Watching The Throne

It seems that Kanye West may be in some hot water! A recent lawsuit was filed against the artist/producer for copyright infringement of works of associated artist. A famous blues musician named Syl Johnson from Chicago, claims that Mr. West utilized portions of his song "Different Strokes" and never gave him credit or paid for it. He feels that Kanye West had more than enough resources to get it cleared.

After doing some research I found that Syl Johnson's lawsuit is against Kanye West, but the fact of the matter is that Kanye actually did not produce the beat. Industry veteran Pete Rock produced the beat and knows he should of gotten clearance. It is the responsibility of the producer and label to make sure all clearance go through before using copy written works. Even though Kanye has ties to Syl and he is also a producer, it does not make him totally responsible. In this case he is just the artist and the label is more responsible than anyone.

Facebook Sued Again

This week Social network giant Facebook was sued by a company named Walker Digital for having privacy controls. Walker Digital, an innovation company claims that Facebook used its patent for privacy controls on its website. The controls allow its users to control what information pertaining to there identities is released the public. After researching this patent it seems that it is very broad and that if they sued Facebook successfully, then a lot of other companies would be susceptible to these frivolous lawsuits. I believe the patent protects the way the Walker Digital has their setting structured not completely covering the privacy settings for anything.

Facebook file suit agianst Google's new Social Network

Facebook recently filed a lawsuit against Google for violating several patents and copyrights. Google just recently released its Google Plus social network, that operates very similar to Facebook. Facebook claims that Google Plus copied many of their patents to structure its platform. After researching the Google Plus website, I noticed that there are no similarities what so ever. I believe that Facebook is just trying to stop the media giant from expanding into its territory.

Death of Steve Jobs or the demise of Apple

Recently the news of Steve Jobs death was announced and Apple stocked declined by 13% in the first day. The next day the iPhone 4s was announced and the company regained its stock. Did the death of Steve Jobs cause the plummet in Apple stock? Is the loss of the great leader causing supporters to jump ship to competitors? Lets investigate what makes the great Steve Jobs such an important factor in Apples success.

Steve Jobs was known as an innovator for what he and partner Steve Wozniak did for consumers, with the creation of the Apple personal computer. In 1980 Apple became a publicly traded company and had a market value of 1.2 billion dollars. In 1985 Jobs resigned as Apples Coe and began to run a software company called Next. He also acquired Pixar animation form George Lucas the following year. In 1997 Jobs returned to Apple after they acquired the Next software company and retained his title as Coe of Apple Inc. With the return of Jobs the company began a successful run as it began to introduce its new products to the world, such as the iMac computer that had the monitor integrated into the computer. Steve would later go on to introduce more successful products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad the all innovated how utilize technology. With his perfect marketing schemes and great partnerships he was able to secure Apple a future as the top brand in electronics.

Steve Jobs was a perfectionist and paid close attention to every little detail. He insisted on his products performing superior to other and working flawlessly. With the death of Steve many consumers are concerned that the company could plummet as it did before in the 90's because of the production of inferior products. Steve Jobs was more than a CEO he was the Apple brand. People did not trust the products; they trusted the man behind the products he had a great track record. The new CEO was hand picked by Jobs but many say they honestly believe that Apple has lost its legs once again.

Payola still alive

Since the beginning of music being played on the radio there has been what we call payola (paying the DJ's to play records) involved in the system. Why is this an important factor? Reason that this is an important factor is because this gives it an unfair advantage to an artist. This happens by the record being played over and over until it becomes so familiar that you can't help but like it. This may give some artist more exposure than others, which creates the unfair advantage. The airplay is not based on talent and creative music but more on pay to play. This basically dictates what music that the consumer is exposed to.

