Frying in Vein

You might remember my feature on Detroit’s V Count Macula and his visually-stunning video for “Smooth Wizardz.”

Well, the man has come back with a follow-up to his debut with “So Damn Busy,” conceived and directed by V Count and his brother. I won’t spend a lot of time writing. Let’s just get to the video, shall we?

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I get this tweet from one of my good friends:

Instantly, my life has been changed. The momentum for this blog build a little more. It is packaging like you see in the video below that fortifies my belief that artists need to make collectable goods. It only took 15 seconds for me to find my wallet and make a pre-sale purchase. I am a fan of Jake One and I dig some Freeway stuff, but if not for the creative shelf-worthy packaging, I would have passed or waited for a friend to send me a CD rip of Stimulus Package.

Now none of this would not be happening if not for forward-thinking independent labels like Rhymesayers Entertainment were not on the job. This particular packaging was designed by Brent Rollins, who has been deemed by Jeff Chang to be the best graphic designer in the hip hop space for the past decade. Rhymesayers fans may remember the unique packaging for Atmosphere’s last album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
Mind you, both Atmosphere and Freeway have seen success on a career level, so they can afford to put that kind of money into their projects. It is probably going to be a stretch to see a lot of the smaller acts having packaging as lavish as Stimulus Package, but that does not mean you should be lazy on your physical goods you plan to sell.

Make sure cop that pre-sale at Fifth Element Online or Amazon (affiliate link – I make money if you use this) for Stimulus Package.

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• Felt: Aesop/Slug/Murs Free MP3/Album Out 11/17 (jambase.com)

In my quest to become one of the premier music marketing minds, the first thing I did was jot down the things I wanted to accomplish while being a music marketer.  My longstanding goal is to become a serial entrepreneur, so in developing my goals I realized that being in marketing is only a means to an end.  This would not have been realized if I had not taken the time to write it all down with pen and paper.  Writing my SMART goals down keeps me focused and accountable to something actual; it also fulfills my human desire for purpose.

This site is a part of my plan to achieve my goal to become a full-time music marketer, which I hope will lead to entrepreneurial opportunities.  Writing blog post on here is not all I feel I need to do, so you can expect the following in the coming months:

• Video Blogs (vlogs) with quick tips, exclusive interviews with music professionals and artists on the move
• Case Studies from my applied work with various artists
• e-Books with practical advice on the sensible to try and build a career as an entertainer
• Branded Products – for all those that just want to show support and keep me along in my quest to achieve my goals

Click here to finish what you started.

The world may make fun of Vanilla Ice, but he was ahead of his time with the epic first line of his biggest hit “Ice Ice Baby.”  In true academic fashion though, a deeper analysis of this statement may show that the phrasing is arranged in the wrong order, at least it may not be the most effective method to getting things accomplished.  Before one can really collaborate, you must be open to listening first.  How else could one really produce a collaborative work otherwise? The likelihood that the work will be anything of merit is not very high.

One of the goals for Detroit CYDI (the hip hop group that I manage) this year is to do get involved in more collaborative projects.  While for the average music artist, collaboration would just mean working another musician or vocalist.  As their manager, I will be looking to help them with that, along with seeking opportunities with visual artists, lifestyle brands and other parties that would prove to be mutually beneficial.

It is always best to listen first before going to work.

Click here to finish what you started.

Leadership by pedrosimoes7

I was on the Weightless Recordings forum the other day and there was an interesting tangent conversation, which happens a lot on web forums, that revolved around the surprise of how much Weightless product a certain fan claimed to have collected. Basically, someone made mention that they have purchased every piece of merchandise the label had ever released. That is quite impressive, if you ask me – a fellow collector.

It was kind of weird to see people on a fan forum poke fun at someone for being too much of a fan. Is that not the point? Mind you, the folks are the forum are pretty much a fun-loving clique. There are plenty of inside jokes and micro-memes that pop up on the regular (Google “Purgatorious“). I know the gang was not really serious in their teasing of another forum member being maybe too open about his STAN tendencies (think: Eminem’s hit).

The real trigger for my slight angst is that a lot of the forum members are actually hobby artists themselves. Now I may be coming off a bit overly sensitive to some, but it would seem that such a group would be more em-/sympathetic to the plight of the independent artist (collective) and/or label, meaning such jokes would not really be propagated. Then I got to thinking about how often links for downloads for new albums are shared on the forum. That is when my blood really got to boiling a little.
Click here to finish what you started.

