Alternative Funding

Funding is a very crucial aspect of a startup company. Sufficient funds can make or break the success of a company. In the process of finalizing my own startup venture, LODI Music Group, I have researched alterative funding sources to secure adequate funds for launch of my company.

The alternative funding sources that caught my attention were CDFI Coalition (Community Development Financial Institutions Coalition) and the AEO (Association for Enterprise Opportunity). Alternative funding sources are interest groups that are community activist that develop communities by supporting entrepreneurial endeavors. 

CDFI is a member based program where as members benefit by a funding program that has three separate components: The Financial Assistance (FA) component, the Technical Assistance (TA) component and the Native American CDFI Assistance Through these three components, the CDFI Program provides loans, equity investments, and grants to CDFIs to support their capitalization and capacity building, enhancing their ability to create community development impact in underserved markets. The AEO is also a members based program that has a Southeast Initiative that is focused on building the capacity of microenterprises. TILT Forward is second initiative that AEO is offering that is a loan program hat helps borrowers save on interest.

Requirements for the CDFI’s Capital Magnet Fund is to be a certified CDFI or a non-profit organization operating with a principal purpose of developing or managing affordable housing solutions. There are several different programs with different requirements.

Both organizations offer events and conference meet-ups to educate entrepreneurs in order to better their business practices.

Business Plan Expert Tips

A business plan is the blue print of your company rather it’s a startup or a pre-existing company that’s venturing into new avenues. However, in both cases the business plan is the tool that is used to benchmark rather or not your company/project is a sound investment in the eyes of investors. There are key expectations that venture capitalist look for in a business plan. Experts such as Matthew Swyers, founder of The Trademark Company and former trademark examining attorney for the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and Shark Tank venture capitalist and FUBU clothing founder Daymond John writes “5 Things Your business Plan Absolutely Must Have”, and “What Venture Capitalists Want: 4 Tips”.

From experience, one of the most important question investors want answers is “how much return I will get and how fast?” Interesting know that Daymond John states, “Proof of Concept” is first. According to Daymond, investors want to the proof of the numbers, they want to know how much money your idea has already made (John, 2015). Whereas Matthew states that investors want to know “how much will your sales increase do to there investment?” (Swyers, 2012) Help yourself before someone will help you. Although business is risky for entrepreneurs, investors will only take a calculated risk on any venture. Investors want to know that you already have a market and Daymond John states that it’s several ways to prove that such as, sales numbers, a successful crowdfunding campaign, and market studies (John, 2015). If you were already making money, why would you need investors? Businesses are meant to grow. That is the precise reason why Matthew Swyers is saying investors are interested in your growth after the investment (Swyers, 2012). If there is no growth there is no need for the investment and no reliable means to recover the investment.

Experts Matthew Swyers and Daymond John both had excellent insights on creating a successful business plan. A couple key takeaways would be to have a successful crownfunding campaign, that way you build a supporting audience in the process. Matthew also states the importance of being unique (Swyers, 2012); although many ideas are not original your idea must have a unique twist in order to be considered by investors. Daymond John states that knowing your competition and being unique are not enough, you also have to know your pitfalls and have a contingency plan (John, 2015). In creating a solid business strategy for LODI Music group, there will be contingencies built into the plan to insure a more solid structure.

References

John, D. (2015, October 26). 5 Things Your Business Plan Absolutely Must Have. Retrieved January 7, 2016, from Daymond John's Launch Academy : http://www.djlaunchacademy.com/5-things-business-plan-absolutely-must-2/

Swyers, M. (2012, April 12). What Venture Capitalists Want: 4 Tips. Retrieved January 7, 2016, from Inc.: http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/what-venture-capitalists-want-4-tips.html

Gangsta Rap Kills Hip-Hop: A Lost Culture

By Jerome Joyce

Outside of what many people may believe about Hip-Hop it’s not a genre of music, but a culture built around R.A.P. music (Rhythm And Poetry), dance, tagging and DJ’s. After the rap music was broken into different categories, such as gangsta rap, down-south rap, and snap, hip-hop was used to define the original type of rap that the culture itself was built from.