In the late 50's iconic Disc Jockey Dick Clark was accused of payola schemes, which involved him receiving songwriter royalties for over 150 pop songs. Most currently major label Sony was under investigation in 2005 for payola (pay for play) rewarding DJ's for playing Jessica Simpson and J-Lo songs. Sony was forced to pay a 10 million fine for its activities in the payola schemes. After these major cases payola is still alive but in a different form. Instead of paying a Disc Jockey to play a song, how about we own the radio station! That's what Clear channel a corporation that owns many radio stations has been doing over the past couple of years. Now major labels pay a set fee to have certain artist played at a particular time and certain number of times. In 2006 the FCC launched an investigation on payola practices of hundreds of radio stations.

So the question is it still alive? Of course just think about it, how many times do you hear Lil Wayne all over your radio station or Drake? Too many right, and there is so many other songs out there but due to Clear Channel owning the stations you wont hear those other songs too often.

Peppa Boy Negotiating and Deal making

I interviewed an up and coming independent Rap artist named Peppa Boy Trill McCoy. Peppa Boy is an artist out of the south who currently is touring and expecting to release and album soon. As independent artist Peppa boy cannot afford a manager to negotiate deals for him, so he said that he has been educated through trial and error and from reading business books. During the interview I focused on asking key questions on how he utilize certain negotiating technique to get the best deal.

Me: What is the first deal you negotiated and what was the out come?

Peppa Boy: The first deal I negotiated was with a night club owner in my hometown of Pensacola, Fl. The deal was for me to perform as the secondary act and rapper Juvenile to be the main act. The cost for Juvenile was $5000 and I was supposed to receive half of the proceeds from the door and bar. Because I was in charge of all the advertising and I was also performing I was taking more of loss. So I had to negotiate a deal where as both parties would have a mutual benefit. So I presented to the club owner that he could have the proceeds from the door and would take all the proceeds from the bar. He denied that deal, so I presented to him that the only way we could get this deal done is if he got half of the door and bar but any tickets that I pre-sale would belong to me. He agreed to the deal and it worked out for me because in the end I sold more tickets presale than he sold at the door.

Me: Seeing as you don’t have a manager how do you separate the people from the problem when the other party tries to take advantage of you.

Peppa Boy: I just keep the emotion out of it and focus on the fact that its strictly business and that I need to negotiate the best deal for me.

Me: Do you utilize any negotiating tactics?

Peppa Boy: Yes, what I do is study previous deals in the industry and research what is most common. Also I study the person or companies background and pay attention to the industry trends. Then when I go into a negotiation I make sure that I give out the present how this will be most beneficial for the other party.

Me: So what role do you feel you play during the negotiations?

Peppa Boy: Well I wear many different hats! I’m the manager, accountant, CEO of the label, and the artist so I have to negotiate a great deal.

Me: So wouldn’t it be more beneficial for you to just sign with a major?

Peppa Boy: Yea, it would be less stressful and fewer hats to wear seeing as that I only have one head! LOL! But I don’t think anyone is going to look out for my best interest right now better than me. But to be associated with a well-known label will definitely open up more doors.

Me: Well thanks again and I wish you good luck

Peppa Boy: You got it!

Google more than just a search engine

Google in the past two years has transitioned into more than just an Internet search engine. Google has quickly expanded into other ventures by acquiring other companies. For example, Google now owns YouTube and the Android operating system for mobile devices. Google also has expanded its technology into televisions by incorporating its browser services and applications. Recently Google announced its beta version of Google Music, which will allow users to utilize their pre-existing music library to upload to a cloud base service. This will allow the user to access their music library via the Internet to any of their mobile devices. These new acquisitions will help Google expand into the entertainment industry and becoming a one-stop shop.

