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mixonline.com/nashville08

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May 20-21, 2008

Come join the editors of Mixas we pull into Soundcheck Nashville for two full days of panels, master classes and how-to programming. Mix Nashville features the city's top movers and shakers, including Tony Brown, Jeff Balding, Bob Bullock, Bill VornDick, Andrew Kautz,Chuck Ainlay, Marc Repp,Robert Scovill, Michael Wagener and many others.

Also, in conjunction with American Songwriter magazine, Mix Nashville includes two full days of songwriters onstage, complete with a demo derby, Q&As and Apple GarageBand demos.

Studio. Live. Songwriting—Nashville on Nashville

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Did You Know...?

It is estimated the music industry in the Nashville area employs 19,437.

There are 2,140 music related establishments in the Nashville MSA
- 120 are Record production, distribution & music publishing
- 188 are sound recording studios
- 593 are musical groups & artists
- 211 are record production and or independent artists, writers & performers

Total music-related business revenue for the Nashville MSA is over $2.6 billion.
- The integrated record production and music publishing generated around $627 million
- Music-related self-employed individuals generated around $290.7 million
- Musical groups and artists generated around $278.2 million

Information on Pro Tools Compatibility for Mac OS X Leopard Systems

04/15/08 Pro Tools HD® 7.4.1 software is now fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.1 (Leopard) when running on Apple’s current 8-core Mac Pro computers. For details on Pro Tools HD compatibility with Leopard on the 8-core Mac Pro, please visit the Pro Tools HD 7.4.1 Intel Mac Support page. At this time, Pro Tools LE® and Pro Tools M-Powered™ systems are not yet compatible with Leopard, but please be assured that we are committed to bringing Leopard support to you as quickly as we can. We are currently working very closely with Apple in order to ensure that when the fully compatible versions of Pro Tools LE and M-Powered are released, they’ll adhere to the same levels of performance and stability that you have come to rely on day in and day out. We understand your frustration and apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause, but we ask that you please bear with us and wait to upgrade your OS until we announce compatibility. Thanks for your patience — stay tuned... As always, we appreciate your ongoing support and will do our best to get you up and running on the latest Mac platforms as quickly and reliably as possible.  Important — Please be aware that some currently shipping plug-ins and virtual instruments are not compatible with Pro Tools HD 7.4.1 running on Mac OS X 10.5.1, and some require that you update your plug-ins if an update is available. Before you install the Pro Tools HD 7.4.1 update, be sure to review the plug-in compatibility and update information here. * Pro Tools HD 7.4.1 software works with Mac OS X 10.5.1 only, and is NOT compatible with Apple’s new Mac OS X 10.5.2 release. Please do not update your OS until we’ve made an official announcement about compatibility.

"Lollipop" Breaking Radio Records

Cash Money/Universal Motown Records multi-platinum artist Lil Wayne is once again taking control of the airwaves and breaking records in both with “Lollipop,” the first single from his highly anticipated album Tha Carter III. This is the biggest add week that a hip-hop artist has received at Rhythm Crossover and the biggest any artist has received at Urban Radio including Beyonce and Mariah. “Lollipop,” featuring Static is #1 Most Added and Greatest Gainer at both radio formats receiving a total of 138 adds at Mediabase and R&R.

With a listening audience of 25.7 million “Lollipop,” is being well received at key radio stations across the country including: New York (Hot 97), Los Angeles (Power), Seattle (93 KUBE), Miami (99 Jamz), Philadelphia (Power 99), Atlanta (Hot 107) and Detroit (Hot 102). “Lollipop” is also #1 on iTunes Hip-Hop Chart and #4 Overall, and Lil Wayne’s MySpace page received over a million unique views this week giving him the #1 Top Artist profile on the site. The video is currently in heavy rotation at MTV, MTV2, BET's Rap City and MTV Jams, where it appeared as the Jam Of The Week. The “Lollipop” video is also in medium rotation at MTV Hits and on BET’s main playlist. Lil Wayne will also appear on BET's annual Spring Bling and will be only the 2nd artist in the event's history to perform for an entire episode!

