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Music Specialist Speaks
Greetings! 

Spring is rapidly turning into summer and the conference season is now in full effect.  My goal is to assist you in finding events that are entertaining as well as educational.  This is the entertainment business and it now only makes sense to attend conferences that increase your business knowledge and revenue stream capabilities.

If you have any questions concerning any conference you may want to attend please feel open to emailing me and I will assist.

 

Sincerely,

 

Allen Johnston
The Music Specialist
3058299010

 

SOUTHEAST URBAN MUSIC CONFERENCE
2011 flyer

The stage is set for the 8th Annual Southeast Urban Music Conference (SUMC), June 21-23,2011.  This year's theme is "The Branding & Marketing of Urban Music." SUMC Chairman Tony Baraka, an Atlanta-based marketing executive, is adamant that to maintain success within the entertainment industry, branding and marketing strategies must be implemented. "It takes more than just passing out flyers, having promotional models and a wrapped van," he says. "It is much more important for labels and brands to understand cross promotions, product integration and branding to grasp their target demographic." "There are lots of issues facing our entertainment industry today," says Baraka." "We are seeing that the industry is creating a new business model that has embraced additional marketing campaigns and places great emphasis on the independent artists and labels. The model also includes marketing plans that continually change the way artists are signed and continues to create creative digital and physical distribution opportunities while implementing new media technology." The 8th Annual SUMC will focus heavily on providing information - with key seminars and networking opportunities. Attendees will receive branding and marketing information in all areas of the entertainment industry.

 

REGISTER HERE 

SADE IS BACK

Sade
SADE

New music from Sade titled "Still In Love With You". This song is actually a cover to the classic Thin Lizzy song first appearing on their album Nightlife (1974).

 LISTEN HERE

        JOHNNY GILL
        IN THE MOOD

Johnny Gill

Johnny Gill "In The Mood" NEW SINGLE 2011


 

Levon Helm Donates Portion of Proceeds from New Release to
Americana Music Association

2011 Americana Logo

The Americana Music Association announced that Levon Helm will donate a portion of the Ramble at the Ryman CD and DVD proceeds to the not for profit trade association.  "They are one of the few outfits that supports great music" said Helm, "we gotta help 'em."  Helm is the first artist to donate the shares of cd and dvd sales to the music association.  He was also the first to perform a concert with the intent to raise funds for Americana at his now legendary Ramble at the Ryman in 2008.

 

Ramble at the Ryman came on the heels of Dirt Farmer's stunning debut which won a Grammy in 2008 for Best Traditional Folk Album and landed Helm a spot in Rolling Stone's The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

That same year Helm was also recognized by the Recording Academy with a lifetime achievement award as an original member of The Band and was given the "Artist of the Year" Award by the Americana Music Association.  In 2009, Helm released Electric Dirt which marked his highest debut in Soundscan era at #36 and spent six consecutive weeks at #1 on the Americana Radio Chart. Helm won his second consecutive Grammy for Electric Dirt in the inaugural category of Best Americana Album in 2010.


VIST AMERICANA HERE 

 

INTERNATIONAL SOUL MUSIC SUMMIT

ISMS FLYER  The largest music conference in the world dedicated to the soul genre; the International Soul Music Summit provides mainstream, emerging and independent artists, retailers, consumers and executives. The cultural, lifestyle & networking event of the year 2011 for music lovers & fans. Featuring: Daytime Music Industry Workshops & Panels, Networking, Social Mixers and Parties, Evening Public Artist Showcases.

REGISTER HERE

 

AGR Television Records Signs DownTown Mystic

Downtown Mystic

AGR Television Records is pleased to announce the signing of Americana Artist, DownTown Mystic, to a multi album licensing deal for Europe and the Middle East.

Led by Robert Allen and based in the USA, DownTown Mystic's style of Roots/Rock music has been called "vintage yet modern", combining forces with a stellar cast of musicians (including band members of Bruce Springsteen & Paul McCartney). DownTown Mystic has received national radio play in the US, as well as Europe, charting on both the Americana Music Assn. and Euro/Americana charts.

