jagd edge media presents...: navigating the new music market (the complete series)

JAGD Edge Media Navigating The New Music Market

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Navigating The

New Music Market

Industry Rule # 3080

The Industry Is Shady

How To Navigate

This New

Music Landscape


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Sections

Going From Just Being “The” Local Youth Group Rapper

Having A Professional Presentation, Is Key!

Being Signed Is It All Its Cracked Up To Be!

Labels Are Not So Stable

Going Solo (also known as Indie):

Acquiring Distribution

Defeating The Digital Dragon of Illegal Download’s & File

Sharing

Does Retail Make Sense Anymore

Keys To Becoming Successful

Improving Gospel Raps Exposure (A Conversation With Sway Of

MTV Revisited)

Appendix I

Leveraging The Power Of Social Media To Build Your Brand


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Going From Just Being The Local Youth Group Rapper

The Week Ending May 22, 2010 was the lowest selling week since Neilson Soundscan started recording album sales in 1991. So in this low market, in this buying freeze where the economy is in one of the longest recessions in history, how do we market our music and make money so we can feed our families? Music sales are at an all time low and we are in a niche market of niche markets. So what are we to do? I want to look at some key points in our industry and the industry in general, to look at what we do and ask what we can do. I don’t have the answers but would like to pose some questions and bring up some concepts and ideas that we can explore. This is the first in a series of post geared to give artist ammo to go beyond what they are currently doing to do more.

The Local Youth Group Rapper

Yeah! You know the guy whose music is banging loud in the subs and sounds like “so and so.” You know?! That secular rapper we can’t mention or their parents may stop supporting his music. This is where the label “your just imitating secular music” sticks. Yes, the youth pastors want the easier cookie cutter who makes the elders happy, makes the youth happy and keeps the parents supporting the youth group, rapper. You know?! The rapper who has a Jesus remake of all the radio hits and has mega bass to hype the youth group between the X Box games, Generation focused worship, youth group antics and preaching. He’s the filler, side show act, the liner note. The guy whose got talent and the notoriety in the local youth groups or in the denominations regional youth council support that seems to fuel his ego. The guy whose comfortable with only traveling around in the circles of Teen Challenge, Victory Outreach, The Assemblies of God Gulf‐Latin District, regional Calvary Chapels, COGIC or the Southern Baptist Convention. Is that really the end all of gospel rap? Is that real outreach? Or is that the safe zone? Does a fast food meal, gas, merchandise sales and maybe an honorarium meet your needs? If so you may want to focus on staying there. But please don’t say your called to the streets, unless maybe you do a few block parties every once a year or so. But really is that street ministry, or another easy safe zone? When a church puts on a community outreach, drama, music, community helps, etc… and you join them is this street ministry? What about the thugs in part of town no one goes into because drive bye shootings happen regularly, drugs are trafficked frequently, you can find someone strung out on the stair steps and a few women around who are popping in and out of cars for money? What really is street ministry? I hear a lot who tote it in their lyrics, like bible glocks but really. Who’s on skid row ready to take a bullet for a sinner like David Wilkerson was? David founded Teen Challenge by going into gang neighborhoods and risking his life face to face with gangstas pointing guns at him. Have you done that? If not please stop saying your a street rapper. Fake church thugs are not cool, if your not a


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thug don’t pretend to be one in your raps for the sake of some youth group daps. Please. I’m just saying. Get out your comfort zone and seek to broaden your horizon.


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Having A Professional Presentation, Is Key!

Something that shouldn’t be overlooked is how you present yourself. On stage: do you have a stage presence? Do you have choreography? Do you put on a show? Or are you too tough for that? Having cd’s packaged nicely with a professional bio, one sheet, press release, website and merchandise is important, even having a nice display table set up, with video and /or audio, a banner, some press photo shots. Having the right presentation on and off stage can make all the difference in people taking you seriously. That is, if you want to go beyond just being the local youth group rapper dude, if you want sponsorships and to be able to appeal to a broader base. Next time you’re at a show check out the vendors tables. Pay attention to the ones that pop out and get your attention. Learn to present yourself well, on stage, off stage, at the vendor booth, to the labels, record pools, magazine and other media outlets. Make sure your cd’s and / or dvd’s have quality professional labels not writing with a sharpie. Its important to get key advice and suggestions. Take constructive criticism and use it to grow.


