Gawker: valleywag, jay-z

What MySpace Music backers don't get: Recorded music is no longer a product, but advertising

Jackson West — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Shawn "Jay Z" Carter signing with LiveNation demonstrates that one of the most entrepreneurial artists of our generation has decided that the business of recording music is advertising. The No. 1 digital music retailer, iTunes, has understood this for some time — Apple sells iPods, and iTunes is a service to make it relatively cheap and easy to fill those iPods. Carter will be happy to make a little chump change from digital sales, but the MC knows the real money is in branded events and merchandise. What the labels call "piracy" is actually free distribution of promotional material, and such a model is not without precedent.

It's called radio, and more recently, music videos. In both cases, record labels basically paid to promote album sales — either through payola, in the case of radio, or through seven-figure film budgets, in the case of music videos. The content itself was given away for free. Thankfully, digital tools make recording and mastering that much cheaper as well. The only change in thinking (and artist contracts) required is to see the recordings themselves as a loss leader for stuff you actually can sell, like tickets and T-shirts, fan club memberships and licensing rights.

The new MySpace Music, like industry-backed efforts with MusicNet, PressPlay and Bertelsmann's Napster, is doomed to failure because the labels persist in seeing recorded music as a profit center, not as a promotional platform for leveraging artists' brands. Of the four majors, only EMI hasn't signed on with that effort yet, and if former Googler Douglas Merrill has any sense, he'll tell the company not to bother. (Photo by AP/Peter Kramer)

Jay-Z follows U2 and Madonna, signs with Live Nation — yeah, the music industry is in tatters

Jordan Golson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:30:00 EDT

HP endorser turned Mac user Jay-Z is dumping his current label, Def Jam, where he held the title of president, for a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation. The deal includes increased financing for non-music ventures, touring, and new albums. The massive falloff in record sales means the industry's top moneymakers, whose profits subsidize the discovery and marketing of new artists, are deserting the labels. And who can blame them? (Photo by ashbyyokosuka)

A week to remember: At CES, more time in jail than Paris Hilton

Jordan Golson — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:00:47 EST

What a week! On my first trip to Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show, I survived harassment by bulldog aficionado Jason Calacanis, discovered that HP adman Jay-Z uses a Mac, and laughed at Richard Blakeley's TV-B-Gone prank. Now we hear that he's been banned from the show. It could be worse. He could be behind bars...

... like this pair of adorably cute bulldogs!(WORLD EXCLUSIVE bulldog photo courtesy of Jason Calacanis)

Jay-Z, HP's star endorser, uses a Mac

Jordan Golson — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:00:12 EST

Jay-Z and girlfriend Beyonce seem to be Apple fans. No surprise there: Plenty of musicians use Macs. What is surprising? Jay-Z was in one of those Hewlett-Packard "hand" ads last year touting HP laptops. At least Tiger Woods actually wears Nike. Catch the ad after the jump.

(Photo by ashbyyokosuka)

Music producer is right to defend bad business

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:40:59 EST

Successful rap producer Jermaine Dupri probably didn't win any friends for his Huffington Post entry defending Jay-Z's decision to sell his new album American Gangster online only as a full album. Dupri may not be a polished spokesperson, and no one wants to hear, "Why do people not care how we — the people who make music — eat?" Not when it comes from someone tied as the sixteenth wealthiest hip-hop mogul. Or when that person also gets to sleep with Janet Jackson. But — I can't believe I'm saying this — Dupri is right. Of course, artists should have the right to determine how their creations are packaged. In admitting that it's about money, too, he's just being honest. Music is a business. It's about coming to mutually agreeable terms with the customer, not catering to his every whim. Even Steve Jobs lets musicians sell songs on Apple's iTunes in album-only packages. Ultimately, if consumers really have a problem with the way they do business, the artists will fail. That's their right, too.