Photo Credit: Black Culture Is Popular

Hip-Hop the cultural movement was crated in the early 70’s in the South Bronx, kids got together to keep away from the gangs to impress themselves in the form of visual arts (graffiti art or tagging), dance (b-boying or break dance), verbal expression (rapping or rap) and an aural expression (DJ’ing).  Kids wanted to get off the street and do something positive through music. When hip-hop first started the rhymes that were told were more story-like than what’s being released today. The basis of these stories was about self-empowerment and had a positive tone.

In the 1980’s the hip-hop culture expanded out of the community and became main-stream and commercialize, breaking into the before mention sub-genres such as gangsta rap. When gangsta rap came to life hip-hop died, the culture was broke. The DJ wasn’t needed because the sound was different, the difference is sound change the dance almost to elimination, the graffiti art didn’t exist no more, but more importantly the positive message to empower a group of people was silenced.

Unfortunately sex, violence and drugs sells faster than a positive message, which made the records companies encourage the artist to write more gangsta rap, which resulted in the death of a lost culture. Surely Hip-Hop still exist, but now it’s considered a genre of music that is mainly conscious rap. The art of DJ’ing has changed to a computer assist form of mixing, which is no longer a craft. Since the song “Lean Back” became popular, songs such as “Watch Me Whip” instruct the dancing done today; dancing is no longer a form of expression.

 Since the fall of the culture there has been many speculations that says gangsta rap is the cause of the heighten violence in the urban communities. Although this statement hasn’t been proven, but if Hip-Hop was created to keep the community away from violence, destroying hip-hop may have introduced them to violence.

Making It In Music Without A Deal

Making It In Music Without A Deal

By Jerome Joyce

In the communication era, and the advancement of technology has made it far more easier to release and promote and album. With the aid of an laptop, a few recording accessories and access to the internet, a new artist can create and self-publish their own music. Artist such as Soulja Boy, D-Low, and Silentó have all “made it” before they had an actual record deal.

Soulja Boy made his debut by creating a YouTube dance video entitled “Crank Dat Soulja Boy originally created in a software called FL Studio and then professionally reproduced. The song was number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and received a Grammy nomination (Daniel Kreps , 2008). Soulja Boy later was signed to Interscope Records.

The D-Low Shuffle, created by D-Low (Darrion Simmons) was another YouTube dance craze in 2014 and was featured on the Steve Harvey Show. After over 9 million views on YouTube, D-Low is now signed to Atlantic Records (Holiday, 2013).

Silentó is the creator of the latest dance song entitled “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)”. The song was so popular people were posting their own videos which were later featured on the Ellen Show, creating a unique viral buzz.  The song’s popularity also gained it’s time on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.  Watch Me peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Charts and spent a total of nineteen weeks on the charts (Billboard, 2015).  

Record companies have the same expectations of a bank loan, banks want to know how and if they can make a return on their investment. Social media gives a new artist a free opportunity to promote their work and build popularity; while doing so an artist can earn revenue through sites such as YouTube, iTunes, Google Play and CD Baby. If the artist can prove their music can generate revenue, then a record label wouldn’t hesitate signing that artist.

Hint: The one thing the above artist all have in common is that they made dance music. DJ’s are the first to play and the key to a song getting heard and popular. Makes songs people can enjoy and party too, they will get shared and become popular.

