 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
Staff & Credits | Webmaster | Sponsors | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Jobs | Customer Service
|
On Becoming A Household Name
Jermaine Dupri Explores How Fresh Can You Be?
Jermaine Dupri and Island Def Jam Music Group have partnered with Cincinnati-headquartered behemoth Procter & Gamble, the number one U.S. maker of household products and family care that reported more than $76 billion in sales in 2007 with $10.3 billion of that profit, on its TAG body spray brand. Not an endorsement deal, the two entities have formed a new record label to be called TAG Records with Jermaine Dupri as president at its head, responsible for signing new artists to the label.
In a video playing on the new label's website, www.ragrecords.com , Dupri, holding the TAG products in hand, explains the unprecedented venture: "Today, we make history in the music industry with TAG Records. 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."
Expected to announce the first signing of a new artist in May, Dupri adds, “We will be giving new artists a platform that only big artists have had before…on day one.”
In addition to the LP release and touring, the new artist will become a media figurehead for all commercials and marketing for the TAG products.
Just what are those products? Dupri holds up two bottles and explains: “It's not a deodorant and not a cologne. Young men are always looking for ways to keep fresh.” That's what this partnership is all about. “How fresh can we be?” he says, referring not only to the P&G product, but new TAG Records music and the marketing initiatives that will roll out this year to be cross-branded to appeal to young male demos.
"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."
"We're mixing the best of both worlds together: the marketing of a product like TAG and the lifestyle that TAG represents, and then what the music and myself bring to the music industry," Dupri adds. "My goal is to find artists that have longevity written all over their face," Dupri continues, saying that the new label expects to launch two artists per year during the course of the three-year deal.
"We're confident the partnership will make a positive impact and bring opportunities to undiscovered urban creativity and vision, adds Jeff Straughn, vice president of strategic marketing for Island Def Jam Music Group. "This partnership marks an industry first. This is a breakthrough model that will set the stage for innovative collaborations at Island Def Jam Music Group. This is a non-traditional approach that blends our most valuable assets: the artist and their music, with the power of brand marketing."
The artists will be the focus of TAG Body Spray's re-launch, via a multimillion dollar campaign that will include television, print, radio, digital ads and event marketing,
"You can't get this type of marketing budget nowadays,” Dupri acknowledges. “There are endorsement deals, but not like this."
Starbucks Restructures
Concord To Manage Hear Music
Refocusing on its core goal of delivering a unique Starbucks experience, the Seattle-based company that boasts nearly 16,000 stores in 43 countries, is looking to reduce its costs and restructure its entertainment division to concentrate on digital strategy and core content of music and books.
“As part of our ongoing transformation, we are committed to examining all aspects of our business that are not directly related to our core,” explained the company's chairman/president/CEO Howard Schultz. “We have had numerous successes in music and books including eight Grammy Awards and three No.1 books on the New York Times bestseller list. However, now is the appropriate time to restructure our Entertainment business to better align our efforts with our overall business strategies.”
The Ray Charles: Genius Loves Company project was one of the successes of its Hear Music initiative that it experienced with its partnership with the Concord Music Group. Starbucks will continue that relationship with Concord and, in fact, turn over the day-to-day management of the Hear Music Record Label to Concord.
Los Angeles-based Ken Lombard, senior vice president and president of Starbucks Entertainment, who just recently moved into the company's new Los Angeles offices in the same West Los Angeles location where Concord is housed, has departed the company as a result of the restructuring. He was instrumental in opening the entertainment up to more contemporary artists. “Ken was instrumental in shaping Starbucks entertainment strategy over the past several years and we are grateful for his numerous contributions to the company,” said Schultz.
Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer, has been promoted to senior vice president and will assume the leadership of the company's Entertainment division.
Starbucks will continue its relationships with the William Morris Agency to identify book projects and with Apple and AT&T to enhance the customer experience through the use of wi-fi and other in-store technology.
A sudden change in upper management at Sony BMG names Barry Weiss (49) chairman/CEO of the BMG Label Group, in effect, replacing Clive Davis (74), who has been named to the newly created position of Chief Creative Officer Sony BMG Worldwide. Both will report directly to Sony BMG Music Entertainment head CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz. Additionally, Richard Sanders has been promoted to Head of International, responsible for overseeing the company's global operations and regional offices worldwide and its global marketing.
