Selling Hopes & Dreams: Barack Obama Merch
Barack Obama For President T-Shirt
Barack Obama Mask
Barack Obama Autographed Dreams From My Father
Barack Obama President Collector Card
I Love Barack Obama Long Sleeve T-shirt
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Headlines to Your Site or Blog: Widgetbox MuseStorm Widget ProHipHop Network |
Hip-Hop News Plus Tupac Shakur Info |
« January 6, 2008 - January 12, 2008 | Main | January 20, 2008 - January 26, 2008 »
Barack Obama For President T-Shirt
Barack Obama Mask
Barack Obama Autographed Dreams From My Father
Barack Obama President Collector Card
I Love Barack Obama Long Sleeve T-shirt
If the Grammys are cancelled musicians will lose a huge marketing opportunity unless the scabs help save the day.
Last night I removed my comments regarding Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama that were somewhat tacked on to a post about judges and stock ownership.
I did it, in part, because a reader got really upset and though they claimed that was about something they assumed I did but did not do and did not say I did, it may have been because I was undermining their Obama dreams and I don't need to do that.
I wasn't going to talk about taking down the material unless someone asked until I read this post about Talib Kweli's comments on Barack Obama and voting over at The Rap Up.
It sounds like Kweli has maintained a strong stance against voting for awhile, though I don't know the details, and is reconsidering it because he's so inspired by Barack Obama.
At this point I should point out for folks that don't know that I am an anarchist. Though many anarchists would deny that because, believe it or not, most of the noisy judgmental ones have massive amounts of rules, that denial can't stop me from knowing who and what I am.
That said, I do support voting as a tactic though so-called representative democracy is a shadow version of what I would consider democracy because you're voting for someone who is ultimately unaccountable for years at a time.
But I don't want to put my faith in politicians or be inspired by them for twp very specific reasons:
1) They can be assassinated and if your movement is built around a cult of personality it will die. It's a sign of the strength of the Civil Rights Movement that the assassination of Martin Luther King did not stop them from completing their initial mission.
2) Most shiny happy politicians have a down side that ultimately feels like a betrayal to me when I'm on my shiny happy purity trip and they turn out to be as human as the rest of us.
On that note, if you're putting your faith in Barack Obama because he's black and smart and looks good and is a great speaker and doesn't have too bad a visible past, except for that pesky drug issue which the Republicans are going to exploit like a m*therf*cker, consider how you will proceed to realize your political dreams:
A) If Barack Obama is assassinated.
B) If Barack Obama loses.
C) If Barack Obama turns out to have a significant downside or chooses/gets forced to enact business as usual in the White House.
If your movement can't handle any of those outcomes, you are on very shaky ground in terms of serious social and political change and don't really have a movement. What you have is a cult of personality.
That said, it saddens me that black Democrats are currently Obama's biggest threat. Barack Obama is the logical extension of the Civil Rights Movement because the conditions for him to come into existence required such a movement and the radical change it brought to the United States. The attack on Barack by such folks is a strong example of how leadership can be coopted once there is money and legitimacy to be had.
PS:
If you're going to actually work to get Barack Obama into office, you should be thinking about how you're going to counter the Republican attacks on Obama that will characterize him as a drug dealer who listens to gangster rap, i.e., a menace to society. Saying "shame on you" or "that's not true" isn't going to get you nearly as far as it did with Bob Johnson cause the Republicans do not give a f*ck about your opinions if you can't back them up with action, yadadamean?
Stones Throw 102: In Living The True Gods
Stones Throw 102: In Living The True Gods is due February 12th from Stones Throw.