References

Billboard. (2015, July 18). Watch Me. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from Billboard: http://www.billboard.com/artist/6495286/silento/chart

Daniel Kreps . (2008, January 4). 2007 Nielsen Numbers: Groban, Eagles, Nickelback, Soulja Boy Lead. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from Rolling Stone : http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/final-2007-nielsen-numbers-are-in-with-groban-eagles-nickelback-soulja-boy-leading-the-way-20080104

Holiday, K. (2013, April 7). FSD Feature: DLow Talks Record Deal, Chicago's Bop Scene & DLow Shuffle. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from Fakeshore Drive: http://www.fakeshoredrive.com/2014/04/fsd-feature-dlow-talks-record-deal-chicagos-bop-scene-dlow-shuffle.html/

  

Legal Troubles In Music

Legal Troubles In Music

The importance to dot your ‘I’s and cross your ‘T’s cannot be stressed harder in the music industry. Also the importance of making sure the music that is being produced is copy protected and has license clearance for samples used.

Sir-Mix-A-Lot vs. David Ford for ‘Baby Got Back Royalties

David Ford is a DJ who claimed to have contributed to the beat production of the 1992 hit single, “Baby Got Back”, he also created the scratch effects on the song. Not until the Nicki Minaj 2014 release of “Anaconda” is when Ford filed suit for royalties in March of 2015 against Anthony Ray (Sir-Mix-A-Lot). According to an article cited on iHeartRadio, Ford didn’t realized that he wasn’t listed apart of the publishing and Sir-Mix-A-Lot was the sole owner of copyrights. In September of 2015, Sir-Mix-A-Lot won the law suite. Since original release of Baby Got Back the song has won a Grammy and featured in numerous television shows, commercial and films.

Nothing in this business should be left to trust. If David ford was indeed the contributing party of the beat of ‘Baby Got Back’, then he should have been included in the copyrights. It was his responsibility to make sure he was apart of the ownership of the song. What is not understandable is why Ford waited, twenty-two years to say anything or investigate the copyrights. The song went through so much other licensing before ‘Anaconda’, something should have been done on the first transaction.

Blurred Lines ‘Clearly’ Paid 7.4 Million to Marvin Gaye’s Estate

After a jury awarded the estate of Marvin Gay 7.4 Million for the use of Gaye’s recording “Got To Give Up” in the recording of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred lines”, writers of web magazine Plagiarism Today says this maybe be the fall of creativity in the industry. A good number of hit R&B songs have used some sort of sample from an older song. The predictions of some would have the world think that the entire genre of R&B will fall if cases such as Blurred Lines make it tough for new artist to sample.

It’s not tough to sample, copyright laws just insure that the rightful owner is credited and paid for their samples. The problem with the ‘Blurred Lines’ case is not that Robin Thicke sampled ‘Got To Give It Up’, it’s that he tried to ‘sneak-and-sample’ and not pay what was due to Marvin Gaye. This case will not be the fall of R&B as long as artists pay their dues like Nicki Minaj did with ‘Anaconda’.

Empire Vs. Empire

According to The Hollywood Reporter Fox made a preemptive suit against Empire Distribution, a California based recording/distribution label, to insure the continued use of the TV series show title “Empire”, that’s produced by Lee Daniels. Fox was responding to demands made by Empire Distribution to pay $5 Million and cast some of its artist in the series. Experts at Hollywood Reporter suggest that a preemptive suit is a risk because of the outcome of the “Blurred Lines” suit. The California recording label is claiming the show is dilutes and tarnishes the trademark by featuring "a label run by a homophobic drug dealer prone to murdering his friends." Fox claims that there is no previous trademark registration for ‘Empire’, only ‘Empire Distribution’ and ‘Empire Recordings’ and there is no confusion.

It’s interesting that Empire Distribution realized that Fox’s Empire is worth more to them Alive than Dead. Instead of sending them a suite to seize the use of the title, they sent a demand letter for money and more importantly, casting of their artist, which will turn into an ongoing income for the distribution company. However, without registration of “Empire”, the distribution company has no rights to the title in its market. The term Empire is a general term that cannot be trademarked. Empire Distribution is not a famous mark such as Universal of Universal Studios and Universal Music Group. Inside the show there is never a reference of Empire Records or Empire Distribution, the title ‘Empire’ is to infer the power of the company in the series and to pay homage to the location of New York the Empire State.