Google’s most recent acquisition is the Motorola Mobility Company for 12.5 billion dollars. Google’s initial goal in this acquisition is gain the 17,000 patents that Motorola owns. If federal regulators approve this acquisition then this could potentially open up the doors for more acquisitions by Google. Companies such as Nokia Corporation and Research In Motion (Blackberry) would help expand the company’s technology in the mobile market and defend itself against the giant Apple. “The deal is by far the largest Google has pursued in its 13-year history. Motorola Mobility's price tag exceeds the combined $9.1 billion that the company has paid for 136 previous acquisitions since going public in 2004, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Buying Motorola also would push Google into phone and computer tablet manufacturing, competing with other device makers who rely on Android. The largest makers of Android devices are all supporting a deal that Google CEO Larry Page said was too tempting to resist.” With these acquisitions Google will be able to enter the telecommunications market by being able to provide television and phone services through it’ Google voice services. Who would of ever thought that all this would transpire from a single search engine company. (Billboard,2011)

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/is-google-s-purchase-of-motorola-all-about-1005317152.story

360 Deals

It seems lately that the music industry is suffering badly. Record sales have decreased over the last couple of years due to many factors. The RIAA claims that this is due to the increase in piracy from peer to peer file-sharing websites. Some believe it’s due to the lack of creative content and the ability to download only singles versus the entire album. Record companies have had to make cuts because they are no longer generating the revenue to support their artist. So what will it take to revive the music industry? Well some conglomerates have come to the rescue with a new offer to artist called a 360 deal. So what is a 360 deal? A 360 deal is a contract between the artist and the record label/investor that will allow the label/investor to recoup its expenses through more than just album sales. Labels/investors spend more money on marketing and artist benefit from the exposure.

Some major artist was the first to take advantage of the deals such as, Jay-Z, U2, Nickel back, and Madonna. Jay-Z signed a $150 million dollar deal with Live Nation, which entitles them to partnership with his other business ventures. Live Nation is a concert promoting company that is in partnership with at least 3 major labels. This gives them ability to schedule and control the concerts that the major artist will perform at. But not all are comfortable with these 360 deals; many artists say that they would rather remain independent than to give up rights to their publishing, profits from performances, and merchandise. I personally feel that this is another ploy for record companies to exploit the situation. This will give them the ability to generate more revenue from artist without having to incur more expenses. Many labels hardly promote artist as it is and have cut the artist development departments. So now it just seems that they have developed a win-win situation. My advice is with the rise of social networking artist should just stay independent.

Music, Movie, TV and Broadband Leaders Team to Curb Online Content Theft

Recently there was an announcement that the Music, Movie, TV and Broadband leaders have come together to attempt to stop the online pirating of digital media content. Broadband providers have agreed to utilize a new system that will alert consumers when illegal content is being downloaded through their service. This will in fact help consumers because of the lawsuits over the past couple of years involving parents being sued for illegal music downloads. For example, a woman was fined $1.9 million dollars by a federal judge in Minnesota for downloading 24 songs. She was fined at a rate of $80,000 a song. She was the first case ever to go to trial for copyright infringement, and the fact of the matter is that she did not download the songs, but yet it was her son.

The initial spawn of this digital downloading era started over 10 years ago, but became most popular with Napster. Napster introduced a website where people could download music for free. This website started a trend and many other P2P file sharing sites were created. The music industry started to lose a lot of money with consumers not paying for music or movies. Artist called for the courts to put a stop the illegal downloading of media but they had no solution at the time.

Over the years the music industry has lost a large amount of money due to media piracy. The RIAA reported that each year over 16 billion is lost in earnings and 3 billion lost in state, federal and local taxes. With the new Copyright Alert System implemented it show slow down the media pirates. The government has also take additional steps to slow down the P2P file sharing websites, with the closing of the major sites such as Limewire, Bearshare, PirarteBay, and the television provider JustinTv.

This is exciting news for the entertainment industry because now there will be possible increases in revenue. The new alert system will force consumers to pay for the digital media content, which will slow file sharing and increase sales. Ultimately this will have an effect on the economy because jobs will increase as sales increase. Consumers will be given 6 attempts to stop the illegal downloading of content after the warnings issued by their Internet Service Providers. After that potentially Internet service can be disconnected or the consumer may be reported to the proper authorities. Being a part of the music industry I am glad to something finally stop the illegal downloading and help the entertainment industry back on its feet.