GetAtMe

Ok here’s this weeks GetAtMe OnTheBeat 

• DaBaby FIND MY WAY leads the pack in buzz (due to the great video out...) but sorta got ran over by the singles ROCKSTAR & NASTY because both songs were loaded with features (why do such a great video on FIND MY WAY and then cannibilize the song with feature loaded cuts... #smh oh well ) 
• Da Baby ROCKSTAR ft Roddy Ricch exploded up the itune charts to #11 with over 640 downloads out the box.. 
• Kelly Rowland COFFEE created a buzz (video driven...) and it came in 3rd.  It hopped in at #40 on iTunes with over 260 downloads a day (they been waiting on her... #TrueFansBuy 
• Boosie RIGHT DEA ft Dee Rogers is a straight stripclub banger... (this one’s all streets and mixtapes...) 
• 21 Savage SECRETS ft Summer Walker is a smash (sampling the Xscape classic MY LITTLE SECRET... this is that cut) It will be a smash if it get some sales (currently at #346 on itunes.). 
• My wildcard is another DaBaby cut NASTY ft Ashanti & MeganTheeStallion (it make way more sense just to let the artist feature as opposed to paying a crazy licensing fee.  The feature fee and getting reestablished as an artist carries a lot of weight... 

That’s this weeks ON THE BEAT remember “there’s nothing wrong with the music business that good music can't cure...”  

#ItsAboutTheMusic 

#GetAtMe

This dude Pvnch Podcast was very on point.  If you arein this industry then you need to watch this and get some real info

#ItsAboutTheMusic

#GetAtMeScoopIt

#GetAtMe

MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW @iampvnch

Irv Gotti drops some real gems in this interview.  Yo artist really need to be able to read through the lines...

PROMOTION of PODCASTS, VLOGS, AND INTERVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGHn_SVJYrY

From its inception HipHop has always been part fantasy (the dream) and part reality (the business), but the one constant in hiphop has been the competitiveness in sales (until now…).  HipHop started out like a musical Hunger Games where the strong survived not only in show arenas but also in retail and mall stores.  When we had stores, there was very little fugazzi, you either sold or you didn’t.  The flea markets were the purest form of street metrics because hiphop core fans populated the malls on Thurs thru Sat picking up whatever they were out to get and usually that new mixtape joint was on the list.

People still buy that way.  The bootleg movie industry is constantly engaging new agents to ply their wares.  These bootlegs provide the same service that music leaks provided.  They either drove word of mouth or they would kill a project that wasn’t gameday.  Now of course the media relation professional hated these leak masters because they became shepards of consumer taste and in the current digital marketplace of “will it fly or will it die” economics, this relationship has now become really strained.  So what was the music industry professional solution?  Hire bored online trolls to combat the influencers.  Now here’s where the problem exists, we now have a troll as an artist and now trolling has become a market strategy.

Trolls now sit on threads like Boxden and Reddit, on sites like Facebook, Twitter and IG, and to a degree try to legislate consumer taste.  Like the noisy kid in the class the troll’s process is to disrupt things until they get the desired attention.  In the digital age this type of marketing can be sort of short sighted, why because these trolls can only distract, they cannot drive sales or really control the engagement of the buying consumer (the consumer is at least 5 weeks ahead of the music professional marketer and their choices are based usually on I got it first so I can tell others what the deal is (the footprint of organic growth).

Can HipHop survive the Lil Yachty’s, who troll for attention in hopes of recruiting someone else’s fans by calling the fans current choices of artist lame?  Will this work if they artist never really sells in the scale that labels need to stay liquid and functioning.  You already know that answer.  Why because someone knows the numbers of who sold and who didn’t and at the end of the day, the sales are the final judges in an artist’s commercial success.  How many fans voted with a purchase of an artist’s music?  That’s all that really matter…  Remember “there’s nothing wrong with the music business that a good record can’t cure…”

#ItsAboutTheMusic

#GetAtMe

Ice T is exactly right about this and it’s well said.  So many of today’s new artist just want to be stars (no matter what the cost…) not realizing what comes with that title.  There is definitely a difference in being a star or a rapper.

