KousKousKlan International Summer Pack 20 Colors

Well, Looks Like I Have To Get My Passport Stamped For A Trip To The MoeShop in France For The New 20 Colors Of KousKousKlan Collection. More Golden Steps For A Brand That Is Catching The World In A Harmonious Grip. Stay Tuned For The Websites Official Launch. You Heard It Here First From Uncle Mel.

Why Work Does Not Get Done At Work

A Great Ted Talk Presentation By Jason Fried, Co-Found Of 37Signals. Those Of Us In The Entertainment Industry Can Look At This And Either Pat Themselves On The Back Because They Don't Sit In An Office Every Day Or Raise Their Eyebrows Because What Jason Talks About Is Right On The Money.

Now After Seeing This Presentation, A lot of A&R's Can Understand Why Their Artists Are Not Doing Well Or Managers Can Understand Why Their Artists Are Not Where They Should Be In Their Respective Market Niche's.

Come From Behind The Desks. Make That Office Spacious. Make Sure The Meeting Actually Creates A Decision To Get Something Done; Not Become A Hodgepodge Of Conversations That Mean Nothing To Getting Something Done!

Introducing Brix - Pay Me Back (Video)

Ladies And Gentlemen I Introduce To You Brix. A Solid Brother On His Grind, And From My Hometown I Might Add (But I Grew Up A Couple Of Doors Down In Crown Heights). Trust Me People He Ain’t Lying When His Biography Talks About The Grime Show In Brownsville. I Grew Up There In The 80’s And Between That Neighborhood And Bedford Stuyvesant (BedSty) You Had To Know Somebody Just To Walk Through The Block To Get To Where You Were Going!

Check Out This Superior Quality Video. It Describes Perfectly What A lot Of Us Go Through When We Lend Money Then Make That Phone call To Get Back What We Lent Out Glorious Word Play.

To Cap It All Off A Member Of My Top Five Is The Sidekick. Big Shouts To DJ Hasz of FutureSneakerHeadsOfAmerica.

Enjoy The Video. As Always Feedback Is Greatly Appreciated.

Uncle Mel

Magazine Gap

Ladies And Gentlemen I Introduce You To A Great Band Magazine Gap. A Beautiful Gumbo Of Ingredients That Are Not Supposed To Taste Good!! But They Do. Pure Gloriousness. Definitely Keeping My Eyes On You Guys! Hopefully I Can Personally Book You To Perform In My Dream I am Bringing To Reality In Tampa Florida. This Dream Is Called “Ray Ray’s”

Follow Them On Vimeo For More Videos.

Enjoy The Video. As Always Feedback Is Greatly Appreciated.

Uncle Mel

Independent A&R Nigel Angus on the move again with Limelight Music Publishing Artist K Starr interview for G.B.E TV (God Bless Entertainment). Check it. Feedback is greatly appreciated.  

Limelight Music's Own - KStarr Interview With Radio516.com

Live and direct from Limelight Music Publishing to you; our very own artist KStarr being interviewed on Radio516.com. Team Nigel Angus in the building. Check it out. Feedback is much appreciated.

Best of the Best - Bicentennial Park Miami May 28th and 29th

Man.....!!!!!! If I Was Not Deep In School I Would Be There. Its Gonna Be On Smash!!!

Shout Out To All The Performers Being There And The Promoters For Having The Ability Too Book All Of These Artists!!! I Hope They All Show Up And There Is No Funny Business.

Best of the Best Concert 2011 Official Mixtape | Mixtapes | Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes

Featuring: Jeremih, Chris Brown, Keri Hilson, Miguel, Trina, DJ Khaled, Ace Hood, Shabba Ranks, Sanchez, Demarco, Vybz Kartel, Chino, Stephen Marley, Damian Marley, Jabba

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM THIS MIXTAPE FOR FREE!



GO TO WWW.COAST2COASTSUBMISSIONS.COM
TO GET YOUR SONG ON THE NEXT COAST 2 COAST MIXTAPE!

DJ Hasz aka Sneaker Fiend

The video below shows my very good friend (In my top five), DJ Hasz  of Future Sneaker Heads of America, giving a quick discussion about sneakers (kicks). Ladies and Gentlemen, belive me when I say, he knows alot more about sneakers than he expressed in this video; this is only the tip of the iceberg. Check him out below:



Now you see what I am saying. DJ Hasz is definitely my authority on Sneakers.

KousKousKlan International New Commercial
Audio Interview with Moe Theblackwhitebear coming soon.

If your in Virginia, be on the lookout I will be personally pushing the brand.  DeeJay Hasz is in my top five, you will soon see him in the designs of Moe Theblackwhitebear.

I gotta find 4 more to put in my top five (DJ Babey Drew stay in an airport, his passport is sick right now he is on tour with Chris Brown - your in the top five hurry back! LOL!!)  Can you be in my top five?


KOUSKOUSKLAN introducing Landrùz (2011) from Moe Theblackwhitebear on Vimeo.

Nate Dogg - Rest In Peace

This is a little late but credit has to be given where credit is due whether in this life or the next. Thank you Nate Dogg for sharing your gift of word play with us.

Video provided courtesy of Quality Demand Entertainment via the22ndletter on Vimeo

Nate Dogg - Nobody Does It Better DVD (Music Video Mix Trailer) from the22ndletter on Vimeo.