Track List from Amazon:
MUSIC VIDEOS:
1. Madvillain "Accordion" PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
2. Madvillain "Monkey Suite"
3. MED "Push"
4. Stones Throw Singers "Rain Of Earth"
5. Gary Wilson "Gary's in the Park"
6. Aloe Blacc "Busking"
7. James Pants "Do a Couple of Things"
8. Oh No ft. J.Dilla and Roc C "Move"
9. Baron Zen "At The Mall"
10. Roc C ft. Aloe Blacc "My Life"
11. Lootpack "Crate Diggin'"
12. Quasimoto "Bullysh*t"
13. J Dilla "Nothing Like This"
14. Madlib "Take It Back"
BONUS FEATURES:
J Dilla 2003 Interview
Quasimoto(?) Live in S.F.
Jaylib Live at Conga Room
Charizma & PB Wolf "Studio Time 92"
The Funky 16 Corners Rehearsal
"Move" Behind The Scenes
Official Site:
Stones Throw Records
Via My Chemical Toilet, one of the best names I've heard for a music blog since We eat so many shrimp.
I've added a bunch more artists to ProHipHop's Jango Jukebox and given it its own page. Currently the link is in the upper right hand column.
It's a weird mix but that's because it reflects my range of interests though a lot of artists weren't available. I also left out some folks I'm tired of hearing all the time.
I've taken the ads out of the ProHipHop feed and upped the ads in the Hip Hop Press feed.
Hopefully that's a positive for my ProHipHop core readers and an understandable addition to Hip Hop Press which is a free marketing vehicle for a lot of folks.
I'll be posting more tomorrow and over the weekend but I'll also be prioritizing my new project that will launch early next week, probably on Tuesday. I actually wanted to launch it during my 12 Hour Blogging Project but it's been a lot more work than expected.
Till soon.
No time to talk but I thought those interested in reality tv would find these two announcements of interest. I'm highlighting the rap angle but, like they say, it's bigger [and yet so much smaller] than hip hop!
Michael Hirschorn and Stella Stolper Form Ish Entertainment and Announce First-Look Deal With MTV Networks Music and Logo Group:
"The company, which will be based in Los Angeles and New York, launches with a commitment to three series under a first-look deal with MTV, VH1, CMT, and Logo...The deal will provide Ish with development funding and overhead with the aim of bringing Hirschorn's successful development and production talents not only to VH1 but to the entire Music and Logo Group."
"During his six years at VH1, the last three as head of original programming, Hirschorn oversaw a remarkable string of hits, from "I Love the 80s" and "Best Week Ever" to "Hogan Knows Best," "The (White) Rapper Show," "The Salt n' Pepa Show," and "Flavor of Love," including its many spin-offs. He also recently won an Emmy as an executive producer of "DMC: My Adoption Journey," one of the many documentaries developed under VH1's emerging "Rock Docs" shingle."
"Stolper, meanwhile, has been responsible for bringing top talent to the network, including Drew Barrymore, the Wayans Brothers, Mo'Nique, Larry The Cable Guy and many more."
VH1 Announces New and Expanded Roles for Creative Team Responsible for Over Five Years of Record-Breaking Programming:
"In development news, VH1 has given the greenlight to three new projects."
"VH1 has partnered with P.Diddy on a reality competition series that will search the country for someone who has the smarts and stamina to be the hip hop mogul's assistant. The series is slated to premiere in Summer 2008."
""egotrip's Miss Rap Supreme" -- VH1 has once again teamed up with ego trip for a brand new series that follows on the heels of the hugely successful "ego trip's The (White) Rapper Show" series. "ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme" puts a distaff twist on the South Bronx-based series that challenged contestants' musical "cred," knowledge of hip hop culture and their ideas about race."
"Ten female contestants from across the country will live in a house in Los Angeles where their quick-witted rhymes, stage presence and their mental toughness will be put to the test in this 8 episode series. Rap legend Michael "MC Serch" Berrin (of the group 3rd Bass) returns with a new partner, Grammy Award-nominated rapper Yo-Yo. Set to premiere in April 2008."
Both the Diddy assistant search and ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme sound like real winners. I won't be watching them but I bet they'll rake in the dough.
