Stop PIPA and SOPA!

January 18, 2012 by Nick Leave a Comment

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

As I’m sure you are all aware of there is a revolution today, we here at New Industry Tips support the freedom of the internet and are against the PIPA and SOPA acts currently circulating the hill. We constantly preach about the need for licensing, publishing, copyrights and more but the general health of the internet is at stake here. Don’t let them fool you, this is not all about protecting Intellectual Property, it is about power and control, something that does not mix well with the freedom the internet provides. If the government is allowed to start banning DNS it will for one not stop any piracy as you can just type the direct IP, and second it will damage the general landscape of the internet and allow the government to attack sites without warning and not only shut them down but shut down their legitimate business accounts in PayPal and Google Adsense, etc.

Overall this is a very poorly written bill to combat a phenomenon that only affects a small percentage of the economy, trust me, entertainment busienss will be fine and continue to grow, but sacrificing the entire landscape of the technology industry would disrupt more than you can imagine! Take the time to let your representative know that this bill needs to be rethought! It’s not worth it!!

http://fightforthefuture.org

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Featured, Industry News, Law, major labels, Music Business, News, Online Marketing, Video, Websites Tagged With: ads, adsense, bill, congresss, copyrights, dns, dns server, entertainment industry, industry, internet, ip, law, Licensing, music business, music industry, paypal, pipa, piracy, Publishing, senate, sopa, technology industry

Coast 2 Coast Industry Mixer Events

January 23, 2011 by Nick 2 Comments

Coast 2 Coast Music Industry Mixer is a monthly event put on by Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes featuring a Artist Showcase, Vinyl DJ Battle, Model Contest, Featured Performers and Industry Panel of Judges.

Networking is always the key to success, especially in the music business. Attending all the insider music industry events is a must to build your network to the size where you can utilize your connections. It is the often overlooked piece to the puzzle that many semi successful artists don’t get, you can have all the budgets in the world but if you don’t get out there and touch the DJs, Publicists, Street Teamers, Promoters, etc. then you can’t expect them to work for you to the best of their ability.

We put together the Industry Mixers as an opportunity for all of our industry connections to get together and get updates, and give the chance for indie artists throughout our network to take advantage of the event. The events are regularly attended by over 50 of our DJs, promoters of all kinds, major artists, managers, publicists, producers and more. We always bring a few big name featured performers as well as industry powerhouses for judges.

Artists do not miss your opportunity to showcase in front of the industry! We have major artists from around the nation asking to perform at our events so it is always great when indie artists can take advantage of the same platform!

Check out some video and pics from past events at the official site for all Coast 2 Coast Music Industry Mixers

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Conference Networking, Featured, Industry Events, Industry News, Networking Tagged With: artists, events, industry, music industry, music industry events, producers, showcase

Warner Bros. Records Sends Copyright Infringement Claims to Top Urban Websites/Blogs on Behalf of Gucci Mane

April 8, 2010 by Nick 8 Comments

Warner Bros. Records Threatens Copyright Infringement Claims Against Top Urban Websites/Blogs Including Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes on Behalf of Gucci Mane

Warner Bros. Records makes yet another mistake in the unstable music industry by sending numerous copyright infringement claims to top websites and blogs including Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes, ordering them to remove any Gucci Mane content. The falter will more than likely hinder the incarcerated rapper’s return to the music scene as his career has been built upon mixtapes, djs, blogs and the underground culture.

(NewIndustryTips.com) April 8, 2010 — Warner Bros. Records has sent numerous copyright infringement claims against many of the top website and blogs in the urban music industry including Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes. The claims, sent by a 3rd party “GrayZone, Inc.” based in New York, states that the websites have infringed on the copyrighted property of Warner Bros. Records, Inc and requested removal of all mentions of Gucci Mane on the sites in question, barring legal action.

Coast 2 Coast Mixtape Vol. 118 – Hosted by Three 6 Mafia

One website affected by the actions is http://www.Coast2CoastMixtapes.com, a promotional website that features mixtapes from many of the biggest artist in the urban music industry. Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes works with every major artist in the industry to release promotional material on a regular basis for promotional use. Previous hosts have included many top artists and DJs such as Snoop Dogg, DJ Khaled, DJ Drama, Keri Hilson, Ciara, Nas, LL Cool J and many more.

The website http://www.Coast2CoastMixtapes.com was asked to remove all Gucci Mane earlier this month even though they host no files on the actual website, causing them to question the grounds of the sweeping claims. On April, 8th, the website hosting company for http://www.coast2coastmixtapes.com, GoDaddy.com, was sent a Cease and Desist letter as well and shut the website down for a matter of hours. The site was immediately reinstated as no copyright laws had been violated, leaving website owners to questions the validity of the claims.

