Not too long ago, I came across a storm of blog postings that all claimed MySpace was launching a new digital music service in conjunction with three of the four major labels. According to Billboard.biz, the new service will be “called MySpace Music, (and) the service is expected to be a one-stop destination for all things music, including DRM-free full-song downloads, ad-supported free full-song streaming, concert tickets, merchandise and ringtones.”

From what I understand, the new service is part of an effort by the major labels to turn MySpace into a revenue generator, rather than just a good marketing tool. According to the LA Times, the new MySpace venture is intended to take on iTunes. Here’s a link to the official press release.

From what I can see, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group Corp will all take equity shares in the venture. EMI is the only hold out, but they are in discussions with MySpace. What’s really surprising is that Universal Music is involved in the deal, considering the fact that they still have an open copyright infringement lawsuit against MySpace.

I’ve read widely varying opinions about this new service, varying from encouraging and positive to hostile. It seems like most of the hostility comes from the fear that this deal could hurt independent labels and artists somehow. I guess they’re worried about the indies being excluded from the revenue stream. Here’s a letter from indie digital music distributor The Orchard, which expresses some of these concerns. In response, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe exressed his commitment to independent acts, assuring that they wouldn’t be excluded.

Whatever. I guess in the long run, it could possibly make a lot of money for the labels, and it could possibly be good for music consumers (since all of the tracks they can buy will be DRM-free). I don’t know, though. I keep thinking of Shawn Fanning and Snocap. That obviously didn’t work too well. Even CD Baby didn’t want to deal with Snocap. In his blog, Bob Baker asks the question, “are MySpace surfers actually serious music buyers?” If you look at the miserable failure of Snocap, you’d have to say the answer is no. Bob thinks that the MySpace deal will be different. He says, “Yes, I know that bands have been able to sell downloads on MySpace using Snocap — a company that has had its struggles and is now being acquired by iMeem. But this MySpace Music deal sounds like it will be a far more prominent and potentially profitable tool.”

My personal opinion is that MySpace is still a great place for promoting your music, but I’m not sure it will ever be a place that music lovers go to buy music. All of my fans would rather go to iTunes to download my tracks, or Amazon to buy my CDs. So I really think the effects of this new MySpace deal will be negligible at most to independent musicians like myself. I’m honestly not so pathological against the majors that I automatically hate every move they make. In this case, I could care less.

Promoting my music on MySpace has definitely helped my career. I have more fans than ever now, and I’m doing more shows, selling more music. But I don’t depend on MySpace as my sole means of communicating with my fans. So if in the long run indie artists are excluded from this deal, I don’t stand to lose anything.

If anything, I might actually buy some of the music myself, if BearShare ever gets shut down.

Major labels won a victory yesterday against file sharing networks and people who participate in them. A federal District Court in New York decided that by offering to distribute files on P2P networks by way of a shared folder, a person violates a copyright owner’s right to reproduce and distribute the work.

Lawyers had previously argued that just making a work available for sharing (for example, simply making music files available in a Kazaa shared folder) was not enough to constitute copyright infringement. However, the District Court today agreed with labels that a distribution is synonymous with a publication, so that offering to distribute copies of music could result in liability.

This in and of itself only means that the court in NY says it COULD constitute infringement. But if it goes to Federal Court, which I imagine it will, then it could become law for all. More info on this story at Billboard.biz

For everybody who lives in New Hampshire (and most parts of Massachusetts), you already know, Milly’s Tavern in Manchester is an absolute must for any artist looking to book live shows in the 603. The owner, Peter Telge, is a big fan of Hip-Hop and live music in general, and has been for years. Peter has given many up-and-coming artists like myself a chance to showcase their live performances and to make a good amount of money doing it. Hat’s off to Peter for that!

Anyway, back to the show. At this point, when it comes to booking my live shows, I’ve made a partnership with DJ Danjah, who’s a very popular young DJ in the 603 music scene. He specializes in Hip-Hop, Reggae, Reggaeton, & R&B, and can even spin house/techno and many other styles of music. he’s a very talented DJ (in my opinion, the best in the state), and he’s got a great head for business. So out of mutual respect for each other’s talent and business capabilities, we’re pretty much down for whatever when it comes to spreading the word, booking live shows, and getting after that money!