JD Living The Life With Usher, Jay-Z & Anthony Hamilton In The Studio

Jay-Z Deal Offers New Model For Music Sales

By JEFF LEEDS
Published: April 3, 2008
LOS ANGELES — In a move that reflects the anarchy sweeping the music business, the superstar rapper Jay-Z, who released his latest album to lukewarm sales five months ago, is on the verge of closing a deal with a concert promoter that rivals the biggest music contracts ever awarded.

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Rob Loud/Getty Images
Rapper Jay-Z performed at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York last November.
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Times Topics: Jay-Z

Rahav Segev for The New York Times
Jay-Z performing at Nassau Coliseum on March 27.
Jay-Z plans to depart his longtime record label, Def Jam, for a roughly $150 million package with the concert giant Live Nation that includes financing for his own entertainment venture, in addition to recordings and tours for the next decade. The pact, expected to be finalized this week, is the most expansive deal yet from Live Nation, which has angled to compete directly with the industry’s established music labels in a scrum over the rights to distribute recordings, sell concert tickets, market merchandise and control other aspects of artists’ careers.

As CD sales plunge, an array of players — including record labels, promoters and advertisers — are racing to secure deals that cut them in on a larger share of an artist’s overall revenue. Live Nation has already struck less comprehensive pacts with Madonna and U2.

In Jay-Z, Live Nation has lined up with a longtime star who, after toiling as a self-described hustler on the streets of Brooklyn, earned acclaim as a rapper and cachet as a mogul.

Live Nation’s core business has revolved around major rock and country tours, and with Jay-Z it is making an unexpected foray into hip-hop. The company is also placing an enormous wager on a performer who, like many others, has experienced declining record sales. (Last year’s “American Gangster” sold one million copies in the United States; “The Black Album,” from 2003, sold well over three million.)

But the arrangement would also position Live Nation to participate in a range of new deals with Jay-Z, one of music’s most entrepreneurial stars, whose past ventures have included the Rocawear clothing line, which he sold last year for $204 million, and the chain of 40/40 nightclubs.

Jay-Z, 38, whose real name is Shawn Carter, owes one more studio album to Def Jam, where he was president for three years before stepping down in December after he and the label’s corporate parent, Universal Music Group, could not agree on a more lucrative contract.

His first undertaking with Live Nation is his current 28-date tour with Mary J. Blige, his biggest live outing in more than three years. After that, Live Nation envisions integrating the marketing of all Jay-Z’s entertainment endeavors, including recordings, tours and endorsements.

“I’ve turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop,” Jay-Z said in a recent telephone interview.

The deal answers a question that had been circling through the rap world for months: Where would Jay-Z take his next corporate role? As part of the arrangement, Live Nation would finance the start-up of a venture that would be an umbrella for his outside projects, which are expected to include his own label, music publishing, and talent consulting and managing. Live Nation is expected to contribute $5 million a year in overhead for five years, with another $25 million available to finance Jay-Z’s acquisitions or investments, according to people in the music industry briefed on the agreement. The venture, to be called Roc Nation, will split profits with Live Nation.

The overall package for Jay-Z also includes an upfront payment of $25 million, a general advance of $25 million that includes fees for his current tour, and advance payment of $10 million an album for a minimum of three albums during the deal’s 10-year term, these people said. A series of other payments adding up to about $20 million is included in exchange for certain publishing, licensing and other rights. Jay-Z said Live Nation’s consolidated approach was in sync with the emerging potential “to reach the consumer in so many different ways right now.” He added: “Everyone’s trying to figure it out. I want to be on the front lines in that fight.”

The popularity of music downloads has revolutionized how music is consumed, and widespread piracy has contributed to an industry meltdown in which traditional album sales — composed mostly of the two-decades-old CD format — have slumped by more than a third since 2000. (The best seller in 2007, Josh Groban’s “Noël,” sold 3.7 million copies, compared with 9.9 million for the top album in 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That has further pressured record-label executives to rewrite the economics of their business and step beyond the sale of albums in an attempt to wring revenue out of everything from ring tones to artist fan clubs.