Most artist do not really factor in the politics side and if they don’t already have the grooming, stardom can bring out the worst in someone who wasn’t prepared for the responsibility of stardom and that why many of today’s artist (and athletes…) crash and burn personally and financially.

This is why Motown specifically had a grooming department building not only stars but brands that lasted a lifetime.  These words by Ice T are words of wisdom that many of today’s new artist really need to hear.

#ItsAboutTheMusic

#GetAtMe

The labels are only as powerful as your ability (or inability) to build a fanbase. Acts like Flo_Rida, IHeartMemphis, SageTheGemini, TWayne and TheWeekNd (yes he built Republic literally...) all have posted strong sales numbers most of the time performing better that established label artist. In today's environment the majors miss all the time and only big up their wins. The majors have become like the Wizard Of Oz pulling media levers behind a curtain. For real, there is no 12-25 core consumer (primarily female) that gives a f*cks what somebody at the labels care about. The buying itunes consumer is at least 5 weeks ahead of the labels promotion cycles and the buying public should be all that matters if you are in business. Really, they can't wait to buy hot new music or an app (that's the buying consumer...) If you are using music to validate yourself or a genre, then that's different. That's only producers (looking for a bag of money, free weed and cheap ass) or an artist looking for Rent To Own fame (who gets sticker shock when he gets the bill "I had to pay for all these hoes..." ). Build your fan base by (gigging) and get them tp spend the $1.00 (sh*t a homeless cat can get a buck, if your music is so hot then it should be a done deal. Unless you don't have friends, fans and the music is not hot). Its not that hard to upload an mp3 to cd baby or order a 100 cds. That's the real

News Article or Interview Its crazy that Atlantic Records tried to use "its a mixtape..." Aint Dj Drama at Atlantic The Hip-Hop Spot

You know this music thing has become like The Wizard Of Oz. You go down a really brick road, meet some crazy characters find an Emerald City (or Magic City if you in Atlanta… “I couldn’t resist”) and you have to avoid an evil witch (the crazy folks who want to play middlemen and eat off you..)  You finally get to meet the wizard and realize quickly that he’s really just a mortal like you (The money has become his emerald cloak…)  When you finally reach your destination, you finally ask Toto (your folks who has been with you from the very beginning, “man how much money did I really make…?”    Where Toto look at you and say “Man I don’t know but you can pass me that blunt…” (which you also paid for...)  Oddly enough it does go down like this so I found this graph to give you an idea of the money break down of a hit song… (you know it about the music but the money funds the dream… #RememberThat)

Remember “there’s nothing wrong with the record business that a great record can’t cure…)

#ItsAboutTheMusic (and the money…)

#GetAtMe

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-signing-to-a-major-label-against-going-indie-especially-in-this-era-of-digital-music/answer/Reginald-Shipman

Well it really comes down to what you want as an artist. If you go with the majors then you are going for “rent to own fame”, and that can be expensive. The labels (if you have a true hit and some established following…) can fast track your exposure with its PR and radio clout. Like I said, that’s gonna cost (a lot… emphasis on a lot). With an indie however, if they have experienced sales and marketing strategies along with great touring opportunities, then its more likely you will experience a more hands on approach in the business aspect and your fan involvement. As far a the digital aspect. it not that hard to upload an mp3 (I’m just sayin… ) and in most cases a hit is a hit that the fans are already looking for and the buzz in street and online currency is already validated, so in some cases the indie will have guerrilla moves that many of the major labels will lack as far as street strategies vs industry strategies where the majors are strong. Its really up to the artist’s true wants and needs. Indies have smaller staff so some times that will equate to quicker and more substantive returns for the artist. At times the majors can be top heavy as far as staff so that means they will have more soldiers to feed and that can equate to less money for the artist or a longer and more expensive recoup model.

When an artist puts out a new release, they have a small window of opportunity, why because everyday there are over 1500 single releases (and that’s at the top…) that are competing for the iTunes top 100 slots.  That means 1400 song don’t make it that day, so you can see why it can be a little competitive. So it can be almost anything that either helps or distracts in that that process.  You want to be on the helped side of the column as an artist.

