Jay Z launched Tidal, another platform for streaming music. Tidal has struggled to capture market share because of Spotify, Pandora, and now Apple Music. Some music industry analysts believe that Jay Z is competing against the biggest platforms in which already have millions of subscribers. Apple has 15 million users’; Spotify has 75 million customers; Deezer, a French service has 6.3 million; and, Pandora has almost 80 million users (Ingram, 2015). Jay Z may have thought he was filling a vacant niche, but truth be told there is no whole to fill in the music streaming industry. Granted, Jay Z is as popular as can be, for he has positioned himself in more than one industry; in 1999 he co-founded the Rocawear clothing brand (Leonard, 2015). However, this does not mean that due to his popularity, millions of users will flock to Tidal, much less pay for songs and videos that can otherwise be seen for free in other platforms; mainly YouTube. With Tidal, Jay Z plans to offer exclusivity. But exclusivity does not exist in this day and age. Alice Enders, a London-based music analyst states that “when you make music, your goal is to get it everywhere, not to make it exclusive” (Leonard, 2015). …show more content…
Jay Z was counting on Sprint’s financial investment to pay off advances to record labels in return for the right to feature their artists (Leonard, 2015). It was then Sprint denied the investment would take place and so Jay Z would then have to renegotiate the streaming contracts with the three major record companies: Universal, Warner, and Sony (Leonard, 2015). Jay Z had egotistically counted on Sprint to financially invest on Tidal that he overlooked making back up plans in case the deal went south, as it did. Luckily, for him he acted swiftly to update contract terms. It is like the old Benjamin Franklin saying goes: “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” (Goodreads,
The music industry has changed in more ways than we could imagine. At first we started with artists just selling singles, then it transformed over to people buying albums, and then on iTunes started to sell songs for just cents. In the year 2005, Pandora was launched on the Internet and later they created a mobile app. Most of the artist’s music can be found on YouTube. Free downloads have affected this industry as well.
He received a boom box for his birthday one year and from there, the rest is history. Jay-Z is one of the most talented rapper alive. Many rappers including J. Cole and Kanye West idolize him. His songs paint pictures and tell stories. He uses his past experiences as the base of many of his rhymes. Every line of every verse has a detailed meaning. Jay-Z used his musical gift to create initial success and wealth for himself. However the one part that is often overlooked is the countless hours he spends working and perfecting his craft. Jay-Z’s process for recording is unlike most. Ever since then Jay-Z decided not to write down any of his lyrics; he has memorized every line of every song he has recorded, making his style even more unique. He has released 12 studio albums and every single one has sold over a million copies, making them certified platinum albums. As a result, Jay-Z has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, while winning 21 of them. Jay-Z has performed at many major events including President Obama’s rally in 2012, as well as his popular music festival entitled “Made in America” just this year. Jay-Z has sold out shows all over the world, including New Yorks very own Madison Square Garden and Barclays Arena. There have been many great musical talents to emerge from Brooklyn, however none of them have been as skilled and crafty as Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s music success as a rapper alone arguably deems him the King of New
Relating this to Hip-Hop rappers recently have found alternative ways to make money by partnering with a company using their name to ultimately boost sales. According to Black Entrepreneur Profile “In 2007, Mr. Combs partnered with Diageo for a groundbreaking strategic alliance to oversee and manage all branding and marketing initiatives for Ciroc Vodka. Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Combs and Sean Combs Enterprises will take the lead on all brand management decisions for Ciroc, while sharing in the future profits of the growth of the brand. This exclusive US multi-year collaboration, which calls for a 50/50 profit split, is a first for the spirits industry and could be worth more than $100 million for Mr. Combs.” Ciroc did become a highly desirable alcoholic beverage, where you see it everywhere from commercials, to getting un-paid promotion from rappers saying that they are in the club ordering a bottle of Diddy (Ciroc). The capitalism ways that a rapper can innovate, and exploit a product are very effective due to the popularity of the rapper they can really make an impact on the society. For example, Andre Young (Dr. Dre) partnered with Monster to create Beats by Dre in the long run making him a billionaire. having the world famous Hip-Hop legend on the name of a decent pair of headphones had all the ingredients to have every teenager begging their parents to buy the overpriced headphones creating a huge trend that now has been bout out by apple which is capitalist mogul who plays with societies wallets like a happy meal toy. Having this new way that Hip-Hop can influence style in todays culture gives them a whole new type of influence besides the bars they write in their
Young Carter swung his way into rap at a youthful age as a departure from the drugs, savagery and destitution that encompassed him in the Marcy Projects. Jay wanted to better himself and did that by getting out of what is known as the “corner life lifestyle.” Be that as it may, despite the fact that he had a stage name, Jay Z remained generally unknown until he and two companions, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, established their own particular record name, Roc-a-Fella Records, in 1996 (Rubin, 2015). In 1989, he joined the rapper Jaz-O—a more seasoned entertainer who served sort of like a mentor that guided to record a song called "The Originators," which won the pair an appearance on a scene of Yo! MTV Raps. It was right when Shawn Carter grasped the nickname Jay Z, which was at the same time a tribute to Jaz-O, a play on Carter's adolescence nickname of "Jazzy" and a reference to the J/Z tram station close to his Brooklyn home (Caramanica, 2012).
Jay-Z is known for being one for not only being one of the best rappers in hip-hop but also having a successful career in and outside of hip-hop. Recently he has been protesting some of the newer hip-hop. His songs “D.O.A” (Death Of Auto-Tune) & “Run This Town” he takes a rebel approach to all of the recent fads in hip-hop. Even though, the fads were embraced by pop culture, Jay-Z saw them as stale and unprogressive. In “D.O.A.” he talks about hip-hop becoming ringtone rap and has lost its edge. “This is anti autotune/ death of the ringtone/ this ain’t for I-Tunes/ This ain’t for sing-a-longs/…This is practically assault with a deadly weapon/ I made this just for flexin’/ Basically I want people to feel threatened. (Blueprint 3) ” Jay-Z is not promoting violence, he is merely stating that hip-hop is losing its status. The reason behind the slow transformation from hip-hop to commercial hip-hop can date back to the birth of the genre. The first rappers were often teens that were a part of the lower classes, and were subjected to the thoughts and images of success, wealth, and happiness that were projected through the media and advertising. These teenagers hoping to change their current living arrangement started chasing money and, the easiest way to make money in the late 80’s, due to the crack epidemic was to sell drugs. That is until they saw rappers such as Big Daddy Kane and Run DMC with their heavy gold ropes; they quickly turned their attention to rapping. The only problem was, most rappers had to soften up their lyrics to be accepted into pop culture. So the easiest solution was to talk about clothing and jewelry. In the book, Hip Hop: A Short History, the author describes how they used consumerism to appeal to pop culture...
Mark Cuban is the owner of many multi-million dollar companies, has a net worth of over 1.3 billion dollars, is a star on a popular tv show known as Shark Tank for 7 seasons, and has a large role in many charities. Mark Cuban had many failures,successes and important thing happen to him upto this day. Three of his most important and influential events in his life were BroadCast.com, when Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, and what is the most influential event in Cuban’s life, being on Shark Tank. Cubans first major start up was BroadCast.com. He owned this company for a total of 6 years until he sold it to Yahoo for a grand total of 5.6 billion dollars.
Kanye Omari West, rapper, producer, professional celebrity, and with an ego to match, has forced himself into the limelight of the music industry. Kanye West has made a lasting impression on all of those around him, whether it be a good one or bad. With seven full length albums, a multimillion record label company, and a successful fashion business all under his belt, it’s fair to say that Kanye has done his fair share of creating. Over the last twelve years Kanye went from a young Chicago kid just trying to get his flows off, to one of the most decorated musicians of all time. With over 20 Grammy’s and 3 of his albums ending up on the Rolling stones “500 greatest albums of all time”. He has continuously created, entertained, and spoken his mind for years. Whether it be “George Bush does not care about black people” or “Taylor imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had
More specifically, the rap industry carries a heavy influence over black culture. A majority of famous rappers are black, and have experienced many of the hardships rapped about in their music. Rap created a new future for the black underprivileged youth. The music industry is an extremely cutthroat business, but now that business holds a spot for young rappers trying to escape the ghetto. Modern rap artists will boast of their skills and how it got them out of the hood. Many black Americans that live in low income neighborhoods fall into a cycle that is impossible to break free from. Berry, states: “Kids are forced to learn from the rhythm of life around them” (Kennedy 524). The presence of gangs and crime create a way to make money, in hopes of a better future. The lifestyle of a gangster is characterized by prison time, violence, and drugs. These men find that they have become trapped in this lifestyle, making it impossible to pursue any other future. Berry, states: “rap music is indisputably entangled with the struggle for black identity and legitimacy within mainstream society” (Kennedy 520). Now with the power and popularity of rap music, these men and women can use their artistry and talent to make themselves rich. Artists like Fetty Wap, Eazy E, and Tupac all started from the bottom. They used their art to become well known in the hip hop community, which led to economic gains. Rap also created a cultural change. Many rap artists create a brand out of their name. Artists influence youth of all cultures to buy their clothing, their music, their style. Jay Z and Kanye West have worked to create their music streaming business, Tidal, more popular. Glenn Peoples, in “Turning the tide?”, states: “Tidal is attempting to draw customers through such perks as exclusive content (like Lil Wayne and Rihanna songs) and early access to concert tickets” (Peoples 1). The rap business has become
It’s probably not feasible to avoid streaming music services nowadays. Every smart phone on the market is able to operate numerous music streaming applications, ranging from radio-style streaming, on-demand streaming, and even cloud-streaming. Smart TVs come equipped with Spotify, Pandora, or Rdio. AT&T partners with Beats music to offer a unique on-demand music streaming service with playlists complied by DJs. It seams that with the advent of Wifi hotspots and high-speed mobile Internet services, music streaming is becoming more and more a part of mainstream life. Spotify has been in the spotlight within this particular segment of the streaming industry ever since its introduction to the United States in 2011. (Roose, n.d.)