Sony BMG's COO Tim Bowen and BMG Label Group president/COO Charles Goldstruck both depart the company.
Weiss, who led Jive Records to become a major label with such artists as Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, and under whom artists Chris Brown, T-Pain and R. Kelly were signed, now oversees all of the BMG labels, which include RCA Records, Jive, J Records, LaFace, Arista, Volcano, Verity, GospoCentric and Fo Yo Soul.
A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and industry icon, Davis, who has delivered such multi-platinum selling artists as Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Marry Manilow and Alicia Keys and launched the Arista and J Records brands, will continue to work with the label's premier artists, including his most recent signee, Leona Lewis, whose debut album Spirit sold more than 200,000 copies in its debut.
Rhythm & Blues Foundation chairman Kendall Minter joined R&B Foundation board members Kenny Gamble and Teddy Pendergrass to announce its 2008 20 th Anniversary Pioneer Award honorees at a press conference in Philadelphia. This year's awards will be presented on September 9 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
This year's honorees include: Lifetime Achievement Award: Chaka Khan; Individual Artists Awards: Teena Marie, Bill Withers and Sugar Pie DeSanto; Group Awards: Kool & The Gang and The Whispers; Sidemen Award: The Funk Brothers; Legacy Award: Donny Hathaway and Leadership Award: Al Bell of Stax Records.
Additionally, Patricia Wilson Aden, executive director of the R&B Foundation, thanked the Recording Academy for $10,000 it received from The Grammy Foundation® Grant Program, saying, “It will enable us to preserve 20 years worth of videos, oral histories, rare photographs and other memorabilia that document the history of Rhythm & Blues.”
Says honoree Kool & the Gang, who were at the press conference, “There's a party going on in September and the whole world is invited.”
Legendary soul, R&B, funk singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, mentor, record producer and social activist Curtis Mayfield will be honored by family, friends and fans when he is posthumously inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk on Tuesday, May 20. Celebrating 50 years of music, digitally enhanced recordings and video footage will be released this year, paying tribute to Mayfield's iconic career.
Known as the Gentle Genius, Mayfield produced more than 750 songs in his short lifetime that ended in on December 26, 1999, following a 1990 car accident that him paralyzed from the neck down.
Celebrating the 50 th anniversary of Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions, Reelin' In the Years Productions and Universal Music Group International release the two-hour documentary “Movin' On Up: the Music and Message of Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions” on DVD on May 6.
Performing Rights organization ASCAP honored Quincy Jones on April 22 in NYC at the Nokia Theater in Times Square with its highest honor, the Pied Piper Award. Ashford & Simpson, Patti Austin, Tony Bennett, Tevin Campbell, James Ingram, Gloria Estefan, Roberta Flack, Siedah Garrett, Savion Glover, Lesley Gore, Al Jarreau, Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, Greg Phillinganes, Take 6, Tamia, James Moody, Clark Terry, James D-Train Williams, and cast members of Stomp joined in the special musical tribute to the famed composer, arranger, conductor and producer.
Jones celebrates his 75 th birthday this year at the Montreux Jazz Festival headlining the July 14 opening night. Nearly 90 groups will perform on the two main stages at the annual festival from July 14-17. Herbie Hancock, Petula Clark, Al Jarreau and Patti Austin are among the performers joining Jones on opening night. Alicia Keys joins the scheduled performers on July 17.
Ray Charles 60 th Anniversary Exhibit
The Ray Charles Foundation is readying its Los Angeles museum for a September opening with a major Ray Charles 60 th Anniversary exhibit. The foundation is also planning a new Ray CD release.
Remembering Dr. George Butler (1936-2008)
Industry executive Dr. George Butler, who headed the Blue Note Records label in the ‘70s, died on April 9 at age 72 after a long bout with Alzheimers. He produced such jazz artists as Donald Byrd, Bobbi Humphrey, Noel Pointer and Ronnie Laws while at Blue Note, later heading the jazz division of Columbia Records, where he signed such jazz artists as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick, Jr. and Marlon Jordan, among others. Butler helped launch the return of Miles Davis after he had retired with The Man with the Horn, which he produced. Butler's passion and zeal for the music inspired and opened the doors for many in the industry where he was also know for his always immaculate ‘cool.'