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Being Signed Is It All Its Cracked Up To Be!

Labels needs a lot of money to operate with A&R reps, to production teams, to day to day business, money is sunk into a lot of things needed to make a label run. If you’re signed to a label they make money of your creation to run their machine. For artist like KJ‐52, Grits, Lecrae, and others this can work in your favor. You get less off your cd’s but sell more cd’s, but you have to tour a lot, book large venues and sell merch to make the real money you need. Its not completely a bad thing for a label to need money to run but its does mean you get less of the pie. You also loose some control over your music, creativity, lyrics and overall sound as the label dictates what they deem best. In many cases it can be good and stretch the artist. But is that what you want. For the person who’s the conformist, likes all the support then this may be for you. If you’re the rebel, the go it a loner who wants more control and direct input this may not be your cup of tea. The major label is a very hard beast to capture and tame and only a handful have made it and succeeded there. It can be done but is it for you?


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Labels Are Not So Stable

In Christian Rap we’ve seen the rise and fall of many a successful label from Grapetree to Gotee, from Uprok to Diamante, the list of labels that have come and gone are long. So are the distribution companies. It’s been hard to sustain viability in a market in which stores don’t consistently carry or properly label Gospel Rap. Where some stores carry it and others don’t, where some label it alternative music and lump it in with rock groups. It’s hard to have consistent offerings, distribution and releases. Whereas the creativity and marketability has risen the overall state of the industry is lacking the financial oomph needed to become a viable competitor. The marketing dollars aren’t their yet in many places to get the necessary placement in key markets, radio outlets, magazines or video rotation. We’ve seen a marked increase in exposure with BET picking up and covering a select few acts, with a few magazines covering a select few. With a select few charting well on iTunes but is that enough? I say it’s the tip of the iceberg and we need to do more collectively as a unified movement to push the boundaries. Like hip hop did as a movement in the mid 80′s early 90′s there was such unity across the board that forced the world to accept that movement. Let’s take the same fervor and push even harder now. Let’s not take our successes for granted but let’s push harder and work together more, let’s offer our services sacrificialyl, to the body more fervently. Not free, not cheap and not denying out value but as a body collectively united in purpose and goal. Let’s look at some of the labels that are still standing and learn what they have and are doing that works and see how we can all learn and grow.

Syntax Distribution

Syntax has been a consistent label with a good history of releases. Syntax seems to be doing more as a distribution company, than just a traditional label. If you look at their catalog of product that they distribute your will find a variety of music way beyond just hip hop. Maybe diversifying is the key. If you put all you eggs in one basket, what happens when the basket or eggs break? If you have many baskets you can afford to lose some while you gain others. Maybe being a hard‐core back packer isn’t the route for longevity.

Illect Recordings

Is a solid underground label with Josh at the helm who was also a part of Uprok during its successful times. With the support of The Sphere of Hip Hop web presence and Sirius radio exposure they have a solid fan base and are consistent with quality releases.


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End Of Earth Records

Is helmed by Trey‐Qwel of Future Shock fame and has had a solid list of underground and conscious releases. Based in Carlsbad, CA they have been consistent over the years and have released some quality new projects with Griffin of Tunnel Rats and Righteouz Knight of Secta 7 among their latest releases. They have partnered with Syntax and AudioSketchBook to garner some more muscle in releasing projects.

Audio Sketch Book

ASB Records is another solid underground label that has released Propaganda’s recent ListenWatchFocus and Zane One’s LA Woman and has a list of new up and coming talent to showcase. Having partnered with EOE and Syntax has been advantageous for them.

Humble The Beast

Humble Beast is the new monster that’s aligned with Syntax and Hip Hop Is Music former head Braille as the A&R that is releasing some beastly talent from PND ”Dirty Words,” to Odd Thomas & Propaganda “Art Ambidextrous” having already laid the foundation with Humble Beginnings and DJ Vajra & Othello “The Required Taste.” They are a power house to be reckoned with.

Much Luvv Records

The Much Luvv Fam just released a dance rap record they hope to make waves with. They’ve been grinding and building a solid family of artist poised to really make an impact with their music from signing Von Won former football star and college grad, to Bushwick Bill of Geto Boys fame, to 007 of 5th Wards Boys, to SOM, CY, Dre Murray, Gifted and a host of producers and label mates growing and expanding. Tre‐9 has been grinding to establish Holy Hip Hop and has branched out as the Hip Hop Missionary.

