You Can Plan or Not Plan, But It’s Still A Business

Well peeps!!!! You know I am back with other blog post and at this rate I might consider becoming a professional blogger…….Sike!!!! Blogging is not my style, but this month blog post is on Business Plan Experts. I never knew they had such a profession, but I should have known there is such a thing. You can turn anything into a professional gig in this world. Now let us get down to blogging. First up is Steve Gedeon or Dr. Gedeon.

Steve Gedeon is an entrepreneurship educator at Ryerson University with over 100 articles publishes, reports and patents. Steve has also won the President’s Award of Teaching Excellence. In this 2011 video on YouTube, Steve Gedeon puts emphasis on these key points that investors look for in a business plan. The Executive Summary, Management Team, stating that most investors will take the “A” team with a “B” plan over the “B” team with an “A” plan. Follow by the Overall Business Idea and last but not least, the never forgotten part, the grand finale……the Financials. These points determine the strength of a business plan and possibly the success rate. I will take all of the points mention into consideration when I write my business plan. They are all equally important and cannot be over looked; a professional spoke them on. Next up is Chuck Blakeman.

Chuck Blakeman is an author, speaker, and founder of the Crankset Group. He has been featured and quoted in Entrepreneur Magazine and CNNMoney.com. He speaks yearly with over 100+ workshops around the world. Chuck believes business plans are a thing of the past. He writes, “Why Business Plans Are a Business Disease” on his website. Chuck feels business plans are killing businesses. “The industrial era is over and that pre-planning mindset that came with it is stopping us from being creative,” as stated by Chuck.  I know first hand that when I am doing a lot of pre-planning for something like a road-trip, a lot of times the trip is not fun; because I spent a lot of time planning for something to go wrong. Massive pre-planning like you see in three to five year business plans is a business disease as said by Chuck. Just plan as you move forward. Something’s that Chuck mentions as profitable points to help when talking to investors are how fast can you make money, what is the lifetime goals and your business maturity date. These key considerations are self-explanatory. The lifetime goals will be the one I will focus on, it speaks on keeping my business in business over time. You have to plan for the future but live in the moment.

Is the Music Industry Bad or Just Hip Hop/Rap?

This is a question I have asked myself a lot over the years in my short life on this planet. We all love the Music Industry to some extent. It puts a smile on our faces or help guides us through some tuff times or even help us express ourselves in varies ways. The Music Industry spreads love, anger, hate, positivity, and gives people a voice that normally would not say anything.  These are just some of the wonders of the Music Industry that demands so much of our personal world, but there is a dark side. A very dark side of the Music Industry, I would go as far as to call it an outlawed stepchild or political scapegoat. I am talking about the culture of Hip Hop.

Now, it is not a secret what race dominates this genre of music and made it what it is today, as we know it. If you do not know because you were too busy doing great things, let me tell you, it is African-Americans. Over the years in this country every time something major goes bad or dramatically wrong involving African-Americans, Hip Hop culture and Rap music gets under attack and is blamed for the majority of the problems.

Could this be an accurate assumption about Hip Hop and Rap? Why the other genres of music do not come into question?  Are they not to blame for the negative actions or problems of its predominate listeners?

Let me point out a few differences in views or choice words when talking about African-American music vs. Caucasian music. Bill O’Reilly tends to blame Hip Hop and Rap music for almost everything that goes wrong in this country, like the Decline in Christianity in America is because of Hip Hop. Geraldo Rivera said Hip Hop has done more damage to black and brown people than racism in the last 10 years. Here is a video of him speaking with the Huffington Post earlier this year. Then you have Dylann Roof in recent news.

                                                                                                ("Dylann Roof," Dylann Roof)

No musical genre was to blame in this nations most recent serial shooting in Charleston, South Carolina by Dylann Roof. His mental health came into question, but he is also Caucasian; Is it really the music to blame or is there a different sub-conscience meaning to all this? Please!!!!! Educate Me. 

Turn Up the Radio

Radio, such a beautiful medium in which we consume music for our entertainment pleasures in our downtime from life. The enjoyment of sitting there around the radio in a peaceful state of mind listening to the news, shows, and music with our love ones is a feeling like no other, There is no better feeling. Those days are gone, and the word radio in itself will soon become just a placeholder to describe the source in which sound is coming from.

