Fame? Money? Success? Pick one

The state of the industry is becoming sort of like a scientific hypothesis. You can’t just make a star overnight like you did with some of the greats from before. It is more of a guessing game with a lot more dedication and hard work from the start. Instead of just telling an artist your going to get the fame/ money/ success that comes with a rock star, you let them choose, and it becomes more like a step program.
Through youtube, fame can be reached easily. Just look at these numbers comparing 2006 to now

(Information from wiki)

August 2006- Youtube hosted about 6.1 million video’s, requiring bout 45 terabytes of storage space .

April 2008- 83.4 million video’s, requiring the amount of the bandwidth of the whole internet in 2000, costing roughly $1 million a day.

Now if you wanted your company to get any fame, getting on the front page of youtube would be great publicity. That would run you about $175,000 a day! So it does cost money to get fame, so the question is…. What is the return? Is it worth your investment? The price of fame has become cheaper over the years so the return has dropped considerable. I’ve known people to get over 1 million people to check their youtube video, and has yet to see a cent. Brings me to the next step after you get fame…. Money.

This breakdown is derived from Coolfer.com

Their breakdown is of TI’s new album, Paper Trail.

Alight so paper trail’s first week sales were 568,000, the single ‘whatever you like’ moved almost 335,000 units. Now comes in the fame aspect with Myspace. With the new Myspace music, you get around a penny a song if you’re with a major label. So if you average 1.5 million views a day, that’s $15,000 a day of extra income.

Combine sales of cd’s, single song downloads, myspace streams, and any other source and you come close to success. You’ll have fame and money, but of course happiness is most important. Success is how you define it personally, and not what anybody else tells you. I say in today’s terms, you have to pick one of the three because they don’t all come together like paper and glue like they use to. You can have a number 1 song with no income, so it is not a success. You may get a whole bunch of money from so many sources with your music from shows, but your still not in the light of fame which many die for. Success is to each their own, so fame and money may not be involved. What I am studying and working on now is a business plan to reach all three for artists I work with. There are many more steps, but like I said before it is all a scientific hypothesis that all comes back to the artists and how hard they are willing to work for. You can’t just be a internet star cause we got millions of them.. and you can’t just be the biggest local act ever if it stays local, but you have to start somewhere. No more overnight artists, it is all about the struggle of making music a career and not a hobby. It is all about picking one of the 3, or going for the long run of all of them.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts.

A brand of a band

Throughout my short music career (about 7 years if you include me writing songs and recording artists through a $20 4-track, and $20 radio shack microphone), I had many artists that were a favorite because of their “off camera” lifestyle. They had a brand, an image that has been latched onto them that surpassed their music and sometimes surpassed real life. Their image made them seem larger than life, and it made fans spend money to go see their “god comparative” performances. Where did all that go wrong? It seems now because of the internet, we as fans of music know some things about these artists that they probably forgot. It became so easily accessible that no more were their fanatic fans since we all became one. Being a fanatic takes a lot of work and that “god comparative” performances became just something we can see on youtube now.

Right now there is no god figure because a god would last longer than a year or two. We saw the god in Michael Jackson try to break out and look what happened to him to keep up his “appearance”. What happened to the large marketing teams? What happened to the people that made gods out of musicians? To break a god costs money that not many people have any more with very little return. We turned to demi-gods of niche’s, or the long tale. I finally got to read this book by Chris Anderson and I’m learning that in today’s world there almost can’t be that “hit” no more. We broke genre’s up to the hundreds and now they are breaking into their own thing. Underground rap is not underground anymore if billions have a chance to listen. Same thing with punk rock! You are fighting the “man” yet you are on Robert Murdoch’s myspace.

-Look at the Beetles in their day. They were compared to a religion. They had people who murdered to go to the shows, and had fans that would camp out just to see it.

- Look at Lil Wayne now. He is huge, people want him on their album, and he is willing to put his name out there. Will his fame fade? All depends if he ever decides to quit.

discography

-The Jonas Brothers is now a branding icon. Connecting with Hannah Montanna and DIsney channel has been a merchandisers dream.

Jone Bro’s merch

-Battling the merch and brand even has its branding. One of my personal favorite artists, Immortal Technique is a good example of fighting the mainstream with good results. His music is politically motivated, as well as connecting with millions of americans on day to day issues that they deal with.

Immortal Technique’s 3rd world album

A brand is an image that artists either keep or fall (Name another Sir Mix A lot song other than Baby got Back). People say artists sell out when they break their brand of before mainstream, so starting with a brand is key for any artist or band. A brand of a band is like something you live with. Their are a few exceptions, but that is very few. If there was an emergence of marketing of the brands of bands than I think their is salvage in this industry. Instead of hits we have niche’s and demi-hits, and its about finding your own and making it big there. Specific Branding.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts