Marketing Hip-Hop Online

XXLMag.com

Interesting post taking a look at Warner Music Group’s action to remove YouTube videos of artists on their label. Equally interesting comment response from “N DOT C”.

Excerpt:

In late December, Warner Music Group asked Youtube to pull all of its artists videos from the popular video-sharing site. WMG’s argument was that they wanted to see more money from licensing their content to Youtube. In statement at the time, WMG said:

“We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide.”

A month later, I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve tried to find a video on Youtube, not even knowing the artist was on Warner, until I get the “this video no longer exists” message. Which sucks, because if you just google anything, the youtube link that used to exist is what comes up as the first result.

Check out the whole post here

Charles Hamilton

Up and coming rap cat Charles Hamilton, a rapidly rising blip on the rap radar (sorry Elliott Wilson), known to anyone due to his very effective internet marketing prowess, stumbled a bit the other night at NY club SOBs, when he voluntarily, and largely “for fun”, challenged battle-rap veteran Serius Jones to a bit of hip-hop verbal sparring. It was widely reported amongst internet murmuring, that Hamilton lost pretty badly.

My good friend, and obviously, my Favorite White Boy, broke down his declaration of victory for Charles Hamilton that night, backed by a solid argument. Part of his reasoning:

Serius Jones is known primarily as a battle rapper.  Most heads saw him kill Jin on the mic a few years back.   This dude is comfortable in a battle going off the top.  And its not like Charles Hamilton doesn’t provide ample amounts of material to mock.  So, Serius in a battle is nothing new.  Oh, and he has an album to promote.

Charles on the other hand has been widely dismissed as a “rapper/blogger” who really shouldn’t be taken seriously as a hip-hop artist.  He wears pink and talks about air conditioners and God.  Its no small feat that this dude stepped up and went toe-to-toe with a battle vet and left standing.  And if you watch the video, he held his own.

Serius Jones

Ok, fair enough. However, I then conducted a quick, non-scientific poll. I twitter searched “Hamilton” and “Serius” and counted the responses that were more than just someone sharing a link. I counted any tweet that had an opinion. 11/11 declared that Serius “murked”, “killed”, “got in that a**”, or otherwise affirmed what I have felt is a general consensus that Hamilton lost this semi-friendly battle.

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OK, so not necessarily Hip-Hop related, but relevant nonetheless…

[As seen on HipHopPRWire.com]

Now, I am twitter-acquaintances of some of those involved with this publication, and applaud anyone attempting the VERY difficult task of launching a PRINT mag these days. But ladies, please accept a couple of quick thoughts:

1. The day after it happened, I noticed the launch party being twitted about. To be fair, I’m not sure by who exactly, but they mentioned the B+C launch party. Because I like to keep up on new ventures, especially in journalism, I clicked the twitter profile of the poster, who was obviously a part of the mag. No info about the mag, no hint as to the full name of the mag, and most noticeable, no website link! My split-second span of curiosity was gone, and I moved on.
2. Today, when looking through the press wire, I saw the headline of the press release. Not sure why I opened it, though I suppose it is a curiosity-inducing enough headline. I read the release, and realized that this was the same mag. But again, no website. Not even a “coming soon” page with a quick email collection link “to be alerted” when the mag is available.

Advice? Remember that EVERY touch with someone must be thought of as a potential grab of attention. Twitter profiles must have some indication of your venture, a website address, etc. Twitter is a swirl of bits of info, but those who would “overhear” your conversation with another, might be interested enough to check in on you, but not interested enough to contact you directly. These folks are called ‘lurkers’, who observe more than interact, but their attention is as vital as any others.

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So Koch Records, Koch Entertainment, et. al., successful noisemakers in the independant record business, announced that they are being rebranded, in accordance with their parent company E1.

The name change was “effective immediately” as of Jan. 23, 2009.

Interesting that the Koch websites don’t reflect this, a full four days after the announcement. There is no also no apparant E1-branded website to match, although www.e1entertainment.com has a “coming soon”, and seems a possible candidate.

To me, this just seems like a sloppy transition.

Advice? When changing ANYTHING (your name, your logo, your website address, your phone number, etc.) do it swiftly and across all channels as simultaneous as possible. When completely altering the name or logo or conducting other drastic changes, it a good idea to keep the old AND the new during a pre-determined “grace period”, before finally shutting the door on the old. This will allow visitors to acclimate to the upcoming change, instead of potentially causing confusion by the simple flipping of the switch, so to speak.

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[As seen on Craigslist]

Aspiring R&B singer/rapper needs an entourage to help with entrances and ‘causing a scene’

- Experience in dance a plus
- Male and female accepted
- Attire will be provided
- Aspiring singers and actors need not apply (not looking for competition)
- Positive outlook a MUST
- Thirst for danger also a major plus
- Must work Nights and Weekends

This is not your normal job! applicants must be SERIOUS about being part of something bigger than themself (my posse)!

The light of heart need not apply!

Please include qualifications and picture imbedded in the e-mail ATTACHMENTS WILL NOT BE OPENED!

* Location: (NYC)
* it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: $50

I don’t know about you, but my thirst for danger is worth at least $75. Then again, attire is included. (Luckily I don’t sing.)

As twitterer and ad-discoverer @cyberprvideo so eloquently stated, “Is this what hip hop/r&b have come to??”

Let’s play devil’s advocate. What could you hope to accomplish here? You invite a bunch of strangers, with the implication that you want to “cause a scene” upon entering an establishment. They need to thirst for danger, AND know how to dance… Could this mean you want this entourage to:

• A) Break out into a choreographed dance fight as soon as you enter the club, a la West Side Story, or Beat It?
• B) Immediately punch the first people they see?
• C) Grope and fondle the “artist” throughout the night in an attempt to prove how irresistible he/she is?
• D) Break out into a choreographed game of Duck, Duck, Grey, Goose?

Ah, but where does the thirst for danger come in? Must be closer to ‘B’.

If you have to pay people to act like you are worth entouraging, you might want to reconsider things.

And what exactly, would “qualify” someone to do this sort of thing? Would someone have to….

Oh, forget the commentary, this is just plain silly.

Advice? Well, probably wise if you actually become worthy of a real group of friends/fans/groupies who will a) do this for free, b) be sincere, c) won’t do anything that will go TOO far, for fear of hurting your image.

The … ingenuity of the … request… is… interesting. But it sounds like a very unplanned plan that could easily backfire, or worse yet, succeed, until exposed, and then implode.