The assistant search is particularly interesting since the first round started on YouTube, went to Oprah's show and inspired a VH1 series. That's a very, very smart use of the web as a test platform.
On that note, I stand by my criticisms of Diddy's assistant game but criticizing someone for the way they exploit a platform is not the same as saying they won't make money off it. That's why any analysis based on Web 2.0 values should not be assumed to be an analysis of the possible success of a company's business model unless it's positioning itself as upholding or monetizing those values.
Over at WikiAnswers:
Q: How does sugar rush raise heart rate?
Answer
I LIKE PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CunninLynguists - K.K.K.Y. from Dirty Acres
CunninLynguists' Dirty Acres won the UGHH.com People's Choice Honor for Best Album of 2007 beating out Marco Polo's Port Authority.
Congratulations!
Via the QN5 Blog.
ProHipHop's Jango Jukebox Widget
This Jango Jukebox widget is pretty darn cool though you never know who they're going to have at this stage and who's still missing. The lack of photos for some of these artists is kind of odd as well but it's still pretty darn cool.
It's getting so that bothering to license stuff makes a lot less sense than tossing up a widget from a Web 2.0 company doing the heavy lifting and that's one more piece of the puzzle to make small fry competitive with those whose pockets are much deeper.
Web 1.0: Business Development
Web 2.0: Widget Distribution
On a sad note for Jango, their press release at PR Web, which includes a framed version of the site at the bottom of the page as on many PR Web releases, automatically redirects to Jango.com.
You can hit the back button and then stop to keep it from doing that but if you're not interested in toying around, you can read what they're claiming over at Hip Hop Press.
Now if the width was customizable so you could add it to a blog sidebar, these guys would really have something. I don't understand why so many widget makers are ignoring the obvious but that's a lot of opportunities to pass up especially when you claim to have created a widget for "personal blogs".
Sometime in the next few weeks I'll be going through and removing posts including stuff that no longer represents what I'm trying to do here and material featuring dead links or videos. If there's something you want to hold me to later, copy it now.
On a related note, I'm disappointed to note that some folks are pulling promos and commercials, as opposed to full length music videos, off their sites after their initial pr push is done and that's unfortunate because they're going to lose their posts entirely if that's what was featured. That's doubly unfortunate because it includes up and comers that I like and wanted to give a little shine.
Whether or not you want to have a presence at ProHipHop, taking down a commercial or related video that you as an artist or label guy actually have the right to post is kind of ridiculous.
Have you heard about back catalogs? They're all the rage among those who actually get paid.
Unless, of course, everyone has already seen the commercial, copped the cd and is waiting for your next "highly anticipated" release.
But you know that even the great Jay-Z can't claim that honor so how could you?
On a different note, I'm getting ready to launch a news-related project at ProHipHop so I may have to pull back for a day or two. I'm looking forward to launching it because it represents where ProHipHop is headed and will give some attention to a lot of great sites that don't make my usual coverage including some folks that straight up hate me [and vice versa in some cases, but not all].
If I do disappear temporarily, please don't think it's because I don't care. I actually care a lot more than is healthy.
I was reminded of the uproar regarding an interview with UMG CEO Doug Morris back in late November by a post at My Global Hustle Blog.
Everybody's calling him clueless* in some form and I usually take that route when dealing with such entities but if you're really wanting to understand what's going on and why choices that appear clueless have been inevitable for major labels, read the following:
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business
The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
I refer to Christensen and associates work from time to time and, now that I'm on the third book, I'll have to say it's taught me more about the current troubles of the music industry, without ever mentioning it, than any of the online writers I respect and that's saying a lot.
I would hesitate to point these books out because they speak directly to the current competition among online hip hop media outlets except for the fact that most of those people will scoff at the notion.
And thank goodness for that. It gives the rest of us a little room to build before big money hip hop media catches up and things get really nasty.