“The funny thing is we don’t host any files on our site,” explains Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes CEO Kyle “Lil Fats” Hiersche, “We help promote music to the fans and use other parties to help our efforts, meaning we don’t host any files but use providers like Datpiff.com to stream music. When we were asked to remove all files we questioned the basis of the claims, stating that we in fact don’t host any music on the website. We like to promote music of all kinds but if Warner Bros. Records doesn’t want to be included then we will gladly stop promoting all their artists.”

These claims seem to come at a pivotal time in the rapper’s career, as his buzz is growing bigger than ever it seems the label is determined to undermine any traction they have gained. Gucci Mane’s whole career had been built upon a heavy mixtape presence that had catapulted him to the top of most urban blogs and websites. The blackballing of websites by the artist is sure to incite a flurry of backlashes at the artist’s career, at a time when he cannot even defend the actions of his label while incarcerated.

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Documents, Industry News, major labels Tagged With: blog, blogs, copyright claims, copyrights, dj drama, gucci mane, industry, legal, major labels, mixtapes, music industry, promotion, suit, urban music, warner bros, warner bros. records, website, Websites

Rhythm J’s ASCAP Publishing Guru Session

January 22, 2010 by rhythmj 4 Comments

What’s up to all the heavy grinders, hard working, and struggling artists, producers, musicians, managers, and DJs! Many of you may know me from my production, or my work with the iStandard Producer Showcase / istandardproducers.com; however, I still get a surprising reaction when mentioning my involvement with ASCAP. Once someone finds out I work there I get this:

“Oh woooooord?! You work for ASCAP?!? (long pause) oh…. That’s cool… (light bulb goes off) Oh ok…. So then how do I (insert question here)… “ And so it begins!

As I don’t mind helping anyone who approaches me in person about their ASCAP account or any other Performing Rights Organization they’re involved with (BMI or SESAC), it has come to my attention in the last couple of years that there is a glaring gap in the knowledge of many industry personnel that needs to be filled when it comes to this aspect of the industry. The most disturbing thing is that it seems people involved in the urban music genres are the ones that know the least about how to handle their PRO (Performing Rights Organization) business. I have helped managers, attorneys (as scary as that sounds), established artists, platinum producers, publishing company founders, and countless others.

Being that this is the first blog a lot of people want to know what ASCAP is… what does it do really? We can all sit here and say “I got my ASCAP set up I’m straight” but what does that really mean? I’ve had people spend the money on the account… and then call me and ask me what does it do? There have been people who have been members for 10+ years and never touched their account and expected to magically get a check.

STEP 1 – WHAT TO EXPECT – So what does being a member of a PRO do exactly? ASCAP BMI and SESAC collect royalties based on the amount of music that you wrote and/or published that is mainly played on Radio (commercial, satellite, internet, digital, NPR, college etc) and TV (network, cable, local, satellite, etc.) – Does this mean EVERY SPIN, EVERY AIRING of your music? Of course not. So keep this in mind going in! It would be humanly impossible to cover every single thing that plays everywhere. The PRO’s also pay royalties for a limited amount of ringtones, airlines, musak (elevator/ doctor’s office music), internet, etc.

The web is especially growing with their royalty payouts. There are so many things in court at this point that a lot of these cases are waiting to pan out to set standards for the future…. This is why the popular sites like youtube or myspace don’t pay out for your webhits.

If you are anticipating a heavy volume of radio play, or anything that’s going to be play on NATIONAL TV (this doesn’t mean your local public access station) then it would be a good idea to join: http://www.ascap.com/about/howjoin.asp

I would recommend joining as a writer AND a publisher.

If one thing sticks on this blog – go home with this:

1 song = 50% writing, 50% publishing

If you just join as one – you are getting half your money. Plain and simple.

We can go further with publishing deals and how keeping all of it vs. signing some away may or may not work to your advantage. We can also get into music libraries and what their exchange is in return for publishing.

There are many routes we can take moving forward – SO if you have any questions regarding ASCAP – whether you’re a current member or would like to join… feel free to twitter me your questions @RhythmJ and I will either answer you via twitter or another blog posting, depending on what you are trying to find out. Welcome to your new source of PRO FAQ!

Lastly – for all artists, producers, managers in the game who are trying to network, check out the ASCAP I Create Music Expo in LA this April. http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/

Producers, you can also submit for the iStandard Producer Showcase at the ASCAP Expo http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/events/expo/2010/istandard.aspx