaming music services become dominant over the next decade, replacing individual downloads.
via news.cnet.com
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