*I should note that in the Wired blog post and probably in other writings the term cluelessness was used because Morris said he didn't know much about technology and didn't know who to hire to take the company forward using technology. Considering how hard it is to evaluate and hire somebody with decent knowledge of PHP or Wordpress, why do people find it surprising that it's hard to evaluate and hire someone to lead a major initiative when any technical person at that level can bs their way through any tech discussion with a non-technical person?
As Terra Firma drops the bomb on EMI employees and "unproductive" artists, the big stars they're banking on are getting upset.
I wonder how long it will take for EMI to go from private equity to vulture capitalists?
D12 Offers Guest Verse for $750
Miss Info accurrately characterize this video of D12's Bizarre offering guest verses for $750 as "Tragic Hilarity" only I can't get past the tragic part.
I bet this will be down in a week if not before.
The DirtBag Music social network has launched with some interesting features designed to connect artists and fans:
"Dirtbag Music provides free world wide video and voice calls for every user, a complete e-commerce engine to monetize online digital content and advance mobile applications that ensure artists and fans can stay connected. The site's peer-to-peer world-wide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality utilizes an advanced multimedia instant messenger system, termed "Blab Box" creating real-time social interaction between users."
In addition to allowing fans to hook up, such features are being positioned as a unique opportunity for artists:
"Bands and fans can now interact in real time through video sessions, personalized lessons, chats, concerts, interviews, rehearsals, tour bus updates and other reality based campaigns."
Upcoming features will open up additional monetization possibilities:
"When fully implemented in late Spring, the site also provides individualized e-commerce platforms, like eBay, which allows each member to choose which products or features they want to monetize. For example, a band can choose to sell music tracks, merchandise, video chats, lessons, ringtones or whatever else the bands can invent and market."
The advisory board includes DJ Skribble, Scott Ian and Ron Thal.
DirtBag Music is a spinoff of DirtBag Clothing and the whole project has a heavy rock feel. Nevertheless, the unique features combined with DJ Skribble's involvement brought it to ProHipHop.
Official Site:
DirtBag Music
I didn't expect a record label announcement from an Apple/Jay-Z combo at this year's Macworld Expo. I don't think Apple would make Jay-Z a president because they don't need to give away titles to get people on board and corporate presidents are typically focused on operations which doesn't seem to be Jay-Z's forte.
I wouldn't have been surprised by a marketing type deal but, according to Duncan Riley at TechCrunch, looks like they got Randy Newman for star power to close the show.
I was also checking Gizmodo's live blog manned by Jason Chen. Those guys are boring in real time without some kind of prank to work with.
And Jason Chen doesn't know anything about Randy Newman. All he knows is Toy Story. What an idiot.
Randy Newman's a devastating critic of American society when he chooses to be so whatever he was singing, it seems to have gone over the Gizmodo brain trust like so many wispy clouds.
I just checked back for Duncan Riley's closing coverage at Techcrunch. That guy is a fool.
Update:
Duncan Riley pulled some stuff from the post but my statement stands based on his history of stupid statements.
Reminder for those on the come up:
Want To Get Famous? Mount a Guerrilla Attack on Gizmodo!
Here's an interesting angle on the Interscope steroid scandal from MTV's Jayson Rodriquez who takes a quick look at the possibility of the use of steroids and HGH as youth drugs.
Apparently growth hormones may actually decrease the overall lifespan and, I was reading somewhere else, such substances may cause internal organs to swell along with all the other growth.
These guys really seem like suckers to me. Weren't they already rich before they started shortening their lives?
There's going to be some weird lawsuits and public meltdowns over this one, no doubt.
Kind of makes 50 Cent's good health rep look pretty damn fraudulent. I imagine he'll handle the marketing implications by going on lots of shows and pumping his next product.
I just feel bad for the kids that are going to start buying more illegal steroids to keep the pace with their heroes.
Ok, all you smarty pants bloggers that always know more than me, what happened to Just Blaze's blog?
That's a lot of dead links.
