Finding love through music

Now this is for all the married couples, or couples in general, something that has been bugging me for awhile. Is the main reason yall “clicked” was because of music? Would you ever have loved your soul mate if they liked a different style than what you like? I am doing a little research to figure this out to write a follow up a little later.

I feel music is strong enough to deter some people away from somebody who has everything else in common. Everybody has a “song” and what if they never get that. What if there never is that one song they can agree for on the wedding, never a song they had when they said goodbye, never a song for…. You know. If you had a favorite song, or a favorite artists your girl hated, what would you do? Let me hear what everybody has to say. Me personally, music is the first topic I ask a girl, second of course is family. Most don’t get past the first before I lose interest.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

Give a mouse a cookie* My little bit on myspace music

*May require a service download, a lot of commercials, and the same shit you can hear on the radio free.

Myspace music will launch for the first time in about an hour or less, so it will launch before I finish this. So I will write about what I know of the leaked version. Basically its a new music service where everything is on myspace, and you can hold up to 100 of your favorite songs (good idea) on your page. Share your music, and through what I do not know, they will pay the artist (label/ manager/ distributer/ their mama/ their rent/ and even pay for a new cookie) a sum of less than a penny for a hit. That takes a step back from the millionaire artists to thousandair artists through this method. Now being a thousandair is no joke. That can buy you chipotle and maybe a year or 2 of rent. Information on this is scattered, but this is one of the screen shots I got from Tech crunch

Now the first shows the music player looking different, can’t tell but it seems you can buy the DRM free (meaning you can transfer it anywhere) from amazon.com, and it has a add function that if added, hopefully that can pay the artist per play as well. Imagine a top hit song, added by a million people, played 20 million times… that can get the artist maybe a few thousand dollars. Which is good considering CD’s probably will not get you anything anymore, and after free… most people don’t want to pay anymore (the majority does not pay, and if you do thats good. But by majority I mean people around the teen to older teen (24 and below)). We’ll see how this goes on launch, and I call it Give a mouse a cookie* because after being able to download music for free, why would you want to listen to it with restrictions and all these rules after pretty much being able to do anything. They should start calling them Record Labels* because do they even want records as their main income anymore?

*****************

After midnight, and a few drinks… I do not see a major difference yet? Now myspace wasa site full of music before, and now I am becoming skeptical on how much of a difference maker this will be. Will it be a competitor to iTunes? Or will it fall like every other plan for music that has come out sine iTunes launch that is still not successful compared to P2P sites in sharing music, but is the best one when compared to money to the record labels as well as the artist and mouse’s.

Will launch a part 2 with a  lot more information and a lot less intoxication. Till than…

What has come of a new plan will either thrive or fail but what has come is a new plan. Until we give up, new idea’s are needed, so even though the cookie as an asterik*… and until I find more, this cookie comes with a question mark?. So before we accept this plan as the 3rd coming of jesus, we have it remember that it is something that has been thought of but never put into action. So with Myspace’s power, this has a chance at an impact and it has me excited. I will check it out more tomorrow with coffee and advil, and until more information has been found, this is…

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

*edites

From Hypebot

“At launch new MySpace Music includes:

• The new, ‘MyMusic,’ personal music management toolset
• Free and unlimited ad-supported, full-length audio streaming
• Free and unlimited playlist functionality
• Free discography and content catalogues for SONY BMG, UMG and WMG artists
• DRM-free MP3 music e-commerce downloads powered by Amazon MP3
• Ringtone e-commerce powered by Jamster”

All of this is great… but one thing I will wonder is if this will all be available for easy use from  Indie artists? Or is this the time where myspace goes completely comercial and only allows the larger players to make money, making the major label deal soooo much more apealing?

Keveeno

What is your definition of Success?

It is a race to the finish, are you in the 50 meter, 100 meter dash? Or are you in the 10 mile, 20 mile long triathlon with the race changing every few miles? It all depends on where you have your mind set as what’s a success. Do you finish an album, share with a few people and have a lot of congratulations? Make $20 on iTunes or CD baby and hope the music changed at least one persons life? Or maybe you want to live like a rock star and possible go like a rock star too? Everybody has their version of success, and each has their own road.

