VIDEO: Mac Miller “Sway In The Morning” Freestyle
Rapper Mac Miller tries is hand at DJ Wonder’s “Five Finger’s of Death” challenge with a caller named Lacey on the phone. Tell GarnetReid.com what you think?
News: Kanye To Team up With Heatmakerz For New LP?
Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West’s untitled solo album is still coming together with help from production crew the Heatmakerz, who Yeezy came up with during his pre-fame days.
According to Heatmakerz producer Rsonist, fans can expect some classic, soulful Ye on the upcoming project. (more…)
Biz: How To Jerk An Artist. By Wendy Day @RapCoalition
I had to share this. Shouts to Wendy Day…
Note from Wendy Day: I wrote this tongue-in-cheek article in December of 2008. It was meant to be sarcastic. I am now in my 21st year in the music industry….and it still holds true….sadly.
I’ve seen so many people get jerked in the 17 years that I have been pulling artists out of bad deals. And I have been vocal (for free) about how artists can protect themselves from getting jerked by less than savory managers and production companies, greedy labels, and unscrupulous scammers. Yet, every week it seems I get a new request for help. I’m not quite sure how the “protect yourself” information can be out there, and artists are STILL signing bad deals that steal their dreams from them. It’s most frustrating.
So I thought I’d write a tongue-in-cheek article on how to JERK an artist, and then maybe folks will read it and their bullshit tactics will be exposed. I realize that I run the risk of helping the scumbags jerk more people, but that’s a risk I am willing to take. So here goes….based on the numerous ways I have seen artists get jerked…
First of all, you have to be certain you are working with an artist over 18 who knows very little about the music business. How else will you be able to teach him your version of how it’s supposed to work? He definitely needs to be over 18 so a Judge doesn’t get involved and nullify the contract on the basis of a minor not being able to legally enter into a binding contract. (more…)
Biz: Record-Breaking 55.74 Million Digital Songs Sold Last Week
Interesting…
POST CHRISTMAS TRACK SALES 2008-2012
A record-breaking 55.74 million digital songs were sold last week (ending Dec. 30) — the single-largest week for download song sales ever according to Nielsen SoundScan. It beats the previous record of 47.73 million sold during the week ending Dec. 28, 2008 (see above chart).
The huge sales surge last week is owed largely to consumers redeeming music download gift cards received on Christmas Day. A week earlier (ending Dec. 23) there were 25.50 million songs sold.
Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars Lead Gift-Card-Fueled Digital-Song Sales Surge
To compare: Last year, in the first full week after Christmas (week ending Jan. 1, 2012), there were 46.42 million songs sold. The week earlier (ending Dec. 25, 2011), there were 38.25 million sold. (more…)
Biz: Jay-Z, the Bullitts to score ‘The Great Gatsby’
Jay-Z is confirmed to compose the score to “The Great Gatsby,” alongside the Bullitts. Jeymes Samuel of the Bullitts took to Twitter on Sunday to share the news: “Jay-Z and myself have been working tirelessly on the score for the upcoming #CLASSIC The Great Gatsby! It is too DOPE for words!”
Rumors of Jay-Z’s participation with the film started swirling when the first trailer debuted online in May. Director Baz Luhrmann chose Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne” track “No Church in the Wild” as the music for the film’s trailer. The film’s soundtrack may include songs from Prince and Lady Gaga, according to Collider. The soundtrack’s tracklist has yet to be confirmed. “The Great Gatsby” opens on May 10.
Jay-Z took on a similar role earlier this year when curating the soundtrack to “NBA 2K13.” As executive producer, he brought along a number of artists for the soundtrack, including Phoenix, Dirty Projectors, Daft Punk, Justice, Nas, Kanye West and more.
Source: www.billboard.com
Kuntry Ass Nigga Grindin (KANG):New Street Album By Smoke
Smoke, the other half of Field Mob has dropped another street album entitled KANG (Kuntry Ass Nigga Grindin). Fire doesn’t even describe the sound and verses on this one. Smoke’s smoking rhymes and diversity will leave you in a trance, and if you’re on the road, this is the perfect riding music. KANG definitely proves that Smoke is a KANG! (more…)
Biz: What Really Happened to Sony and Universal’s 2 Billion Missing YouTube Views?
On Thursday, when YouTube sent out its regular reports on view counts, one data company, SocialBlade, noticed that the channel views for Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group saw its channel count sliced by about 2 billion views.
Let’s see how this plays out. Really interesting…..
That led some folks to conclude that the views were “fake” and that nefarious “black hat” techniques were being cooked up by the labels to falsely inflate their views. The truth, however, isn’t nearly as sexy.
Interviews Billboard.biz conducted with YouTube, label executives and analysts from Next Big Sound told a very different tale. Here’s what really happened.
Next Big Sound analyst Eric Czech confirmed that Universal and Sony’s channel views were ratcheted down by about 2 billion in the latest count that came out of YouTube on Dec. 18. Many other channels also experienced adjustments, though perhaps not as dramatic, Czech said.
A YouTube spokesman confirmed that the company routinely adjusts their view counts in two ways. The first is by ” de-spamming” the data, which takes out things like videos that automatically play without intervention from the viewer or pop-under videos that viewers may not actually see.
In the latest “de-spam,” YouTube subtracted 1.5 million views from Sony and Universal’s channels. That may sound like a lot, but it’s just a fraction of the 1.3 billion it subtracted throughout its entire video library.
That leaves us with 1.9985 billion views still unaccounted for.
Read more at http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/what-really-happened-to-sony-and-universal-1008059892.story#kmDGGquAMUuDcIDS.99