At least I retain the text of my masterwork:
Studio Meltdown: Just Blaze Hallucinates, Saigon Dies
Nicolay & Kay - Time:Line
Nicolay & Kay's Time:Line is due February 12th from Nicolay Music.
And if you skipped Nicolay's Here that's your loss but there's still time to enjoy it.
Over at Vidrap:
Nicolay & Kay: As The Wheel Turns ~ Gunshot
Related Coverage:
Flight 808 Interview With Nicolay
Can I tell you that I'm really upset by the abusive actions of the California Supreme Court?
"For years, Braxton Berkley was exposed to chemicals while helping build top-secret military planes at Lockheed Martin's storied Skunk Works plant. He says those chemicals made him ill - but his case reached a dead end at the state's highest court."
"The California Supreme Court has refused to hear his appeal not on legal merits, but because four of the seven justices cited a conflict of interest because they controlled stock in oil companies that provided some of the solvents at issue in the case."
""It's unfair and I am very disgusted with the courts," said Berkley, who worked at Lockheed during the height of the Cold War and is now a minister in Pacoima, Calif. He suffers from diabetes and arthritis that he says were caused by the chemicals. "A lot of my friends died because of the toxic chemicals we handled.""
These guys should not be allowed any investments at all and this is a very clear reason why.
Global Grind (globalgrind.com) is no longer pursuing the task of introducing Flash/Ajax start pages to the masses.
Now it seems to be combining recommended and popular items with selected newsfeeds.
A lot of startups start one place and end up in radically different ones so abandoning their initial position as stated to the press at launch is not inherently good or bad though it does suggest it wasn't working.
This version is a bit more understandable at first glance than GG 1.0 but I wonder if active members got a warning that they were going to lose their start pages. I'm registered but did not receive any kind of notification so I don't know what's up with that. Maybe there weren't enough to be concerned.
Update:
I should note that there is a Digg-like angle involved and some related design but I think it's a mistake to label Global Grind a Digg clone though perhaps the hope is that the news ranking aspect will become more important as members get involved.
Angela Benton at Black Web 2.0 has an interesting take though I find it questionable:
"While I wasn’t opposed to the startpage concept, in fact Black Web 2.0 readers are probably in the minority when it comes to familiarity with Web 2.0 concepts, I think the user experienced may have been to advanced for the majority of GlobalGrind users. Switching to a more familiar design model could serve as an important lesson learned. What works in mainstream web use is in fact perhaps 1 to 2 years away if not more within our minority demographic. What do you think about GlobalGrind’s redesign? Is it simpler to use? Is the Digg concept still to foreign for the demo?"
I'm not really buying the "dumb it down" argument. As I've argued previously, Global Grind did not actually present a more newbie friendly version of Netvibes, they just said they were and their claims were taken at face value. Their user interface was actually less newbie friendly and focusing on hip hop content couldn't change that.
Blaming the audience on this one suggests more of a failure of analysis than a pragmatic response to the limitations of that audience.
I was trying to figure out if anybody had an early call on the Interscope steroid scandal but the posts and news items and blog comments speculating on steroid use by various Interscope artists seems to go back to whenever they first appeared looking cut.
Now we know what 50 Cent meant when he said he was going to put M.O.P. in the gym. He meant "on the needle".
That M.O.P. post led to me starting the 50 Cent category cause it was one more example of his marketing juice!
Interestingly enough, though Busta Rhymes hasn't been mentioned legally as far as I know, I've been finding more speculations about him than about anyone else.
Anybody know when The Game first got all cut? Maybe after he signed with 50? Roid rage may well have contributed to their harsh breakup.
I doubt this story will get much more interesting, except for whoever else gets exposed, but I just love it when a wall of the hip hop hall of marketing mirrors gets broken and we get to see the sordid poker game going on in the backroom.
Soundtrack - Step Up 2 The Streets
The Step Up 2 The Streets soundtrack include both Flo Rida's Low and two new songs from Missy Elliott's upcoming album.