Licensing groups have created licensing blocks on music sites as a so called block for unwanted downloading but what these groups don’t understand is in the music industry marketing that’s called seeding (a process where you plant 1000 situations to drive 10,000 influences or leads to sales).  When projects are not seeded then projects fail because fans and djs want the product 1st (no they won’t buy it because influencers know that they drive demand and they will just go “f*ck that artist” and move to the next song).  With 1500 songs supply is on the influencer’s side (djs and fans).  Now notice I said the influencers will go “f*ck the artist”.  Not “f*ck the licensing group” and that where the problem exist.  Most licensing groups don’t care if someone goes “f*ck the artist” because usually whatever they are silently backing is not on that itunes top 1500 because they stupidly believe that they are all powerful and can control demand.  You know who controls demand?  Djs and early innovator fans control demand online and when you block them, the artist loses support from those early influencers.

I watched as professional fans (who don’t sing write or finance music projects) and licensing groups destroy Iggy Azalea’s career by doing licensing blocks on youtube to her fans so that they can’t do covers or remixes and to make it worse create a budget (to charge the artist) to put up fake songs to discourage influencer support in the name of slowing down the free download leakage (this by far was the dumbest shit I have seen in the music industry in years).  The only thing this strategy does is drive the influencers somewhere else.  The professional STANS (obsessed fans looking for a budget) could care less that they are impeding the organic growth of an artist by this dumb strategy and then get bitter when the buying public doesn’t support their backed project (why because they didn’t want it.  It’s just $1.29, the price of a McDouble…).  Between these PROFESSIONAL STANS and licensing groups, they are gonna destroy the music business (and they are why the sales have declined).  Man it’s gotta stop

1st off the folks who download for free are quite resourceful and if you put up one block they’ll create another avenue to get the music (and the labels know this..).  So the only thing that happens is that 1st contact Djs and fans hold it against the artist and don’t support them on future projects and at the end their careers fail (and the licensing groups and PROFESSIONAL STANS go on to try to extort their next target).  The funny new thing I hear marketers tell indies is that sales don’t matter (when in business did sales never matter?  They don’t matter because you don’t know how to create them…).  You can’t create demand, you can only react to it because consumers actually spending are the actual sales driver and if someone truly bought it, then that is a demand indicator.  In the music business it “DEMAND AND SUPPLY” not “supply and demand”.  These music site takedowns destroy the flames of influencer 1st contact demand and whether the licensing groups and PROFESSIOANAL know (or care) doesn’t matter.  It drives away 1st contact influencer support and that can be deadly in the battle of the daily iTunes 1500 for a new artist project.

#ImJustSayin

You might can hit a bigger spread with online promotions (that can also mean you miss bigger, it does go both ways). A million views on Worldstar can also mean you had a million misses if you don't sell anything on itunes.  Cd's give you a better hand to hand engagement situation if your are picking engaged fans to promote to (The virus just doesn't spread as well through folks earbuds.  Phone listenership is very interpersonal and you sacrifies picking up fans in the overheard situation... ).

This music stuff get’s sillier by the day. I mean it’s getting to the point that we really have to question if it’s really still a business. Every since we have experienced the closing of mall store in communities that sold music and have tried to rely on online sales, the foolishness seems to know no end.
Look sales figures event ticket sales are the only way to gauge value in the music business. Streams are not committed sales. A committed sale is when a fan reaches in their pocket or on their phone and purchase. That’s business. Rigging the sales numbers and hoping that a major corporation is stupid or too lazy to check your figures, is not business (see the difference).
So when folks tell major reporting agencies I’m not reporting my sales figures well that reeks of a con or( more so probably the case) poor sales numbers. It really looks like there is something that someone is hiding.
Look here’s the truth. An online sale is a licensing arrangement, not a record sale and the majors (by judges order) now are obligated to have 50/50 arrangement with artist (I’m sorry you management didn’t get the memo. It was only a major news story online…) so the labels have created this movement of dealing with the streaming situations even to the point of trying to make up a definition of a certain amount of streams are sales (now you know that’s just stupid...) A sale is a sale and a stream is a stream.
Look these guys at these companies really aren’t just that stupid so for us to continue to have hiphop be a viable business entity then we in hiphop have got to do better business and understand business better. Everything is not always a hustle and it s not always about the money (unless you’re broke or a lazy thinker…)
#ImJustSayin