This is not an all‐inclusive list as it would take a lot to chart what everyone’s doing, CMR and Reach Records of course are doing amazing things as well, there resume is strong and solid. Just check iTunes and you can see for yourself.


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Going Solo (also known as Indie)

If being the youth group rapper or signed to a label doesn’t seem to be your shtick then you may want to go Indie. Artist like This’l and other have shown us the viability of this route. It takes a considerable more amount of time and money from you. As you have to come up with your own ad campaigns, purchase ad space, build record pool, dj and media contact lists and so on and on. It requires a lot of studying the industry and working hard and without a good publicist, manager or promoter it can be exhausting. But it can be done. You need a lot of time and a good paying job so that you can afford to properly promote your music. With the advent of Bandcamp and Tunecore this is much easier than it was before.


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Acquiring Distribution

This is the easy or tricky part depending on how you want to do it. Nowadays anyone can get a digital distribution set up but without the right leverage or placement having your album available in CD Baby and Tunecore / iTunes may not be the cash cow you were hoping for. This is where partnering with a distributor like Syntax or Infinity South may be your best bet. They have preferred placement and can get you better sales of course this costs money. You have to weigh the benefits pro’s and con’s for your situation.


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Defeating The Digital Dragon of Illegal Download’s & File Sharing

Recently former Rawkus 50 signee Ruslan of TheBREAX made a sincere plea to support independent and underground Hip Hop so that we don’t lose the music because as he states your “not a pirate” and you “should purchase” this music before your favorite artist start singing the blues. There’s been a few movements since the advent of Napster seeking to preserve the music we love. This is one of the primary reasons for a essential change in how music is created and distributed. While to prevent illegal downloads artists and labels alike have release free mixtapes, promotional albums and singles, this has not stemmed the tied of illegal downloads.

A while back Jin had this track out “I don’t buy music I download music” which was a fair assessment of the state of music at that time. The basic premise at the time was that there was no longer any music that really was worthy of the rush to the store to buy it and open the plastic wrap to listen to the goodies inside. With the demise of quality music for the pop sensationalism and the advent and popularity of downloading music we’ve seen a crushing blow to the music “industry.” This epidemic is destroying profits and before the music industry has a complete nuclear melt down we need to get this under control. Some have tried to combat this by giving away free albums and mixtapes. These free albums and mixtapes do cost money. Whereas this may decrease the amount of people illegally downloading your album it doesn’t prevent downloading. You would think in the Christian music world this wouldn’t be an issue but it is. There are sites and blogs dedicated to illegally leaking albums to the world. I don’t know the reason or premise if they think their helping or what but somehow it seems contradictory in the Christian music market. I wish it wasn’t so. Honestly, I don’t know how to combat the illegal download craze but for the music industries sake we need to find a way to hedge this leak syndrome off at the pass. Just in time for Christmas lets consider giving the gift of financial support to our favorite Christian and underground rappers so that they don’t have to suffer the ills of not being able to put out their music and not making a beneficial return.


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Does Retail Make Sense In The New Digital Download World

I was talking to the good people at Syntax about retail sales when they were at the All Eyes On Me Awards in Houston circa 2007‐08. Steve Trudeau pointed out to me that retail sales does not make money but rather they lose money. He stated that the only reason Syntax offered them was because it motivated the artist to see their album in stores to go out and promote it more and tour more. So he saw it more as motivation for the artist and that it was a cost that was worth it in motivating the artist to tour and promote their product more. I’ve seen artist and label seek retail distribution in Wal‐Mart and Best Buy. But in a world where digital downloads, ring tones and single downloads seem to be where the money is at I don’t see the need or use for retail sales. With mom and pop stores going out of business, the brick and mortar business can’t sustain profits. With the closing of Fat Beats and Tower Records among others declining, the only remaining music stores are the resellers of used CD‘s. It doesn’t seem that buying a CD and popping the package open is going to be making a come back anytime soon.