Track Listing:
1. Low (FloRida feat. T-Pain)
2. Shake Your Pom Pom (Missy Elliott)
3. Killa (Cherish feat. Yung Joc)
4. Hypnotized (Plies feat. Akon)
5. Is It You (Cassie)
6. Can't Help But Wait (Trey Songz feat. Plies) (Remix)
7. Church (T-Pain feat. Teddy Verseti)
8. Ching-A-Ling (Missy Elliott)
9. Push (Enrique Iglesias)
10. 3-6-9 (Cupid feat. B.o.B)
11. Impossible (Bayje)
12. Lives In Da Club (Sophia Fresh feat. Jay Lyriq)
13. Girl You Know (Scarface f/ Trey Songz)
14. Say Cheese (KC)
15. 15.Let It Go (Brit & Alex)
16. Ain't No Stressin (Montana Tucker, Sikora and Denial)
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Step Up 2 The Streets Opens on Valentine's Day, Music Video Mash Up, Official Sites
Albums: Step Up 2 The Streets Soundtrack #13
Over a year after launching what I'm informed was the beta version of Block Savvy, Damon Dash is expected to announce the launch of whatever happens after that. Personally, I would use the term relaunch and avoid the world premiere approach but, hey, I'm a nutty web guy so what do I know?
Due to lack of contrast between the text and background Jack Davey's attack on the music industry is nearly unreadable but Couch Sessions has a readable version and a cosign.
Here's the opening line:
"this is intended for all of you lowly puppets who sit in your big offices in big buildings that will soon be out of business & thus, forced to hold vacant memories of an industry that once was."
Seriously, is any industry more hated by the people who produce its core product than the music industry?
Sage Francis does a nice job of exposing one MySpace promo fraudster with a dialogue that reminds me of some of the approaches used to mess with Nigerian con artists except the company is conning music fans rather than the artists themselves.
Basically you can pay to get plays on your MySpace profile, an important thing for artists. Sage Francis got the behind-the-scenes scammer info but I really wish he'd ask them not to give him some free plays to demonstrate the service but to share some success stories regarding particular musicians to see if he could have gotten some names.
In any case, nice work!
Via GRANDGOOD.
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Gydget for Langarado Music Festival
The Langarado Music Festival is a rock, roots and world music festival that includes the Beastie Boys. But you're hearing about it here because I like this widget, or Gydget, as the creators call it.
It's a pretty cool self-contained widget that efficiently crams a lot into a small space without overloading it. There's also a contest for tickets and airfare to the festival for people who post it on their sites.
The Gydget service is free though the Learn More button currently takes you to a sign-up page before they'll tell you more.
I wasn't going to write about Kanye West's God post, not because I thought people would object, but because I had this fantasy of getting on Kanye's blogroll!
Letting fantasies f*ck with your editorial is very bad and I want to be very good so let's leave that fantasy aside and look at how Team Kanye feeds fan worship.
I call it the God post because after lots of posts with no interaction with the readers, Kanye, or one of his operatives (I think a lot of this has to be an assistant), reprinted a comment as a blog post that asked Kanye if he was reading the comments.
It was ambiguous enough as to why it was there, because there's no additional commentary, that the commenters either puzzled over it like some obscure religious document or used it as another opportunity to profess their love.
Celeb blogging's cool because it gives one a much clearer picture of how famous people feel they should communicate with their followers after other media entities have been removed from the picture.
I despise one way communications and pretend efforts at showing one's love to one's fans and I'm getting kind of tired of seeing what they cherry pick from the best design blogs. I've got better sources for that stuff so, when the personal edge is removed, I'm just reading this thing to get occasional tidbits that might help my bottom line.
And that's good cause fantasies of being Kanye's friend, like these nutty fans, or on Kanye's blogroll, like nutty Clyde, are fantasies, and I've got better things to imagine.
Marcus Reeves - Somebody Scream!