If you go onto CD baby, the average album sale is $340. Now that number is off a lot depending on how much you are willing to put work into it. If you only wanted to make an album that the world has a chance to hear, than your job is done. You made $20, and can now eat chipotle for a few days. If you decided to promote it yourself (depending on your talent), you can sell near the quota average of $340. Now if you put the album out, do some shows and get a fan base. This is where the numbers push the average, you sell over $5000 (CD baby had around 50 people sell over $10,000), and you become a mini rock star and you can not only eat chipotle for all 7 days of the week, but you can pay rent for a few months.

Success in definition by webster is “favorable or desired outcome.” So it all depends on what you want to do. Music is not a career for everybody, so getting recognition is not always top priority. If it is your career than recognition is of the up most importance, because how else would you be able to survive? Even if you want to work in the background of things, recognition is important to be able to show that you are willing to help people out.

So putting into consideration your definition of success, how much work are you willing to put into it?
From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The story of limbo after graduation

*This story may or may not relate to me or anybody else,  but it will relate to the growing trend of fatigueness from the recent graduating students working their way into the music industry.

Joey graduated from a school specializing in music and production. He got a full entertainment business degree from the school, and came out with aspirations of running his own business and making a lot of money while helping out artists get what they need. He waited a month after graduation and got a great internship from an indie label, but it was non paid. Joey loved the job but he needed to pay rent. He believes that to become rich you have to have that mindset that you will get it eventually so Joey is a few thousand in debt, not counting the loan bills piling up and rent that is being paid right before late fee’s pile up. He refuses to go back home on the far west coast, because of the fact that he knows that if he does, than his music dreams will die and he will go back to the same things he did before he moved to the place he is at now.

The school he went to lead him on with high dreams of making it with a few teachers showing that it is not that easy. Now Joey also has a non music job with the music internship and that job is fatiguing him worse to the point where paying the rent and bills is all that matters. Music is slipping from Joey’s mindset when that was all that was on his mind. Its the limbo of a graduate, and what to do now? The internship is great, but the job pays the bills. If he doesn’t pay the bills, and he moves back home, than music and jobs will not be the only thing he has to worry about.

So this story I do not know if it relates to most graduates, or if it relates to anybody. Limbo happens to most after graduation, but its about the motivation and passion of the person to keep going or fall. Some fall worse than others, and some have backup plans. Joey’s one passion is music, but with bills to pay Joey is becoming passionless. Priorities are becoming less and less a priority in the fact the priority list is now skewed. Has the music industry become so fucked right now that with so many opportunities there is almost none that are open? What will Joey do when the day job takes over his passion as does to most?

But no worries. This industry is in a flux and if one takes too seriously, they got serious issues. Music is suppose to be fun, and it will be fun again. Bring it back to the days Mo Town, The hit factory where it wasn’t just a science, it was artists showcasing true talents. I want to bring that back, but true artists are some of the most difficult people to work with. Even Joey had a problem keeping his artists on check with groups breaking up, great talent singers never calling back, and when he got hard on them they just didn’t have the passion themselves. How can a person working on the business side have passion in a artist that does not have the passion themselves? Inspiration is needed in music, for if you lose that, than whats the point of doing it?

Joey on the side of working with the internship and job, is putting what he does best on a list to try and figure what he can truly offer these artist other than connections and a dream. He is good at speaking individually to an artist but lacks at putting the ax down when its needed. Planning has always been a plus because of how he was raised, but finishing up and making sure others follow is another thing. Joey is now looking for motivated artists outside of genre’s he has grown comfortable with to grow comfortable with them. Joey knows not to quit, and knows that being limbo is never a reason to quit your passion. Its a matter of setting new priorities and not sticking with plans that will not work anymore, sometimes it’s also getting your head out your azz and going beyond any comfort zone you have set yourself.

This limbo is a bubble that will either burst or float depending on the winds surrounding it. Joey will either crash under pressure or continue strong, because a quote from Tupac’s a rose that grew from concrete, “you not gon’ say, “Damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from concrete”, You gon’ be like, “Damn! A rose grew from the concrete?!”" The other quote, “it is not the destination but the journey” is another one that can describe limbo. No matter how you put it, life is not easy for anybody. The rich have mental issues, the middle class have a little bit of every issue, and the poor have to overcome so many obstacles that it’s amazing what people can achieve. Some people have limbo for life, so overcoming this bubble of a limbo shouldn’t be so difficult but it takes the best out of people. Just never give up on your passions, because even if you do… your heart never will.