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Keys To Becoming Successful In The New Music Market

Here are a few keys you can use to become successful in the new music:

1) Hustling Through Merchandising

Having a solid Merch table is key. Artist like the Listener among others have taken unique and inventive approaches, using album themes to create merch content or even unique hard to find items. Branding your group and creating related merchandise from hats to T Shirts, to incense, to posters and coasters, merch is another solid way to make money and create endearing fans. Make the items personal and reflective of your group. It can be as simple as getting a bunch of blank hats and attaching a button with the bands logo, to a T with graffiti or the bands logo. The types and kind of merch you can create and find are limitless. Make sure you have a fan list sign up sheet because you will need all those emails to follow‐up and keep fans engaged when you come into town again or have a new release to promote.

2) The Tour Grind

Another vital key is the tour grind. I was talking to KJ‐52 about the key to his success and he said it’s touring constantly and doing the big festivals. He’s been able to sell over 500,000 records total on his entire catalog. None of these happened the first week out on any new release but up to a year and a half or more of touring on each record. I’ve seen artist tour the youth group circuit, the festival circuit and even the coffee shop, pub and bar circuit. Touring is vital to your success.

3) The Festival Circuit

Touring the big festivals seems hard for Christian Rappers unless you’re a big name that’s established. They usually have larger crowds, this is where your merch table is vital to getting sales, even if you start doing smaller local festivals and work your way up. This is an avenue your should actively seek for exposure, even if it’s a short set. The more people you can get in front of the chances are a few more people will like your music and pick up your cd or merch.

4) Hiring A Publicist, Promoter or Manager

This is an oft overlooked and almost neglected facet in the CHH market. For one there aren’t many and they usually don’t get paid as well in the CHH market so


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it’s hard to stay consistent. The publicist is the one who can get your cd to the right magazines, radio, dj, record pool or video outlet. They have the connections and the established name. They can save you time and increase your exposure. Companies like 3L Promo who established names as promoters, managers and / or publicists can be the key ingredient you need to make your Indie release a success. Don’t overlook this key ingredient and as this person can get your album the exposure and presentation it needs to sell well don’t undervalue or underpay them. A worker is worthy their hire. So make sure you take good care of them so they can take good care of your project. The better you treat them, the better you pay them, the easier it is for them to do their job well.

5) The Power Of A Record Pool

When I was pushing for a CHH record pool, I knew the need for a CHH record pool so that our play list could be uniform and it would be easier to push artist music to get more consistent exposure. It was why I had been building with Dj D Lite to start the HCR record pool, which later split into two entities with the creation of the new DaSouth site. It’s another reason I’ve pushed Triple H Mixtapes as a way to continue to get CHH music to listeners and new audiences. We’ve given over 110,000 people to hear CHH for the first time or as repeat listeners. That may not be a large number but we feel like we’re making an impact. With 3,000 to 4,000 hits a month, we are making some noise. Even if it’s a small noise it’s still noise. There are a few DJ Record Pools like Higher Ground, KARP and Holy Culture Record Pool. So make sure you get your music and singles to them. Also, releasing your singles to Christian rap sites like Rapzilla is crucial to getting music to the fans and radio DJ‘s alike.

6) The Power of The DJ

The power of the DJ should not be neglected or overlooked. They are the ones who get your music or video to the listener or viewer. Whether it be disc jockey or video jockey. Respect the DJ as the backbone of people hearing your music. Make sure to get them advance singles, exclusive and promotional material to promote and expose their audiences to. Whether it be the Radio, Church / Club or Mixtape DJ make sure your build those relationships and network so you can have solid coverage when you release a project.

7) Leveraging The Power Of Social Networks

Finally, I want to talk about the power of social networking. Namely Twitter, Facebook and Blogging. It is key to building your fan base, keep it pithy and interesting. Knowing how to properly use social networking can drastically change your group, band or websites presence. I know personally from using


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Twitter, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, and WordPress I went from getting a few hundred hits a month on Triple H Mixtapes and para‐DOX parABLEss to getting a few thousand hits a month. I did some experiments with it even overloaded Twitter with content. Then I found a moderate middle ground where I’ve built a solid presence providing promotional mixtapes and interesting blogs that has engendered some solid followers and subscribers.

There are many tools that are available that can make, your band or group a success. Study the industry, study the market, study what works, pay attention to what doesn’t and learn from other artist. Don’t be afraid to try new things, be open‐minded, be prayerful. I hope you find this information helpful and useful.


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Improving Gospel Raps Exposure

(A Conversation With Sway Of MTV Revisited)

At the time that I was working for the All Eyes On Me Achievement Awards (previously the Houston‐Texas Holy Hip Hop Awards) I had the privilege of having an in‐depth conversation with Sway (of MTV News & The Sway & Tech Morning Show) about the whole Hip Hop is “Dead” or “Dying.” I also talked to him about the statement he made that stating Gospel Rap is the missing element to the Hip Hop. Sway had presented an award during with he stated that since all his friends were in the habit of sitting around and talk about being Hip Hop Dead. He stated to the crowd that he had found the missing element in Hip Hop, speaking of Christian or Gospel Rap. Sway stated that he wanted to do a MTV news piece on the Holy Hip Hop. I decided to make the time to sit down and talk to him about Faith, Hip Hop and what he see’s from and Industry perspective what we can do as Gospel artist to make our mark.

Here Are Some Things I Gleamed From The Conversation I Had With Sway

We discussed the current state of the industry, including the fact that artistic and culturally Hip Hop is a dying art form. The DJ seems to be lost, but not as far lost as are the B‐Boys and Graffiti Artist seems to be more obscure now than ever. They still exist just not as part of the “Hip Hop Elite” right now. I brought up the idea that Jesus is the only I know that can bring things back from the dead. So if there is going to be a movement that can bring new life back into Hip Hop I stated that I believed “Christian Rap” can be that missing piece as he stated. I also pointed out that Christian Hip Hop has clean lyrics and albums that people are looking for now with all this noise about not using certain words in the industry. We already got that. After the whole Don Imus thing and Nas response album and the cry out in the industry for music to not demoralize its listeners; the dumbing down of music hasn’t served to create better consumers. Maybe making better consumers wasn’t their goal maybe the dumbing down of society and popularizing negative stereotypes. People are getting tired of being called names, talked down to and having their ears violated with garbage. Sway responded by saying that we shouldn’t seek to market to the mainstream; Despite what some people say that we should seek to market to the mainstream. He went on to say that we should do what makes us unique and focus on what works the lyrics and content. To focus on building up our core fan base, to reaching out to the Gospel and Young Adult markets which present a larger buying base than just he traditional youth group focus. Sway said we


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should let them come to us “if they ever do.” He said we shouldn’t seem mainstream acceptance or success that our message dictates that we be non conformist to a secular society and that goes against our core values and teachings. He further said that once we’ve established ourselves and not let them dictate to us that we are in a place dictate to them. He clearly said that we should not go to them. We should focus on what makes us unique and become good at that. We discussed how late 80’s and early 90’s Hip Hop worked together whether they were political rap like Public Enemy, fun rap like Fresh Prince, gangsta music like NWA, or even the love rappers LL Cool James that they all worked together despite difference to force the mainstream to accept them as they were. They didn’t cater to the mainstream at first it was their uniqueness that made the viable. They created a market where they white power structure of the music industry and even tv networks like MTV refused to accept them. They forced them to accept them at take them as they are. This is a key reason we should seek to support all Gospel Rappers regardless of slant, dogma, crew, church, label or personal convictions. The goal is to get music with a gospel message pushed to a wider audience not to dumb down our music to appease the powers that be. Sway stated that we should try to build our Christian Market to the point where we can sell at least 150,000 to 250,000 a cd consistently and more. We have seen more and more artist get close to doing this. As a whole the movement has a way to go. He went on to say that we should build our gospel fan base strong so you still have the strong Christian market support. He stated that if we dumb it down and go mainstream that we would lose our core audience, we would lose what makes us authentic and we would in effect no longer be “Christian” rap. He was really trying to bring home the point that we should try to be excellent at what we do and secure our fan base before we try to get mainstream attention. I believe this to be true and wise words to consider.

My Conclusion

After talking to Sway, Dj Maj, KJ‐52, AppleJaxx and Tre‐9 and others in the industry, it seems clear we need to come together and a body, and respect the arm and feet, those called to the body and those called to the streets. The message is different but the body is one. We need to sure up the Gospel Market base, be authentic to who we are, make good music, market to young adults and the gospel urban market before we try to join the mainstream movement. We shouldn’t seek out the mainstream, but let it come to us with what we have and not let them change us. Yes, We need Christocentric lyrics, we need relevant music that relates to people’s lives and issues, so be real about who you are and what you do, keep it gospel, speak from the Judeo‐Christian world view, we need to deal with issues of social injustice, civil rights violations, spitting only Christian standards to an immoral world. Focus on building the gospel market fan base and reaching young adults first. Other things we need to do that can help is focus on marketing to College Radio and get our singles licensed to play on Radio, TV and Movies.


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Published Comments I’ve Made On “Christian Hip Hop and the Media” at Dasouth.com

Media Coverage

I’m sure yall head the Kj52 Dear Slim song that MTV covered as a diss track. To make it a news worthy piece that had to cut out the spiritual part and focus on making it some silly beef situation.

Did You know MTV banned Mr J Medieros Constance video for “graphic content” which is bogus they have rappers with strippers in the back ground, and Mr J is talking about a real problem that addresses a major social issue. In 2006 500,000 to 1.2 million people were trafficked over international boarders and NO ONE WAS PROSECUTED IN 2006 FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING, That’s a major issue. But MTV won’t play it, but they will play censored version of songs about graphic sex with women, strippers dancing in the background and misogynistic music.

BET also banned a quite of few Christian videos from their play list including Ahmad and 4th Ave Jones, they had the song Move On played on MTV. Its was a good song and video. MTV and VH1 are owned by the same company. MTV played dear slim as a beef record. VH1 says a song about praying for dear slim was one of the worst moments in hip hop ever. That was free promotion for Kj by the way and I’m sure its helped his sales because many more people heard his name and music and probably got interested. News is publicity. And you can take a minus and make it a plus.

AppleJaxx of Nureau Ink was on Shade45 and he got good publicity on the don’t quit you day job segment? Ever said he should rap and quit his day job. That’s a milestone in Holy Hip Hop. Anyone notice that we got positive coverage on a secular station?

What Has Worked So Far

KJ: focused on the white suburban youth groups with his silly songs and pop music and I think thats the key to his success. But there is only one Kj.

Grits: had good distro and got the videos played on Rap City and got a good following. But there is only one Grits.

The Cross Movement: appealed to the Older Theological heads in the urban gospel church market, and that’s how they did good. But there is only one CM.

T Bone: was consistent on the bible thumping demon assassin lyrics and appealed to the Hispanic community and toured at a lot of teen challenges, victory outreach and other places like that. But there is only one T Bone.


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CHH Needs To Grow Up

The dialogue in Christian rap needs to broaden on content to include social and political dialogue to engage some of the older young adults. We need more content on Social Justice issues, like civil rights, and freedom or speech, etc…

We need to discuss real issues people deal with and not just fun music for youth groups.

We need to be ourselves and be good at what we do.

The quality and content in CHH has risen in recent years a lot and that’s good.

We need to keep pressing on.

** Note: Since the original writing of the above quoted material we have seen artist gain some more acclaimed success such as Thi’sl, Bizzle, Still Trill Christians, Lecrae & Reach Records, Jin and a list of others. **

TO SUMMARISE CHH NEEDS TO:

• We MUST GET the Gospel market and get the Young Adult crowed engaged

• We need Nationally Syndicated Radio • We need Nationally Syndicated TV • We Need industry wide standards, to bring an end to all the conflict

between different camps • We need a play list format to support across the board • We need to build up your gospel market following before you branch out

or try to expand beyond. • CHH needs to get the attention of the traditional and contemporary

gospel market like Da Truth did with the song with Tye Tribbet and they need to focus on making music and reaching out to young adults who have jobs and can buy albums more than youth who can’t afford albums or have to beg money from their parents.

• We need to market to young adults, with more social content, and deal with real issues, not just catchy songs.

• We should have balanced material. Our first focus should be build the gospel market, traditional and contemporary. Because those are the ones that you want to support your music.


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Appendix I

Leveraging The Power Of Social Networking To Build Your Brand

(Insights Gleaned From The Blog World & New Media Expo)

At the same time the movie “The Social Network” was in theatre making even more money for the Facebook I was at the Blog World Expo & New Media Expo which was partially sponsored by Facebook among others. The Blog World Expo is the SXSW of the blog and social media networks. The masses of content providers and content creators of social media converged on the Mandalay Bay Conference Center for the Three day event in Las Vegas. During this time many topics where covered from what Label want from blogs and social media, to stay at home dads who blog, to people wanting to turn a hobby into a career. There were nine main session tracks which features the Social Media Business Summit, Building Community, New Media 201, Monetization, Blogging 2.0, Digital Broadcasting, Mobile, Community Tracks and Keynote Sessions. Depending on if you where following a specific track or picking each session on their usefulness to you, there were a diverse range of useful tracks. BWE 2010 sponsors included Youtube, Mashable, Paypal, Demand Media Studios, Plixi, Blogger, Tungle.me, CoTweet, Urthots, Shareasale, .tv, TwitterMoms, Ustream, PR Newswire, Media Pass, Blog2Print, Myzerr, Smart Brief on Social Media, IFroggy network, Blogadda.com, BlogWell, CloudContacts, 2010 Black Weblog Awards, Social Media Club, and A‐List Blogger Club to name a few. Some of their corporate sponsors included the Ford, Kodak, Mandalay Bay, Soutwest, Pepsico, LG, Coors Light, Sony, the U.S. Army, Johnson & Johnson, Monster, Blackberry, Luxor, Lexmark, and Paypal. As you can see this is a large event with a broad spectrum of support.

The Blog World & New Media Expo is the first and only industry‐wide Conference, Tradeshow and Media Event for all New Media. This is the main place to converge to discuss the emerging market and products in New Media. I went on assignment from Rapzilla to find out how we can learn about and leverage the power of blogs and social media to the benefit of the Christian market, artist and labels alike. I went to explore the ever growing uses and advances of social media, their uses and how we can effectively capitalize the use of these tools. Let’s take a look at the power of social networking, the pros and cons, and see what we can learn about it and how we can use it to our benefit. Most everyone knows of or uses the three giants of Social Media; Twitter, Facebook and Blogging.


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Some Essential Keys To Understanding & Using Social Media

Some key things to understand about Social Media is that it is a key to building your fan base. To keep people engaged you must keep it pithy and interesting. Knowing how to properly use social networking can drastically change your group, band or websites presence and effectively increase your audience, sales, bookings and public persona. From my personal experience I have found that utilizing Twitter, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, and WordPress I was able to go from a few hundred hits a month to getting a few thousand hits a month. I did all of this before going to the Blog World Expo. In the past I’ve done some experiments with social media even did some no‐no’s like overloaded Twitter and Facebook with content. I’ve since sought to find a moderate middle ground where in which I’ve built a solid presence providing promotional mixtapes and interesting blogs that has engendered some solid followers and subscribers. So this Expo has been useful in helping hone what I’ve learned and give me some new tools. I would like to share with you what I have learned and how it can help us grow our markets reach, share and marketability.

Branding, Recognition, And Fan Connectivity

One of the main things that you should effectively learn to use social media for is Branding, Recognition and connecting with your fans. Lets look at the main ways people use social media right now and what they help us to accomplish.

Twitter is the short news cap what they call micro‐blogging. Its blogging for those who don’t want to write an article or invest into writing and research in‐depth materials. Really the founder of twitter took the status update from Facebook and Myspace and made it the main function so you can update in one place and now have it update all your social media sites through apps in each respective distributor of social media. People like information in small bits, most people don’t want the long drawn out information. So keep it short, be pithy, be professional, engage your fans, ask for feedback and most importantly don’t ignore comments or replies. Make every supporter count the more you put into them them more you get back.

Facebook has replaced forums in that you can set up groups, notes and have discussions but its personal not just an icon and a user name on a message board. Twitter and Facebook are the forum killers. Together they done damage to the “forum” community. Facebook is a good way to get more personal and engage fans in more in‐depth. You can turn friends and family in to fans and supporters. You can connect with old friends and schoolmates and thus group you social network, growing you social network, grows your social net worth or value to respective fans or supporters. Facebook has a few services where you can feature music and videos that are good for artist.

Blogging is another vital way to connect with your fans, give updates, post vlogs, podcasts or write ups about the latest happenings. Picking the right blog is crucial to


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what you want to do with it. Blogger is old faithful, simple and easy. WordPress is my personal favorite, which has many useful plugins, widgets and apps to make your blog stand out. Tumblr is more social media and music friendly. It seems to be more similar to twitter and less like other blogs. Some successful Christian Rap Blogs have been Tweezyblog by KJ‐52, Life Don’t Rhyme by manCHILD, Notes From The Sketchpad by Sketch The Journalist, Grow The Heck Up by Lavoisier The Rap Terrorist, Big Sto, para‐DOX para‐ABLEss, and Triple H Mixtapes, to name a few. Many artist have started doing blogs from Japhia Life, to Frontlynaz, to DJ Stibs, to across the pond Karl Nova (England’s native emcee), and there are host of others who have personal blogs to support their music, fans, family, movement and brand.

Automation Is Key To Saving Time & Resources

Automate your updates instead of having to go to 50 places to post the same things. Services like Artistdata allow you to post to many places at once. I like the WordPress feature that posts to Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo directly every time you add a new post. It’s automated every time I have a new blog posted all my readers are notified. Like many, I don’t go on Myspace anymore however I set up Artistdata to post my Twitter updates there since I have some 13,000 followers. I also set up a RSS reader for my WordPress blog feed. Many social media sites and blogs have built in apps you can add to your site that will automatically pull your social media content into each of your social media sites.

Some Keys To Blogging & Social Media Success

Some things to consider once you start blogging. Start blogging about things you like and don’t like, do top 10 lists of things you watch, like, don’t like or whatever you can come up with. You can use forum spring to allow people to ask questions and get to know you. You can set up apps to Yahoo and Windows Live Space to automatically pull blog RSS and Twitter feeds to keep people in your network updated with the latest news from you. You can set up Facebook to pull your blogs post in as notes and publish them in your artist and group web pages. The more places that you are connected the more exposure your brand has. Don’t limit yourself to only the top three though starting with a solid professional Twitter, Facebook and Blog presence is good. In some cases your social media presence and activity can replace the need for a personal website though there are uses to having a central hub you can send people to connect to your latest content.

Something’s To Remember

Something’s you should make a note to not do is to not overload Twitter, in general don’t overload people with content. Make the content personal constant and relevant to them and what you’re doing. Also, the more you blog the more support you get. Don’t be afraid to talk about your beliefs or even talk about your causes or passions.


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Discuss movies you’ve seen and like or dislike. Talk about other artist like. Let people know your real and relatable not everyone will feel like you but the more you share the more interest you create many people like to see what going on in others lives it helps forget what happening in yours. Vlogs are good ways to update your fans on what’s going on with your music, your life, studio recording session and just plain promotion. Podcasting is another way to talk to your fans and leak singles or music you like to share your interests with your fan. The more that you share about yourself the more your supports feel connected to you and what your doing. Be careful to not share to much and keep something’s personal and private. I personally do not like hearing about your latest bathroom epiphany, as I’m sure others would agree.

Capitalizing On The Brand Of You

If you have a rap moniker and a CD, you have branded yourself. Your name says a lot about you want what you stand for. Don’t be afraid to capitalize on your brand or even accept that you have already branded yourself and created a brand. Learning how to brand yourself successfully and use the tools at your disposal for your benefit is essential. You may not feel like your a brand or that calling it branding somehow diminishes your calling. I can guarantee you this does not take away from your ministry. These are just wise business tools that can be used to build your ministry. Famous pastors and Christian book sellers do it all the time. Be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. Use the tools you have to communicate the message you love. If your message‐brand is changing lives then use all the tools you can to perfect and expedite the message not hinder it in some for of vain false humility. Now what things like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are, study them out and learn to use them to help you get Top Ranking so that you can reach a broader audience. Be a student of culture who uses tools to communicate the gospel message like a missionary. Plan your content, use common keywords, use SEO tools, schedule your posts and effectively promote your content. Don’t abuse tools like Facebook’s event invite to become “the boy who cried wolf” and then when you have a real event people are so used to tuning you out they miss it. Learn to socialize and be useful. Don’t just promote yourself all the time, get personal as well. People want to see the person you are not just the hustler at work. There is a time to grind, a time to be personal and time to shine. Get other blogs and artist to feature your blog content by being interesting and grabbing attention. Realize you are nothing without the fans you engender. For example Asher Roth and D.A. Wallach they have used free promotional albums and mixtapes along with social media to gather larger followings. They have tried to keep their fans engaged and connected. Recently Jin did a mixtape for the people by the people where artist submitted tracks on Youtube and people voted on what they liked and the top picks got a feature from Jin. There are many ways to build your brand and be creative. Explore all the options and engage your audience in a way that brings them back for more. One key to remember in monetizing is that people in social media shy away from monetizing, so if you want to monetize you need to provide ninety percent free and sell the premium ten percent to those who may be interested in more. Be wise in your use of the tools of social media


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presenting the message of your music and lifestyle to those you want to hear your message and support your ministry.

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