Radio is not dead; it is just getting a make over like any other form of entertainment. Yes, we are no longer sitting around the radio like in the 1930’s, but that is because radio is not playing the music the fans want to hear. Being force to listen to certain songs is a dead art form, now it is more of a we want to hear this and you have to play it relationship between the fans and the radio stations. According to an article on Billboard.com, radio is competing with listener’s iPods now. Listeners now have options to whom they want to hear, when they want to hear them, and for how long.

This phenomenon is even changing what is being considered a song for radio in today’s music industry. Songs that are gaining popularity on sites like Youtube and Soundcloud would normally not be in consideration for airtime, but to keep ratings and sponsors these songs are being force on the commercial radio industry. This is giving more artist a chance to be on radio and giving the fan what they want to hear.

Now with all this going on in the radio world and with more and more people spending more time using their phones for listening devices instead of talking devices, internet radio is the new cash cow. Advertising companies is looking to capitalize on individuals more in the future. With Internet radio looking to make a more personal experience for the listener, advertising companies is looking to ride this wave into the future as told in an article on Forbes.com. If you are not a big fan of advertising ads directed towards you, then you are not going to like what is to come in the future, because they are coming for you and radio is their approach.

Making Money Before Making Money

Making Money Before Making Money

What is going on lovely people?  Can we talk about money?  It is the most important thing in the business world or the modern world, as we know it.  With this blog post, I want to focus on making money before making money in the entertainment industry. Everyone who is trying to get into the entertainment industry wants to make money.  No one wants to work for $0.  Everyone wants to make at least enough money to sustain everyday life at minimum.  This is where I feel the problem comes in.

Making money before making money can be summed up as financial knowledge in making money, keeping money and having your money make money. Artists tend to not know how to make money before making money.  They tend to just want to make money after the fact and get tricked into this by label advances.  Most record labels will not take the deals they offer artist themselves.  They understand that is no way to make money, but they feed on artist’s ignorance in finances. It is not until after years of not receiving the financial gain an artist believe they should have do they start looking into their contracts and deals.  By this time, there is nothing that can be done because they signed a contract that did not benefit them.

Artists need to understand that they are a business and a proper business plan with financial knowledge and a understanding of business structure on how to make money and where to invest money will ensure an artist’s financial longevity long after they left the business.  Financial knowledge will guarantee that no dollar is wasted on unnecessary paperwork, trademarks, copyrights and attorneys later in an artist career. The concept of  “Making Money Before Making Money” is financial knowledge before moving forward into the bigger picture; your dreams. This can be applied in any industry in the world. Without the knowledge and research of your industry, I can almost guarantee you will lose money after making money and who wants that? So go make money before making money.

The sources used to help fuel this wonderful blog post were Rich Dad Poor Dad, Successful Business Plan (Secrets & Strategies) and Entrepreneurial Finance.

Digital vs Analog

Here we are in the year 2014 still talking about which style of mixing is better, analog verses digital mixing and what it does to the sound quality of audio files. This argument or debate among engineers seems to be a bit pointless nonetheless if you ask me. Both sides make valid points when it comes to what they choose to use and why they feel one is better than the other. This is like guys debating which car is better a Cadillac or a Mercedes Benz. People will just have what they like and why they like it and this it. That is the beauty of Life, you have options and in the world of audio mixing we have a world of options. Even though I mix in the box (from my computer) I also like sitting behind the large console doing recordings and mixes. The feeling of being a mad scientist for sound quality is something I get when I am in a recording studio versus being at home mixing from my computer. The Power is in my hands.

Back in the 90’s this would not be much of a conversation to have because the world of recording and mixing music was mostly still being done on big analog consoles in large, luxury studios. Digital mixing was something that was new and still had a long road ahead and a lot of bugs to work out before it could be compared to the age old tradition of analog sound quality. Analog was the king of mixing since the beginning because there were no other options but now there is. Digital recordings and mixes have gotten better over the years and I now feel they are equal to or greater than analog when it comes to sound quality. There has been much success and plenty of hit records that have been mixed in the box. There has been much success and plenty of hit records that have been mixed on large consoles in the years since the inception of digital audio.

To sum it all up, the choice is yours; there is no right, wrong or better it is all in personal preference.

You can go and read these two articles to form your own opinion on the topic Digital vs Analog and Summing .