DON'T KEEP YOUR MUSIC CAREER LOCKED UP, BECAUSE YOU REFUSE TO LEARN THE BUSINESS

I see so many artists today focused on their art, music and not placing more emphasis on their "BUSINESS". More than half of artists today are in a non-recoupable status where the distributor and/or label has spent more money than the album releases has garnered. This moves onto to the next album, and then the next, until the artist is so much in a hole, it seems they will never make any money from their music. I also come across tons of artists who don't even have a clue what publishing is, why they are owed mechanical royalties upfront, or any other pertinent information that will insure they collect all monies from the revenue streams out here today. Why aren't these artists interested in knowing the business. I can call out names from the cable television's TVONE UNSUNG program that details the careers of numerous artists. Just recently Bell, Biv, Devoe and TLC were on the "Monica" show and talked about them being ripped off and not receiving what they thought they should have gotten from their art, because they didn't take the time to pay attention to the "BUSINESS".

LESSON: Find yourself a music professional that knows the business and proves to you to be a trustworthy source of information and resources. Your partner "Juinor" who knows no more than you about the industry, is not the idea of a music professional who you should be linking up with, no matter how close you two may be.


There are over 60 items on the list of sources of revenue streams for your music!! Are you as an artist tapping into all of them?? Some of the most common are: performance royalties, mechanical licensing, ring tones, use of a song in a motion picture, use of a song in a television series, use of a song in an advertising campaign, digital download license, video game music license. Being armed with information is being a step ahead of the scammers, sharks, and cheats!!


Are you also tapping into the NEW MEDIA of the business: “Internet service providers, digital rights management, podcasting, blogs, compression, downloads, wireless, streaming, subscription and non-subscription services, MP3, hyper-distribution, encryption, decryption keys, platforms, interactive music, portability, mobile devices, watermarking, fingerprinting — these words and many more form the vocabulary of the new music business.”

THE MIX, CUT, BLEND, SCRATCH AND JUGGLING DJ IS DYING A SLOW DEATH

NEW TECHNOLOGY has been a boon and a bust for the dj business. Not too many dj's mix anymore, they are focused on a laptop, instead of making the crowd move and stay on the floor, and often cutting the songs in midstream just when the crowd gets into a record. I can't tell you how many clubs I've been to just to peep out what's going on, and the crowd complains all night long about the dj.

With so many legends in the game dying off, it's hard to see how the new crop of dj's will place their mark on the game as the legends who came before them have. What kind of new gimmick can someone come up on their own, waiting for a manufacture to update software or hardware. This is how scratching, blending, cutting, mixing, and juggling came about. The dj's took the little they had and use their innovative minds to come up with tricks.


There were even innovative dj's that taught themselves to mix on cassette and reel reel decks, witnessed by the videos in this article. Delia Deryshire was probably the single most important of these innovators, and she wasn't even a dj, she was an engineer.

Since the release of Serato, cd turntables, and many others, there is a crop of dj's springing up who have no clue what it is to mix, blend, cut, scratch, and juggle. Pick up a copy of that latest "MIX CD", and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, with some dude screaming over songs, instead of actually mixing. They just put on record after record, like in the old days with mom and dad's record player that had the automatic arm, and you had to wait until it came down to play another record, lol!

Rihanna Speaks On Release Of New Album

With Rihanna's new album, Loud, due on November 16, the singer gave an extensive interview to the BBC's Radio 1 channel. She touched on a wide range of subjects but mostly about her not following the current rends in the business and having an album full of dance club songs ala Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and others.

"I can't believe it's the fifth album already," she told host Scott Mills. "That's insane to think about. I've never been this excited about anything I've done creatively, and this is just the perfect Rihanna album: Every song is tailored to me... I wanted songs that were all Rihanna songs, that nobody else could do. I didn't want the generic pop record that Ke$ha or Lady Gaga or Katy Perry could just do and it'll work. I wanted songs that were Rihanna songs, that only I could do, had that little West Indian vibe to it, had that certain tone, a certain sass and a certain energy."

Rihanna also talked about her upcoming movie, Battleship, which is based on the classic board game. She will play an officer named Raike in the film.

Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj Scoop Up BET Hip-Hop Awards

The 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards were held in Atlanta on Saturday night, where Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj took home three trophies each. Jay won for Perfect Combo for "Empire State of Mind" with Alicia Keys, CD of the Year for The Blueprint 3 and Best Live Performer, while Minaj earned Rookie of the Year, People's Champ and the Made You Look award, which was given in recognition of her fashion flair. Minaj hasn't even released an album yet, and garnered the three wins.

"Last year, I was here in anticipation of [rap freestyle showcase] the cypher," Minaj told the crowd, according to an MTV report. "Now I'm here in anticipation of my debut. I'm paving the way for girls. I wanna thank all the girls of Hip-Hop."

Other winners on the night included Rick Ross, who took home two awards for the song "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" for Club Banger of the Year and Track of the Year (for producer Lex Luger). Salt-N-Pepa were honored with the I Am Hip-Hop award, while Diddy won the Hustler award, Swizz Beatz was named Producer of the Year, and DJ Khaled won for Best DJ.

The BET Hip-Hop Awards show, hosted by Mike Epps, will air on Tuesday, October 12 at 8 p.m. on BET.

NEW Eminem video premier of "No Love" ftg. Lil Wayne!!

DR DRE TALKS ABOUT SERIOUSLY WORKING ON DETOX ALBUM AFTER BEING ON STAGE WITH EM AND JAY-Z

After getting on stage with both Eminem and Jay-Z, Dr. Dre says it is time for him to get serious about finishing up the Detox album. He told MTV that the response he received from the crowd was an indication of what he is doing is worth it!

Dre said "Being on the stage with Eminem and Jay-Z was one of the most incredible feelings I've felt in a long time. It inspired me, it made me want to hurry up and get back in the studio and put more effort and more work into my own project." "The response from the people out there was just incredible. It let me know that I still got love out there and I'm not wasting my time in the studio with what I'm doing, with the music or with all the Beats [headphones] product that we're putting out."

COPY & PASTE Journalism Is Destroying TRUE Journalism

COPY & PASTE journalism is destroying "TRUE" journalism reporting!

It has been awhile since I posted something on my blog, but I thought this was something that needed to be addressed!

There are numerous websites, blogs, podcasts, etc that are plagiarizing the national news and masquerading as valid news sources. I know of a few in particular that will copy & paste, run a story, then have to rebut the story, because of false information in the story itself, because they didn't take the time to do their own investigative reporting and fact check before posting. It is one thing to share a hyperlink to a story, but to take a story and copy it verbatim as if it is your own, and fooling your readers into believing it's your story is another. Try it, just GOOGLE a national news story and see the numerous sites that have it posted word for word on their site as their own story!

I have a few friends that are "TRUE" journalists that do the hard work of investigative reporting to get a story from their perspective, and they get hardly any recognition because of all the trash that is out there! I put out the information that really matters to an artist's career, and I can count one one hand how many artists ever take advantage of this information. But behold, let a half naked female posing as a blogger place a comment like "I need some ________in my life, and watch the roaches come out from between the walls!!

I write my own stories and hyperlink those pertinent stories that I think will provide information to folks!

I saw this on a news story recently: "HYPER SPEED journalism; you know, all the blogs and posts that pop up on websites every six seconds or so, is it out of control?? Is it utterly ephemeral?? Are people just churning out copy to fill space? Or is it improvement over the molasses pace of the past"?? In my opinion, only time will tell, but as a fellow journalist, write the stories that come from your perspective, not someone else's.

For true reporting, go to www.musicbizinfo.blogspot.com There are a number of true journalists out there, and as I stated above, a few I know personally. One of the best journalists in the game, Lisa Ford Blog: www.lisafordblog.com is celebrating her 1 year anniversary! Congrats sis!

Copyright - Earth Brothers Entertainment LLC 2010 - All Rights Reserved