Our first event was at Club liquid in Manchester NH, and that went pretty well, considering the fact that it was a Thursday night show, and 21 plus. You’d think we’d have had a bad turnout, but it was actually a pretty successful event. The Milly’s event was even better, though.

The Milly’s show featured live performances by local new england acts Mike Skillz, S.I.C., Fresh2Def, Quiet Akillez, and I.D.C., with DJ Danjah spinning hits all night in between sets. All of the performers were very professional for the most part, and gave standout performances. (There was a weird point where some guy nobody seemed to know jumped on stage and started freestyling for like 10 minutes straight, though. That was a little strange, but for the most part, it was a great show!)

Unfortunately, there were a few low points. Some idiot smashed in the wall on one of the men’s room stalls, which understandably pissed off the owner. And since the crowd was pretty late arriving, we started the show later than we anticipated (I think we had a little too many artists on the bill). Because of that, we ran late, and I didn’t put on a live performance myself.

But all in all, it was a very good event! The crowd had a great time! I look forward to doing another show at Milly’s real soon! (And next time, I’ll actually get on stage! LOL!)

I’d like to wish Derek Sivers and the staff at CD Baby a happy 10th birthday!  Man, time flies when you’re having fun!  It seems like just yesterday that I put my first CD for sale on their site!

So it’s amazing to me that CD Baby is now celebrating it’s tenth anniversary.

Since then, CD Baby has become the number one destination for independent, self-distributed artists, offering indies an incredible 91% of each sale.   Derek knows what he’s doing, too.  CD Baby recently reached the $70 million dollar payout mark for it’s artists.

On Derek’s CD Baby post, he says “”…despite the moaning you hear from the majors, independent artists are selling better than ever. Even physical CD sales are up 30% over last year!…Helping you develop, create, promote, and sell your music makes me happier than anything.”

Here’s to another successful 10 years, CD Baby!!  And many more!

Not too long ago, I came across an article on ProHipHop.com that talked about Young Buck’s revelation that he’d never once received a royalty check from G-Unit Records. Young Buck’s interview was originally posted on Yo! Raps, a German-based Hip-Hop blog.

In the original article, young Buck went on to talk about his strained relationship with Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine, basically saying that he doesn’t receive enough attention from the label. “I respect Jimmy Iovine to the upmost, but I think sometimes you got a blessing in disguise. I think he needs to pay a little bit more attention to Young Buck I would say that much. Give me a little more focus as far as his artist, give me the budget that sold those millions of records if you want to see the feedback”, Buck says.

Regarding his royalties, Yo! Raps also quoted Buck as saying, “A lot of times a lot of artists don’t recoup off of albums so a lot of times they never get to see the backend from that project. I’m the only artist on G-Unit that ever recouped off of an album meaning I went off on this “Buck The World” project not owing Interscope and G-Unit shit, I can say that much. I’m still waiting on a royalty check period, I never seen a royalty check since I’ve been signed with G-Unit. So hell yeah I’ll tell you one damn thing the show money is that good. I’ve never in my career cashed a royalty check, how you like that? Put that one in big black letters n*gga!”

Now, ordinarily, I probably wouldn’t have posted this story in my blog at all, since most people in the industry realize how slow royalty payments can take, especially when you’re dealing with a major label.  That is to say if you receive royalty payments at all.   I’ve heard of plenty of top-selling artists who’ve gone bankrupt even after their albums have sold millions.  No big news there.  It seems to me though that artists have definitely got to watch the fine print on their contracts, and never ignore the live show aspect of their careers.  Because again, royalty checks from major labels are few and far between.  I’ve been saying that for a while anyway.

