I have gotten tons of positive feedback from my post in the "major vs. Indie" thread, with that being said i decided to leak one of the entries that will be on my new online social network THE INDEPENDENT INSIDER. yes, its a long read and historically the typical siccness.net users dont give 2 shits about actual information or business, so thats why i started this site and began writing these articles. so for those who are interested in the music business....read on!
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Your cease n desist notices, Internet hack attacks and hater coalitions will not stop us from spitting the real. Were built for this. THE INDEPENDENT INSIDER is not about the website its about the mindset. If you try & destroy this site and well build 10 more tomorrow, feel me? This isnt about music this is about revolution! Information is better than gold and more valuable than that $4.00 a gallon gas our children and homies are overseas fighting a winless war for. If youre hanging around this site looking for some album sale numbers please vacate the premises. Go and scour the message boards, Im sure someone has leaked it by now. The only number you have to remember this week is 23. Thats the percentage sales dropped this week from the same week last year. Yea 400 heads got guillotined over at Warner Music and its only the beginning. Yea 40 heads took it to the throat over at Def Jam but its only the beginning. Yea Amazon threw the big middle finger at the Remaining 3 (no longer the Big 4) as they move another brick off that DRM haunted castle. You cant control what the people want and thats something the Majors will learn the hard way. Give the people what they want or they will take it from you. Tired of the "Nas picked his nose in Time Square yesterday sparking a Hip Hop Needs Etiquette Rally" headlines? Well you're at the right place. Hold on to your underoos cause your boy Danny Dee is about to go in A's fitted first.
The record labels can only survive if they stop criminalizing the young people that want great music in a way that make sense to them. Notice I said record labels NOT the music industry because that’s live and well. The ad money fueled by promo/leaked MP3’s on the Internet is now bigger than the business of selling physical albums. Meanwhile you have this insane notion amongst certain label heads that blasting free unrestricted MP3’s all over the Net will somehow translate into physical sales latter on. Wrong! The kids will load the “exclusive” up on RapidShare, Z share, etc… and share it with everybody and in 2 weeks nobody will give a damn because 98% of all urban music released is of disposable camera material. A couple of photos and then its straight in the trash bin. Your not building a buzz your just feeding a blog/message board owner more content for him/her to draw traffic to their site while the fans take your promo music, load it into their I-Pod’s and never look back. Then you want to come back to the same audience 5 months later talking about buy this album for $15 bucks. Or worse sell it for a dollar online with all kind of compatibility file format restrictions. Man it’s been so long since they ate your promo plate they done forgot about your artist and now you have to spend 2 million on radio payoff to reintroduce them. Terrible business model especially since going platinum will still mean the project will be in the red.
This of course is the result of some executive in the promotional department trying to justify his job position by saying hes Internet savvy fooling the top dogs that still think having 500,000 Myspace friends will translate into anything other than ad money for Myspace lol. Nobody cares about the health of the business only the health of their pockets. All the crying going on is due to the fact that as revenue streams become more diversified it becomes harder for those execs to skim off the top of artists budgets. That]s right its all about stealing money my friends. Theyre willing to chase the last few dollars right off the cliff if it means just one more day of free hotel passes at some fake ass DJ conference or music seminar. Dont get it twisted I]m far from a hater. Get bread by all means but burning down your own house for a slice doesnt make sense. Your stomach is full but now youre homeless.
So what to do? Legalize the Internet. Get paid for everything and keep feeding the kids what they want. You cant approach promotions on the Internet the way you did in the days when street teams and college reps meant something. Thats dead. Open the gateway and let the kids pay a few bucks a month for all the exclusive and promo music they want. Prompt the artists to lay their versus over original production and keep the fire hot. DJ]s stop trying to be superstars and get back to being the official guide to great music. Since there is endless amount of music available the need for filters is greater than ever. Artists, if you flood the marketplace with inferior product your dollars will reflect it because the days of fooling the music fans with marketing gimmicks is just about over. The kids dont want an album; they want a steady diet of hot singles that never stop coming. Why? Cause they have to fill that I Pod up. The process is just as important as the content. If you dont believe me then check the traffic stats of your favorite hip hop music leak/stream sites. Dont get it twisted there will always be a demand for the complete album format but in this day and age where talent development has evaporated only a few artist (for example currently Akon) will be able to ride the old format and make business sense. Most will give you quick flash hits and then vanish. Dont get mad, adapt accordingly. The demand for quality music hasnt disappeared its just not organized online properly. If hip hop/R&B is so dead and nobody gives a damn then why do we see such high Alexa rankings for these same hip hop sites? Dont be fooled, the game is not over its just going through a power shift. Make sure your own the right side of the fence.
The story coming out of Amazon announcing they will go forward with selling unrestricted MP3 music files is a sign that the business will keep marching with or without the major labels. Respect for the artform will return to the forefront once the burning is complete and the leeches leave the music hustle for those who have a true passion for it. Funny thing is that true passion is exactly what the fans are missing and until its delivered they wont budge with their dollars. This has left the gate open for the Techies to finish off the plate. If you dont think the Googles and Apples of the world wont get behind some new tech age music business model and put the final nail in the coffin if necessary you better think again. They have the money plus the reach to attract the next Usher please believe it. What will the labels do then? More importantly what will YOU do? If youre working for a label right now you better become a Techie or else your days are numbered. If youre an artist or management you better stop looking for short term fame and build for a long term career based on artistic integrity. Now is the time to take risks because playing it safe will give you all radio spins and zero royalty checks. If however your like me youll lean back, roll some of earths finest and join the late Bob Marley...