Jay-Z said that his future as an artist could involve elevating the role of live performances, long a mixed bag even for popular rap acts.

“In a way I want to operate like an indie band,” he said. “Play the music on tour instead of relying on radio. Hopefully we’ll get some hits out of there and radio will pick it up, but we won’t make it with that in mind.”

Though sales for Jay-Z’s tour with Ms. Blige have been strong since it began on March 22, with almost all the early dates resulting in sold-out arenas, it is unclear when Live Nation could carry out other aspects of the deal. (Jay-Z said that he hoped to deliver his final album for Def Jam later this year.)

Critics of Live Nation, which lost nearly $12 million last year, predict that it would be difficult to turn a profit on the arrangement, given the continuing decline in record sales and the mixed track record of artist-run ventures. Shares in the company have suffered since October when Live Nation negotiated a reported $120 million deal with Madonna.

Michael Cohl, Live Nation’s chairman, said he was not worried. Though he declined to discuss terms of the Jay-Z arrangement, he said it did not require an increase in record sales to be profitable. “He could be doing more tours and doing great,” Mr. Cohl said. “There could be endorsements and sponsorships.” He added, “The whole is what’s important.”

He cited Jay-Z’s forays into a host of other businesses as a model for Live Nation. “What he’s done has kind of mirrored what we want to do and where we think we’re going.”

Some executives at major record labels have privately portrayed Live Nation’s artist deals as overly expensive retirement packages for stars past their prime.

Others disagree. “I’d much rather be in the business of marketing a superstar who cost me a lot of money than taking the 1-in-10, demonstrably failing crapshoot” of signing unknown talents, said Jeffrey Light, a Los Angeles entertainment attorney, referring to the traditional record company model.

But the dimensions of the competition could change if Live Nation begins vying for the same emerging artists that the labels hope to sign. Live Nation is negotiating with a Georgia rock act, the Zac Brown Band, after apparently wooing it away from an offer by Atlantic Records, according to music executives briefed on the talks.

Jay-Z, for his part, suggested that the string of stars to exit the major-label system would also signal to younger acts how to plot their careers. He said that rising artists will be thinking: “ ‘Something must be happening. Madonna did it, she’s not slow. Jay-Z, he’s not slow either.’ ”

Watch How The Business Model Changes In Front Of Our Eyes

By Rudy West
Hip-Hop mogul Jermaine Dupri has teamed with Proctor & Gamble’s TAG brand to launch a new record label in conjunction with the Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJ).

Dupri is president of the newly formed venture, which is dubbed TAG Records. Dupri will run the label out of New York and will be integral in developing a roster of talent for the new imprint.

The launch of TAG Records is part of Proctor & Gamble’s strategy for the brand, which aims to cultivate relationships with the Hip-Hop community through the label and other initiatives.

"Today, we make history in the music industry with TAG Records," Jermaine Dupri told AllHipHop.com in a statement. "This label is going to provide new artists with a chance of a lifetime. New artists will receive ten times the typical marketing support – a first in the industry. I’m hand selecting and molding these artists to make history in Hip-Hop."

P& G owns and controls a number of well known brands, including Pampers, Tide, Charmin, Pantene, Pringles, Folgers, Duracell, Crest, Gillette and others.

The corporation employs over 138,000 employees in over 80 countries and earned over With $68 billion dollars last year.

"We’re very excited about our partnership with IDJ and the broad platform it provides for creating artistic opportunities within the urban community," said Alex Keith, general manager P&G Deodorants. "We’re confident the partnership will make a positive impact and bring opportunities to undiscovered urban creativity and vision."

TAG Records’ releases will also be showcased across various TAG branded advertising and marketing initiatives throughout 2008.

Elzhi Of Slum village Explains "The Art Of Patterns"