Because of focusing on consumer markets as I do getting entrenched with folks in the content/entertainment industry was fairly inevitable. However being younger as I am I have had no problem with this and have developed many deep relationships with folks in the music industry particularly in Hip Hop. I have been able to rub shoulders with producers, manager and artists themselves and I have enjoyed all of it. Due to all the time I have spent discussing the tech industry with them I have made some observations about this industry that I’d like to share. To do so I am going to use Akon, whose music I particularly happen to love.
One of my friends manages one of the acts on Akon’s label called Brick N Lace. He called me not too long after the Akon incident where he danced with an underage girl at one of his shows. Much controversy surrounded this event due to the girl being under age and it led to Verizon pulling their sponsorship of his tour. The club Akon was entertaining in was a 21 and over club so Akon would have and did assume everyone there was over 21 as they should have been. However the purpose of my friend Rick’s call to me was to discuss a song Akon had just recorded called Put the Blame on me. This was a song Akon put out to take full responsibility for the actions and took the blame for the whole thing and some other things that appeared to be from his heart. This song did well on the charts for a while and is still on the iTunes top 10 purchased song list. Akon did something with this song I think artists need to do more of which is non-album content or songs. I wish more often a talented artists like Akon would just put out a random single that is not tied to an album just to keep his brand fresh. If he did this every 3 or 4 month’s his brand and name would stay atop consumer mindshare. Making it 100% easier to promote his new album when it is time.
The challenge the record industry has is there are too many artists out there all making noise. Right now it’s Kayne and 50 Cent next week it will be someone else then someone else etc. So when an artist wants to “drop”, to use an industry word, a new album the label must spend a lot of money to get their artist back in the news so consumers will be aware of them and now they have a new album. Hence talk shows, radio play, etc. Anything that brings the artist back to consumers minds. If however like I alluded to Akon put periodical singles out just talking about life or whatever he would first of all sell tons of singles and second keep his brand fresh and atop consumer mindshare.
Granted now only certain artists can do this, ones with real talent and a passion to build their own brand. But that is what I think makes it great is that only a limited but large amount of artists are truly mega stars. Those mega stars could make mega more money if they simply kept their content and brand fresh.
One last observation is what made this Akon song great was that it told a story about something that happened in his life. Artists back in the day like Tupac and Biggie, Run DMC and more all used to tell stories in their songs. I wish Hip Hop would go back to telling stories and singing about life and less about degrading things and hate. Akon’s song Put the Blame on me should be viewed as a refreshing and pioneering attempt on his behalf and the music industry should take note.