-Daniel "Danny Dee" Aguayo
The Independent Insider
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Your cease n desist notices, Internet hack attacks and hater coalitions will not stop us from spitting the real. Were built for this. THE INDEPENDENT INSIDER is not about the website its about the mindset. If you try & destroy this site and well build 10 more tomorrow, feel me? This isnt about music this is about revolution! Information is better than gold and more valuable than that $4.00 a gallon gas our children and homies are overseas fighting a winless war for. If youre hanging around this site looking for some album sale numbers please vacate the premises. Go and scour the message boards, Im sure someone has leaked it by now. The only number you have to remember this week is 23. Thats the percentage sales dropped this week from the same week last year. Yea 400 heads got guillotined over at Warner Music and its only the beginning. Yea 40 heads took it to the throat over at Def Jam but its only the beginning. Yea Amazon threw the big middle finger at the Remaining 3 (no longer the Big 4) as they move another brick off that DRM haunted castle. You cant control what the people want and thats something the Majors will learn the hard way. Give the people what they want or they will take it from you. Tired of the "Nas picked his nose in Time Square yesterday sparking a Hip Hop Needs Etiquette Rally" headlines? Well you're at the right place. Hold on to your underoos cause your boy Danny Dee is about to go in A's fitted first.
The record labels can only survive if they stop criminalizing the young people that want great music in a way that make sense to them. Notice I said record labels NOT the music industry because that’s live and well. The ad money fueled by promo/leaked MP3’s on the Internet is now bigger than the business of selling physical albums. Meanwhile you have this insane notion amongst certain label heads that blasting free unrestricted MP3’s all over the Net will somehow translate into physical sales latter on. Wrong! The kids will load the “exclusive” up on RapidShare, Z share, etc… and share it with everybody and in 2 weeks nobody will give a damn because 98% of all urban music released is of disposable camera material. A couple of photos and then its straight in the trash bin. Your not building a buzz your just feeding a blog/message board owner more content for him/her to draw traffic to their site while the fans take your promo music, load it into their I-Pod’s and never look back. Then you want to come back to the same audience 5 months later talking about buy this album for $15 bucks. Or worse sell it for a dollar online with all kind of compatibility file format restrictions. Man it’s been so long since they ate your promo plate they done forgot about your artist and now you have to spend 2 million on radio payoff to reintroduce them. Terrible business model especially since going platinum will still mean the project will be in the red.
This of course is the result of some executive in the promotional department trying to justify his job position by saying hes Internet savvy fooling the top dogs that still think having 500,000 Myspace friends will translate into anything other than ad money for Myspace lol. Nobody cares about the health of the business only the health of their pockets. All the crying going on is due to the fact that as revenue streams become more diversified it becomes harder for those execs to skim off the top of artists budgets. That]s right its all about stealing money my friends. Theyre willing to chase the last few dollars right off the cliff if it means just one more day of free hotel passes at some fake ass DJ conference or music seminar. Dont get it twisted I]m far from a hater. Get bread by all means but burning down your own house for a slice doesnt make sense. Your stomach is full but now youre homeless.
So what to do? Legalize the Internet. Get paid for everything and keep feeding the kids what they want. You cant approach promotions on the Internet the way you did in the days when street teams and college reps meant something. Thats dead. Open the gateway and let the kids pay a few bucks a month for all the exclusive and promo music they want. Prompt the artists to lay their versus over original production and keep the fire hot. DJ]s stop trying to be superstars and get back to being the official guide to great music. Since there is endless amount of music available the need for filters is greater than ever. Artists, if you flood the marketplace with inferior product your dollars will reflect it because the days of fooling the music fans with marketing gimmicks is just about over. The kids dont want an album; they want a steady diet of hot singles that never stop coming. Why? Cause they have to fill that I Pod up. The process is just as important as the content. If you dont believe me then check the traffic stats of your favorite hip hop music leak/stream sites. Dont get it twisted there will always be a demand for the complete album format but in this day and age where talent development has evaporated only a few artist (for example currently Akon) will be able to ride the old format and make business sense. Most will give you quick flash hits and then vanish. Dont get mad, adapt accordingly. The demand for quality music hasnt disappeared its just not organized online properly. If hip hop/R&B is so dead and nobody gives a damn then why do we see such high Alexa rankings for these same hip hop sites? Dont be fooled, the game is not over its just going through a power shift. Make sure your own the right side of the fence.
The story coming out of Amazon announcing they will go forward with selling unrestricted MP3 music files is a sign that the business will keep marching with or without the major labels. Respect for the artform will return to the forefront once the burning is complete and the leeches leave the music hustle for those who have a true passion for it. Funny thing is that true passion is exactly what the fans are missing and until its delivered they wont budge with their dollars. This has left the gate open for the Techies to finish off the plate. If you dont think the Googles and Apples of the world wont get behind some new tech age music business model and put the final nail in the coffin if necessary you better think again. They have the money plus the reach to attract the next Usher please believe it. What will the labels do then? More importantly what will YOU do? If youre working for a label right now you better become a Techie or else your days are numbered. If youre an artist or management you better stop looking for short term fame and build for a long term career based on artistic integrity. Now is the time to take risks because playing it safe will give you all radio spins and zero royalty checks. If however your like me youll lean back, roll some of earths finest and join the late Bob Marley...
-Daniel "Danny Dee" Aguayo
The Independent Insider