From the mind of

Keveeno

If you read this and you have a similar story, make sure to put it in the comment section.

Limbo affects 76% of the population, and if you have a limbo lasting longer than 4 years please see a doctor for it may cause a unsafe drop of well being over the years.

The resurrection of boy bands (insert scary/ cool looking font)

I am a little late on reporting this, but I still will report on the resurgence of this brand new idea of boy bands. Websters definition with the Keveeno explanation of a boy band is; a band acumalitive of mainly boys with the subtraction of a female presence meaning that possible there is a female presence within one of the boys soul, hence the Lance rumors. Boy bands usually are used as marketing around a female pop sensation, as with Britney and N’Sync/ Backstreet Boys. Today though has gone younger to try and ressurect record sales with this Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers. So pump up the vocal enhancers, hide the wardrobe malfunctions, this is the ressurection of The Boy Bands

Without looking up the statistics, I’m pretty sure with the hype the Jonas Bro’s are getting, they sell out shows more often then sell out their records. This all shows a striking resemblence to when I was in Middle/ High school and N’Sync was huge. The girls at my school though was more into Usher/ B2K and more of the RnB pop sensations, but there were a few that caught on with this boy band craze. Well, as does these political debates right now, it gets old. There was a break where they pushed artists who just were not ready as there was a steady decline in music sales accross the board. I guess there was a breaking point where they need something… anything. They found it in The Jones Bro’s.

Success in todays market is strongly pointing toward a more live performance rather than cd driven. When will the statistics of billboard top 200 become irrelevant and selling out shows become more of what defines success today?

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The music investor

I have read about several websites that have this idea of investing into the artists music, and I have written something about it awhile ago that I have actually removed by accident. I will say it again that it’s almost like the entertainment stock market. You find a artist you like, and you put money into them hoping they can do something with it that could possible get you money as well. It’s all good until you realize the state of the industry and the fact that this artist is working on art… NOT a business. Music is a business, but most artists do not see it as such, and dissipate after awhile for steady income jobs elsewhere. Lets say you have a favorite artist and you invest a large amount, lets say $20,000. The artist goes to the studio and records a nice EP that is fully mastered, has a great marketing plan, and the album goes on iTunes and sells under 5,000 single sale copies, with a few hundred album copies. Lets say the artist we’ll call, The Electric Italiano, makes around $2-3000 in a month. Thats a good months salary and now you want your money back. You make just under a grand back with a $-19,000 mark in your checkbook.  Now what?

I have been blogging, talking about how the major industry is going to shit and indies are the future, individual artists are coming through tough times, and there is a future for music yet. I have worked out a few idea’s than and out, but now I want to do something as well. I won’t get into detail, but I would like to make a social networking site (waiting for gasps as something so revolutionary as that), but instead of joining networks, you join artists. We allow artists for a one time fee to build a full fan site with different levels and we put a price on the levels. Fans can join for free for the basic, but for different prices or “investments” they can receive benefits such such as a free concert tickets, free cd’s, free posters, tee’s, and more. This is a new idea to my head that has probably been done but I will do more research.

If a fan who enjoys an artists music so much that they purchase an album, why can’t they get to know the artist more? Know why the artist wrote each song, the background of the artist past their bio, a chance to speak to the artist such as The Electric Italiano (a combination of The Electric Fetus (a record store here), and Italiano Coffee… words that I randomly saw on the wall here), and possible a chance to meet up with other fans of the artist. I want to bring fan interaction to a whole new level but set it up as a template like a social networking site that would litterally be for networking instead of picking up underage kids by the likes of copykat michael jacksons (myspace). I will have a full blueprint that I will work on, and hope nobody takes this idea because it is only partial on what I have an idea for in the back of my head.

Remember music is a way to express your soul, and it can get to be expensive. Most fall out the game because of money problems, but those who stick it out and call music a career and not a hobby will prosper. Its a matter of patience and perseverance, for outlasting this depression in the music industry will be difficult but if we can find a way to settle differences we can do this. Music will once again be a source of enjoyment instead of stress soon. We just have to work together.
From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts