Brand Management: Do You Know How To Build Your Brand?

I just got done watching Life After... on TVOne. The featured celebrity was Karrine Steffans aka Superhead. Now before y'all get all krazy on me and start cussin' me out, I want you to look at her in a different light.

Don't look at her as a slut who has been in different kinds of music videos and sexed many different men. True, she has done those things but what she did was flip it to her advantage. She has taken the Superhead and Video Vixen brand to different heights. No matter what the world thinks, she is a hustler and she knows how to build and expand her brand.

I knew some things about Karrine from glancing through her book but until tonight, I never looked at her from a brand standpoint. I mean like a Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Papa John's type of brand. When you think Video Vixen, you think of her. And although her exploits in the Hiphop world gave her the name Superhead, she took that and made it a household name.

She's been on Oprah and when you hit Ms. Winfrey's set, you have got the world on lock. I recently saw her as a guest on Donald Trump's show, "The Ultimate Merger" which featured Omarosa. I may not agree with how she rose to the spotlight but I gotta respect her hustle.

How are you managing your brand? Are you looking at YOURSELF as a business or are you just an act? When people say your name, what image is presented in their minds? That is brand management.

When you hear Jay Z what do you think? I'm sure more than just an emcee comes to your mind but a shrewd business man as well. What about Queen Latifah? Master P? 50 Cent? Diddy?

These are artists who have taken their talents way past "rappin". They have built their brands and when you hear their name you automatically know what you're going to get.

If you are emcee Joe Smoe, will you come out with the Smoe Joe sneakers or the J.S. (Joe Smoe) line of cologne?

You have to think further than making records if you want to have brand longevity. So once again what are you doing to build and manage your brand?

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com
Click Here Learn How To Make Beats Online!

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If Jay Z killed Autotune then T-Pain Brought It Back From The Dead

Yo, Jay Z had a banger last summer with "DOA (Death of Autotune)" and he practically killed everyone who was using it. I felt him on that too. Everybody and they mama was coming out with some Autotune garbage.

The only one that consistently did it was T-Pain. At least he had a style with it that even blew Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" song out of the water. Re-enter Teddy "Penderass Down" with a new single "Kiss Her" that will probably get some radio play.

Click the link below to check the song out:

T-PAIN "Kiss Her" | Official Young Simmons Blog | Young Simmons News and Celebrity Blogs | Global Grind

Let me know what you think...

I'm glad T-Pain didn't change his style either. I'll always remember Das Efx changing their style for their second album. They fell off sooooo hard and faded into obscurity. Everybody was biting their original style but no one could do it like them and they abandoned that style for what reason I don't know.

Anyway, T-Pain, keep doin' ya thang!!!

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com
www.Beats4ADub.com
www.MusicMarketingPromotions.com

P.S. I was working on a new beat last night. As soon as I get it mixed down I'll post it up for you!!!

Holla!!!

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Young Guru Explains The Challenge Of DJing For Jay-Z

Now this is a great interview with Young Guru, Jay Z's personal music engineer. This is a good look into the mind of not only a Hiphoppa but one of the richest men on the planet! Let that seep into your brain. This is Hiphop!!!

Click on the link below to check the video interview:

Young Guru Explains The Challenge Of DJing For Jay-Z | NODFACTOR.COM

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com
www.Beats4ADub.com
www.MusicMarketingPromotions.com

P.S. For those that don't know, this is NOT the same Guru that I posted about earlier this week. That was Guru the legendary emcee from GangStarr.

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Systemize Your Music Business

We’re in the second month of 2010. Yes, I said it: the second month!

How are you coming with your New Year’s Resolutions? Even better than Resolutions…how about your GOALS?

I set some goals for 2010 and it’s been a crazy month so far. What I’ve learned and working to apply in my business is systems. Systemizing your business helps you put it on autopilot. Successful businesses are run by systems and those systems are run by people.

What is autopilot? It simply means your business runs without you, the owner, being there. Just let that sink in for a minute.

A true business is one where the owner doesn’t have to be there for it to operate. In fact, in some cases, the business will run better if the owner wasn’t there.

This is done by systemizing your business.

How do we apply this to the music industry?

Let’s say you are an artist who wants to start a label. You really don’t want to be a day-in, day-out businessman, you just want to write, record, and perform music.

You need a team of people around you to help you realize that vision. You need a personal manager, a business manager, and an entertainment attorney. You will also need a booking agent when booking shows gets to be too much for your personal manager.

These people help manage you as an artist. Now as far as your label is concerned, you are going to need to systemize recording your music as well as mixing and mastering it. Once you have that completed you need to find a good distributor.

In the meantime, while all this is going on, you still have to have a marketing division so that fans will know who you are.

The most successful artists have done this WELL! Look at artists like Jay Z & Ludacris who own labels but are still artist. They have their companies on autopilot. Another example would be the Rolling Stones. They have been in the game for years.

Even though they don’t own their record label, they still have their careers on autopilot. They only have to focus on recording and performing music. People are hired to run systems that do the other parts of the business.

Wouldn’t you like for your career to be like this too?

So how to we systemize?

Make a list of all the tasks it takes to operate your business. You really have to break your business down. In the food industry, McDonald’s is the perfect business model.

Actually, McDonald’s is the perfect business model for any industry.

The owner of a Mickey D’s franchise doesn’t have to work the register, cook the fries, flip the burgers, and work the drive-thru window. McDonald’s has its systems in place. When you buy a McDonald’s franchise, everything is already set up for you and anybody can operate it.

You should think of your business the same way. A good business system can be duplicated, packaged up, and sold.

It’s good to have an exit strategy as well for your business. At what point would you sell your business?

Jay Z and his partners built Roc-A-Fella Records from the ground up and sold it. Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons did the same thing with Def Jam Recordings. These businesses were valuable because they were systemized.

Truly systemizing your business is the way to be financially free in the future because it frees up you time to do the things you really want to do.

There is a business saying that holds true and stands the test of time:

“Work on your business and not in it”.

This means delegate the mundane, time consuming tasks that need to happen but suck up all your time. You should be using your time to be creative and grow your business.

Start by brainstorming everything you want to do this week.

Pick the top three tasks so you won’t get overwhelming trying to systemize your whole business at one time.

Take those tasks and break them down step by step. From this list, you create a procedure manual anybody from off the street can pick up and implement to run that particular system in your business.

That’s how you know when your business is truly systemized.

Let’s Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

www.RapBeatCreator.com

www.Beats4ADub.com

www.MusicMarketingPromotions.com

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88 KEYS:It’s A Man’s World : NODFACTOR.COM

Here's a great article on 88 Keys that I found while surfing the net. It took me a while to read it because of all the distractions but it was well worth it. I love a great success story. Here it goes:

Article starts here >>>>

It’s about time 88 Keys started yelling. The totally off the radar producer has been quietly amassing an enviable discography. From Black Star’s “Thieves in The Night” (thanks Eskay!) to Beanie Sigel’s “Watch Your Bitches” and Musiq Soulchild’s “Her” he’s kept heads ringing for years. Now he is preparing to release his first solo album, The Death of Adam, executive produced by Kanye West. Yeah, that Kanye West. On the eve of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop festival 88 Keys took a moment to speak with Nodfactor about the little death, producing for Jay-Z and why he’ll never give up his MPC-3000.

NODFACTOR: Tell me what your CD, The Death of Adam, is all about. What is that title supposed to be about?

88 Keys: The title is actually a reference to the female genitalia. The vagina. The entire album is based around the woman’s vagina, and the character Adam who represents the man. Just trying to get some. Just trying to get his off.

For the rest of the interview click on the link below:

88 KEYS:It’s A Man’s World : NODFACTOR.COM

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist

P.S. You should definitely check out Music Producer Pro if you are serious about creating rap beats. Click here now for more info!