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DJ Blakghost has been hard at work on the 1's & 2's this year. Here are his latest mixtapes. Make sure you grab 'em!
Let’s do some math real quick. “For every $1000 in music sold…”
That would mean if an artist or band sold 1,00,000 copies of their album, at an average of $10 an album (and hardly any artist is selling that many nowadays), the artist or band walks away with $234,000. Not bad, huh? That’s a decent living. A band would have to split that four ways, which is about $60k, and that’s way better than working at Starbucks.
BUT — today’s artist’s are selling an average of 200,000 albums. That’s a take home value of $46,800. If you’re a solo artist, that’s still not bad. However, if you’re in a band with four members, you’re bringing home $11,700. Suddenly, Starbucks doesn’t sound so bad.
NOW — If you’re an independent artist, who has mediocre record sales of about 15,000, that’s about $150,000 in income. No doubt you’ll have expenses, but even with $50k in operating costs, you’re still coming home with a nice chunk of change. Now, you can open up your own Starbucks chain and live off that income — IF you don’t go out and buy a $100,000 gold chain instead.
Just saying….
This dude is my new favorite rapper, and I can’t stand rappers right now…
“Rap’s so fucking watered down right now, you can be a motherfucking C.O., you can kiss a n***a, and as long as you making good music, these n***as don’t give a fuck.” — Freddie Gibbs
On the flipside, some of you artists may still want to sign with a major label thinking that’s what’s best for you, which could also be correct. Again, props to Bruce Houghton over at Hypebot:
1. Bank - The bigger record labels may not have as much money as they used to, but they probably have a lot more than you do. Money will not solve all your problems or make you a star, but it can be expensive to tour or to stop touring and concentrate on writing and recording, for example.
2. Distribution – Yes, TuneCore, CD Baby and others can put your music for sale online, but you still need a record label and their distribution arm to get you CD’s into stores, and while the scales are tipping toward digital, a third to a half of all sales still come from physical goods.
3. Team - You can’t do it all yourself; you must build a team. Record labels come with a built in team.
4. Experience - Passion can only take you so far. “Been there, done that” can help avoid a lot of mistakes and focus resources where they are like to do the most good.
5. Relationships – It’s not as bad as it used to be; but who you know – or at least get on the phone – sometimes matters. Labels have history and relationships with the media, producers, managers, agents and others that can help you.
I was speaking with a jazz drummer yesterday and we spoke at length about the industry and where it’s been, and it’s future, and what we concluded was nothing has changed in the last 40 years. Artist still want to be signed, others want to do it themselves, and there’s always a crisis within the record industry.
The real question is, do you want to live and breathe music with the small chance that you will not make any money at all? If money is your only motivation, then there are plenty of jobs out there that need another cog in their wheel. The choice is yours….
Not sure how many of you that read this little blog are musicians or aspiring musicians, but I came across this the other day while scouring Hypebot. These are pretty valid points:
1. Competition for Attention – Music artists are already forced to compete for the attention and interest of fans; they shouldn’t have to compete for that attention within their own record label. Labels divvy up their focus between multiple signed artists. Whereas an artist may be giving 100% to developing their music career, a label can only allocate a fraction.
2. Quantity over Quality - A record label’s main concern is the monetary return on their investment, but an artist’s main passion is the quality of the music being produced. Conflicting core values between labels and artists unnecessarily inhibit the creativity and uniqueness of the artists’ music.
3. Taxation without Representation – Labels take a cut of the money earned by artists for performing tasks that the artists could actually do themselves with the right access to resources and guidance. A growing number of site and services including likeZEBRA.com and others offer recording and promotional tools to get the music directly out to an audience without being an expensive middle man.
4. Out of Touch – Labels have a toxic fixation on record sales. This is an anomaly in today’s low record-selling music industry. With the easy access to cheap or free music online, labels are rapidly losing their relevance for turning their focus more towards the importance of live performances. Even major bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails addressed their labels’ irrelevance by selling recent albums directly to fans online.
5. Trade-Offs of Contracts – What does an artist really get in return for signing with a label? Lack of creative control? A portion of their own paychecks? Restrictions and inflexible deadlines? Binding obligations to labels leave much to be desired when artists can now rely on themselves to get their music produced, promoted and purchased.
Props to Bruce Houghton and likeZebra.
Ladies and gentlemen, we present the debut video from Jae Brook, entitled Living In A World. We hope you enjoy it!
Jae Brook
Living In A World
The Wait Is Over EP
Produced by DJ Blakghost
Directed by Slush
CEmuzik 2010
Well, it looks like Kanyeezy just came out of his hole to record a new song called “Power”. Typical Kanye: really good production, still has his swagger turned up to one hundred thousand trillion, and has some funny moments.
Click on image to download mp3
Taylor Swift gives it a 10
Here’s the new one from Degrassi Drake featuring Jigga Man..
I’m really feelin this joint, very mellow. Ok, I admit it, I’m actually looking forward to Drake’s album.
There I said it!
Click on image to download mp3
Next week, we’re debuting the new video from Jae Brook, entitled “Living in a World.” Produced by DJ Blakghost and directed by Slush, “Living in a World” gives Jae Brook’s take on the pitfalls that come when turning over a new leaf.
Dedicated to the nation Haiti, and earthquake victims worldwide.
Here’s a dope tribute video to Guru and Gang Starr, from my man Chris Landry. Here says, “I had the honor of knowing him and working with him a few times over the years. Peace to GURU and of course peace to DJ Premier and the entire Gang Starr foundation. This was made as it should be live on two turntables. There was no pre or post editing so please forgive any sloppy joes..”
Remember when females emcee’s didn’t have to talk about only sex to get radio play? Gone are those days, but you can relive some of those memories on CEmuzik’s own DJ Blakghost’s new classic mixtape, entitled Ladies First.
Ghost is a beast on the 1′s & 2′s, and this mix is ill. Do yourself a favor and download it now.. it’s FREE!