 

PVIFF Header

 

The Peachtree Village International Film Festival creates a village atmosphere that provides opportunities not only for filmmakers but for business owners and film enthusiasts. Artists such as Director/Writer Rob Hardy of Rain Forest Films, Producer, Roger Bobb of Tyler Perry Studios, Director, Leslie Small, Casting Director, Alpha Tyler of Tyler Perry Studios, Best Selling Author Omar Tyree, Actor, Bill Nunn, Director, Kenny Leon, Humanitarian, Afeni Shakur and more have all participated in various aspects of PVIFF over the years.

 

MORE INFORMATION 

Myrna Clayton
Vocal Extraordinaire

Atlanta Jazz Festival 2011

MYRNA CLAYTON will be performing at this years Atlanta Jazz Festival.  Her performances are incredible. 

 

The Atlanta Jazz Festival is regarded as one of the Country's largest FREE jazz festivals.  It is an annual musical showcase, celebrates jazz legends and up-and-coming jazz greats in venues throughout metropolitan Atlanta during the entire month of May.   Culminating during each Memorial Day weekend, the festival features show-stopping performances at Piedmont Park.

Myrna Clayton

 

New Flyer
The Music Specialist
P.O.Box 310540
ATLANTA, Georgia 31131
3058299010

 

In This Issue
SOUTHEAST URBAN MUSIC CONFERENCE
SADE
JOHNNY GILL
Levon Helm
INTERNATIONAL SOUL MUSIC SUMMIT
Peachtree Village International Film Festival
Myrna Clayton
Featured Article
South Africa
Memories

Weak Statements of our Times

black cap frontal
THE MUSIC SPECIALIST
2 sayings have passed my desk this week that have gotten my attention and anger.

 

1. IF YOU GET 300 SPINS I CAN GET YOU A DISTRIBUTION DEAL

 

 

This is an ongoing problem within the entertainment industry, that individual and independent companies think they can "HYPE" the charts and a major label will give them money, and then spend additional money on marketing & promotion of their project. 

 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Major labels invented the HYPE game and know when and who you have paid to get spins on radio.  In quite a few cases family members of major label executives are the ones receiving the money and building the HYPE around a project.

 

Labels are in the business to sell music and musical products; they are not in the business to finance independent company's marketing and promotion schemes and NEVER in the business to make other people rich on their backs.  There was an article on Sean Diddy Combs receiving 100 million dollars and becoming one of the richest men in Hip Hop, when questioned about this phenomenon Clive Davis (Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Worldwide) said.  "I know he made this money, I paid it to him"

 

Spins can only assist you in getting a deal when you have many other things in place.  A real fan base, online marketing & promotion that consistently builds' a larger fan base, offline marketing & promotion, robust product and download sales all are needed to make a major label want to do business with you.

 

Spins alone will only get you broke.

 

The current HYPE game is to spend between $25,000 - $35,000 to acquire national spins and become charted.  Good game for the promoter that is receiving the money, but I have yet to have ONE PERSON OR LABLE tell me that they acquired a deal based on spins.

 

 

A fool and his money are soon separated.

 

 

2. YOU NEED THE RIAA TO CERTIFY YOUR GOLD ALBUM STATUS

 

This opens up an entirely new problem in thinking and understanding of the entertainment industry.  When I first entered the industry almost 50 years ago, the RIAA was the standard for certification of Gold & Platinum status (I only know of one Diamond status album).  These certifications were based on SHIPMENTS of physical products for sale from the record labels to the distributors, both who are members.  Back in the day when a project stiffed we would say that it shipped gold and returned platinum referring to the amount of physical product sold.  Today there are many different delivery systems NOT being monitored by the RIAA and many more questions to be asked.

 

First and foremost who cares if the RIAA does or does not believe you have sold a certain number of copies?  What is the significance of having a RIAA approval on a recording?  It won't make anyone purchase more recordings; it doesn't get you additional shows or sell other merchandise from your catalog.  What exactly does it represent?

 

OK you say that the RIAA represents sales, but we now live in an era of digital downloads and where does the RIAA start their consideration?  If you sell a download for 25 cents or 5 cents does that constitute a sale?  If your download is part of a service that you pay monthly is that considered a sale?  If your song is on a compilation that sells for 99 cents what portion is considered a sale?  Are sales based on pricing or downloads?  And what do you do when the sale comes from Dubai, or China or Australia or the UK?  Does any of this count?

 

What is real success?

 

The current state of the Internet features so many different download and streaming capabilities that a standard is unheard of.

 

The problems in both sayings lay with the interpretation, greed, ambition and stupidity of the individuals or company that believes them.  These same concepts are the ones allowing the music award shows to create television programs geared to having viewers buy advertising and not geared to the musicians and writers that make the music.  What do you get when you win a Grammy, Billboard, BET, MTV, CMA, AMA, NRJ, GMA or any of the multitudes of other organizations awards?

 

By the way gold album awards are only gold colored paint over either nickel or lacquer, you never get REAL GOLD.

 

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NEW MUSIC EDUCATION FOR SOUTH AFRICA

New CD
THE MUSIC SPECIALIST
 
THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN IN ANSWER TO QUESTIONS SENT ME FROM SOUTH AFRICA

Technology has created a new phenomenon in South Africa and that is the mushrooming of the DJ based music industry.  RJ Benjamin is correct in his assumption that DJ's have initiated a separate "strangle hold" on the industry.  There are several reasons I see that this is occurring at this time.

 

The first is the global reach of the music bringing tribal rhythms, European rhythms and contemporary American Hip Hop all together in the development of African House and African Dance music.  The ability to hear the same radio program across your country is a blessing and curse combined.  The blessing is the capability to immediately reach the towns with a unified message to a populace that has been denied access to many contemporary ideas and concepts.  The curse is the message that is being projected to these masses.

 

There is a wealth of knowledge ultimately birthed from the tribal structure within your country and across Africa has a whole.  Instead of embracing the culture, recording it and teaching it to the younger generations as the basis of ALL music, this culture has been regulated to second and in places third class importance.  My question at this point is where are the radio programs, school programs, university programs and governmental programs honoring this music?  Students do not know HOW to read and notate music, they have no knowledge of WHY certain drum rhythms craft physical changes within the human body, there is a disconnect between WHERE the original music was conceived and WHAT it was conceived to do.

 

How many contemporary musicians, singers, instrumentalists or DJ's know how to read and notate music?

 

The second reason for the growth of the DJ based business is the death of creative transfer of knowledge. The DJ depends on Technology to initiate new ideas and does not understand the inner workings of the technology.  There are many people using computers, synthesizers, drum machines, video cameras, computer software editing systems and samplers but very few that can construct, invent, design, originate, or initiate any new piece of technology.  I see the South African market becoming TRAINED to be consumers of other nation's products and ideas and not developing the infrastructure needed to exploit South African intellectual properties. 

 

The third is GREED and this will not be changed by just talking about it.  The South African DJ can now advertise to a larger audience, develop products and events for sale and deliver these concepts with minimal assistance from a governing body (which was unheard of just 10 years ago).  Add to this the popular idea that artists don't want to know how the business works but only want to hire a manager to advance their career and you have a perfect recipe for failure.  It is easy to be greedy when the affected don't care.

 

The closing of the retail music store is inevitable for the business is moving to a direct to consumer model.  Cell phone delivery of music & video is becoming commonplace and the iPad concept is only the next step in maintaining direct contact with the consumer for the majority of the consumers entertainment needs.  This will cause layoffs and firings of people from major companies, for the major label structure changes to smaller physical catalogs (music is downloadable), less warehouse space, direct consumer communications means a decrease in secretarial help and sales people.  All of these changes will directly affect the independent South African business model and only the informed will be able to make the change successfully.

 

 

The key to effective prosperous music industry related businesses is education.  For artists, performers and creators learning musical notation, cultural identity and honest industry practices has become mandatory for success.  For the influencers, radio / television / print and online delivery of entertainment products companies education of business practices and  business legalities is and will be the guiding force for continued upward mobility.

 

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Memories
Melvin JonesJackie WardHOWARD GEIGER