But then came the follow up.  According to ProHipHop.com, Young Buck’s manager Sha Money XL sent out a press release to various Hip-Hop news sites, saying that it’s all untrue, that Young Buck has received over $10 million in royalties.  Personally, at this point, I couldn’t tell who was telling the truth.    I mean, there’s a big difference between no royalties and $10 million in royalties, right?   But, I figured, hey, whatever.  Yo! Raps must’ve gotten their story wrong.  Let’s give Interscope and G-Unit the benefit of the doubt.

But then today I received an email from Word on the Streets Magazine that points to a follow up by Yo! Raps.   Turns out the interview was recorded, and Young Buck did say that he’s never received a royalty from G-Unit.

Wow.

When it comes down to it, it’s the same point that I’ve been trying to make to struggling artists trying to come up in this game.   Stop thinking that you’re going to hit MySpace and be “discovered” by some major label out there, and that will be the answer to your prayers.  Don’t wait for someone else to “put you on” and take control of your career.  Get your grind on, do your live shows, push your music, and make your money.

Then you might find that even if the majors do come knocking on your door, you might not need them at all.  Or at the very least, you’ll be able to negotiate from a position of strength.

Now, I’m definitely not a hater. For the most part, my attitude is do what you gotta do to get your paper, it’s all good. Now, that being said, I have to say that I can’t stand Soulja Boy’s ‘music’. But I always thought that his kind of shit was a necessary evil, because it seemed to be what the younger kids (the 12+’s) seem to like. So whatever.

But I may have been wrong about the taste of 12 year olds, though…

According to AllHipHop.com, “a 12-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly throwing a rock through the windshield of Soulja Boy Tell Em’s tour bus during a stop in Bloomington, Illinois”. When questioned by the police, he said it was because he hated Soula Boy.

Now, I don’t condone vandalizing property by any means. But I do feel that this shows at least a little hope for the younger kids that represent the future of Hip-Hop. Givs me a nice warm feeling inside.
To quote one commenter on the AllHipHop story, “I thought 12yr olds were Soulja Boy’s target audience….(instead) it seems Soulja Boy is just 12yr olds’ target”.

Too funny.

More numbers are coming in all the time, and it’s looking better and better for the indie labels, and worse and worse for the majors.

According to Dave Kusek at Future of Music, the music 2.0 models are kicking into gear right now:

“Indie Labels now account for upwards of 30% of total music sales, up from the low 20’s just a few years ago. This is a profound shift in the powerbase that favors the independent artist and innovator….This is all very good news for musicians, writers and artists who want control of their destiny and their careers.”

30 percent! Never thought I’d see the day. The major labels dropping from 80% to 70% of the industry. Just a small step for indies to get to 50% of the industry. I can’t help but think this will be nothing but good for the industry as a whole.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., CEO of Warner Music Group, is over-paid. According to an SEC filing this week, it was revealed that WMG has extended CEO Edgar Bronfman’s contract through March 2013. According to the filing, his annual base salary is at least one million dollars. With incentives, bonuses, and stock options, his total compensation could end up being between $15-$20 million over 5 years. Wow.

What the hell, man. How does Bronfman get to command such a salary, when he’s been CEO of one of the big four labels, and helped to run it into the ground? His failed experiment with high-end concert promotion, BullShit BullDog, lost 16 million dollars in a year. On top of which, according to HypeBot, Bronfman and his henchman Liar Lyor Cohen have been in the rear when it came to pushing new innovations in technology that might have helped WMG’s over all outlook (like WMG being the last company to embraced DRM-free MP3 sales).

I say again, what the hell, man. Talk about rewarding failure! I knew the majors were completely corrupt and incompetent, but this is a shock even to me!

Hypebot did come up with a good idea, though. According to their story, “Apple’s Steve Jobs works for a base pay of just $1 per year. But stock options and bonuses awarded when the company soared have made him a very rich man. ” So they’re proposing that all music execs follow Steve Jobs’ example and re-set their base pay to $1.

Not only do I agree, but when I do get around to re-building Red Zone Records, I’m doing the exact same thing. All of my executives will get $1 in base pay, but they’ll have huge earnings potential in incentives and bonuses. in other words, it will be performance based. If execs at my company want to get rich, they’ll have to earn it by making sure the company is successful. Bravo to HypeBot on this one. I think all recording industry execs should take this challenge.

Update (3-21-08): According to Billboard.biz, “The Warner Music Group has re-signed Lyor Cohen for a five-year contract…As part of his new contract, Cohen gets a raise to $3 million from the previous $1.5 million annual salary level.”

That’s a LOT of dollar bills.

In anticipation of the long New England winter FINALLY coming to an end, I’ve decided to do some “spring cleaning”. For one thing, I’ve decided to place my company Red Zone Records on the back-burner. At least for a couple months or so. There’s a couple of reasons for this.

One reason is that over the last few months I’ve been really focused on my own music career. I’ve really been focused on things like pushing sales for my CD, Reign of Fire, spreading my Internet footprint as widely as possible, and booking as many live shows as possible.

With all that going on, it’s really left little or no time for me to focus on Red Zone. So it’s been largely ignored anyway. I figure once I get my solo career to a certain point (not to mention achieve a certain level of financial success), then I’ll re-launch Red Zone with the kind of staff that will help me do for other talented up and coming artists what I’m currently doing for myself.

Speaking of artists, that’s the second reason I’m putting Red Zone Records on the back-burner. As a solo artist, my identity exists to sell myself as an artist, and my music. That’s pretty much it. On the other hand, as a record label, Red Zone should exist for the purpose of focusing on several different artists. Right now, I simply don’t have the time, resources, or staff to scout artists, sign them, support them, etc. So I figure that putting the label in the background will eliminate having to answer the “how do I get on” & “where do I send my demo” questions that I receive every day.

Red Zone Records will always be part of my life, but for now, it’s strictly going to be a corporate vehicle. I plan to resurrect it as a full service music company in the future, but right now, I’ve got to focus on my own career. And having a label with only one artist just doesn’t make any sense!

Another part of my spring cleaning will be to monetize my blog. Writing is fun, and it helps me clear my head. It helps me keep focused. And hopefully, some who read my blog are also being helped in some small way. But getting all the hits I’ve been getting without getting paid for it, well, that sucks.

So, although I do like WordPress, I plan to migrate my blog over to TypePad as soon as I can. TypePad gives you the ability to monetize your blogs, which is what I need.

I know, I know, if you put up a hosting account with BlueHost or one of those guys and host your WordPress there, you can monetize it, but you get little or no support from them from what I can see, and that’s a LOT of stuff to learn! Too much for me, since my time is at a premium as it is.

The last thing I’ve got on my spring cleaning list is to is get my album up on CD Baby & TuneCore (these two companies are the best out there when it comes to getting your music on popular sites like iTunes & eMusic) as soon as possible. Doing things independently is one thing, but handling manufacturing, order processing, shipping and logistics myself has been a BITCH! Time for some outsourcing.

Ah, well! you live and you learn! Here’s to the future!

Forget doing auditioning for American Idol, doing tons of live shows, paying thousands for print ads, and networking your ass off. If you really wanna become a successful indie artist nowadays, all you have to do is sell your body to a high-level government official, and then bring about said official’s downfall. Worked for Ashley Alexandra Dupre!

The now infamous Dupre, also known as “Kristen” the alleged call girl that was the cause of the Eliot Spitzer scandal), scored almost 300,000 song plays on her MySpace profile since the scandal broke (she only has the one song on her MySpace, at least for now). Not only that, but her single “What We Want” was added to NYC pop-radio Z100’s playlist, as well (although, at the time of this writing, MTV News reports that the single was yanked out of Z100’s rotation almost immediately). In addition to all this, Ashley’s single swiftly reached the top price rung in Amie Street’s pricing scheme.

You can’t buy this kind of publicity. I imagine Dupree will end up with a major label offer before too long. Hey, talk about pimping yourself out, right? What’s really funny is that Eliot Spitzer was once known as a big crusader in his efforts as NY attorney general for his efforts to clean up radio payola.

Who’d have though he’d be indirectly responsible for launching the next pop star? Oh, the sheer irony of it!