Reverbnation

Okay, with myspace.com laying off 47% of it’s staff, it is no secret that ever so popular social networking site is losing market share fast. It Facebook pretty much being the leader of social sites, followed by twitter, it would seem that many of us like the maturity and networking side over myspace. Not to totally sound like a defactor, I still have my myspace artist page with I check from time to time, but after having problems with the mobile app crashing, it’s just not worth the effort.

Myspace was great for artists and bands to get their music out and exposed, but here recently I have been uploading songs and manage my account at reverbnation.com. Reverbnation is more of a dedicated musicain/band website. Once you create an account there, you can upload mp3′s, video’s and pictures (similar to myspace), but also network, sell music and book venues. It is a Tool for artists, labels, management, venues and fans.

Although I have no plans of shutting down my myspace page, I do spend more time on reverbnation.

 

Rock Music outsells Rap in 2010

In a recent article in XXL Magazine online, one of the things that it mentions is how in 2010 rock music out sold rap.

Although it seemed like Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, & T.I. ruled the airwaves, rock music surprisingly dominated the sales market. In a story in New York’s Daily News, writer Jim Farber took a close look at the Nielsen SoundScan figures to discover that rock was the most profitable genre in last year.

Hip-hop did in fact attained several serious accomplishments in 2010 – including earning a four percent sales increase in sales (the only musical genre to experience a sales increase) and boasting the highest selling album of the year with Eminem’s Recovery (3.5 million units and counting)—rock music moved more albums due to the popularity of classic rock acts back catalogue sales.

According to SoundScan, 103 million rock discs were purchased last year, while only 27 million rap LPs were sold. If alternative and metal CDs are taken into consideration, then that bumps rock’s overall numbers to 188 million.

“There isn’t any genre that translates better to catalogue sales than rock,” David Bukula, Nielsen’s senior vice president told the Daily News. “Last year, 55% of our overall track sales came from catalogue.”

“Who’s going back to rediscover DMX right now, as opposed to who’s just discovering the Beatles?” Bakula added.

It sounds as if the rap game needs Short Kut to drop an album to boost sales. lol. Who knows, maybe with Dr. Dre’s long awaited Detox album, Lil Wayne’s new album and a few more hip hop heavy hitters that number can change in 2011.

Ghetto Christmas

By no means was I raised in the “Ghetto”, but a lot of use feel like there is a physical ghetto and a ghetto mentality. Sometimes our actions are ghetto.

But enough on the definition of ghetto. Back in 2002 (or 2003, can’t remember), Jim-E-Ma, Melody Rose and I wrote a Christmas song called, Ghetto Christmas. We pressed up a few copies but never got them distributed in time, but every year we did get some radio airplay. Well, with it being a few days before Christmas, I put together a little slideshow for youtube:

If you like the song, feel free to download it here: http://www.4shared.com/audio/Yj4nk58l/01_Ghetto_Christmas_Song.html

Happy Holidays!

Real Hip Hop

So last week my buddy Brandon, aka MC Brass, came through and listened to a bunch of tracks that I produced, and I burnt him a cd with like 32 snippets on it. He texted me later that day saying that he had written to one of the tracks and thought we should record it. The song was about real hip hop and our love for it. So I called Koppafield, another great producer, and he came through today and we both wrote to the track. It’s unfinished, but her is a little sample of what we did today.

Bieber and Dr. Dre?

Wow…Justin Bieber and Dr. Dre? Apparently so with the newest edition of the monster beats  ’Justsolo’ line of headphones. Now I have a pair of Beats by Dre earbuds, and they really make me feel like I am one with the music. The sound quality is impeccable, and there is no room for other sound to get in. I’d love a pair of the over ear beats by Dre, but they may be something that has to wait until tax time. Anyway, I wonder what these new headphones sound like? They are retailing about $200 less than beats b dre, so I’m sure there is some sound difference. Then I wonder how they compare to Diddy beats?

Monster marketing department, holla atcha boy for some consumer marketing research. I’ll test them all out and blog about them.;-)

Dr. Dre, KUSH

So it finally seems as the long awaited DETOX album by Dr. Dre is finally sprouting some legs. Dre fans like myself have been taunted with the album since 2002, and have heard lots of rumored tracks, concepts, and ghost written tracks. But the good doctor has finally released a single and shot a video.

This is a cool party/club track and hopefully an appetizer for the release in February. Dre fans, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Stadium Graphics

As a new parent of pre teens and a teen , I now see the importance of involving your child in sports. Mine happen to like football and basketball.  Just recently, my daughter made the girls basketball team at Lyhurst Elementary.  At the meeting I realized that parents make the the team, as far as money, which seg-way’s into my latest venture, Stadium Graphics.