Marcus Reeves' Somebody Scream!: Rap Music's Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power is due March 18th from Faber & Faber.
Review:
Rap music analysis unusually honest
Via The Rap Up.
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony opened up the ears of Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the Negro League's Baseball Museum, with The Negro Leagues Anthem.
He says their song shows they know what's up with both baseball and the Negro Leagues and it's giving him a great start on a planned hip hop cd "salute" to that history.
Kevin Federline is said to be focused on production and developing new artists from his home studio as a possible alternate route into the music business.
If that was an option, would you take a deal involving Kevin Federline?
"The Times Union of Albany cited unnamed sources in a Sunday report that R&B music star Mary J. Blige, rap musicians 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry may have received or used performance enhancing drugs."
Kottonmouth Kings - Greatest Highs
To receive this report separately each week, please visit Weekly Hip Hop Albums and sign up for our free weekly newsletter delivered every Monday with Tuesday's releases.
The following new releases are available from Amazon.
Black Milk - Caltroit
Chino XL & Playalitical - Something Sacred
EDO.G & Da Bulldogs - Acting [Full Album]
Kottonmouth Kings - Greatest Highs [2 CDs]
Mopreme Shakur - Black and Brown Pride
Thug Life Army Records - In the Shadow of an Icon
Wildchild - Jack Of All Trades [2 CDs]
For a database of upcoming and past releases with updates,
please see Hip Hop Albums @ netweed.
Music industry news from Hypebot:
Sony BMG became the last major label group to drop copy protection. DRM-free Tracks are expected to be available via Amazon before the end of the month.
A look at The Amazon Effect - how the actions of the internet retailer are changing the music industry.
More layoffs and major changes are ahead at EMI.
Marketing Guru Seth Godin published The Music Lesson - manifesto for change in the industry to varied reactions. Add your opinions in a poll.
Yahoo Music appears poised for major changes.
Hypebot shared 10 Music Industry Predictions for 2008 and Our Digital Music looked at next year from a consumer's perspective.
Here's a day by day roundup of other music industry news from last week including a slew of announcements from CES.
A new Yankee Research study predicts the marginalization of record labels.
A 4QFor (4 Questions For) interview with KnowTheMusicBusiness.com's David Rose.
imeem added a full slate of MTV Networks programming.
NEXT WEEK: The Macworld Conference & Expo and Future Week on Hypebot - a look at 2008 and beyond in the music industry.
See ProHipHop's Hypebot Industry News category for past roundups.
According to Amazon Rick Ross' Trilla has been pushed back again to March 11th.
And there are a bunch of other hip hop albums due this year that still have no release date.
Seeded by Hashim Warren's observation that SOHH had recently surpassed AllHipHop's status as the top hip hop website based on Compete.com analytics, Rafi Kam makes the case that SOHH's success is based on searches for 2 Girls 1 Cup.
All sorts of interesting closing lines keep popping into my head but let's just leave this one at that.
Limits on Compete Data:Not to put a damper on things since I like using Compete for this kind of thing as well but I should point out that Compete typically presents my netweed site as having as much as twice the traffic of ProHipHop when the opposite is actually true based on my internal site data from Google Analytics.
Update:
I finally figured out why Compete makes netweed look bigger than ProHipHop. It's quite reasonable but the info is for ProHipHop insiders only. However that does take away my original objection and supports Rafi's analysis.
Hip hop loves the gangsters and Scarface was one of the biggest.
Now, Al Capone's grandson is set to release his memoir, Son of Scarface!!!
Wow, not only is he the grandson of Scarface but he's the son as well, since memoir's are autobiographical.
This is either a very twisted tale or some very weird marketing.
Obviously I don't know what's up with the details of the $170,000 U-God lawsuit against the Wu-Tang Clan but, given all the complaints regarding money and power among Wu-Tang members in '07, this looks like a bad start for '08.
At least these guys aren't shooting at each other but, then again, [insert lawyer joke here].
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