Ready To Negotiate?

Here we have snippets of an interview conducted with Nigel Angus, Founder and CEO of RD Entertainment as well as the Founder and CEO of Limelight Music Publishing.  I am happy to share that through the power of Full Sail Universities Entertainment Business Masters Degree Program which required an interview of this type; a strategic partnership has emerged with Nigel Angus and has allowed me to become Limelight Music Publishing's Co-Founder.

The video you are about to view contains a brief introduction to the vast discipline of negotiation followed by three of Nigel's negotiation tactics.

Digital Media a Demise??

The following Fox Business News video was viewed by our class today:
Mottola: Digital Media Has Changed Music Industry


My comments below concerning the context of this video are below:

Alot of what he says makes sense from a Monday

morning quarterback type of aspect but I will tell 

him like I tell alot of DJ's who complain about  

someone who is able to get a laptop and some Serato, 

Torq, Vestax, Itch, Traxktor or other DJ software 

and some music and call themselves a DJ:

 

You cannot expect the times or technology to remain 

the same so that it can fit a mold that you like and 

can enjoy the benefits of.  Technology does change, 

times do change so what you have to do is be that 

much more better at your craft; have that much more 

respect for being a DJ and delivering music to a 

consumer so that the difference between the quality 

of what you do and the quality of what someone who 

just bought a laptop and some software is clearly 

evident.

 

There is much more demand for music than there are 

enough DJ's to fill it; this has created the 

environment where media had to go digital and an 

environment where someone off the street can buy the 

necessary equipment and call themselves a DJ.  The 

consumers change in habit with regards to 

consumption of music has demanded this so you cannot 

fault a person who wants to do their part in helping 

to fill this demand.

 

This same sentiment is applied to Digital Media; and 

it is also digital media that has made the above 

ability for someone to buy a laptop and some 

software and call themselves a DJ possible.

 

Consumers are tired of buying an album to only find 

one to maybe two good songs on it (especially after 

waiting months for the albums release after multiple 

single creeps to the market and delays of the albums 

release); its easy for record labels to cry foul 

when they feel that a quality product has been put 

on the store shelves for consumers to enjoy; but the 

consumer has responded by changing their purchasing 

habits.

 

What has to be done is stop blaming technology and 

actually blame the record labels for not paying 

proper attention to nor listening to what the 

consumer had to say about the product they were 

selling when it came to recorded music through 

proper strategic planning and alignment of the 

latest advances in music technology with the record 

labels goals and objectives.

 

The Beatles understood; that is why it took so long 

for Apple iTunes to get their catalog to sell in a 

digital format.

 

You have to now begin understanding 

and maintaining proper control over your product as 

a musician and as a record label you have to 

strategically plan out what you are going to do to 

make the Digital Media phenomena work for you and 

your investors while giving proper attention to the 

artists on your roster.

 

Ticket Sales! Ticket Sales!

I am and have been a frequent concert goer for the past seven years; during this time I have watched the convenience fee charged by Ticketmaster jump from $2 to well in the $6 to $7 dollar range for just one ticket.  I purposefully stayed away from attending certain shows due to the fact that after buying two tickets and then adding on the price of the convenience fee for each ticket the total came to well over a hundred dollars.

With that kind of money I can go on a date that includes dinner and a movie as compared to just going to see live entertainment; these are two different aspects of entertainment but with salaries not increasing with the rate of inflation, and the majority of the consumer market across all units (White and all other races, Asian, Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino), showing an 18.4% expenditure alone just for utilities as part of overall household expenses (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008), it’s very easy to see why this summer’s concert tours numbers are very low.

In addition, other factors such as: if the artists or groups preforming have been here before; if they have been here before does the quality of their show warrant paying money to see them again?; is the ticket price higher or lower since they were last here?; If this is a new artist or group performing how much is their ticket price compared to others that have been here in the past?; Is the artist or group performing popular enough to warrant buying a ticket to the show?

Many other questions come up when making the decision to buy a ticket to a show such as: does the venue provide an atmosphere conducive to enjoying a show?; Does the venue have good sound?; Will the show start on time?; Is the artist or group going to even show up?; Will I have to pay to park at or near the venue?

As a frequent concert goer I have asked myself many of the above questions before considering whether or not to purchase a ticket for a show.

Consumers have spoken; they will take their business elsewhere as evidenced in a recent article from Rolling Stone magazine entitled: “Concert Business Collapses as Fans Flee”, Steve Knopper delivers some heavy and sobering news; Attendance at North American Shows dropped 24.4 percent with sales down 26 percent with the number of concerts staged dropping by 16 percent. 

In a great example of the obvious disconnect between what an Artists perception is and what the business perception shows to be true, Christina Aguilera cancelled a 20-Show Tour (Officially) due to scheduling conflicts with her movie “Burlesque”; Industry and business perception shows that this cancellation took place due to a lack of recent hits and too-high ticket prices.

As you read the above data you can clearly see whose perception is jaded and misguided.

Jamel L. Raines, MBA

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Consumer Expenditure Survey Anthology, 2008. Retrieved: January 8, 2011. From: http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxanthol08.htm

Knopper, S. (January 20, 2011). Concert Biz Collapses as Fans Flee. Rolling Stone Magazine. Issue 1122.