Ro Spit Collector Set

All right, here is where I draw my line in the sand. I am no longer interested in buying any physical product that does not have any sort of creative effort put into it. I do not care how nice the artist is or how much they need it. I want a personal touch to your CD, t-shirt, flash drive, coffee mug, etc. Otherwise, any requests for my hard-earned money for physical objects will be ignored. Now I will probably still buy your album digitally if it is terrific, but more than likely that is going to be a slower income stream for you. Therefore, if you want get the most immediate bang-for-your-buck from a music buyer like me, then you must have merchandise that is worth the space it takes up on my shelf.

There is a reason I celebrate the Masters of Content, because the exalted supply their fans with goods they are actually happy to have/see.

When giving examples of music acts that have cool swag to buy, there is always the criticism of “those guys can afford to do that. Little guys like [us] cannot.” Here is the deal, folks. You are supposed be creative, so BE CREATIVE/RESOURCEFUL! You could easily come up with cheaply-made customized materials that would be worth more to someone than a regular, cold piece of plastic pressed up with a single sheet insert. I am even going to go one step further with this and give a free suggestion. Being green is in, so recycling is really cool right now. Consider your possibilities.

According to Mike King, author of Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution and Retail, there are 3 basic things that a music act should have as far as merchandise to sell:

• recordings
• t-shirts
• posters

If roll with this ideology, then there is still plenty of room to create distinct items. CDs do not have to be placed in a jewel case. T-shirts do not need to carry your band’s logo on it. Posters can be handmade; heck, so can CDs and t-shirts.

Know of any clever merchandise concepts that you have seen to share with curious artists?

Uzi Does It - GBC-Hollywood

If you are not aware, I am the manager of the hip hop group, Detroit CYDI.  Lately I have been reading the blog by Ian Rogers, manager of my newest point of interest – Get Busy Committee.  Inspired by his well-developed plan for his group, I am now looking to evoke similar progress from my own managerial efforts. Much like myself, Mr. Rogers does not have substantial experience managing music acts.  It is facts like this that keep me motivated in this crazy, unpredictable industry.  As long as there are smart folks like Ian Rogers willing to take chances, I figure my work is not in vain.

Click here to finish what you started.

Post-industrial-pre-resurgence Detroit meets Clockwork Orange. If you like this, please share. This gem has been on Youtube since SEPTEMBER and it only has 150 views. My marketing brain has some thoughts on this, but consider this my way of doing what I can to help some talented folks.

The group is Blackreign and Ohkang, featuring O’Nasty as a guest. They are from Detroit, MI, where a lot of great music is made that does not get heard by the mainstream populace. I swear it is not bias either. Save a talent with a retweet or a Facebook update!

Thanksgiving at the Trolls by floodllama

Greetings all,
I hope you all had a great Thursday, regardless of what you did. Here at Frying in Vein, I am not trying to force any discussion on holidays, but we all know yesterday was Thanksgiving and whether or not you participate in the American tradition you can still enjoy a good old funk mix. This particular one was produced by an old friend of the Frying in Vein site, dj_pi aka Paul Karatsinides. You can take a listen below and/or click the widget to download.

Here it is, Thanks For Giving… Funk 45’s… Part II by dj_pi:

Interested in the tracklisting? Well, here you go, little babies:

Pace-Setters – Push On Jesse Jackson
Chester Randle’s Soul Sender’s – Soul Brother’s Testify (Part 2)
Creative Funk – Funk Power
Coque – People Let’s Communicate (Part I)
Sargent Kelly – I Like It
The Summits – It Takes Two
The Village Callers – Hector
The U-F-O’s – Too Hot To Hold
The People’s Choice – Hot Wire
Sidney Owens & North, South Connection – Sputnik
Fantastic Epics – Fun and Funk Part II

Saw a tweet from my favorite urban tastemaker magazine, The Fader, about this video and I had to check it out.

My first listen to Zomby was on a mix curated by Your Brutha brub, who is someone that should be on your radar if he isn’t already. He is definitely the most organized dude when it comes to his social media interaction AND he still uses MySpace faithfully.

I usually want to have a ton to added info, but I got some bigger things coming up for the site. Enjoy the trippy visuals and the Zomby sounds. If you like what you hear, dig deeper and search his catalogue.