...his since they make money for licensing the music for the streaming services. Labels are embracing the streaming services since this allows another way for making revenue in a not so strong music economy.
Many well-known artists including Taylor Swift are against Spotify and have her music catalogue removed from Spotify, because by letting people listen to your music for free you undermine the value of art. But Taylor Swift is one of not so many artists that could pull such thing off and still remain popular. After all, her removing her catalogue from Spotify was a huge scandal and one of the most important happenings during the last year in the music industry. This move of hers affects Spotify in a bad way, as she was one of the most popular artists on spotify and her songs were on 19 million playlists. It is also thought that taking her music catalogue from Spotify could be related with her own record label, Big Machine’s sale. As instant income from digital music download could be financially more beneficial, and increase value for her record label more than, “steady streaming” income. But for such popular artists like Taylor Swift, such streaming model earns millions. According to Spotify real life artist who wasn’t named was earning $425,000, per month for a hit album that was on top charts. And that category surely
When it comes to the music industry, an artist makes a song, the label sells the song and then the listener buys it? In the world today, the music industry is knowledgeable of digital downloads, music videos, file sharing, and now social media. Social media is the voice of an individual and captures joy, emotions or thoughts in pictures, tweets or status updates. It is a reachable space that is used to keep in touch and to reach out. Social media allows listeners to shares their favorite artists, post their favorite songs and really created a genuine connection with the artists. The music industry has changed because social media is a tool needed to connecting with the listeners. Social media is necessary to maintain a career in the music business.
Consumers rely on their smartphones and laptops to listen to music on-demand. Although there are many music streaming companies, Spotify was one of the first to let consumers access millions of artist without buying individuals songs or albums. With Spotify, consumers pay for a premium subscription that allows access to every artist, album, and song within their library of
"The mass production of free, high-quality re-recorded music became a serious threat to the music industry" ("Music Industry"). This mass production is costing artists and producers money that they would have made from people buying their music. Listeners have turned to streaming services as a cheaper alternative to purchasing to songs they love. Streaming services have increased the availability of music, which one may think is a good thing but is in fact a fulmination to the music industry because artists are not making as much money as they would have if songs were being purchased individually. People who worked in the music industry had showered praise on to streaming services, considering them a savior that would help the music industry and increase revenue, but they instead had an adverse effect on music sales and artist salary (O’Brien). Streaming services have led to protests from artists on many different levels due to the amount of payment that artists are receiving. "Prince, Neil Young and Ms. Swift have withdrawn their music from some streaming outlets, and various musicians have called for greater transparency in how the music industry operates (Sisario).” While the protests have been successful, it is only when famous high-level artists bring attention to the issues. This controversy is one of the negatives of streaming services because
Spotify is on-demand streaming music player. After registration and downloading the desktop application user gains access to more than 20 million songs that are currently available on Spotify [1]. The main characteristic of Spotify’s streaming service is that it does not sell music, but it gives access to it. Streaming digital music is based on agreements with content owners - record labels, digital distributors, aggregators and publisher collecting societies, to whom Spotify pays out royalties [2]. Without these agreements there would be no music to stream. Basically, Spotify has an intermediary role as it distributes music content from right holders to listeners.