BY HEATHER McDONALD

It is getting easier by the day to release your own music and build a music career without the backing of a label. That’s an exciting thing for musicians, and for a lot of people, it’s the best choice. On the other hand, there’s a tendency for the DIY route to be romanticized. In reality, like any other kind release, the choice to self release your music comes with pros and cons (don’t forget to check out major label deal pros and cons and indie label deal pros and cons). Before you decide to self release your album, don’t forget to weigh up these factors.

Self Releasing an Album: The Pros:

1. You Keep Your Rights: Forget worrying about confusing contracts, expensive lawyers, and accidentally signing over your music, your vision and perhaps your first born child to some record label for life. You’re not very well going to trap yourself in a bad deal, now are you? You decide how your music is used, when it is used, and how much people have to pay to use it, end of story.
2. You Keep the Cash: Ever marvel at the way that some extremely successful musicians are seemingly flat broke? Sure, sometimes they’re in that position because they bought things like, say, gold plated tanks (ahem, not mentioning any names), but often they’re in the position because they’re last on the list to be paid. Every person that comes in to help with your career gets a cut, but when you’re doing it yourself, you get to eat the whole pie.
3. You Make It (Or Don’t) On Your Own Terms: Even the most laid back, artist friendly independent label is bound to have a few limitations in mind when it comes to projects they’re willing to work on with you, and major labels can be extremely demanding. Some labels may want to send you back to the studio when you decide to change musical directions or they may demand you adopt a “look” for marketing purposes. There are lots of ways you can clash creatively with a label, and depending on what kind of deal you have, sometimes the label will win. When you’re the one putting out the music, you release the music you want, and only the music you want, when you want to release it. The marketing, the touring – all of the decision will be made by you, so there will be none of the typical conflicts

READ ABOUT THE CONS

Listing based on number of singles that have been listed on IFPI recognized music charts.

Data Provided by JDMP

Listing is based on the number of Riddim Driven productio that have been listed on an IFPI recognised Music chart.

Data Provided by JDMP

Data Provided by The Jamaica Data Mining Project

These days, the music industry is ultra-competitive. If you’re a new artist, the chance of you breaking onto the Billboard charts above the Gaga’s, the Katy’s and the Kanye’s seems nearly impossible. However, the popularity of independent, internet sensation living room and garage bands is growing daily. So, Billboard decided they should jump on the bandwagon.

Billboard has since added a new ranking chart titled Uncharted. The purpose of this chart is to recognize and develop artists who don’t have the volume in record sales or radio airplay to bring them regular chart success. However, they will use such outlets as YouTube views, Twitter tweets and re-tweets, as well as MySpace music page listens.

Uncharted launched on Billboard yesterday and the first #1 artist is hip hopper Traphik from Long Beach, California who is famous on YouTube for his humorous rhymes in his raps. DJ BL3ND is also on the chart with their electro house music with one of their songs being viewed on YouTube well over 22 million times.

Billboard Editorial Director Bill Werde said that this new ranking system is meant to help launch careers. It will help smaller artists step on to a bigger stage and platform to have their music showcased and heard. Record labels are always looking for bubbling talent, so now, they can check out Uncharted to see who already has an internet fan base.
Read more at: http://www.homorazzi.com/article/billboard-uncharted-online-youtube-myspace-twitter-new-artists-independant-viral-ranking/#ixzz22AXm6iO3

For decades, the sales data that went into Billboard‘s R&B chart formula came from “core” urban stores. Only retailers that catered to the black community were factored into the chart. What has happened to black-owned and urban-based music stores is that same thing that’s happened to record stores across the board—virtual extinction. Billboard still tracks sales of physical singles at the few core urban stores remaining and factors those sales into the big R&B/Hip-Hop chart—but the effect is miniscule. A top-selling single in 2012 might move as little as one to two thousand copies.

Of course, top-selling physical singles of any genre sell poorly these days, and the Hot 100 uses sales data, too. So why hasn’t the big pop chart turned into an all-airplay wasteland? Because the Hot 100 has something the R&B/Hip-Hop chart doesn’t: digital sales. Since 2005, sales of songs at iTunes and other digital retailers have been factored into the big chart, acting as a vital counterweight to radio—even redirecting what pop programmers are willing to play.

OK—so why aren’t digital sales a part of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart? The days when only affluent whites were using iTunes are long over, and hip-hop fans are big consumers of digital music. Can’t these sales be baked into Billboard‘s black-music chart? This is, honestly, a very good question with a complicated answer.

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SoundExchange, which collects U.S. digital performance royalties on behalf of sound recording owners, recording artists and performers featured on the recordings — will be able to collect foreign royalties whether or not the featured performer is currently a member of SoundExchange.

Earlier this month, SoundExchange signed reciprocal deals with record label collecting societies in France, Spain, Sweden, Ireland and Jamaica. Concurrent with those deals was the announcement of a new policy not to charge an administrative rate on royalties collected by foreign societies. In effect, the policy will prevent labels’ and artists’ royalties from being charged administrative fees by both the foreign society and SoundExchange.

Last week, SoundExchange signed multilateral reciproal agreements with foreign artist societies in Germany (GVL), Japan (CPRA/Geidankyo), Sweden (SAMI) and Cyprus (ASTERAS). The deals — made in conjunction with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the AFM and AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund — relate to collection of sound recording royalties for digital performances.

BY DR. SONJAH STANLEY NIAAH

‘Big dutty stinkin’ Shabba’ was billed as the festival headliner for Sumfest’s International Night I (the whole festival if you ask me). He arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport to placard-bearing fans and family members in true head-of-state euphoric fashion. Watch here.

Sumfest patrons could not have asked for more. With tunes such as Peenie Peenie, Womb Turner, Halla Fi Buddy, Wicked Inna Bed, Gyal You Good and Love Punaany Bad, Shabba sizzled with sauce and santimonious irreverence for the puritanical ethic that labelled him slack in the late 1980′s. Afterall, ‘pum pum had been good to him’ and he wanted the world to know it. Being a witness myself, Shabba successfully reminded the Sumfest audience of the star he is and speared no sweat or grind in pushing the proverbial envelope on the morals that would deny public mention of that likkle piece of…welll, pudenda.

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Shabba Ranks Returns