You’ll get some discounts ($150 off a 5-year signup or $200 off a 10-year signup) and tons of resources to use (2TB disk and 20TB bandwidth)… plus we get a nice referral credit applied to our own hosting account.

Hit me up via email or post a comment asking about getting a promo code. I only have 4 of them left!

Go here to signup (after I’ve supplied you with your unique promo code) and put the 12 digit code in the “promo code” field.

Finish the new Sphere of Hip-Hop website
Be more diligent in raising funding for Sphere
Donate 10,000 CDs to ministry outreaches
Enjoy the next 3 months and work as hard as I can.

+ more tba

Dert - Talk Strange (a beat tape inspired by Bjork)

Let’s just hope 2009 is better. That’s what I am praying for among other things.

I was just thinking the other day about how things were when XM Satellite Radio agreed to bring Sphere of Hip-Hop onto the air. After reading through some early emails from around then (I was cleaning an email folder for the show) I noticed a disturbing trend of emails not saying “Congrats” or anything like that but “How can I get my radio show on XM?”

Seriously? Then I remember how annoyed I was and remembered the culture of vultures in our scene. Everyone cries about unity but when the time comes to unify behind something potentially great… it’s not “how can I help” or “how can I support” or even “how can I pray” it was… “How can I get on.”

Through the grapevine I’ve heard the skinny about how cats are talking about what we did with the show. “Oh, he won’t play so and so for such and so reason.” Really? Did it ever occur to you to ask me why? Did it ever occur to you that maybe I never received their music for play? It’s far easier to jump to conclusions isn’t it? It’s too bad because that type of stuff is what is really wrong with our scene. What happened to going to the source and seeing what’s up? It’s a lost art or something.

What is annoying about this is the lengths at which I’ve tried to include everyone over the last few years in things I’ve been doing namely this radio show. Emails don’t receive responses and phone calls go unreturned. If you know me personally, I don’t like to chase after people… especially if I am going to do work they should be doing on their own already.

If you do this… don’t do it anymore. Golden opportunities are missed all the time because folks aren’t willing to swallow their pride to jump on board with what God is doing with someone else. Think about it.

I originally posted this October 15th but it seems like a good time to refresh it haha

Word to your moms.

Reasoning with the folks that do it is usually a dead end. Most know that it’s not lawful but don’t care because they just want to “preview” the music that they full well won’t spend a dime on. That’s the rationalization of it all for many. Of course there is a small minority that just take for the sake of taking without caring one bit about the impact.

You wouldn’t jack a CD off of a stores shelf but you will download an album from a “protected” website? Doesn’t the “protected” and “under ground” nature of most of it give you an idea as to whether the practice is right to be doing?

I love the art. The delivery of it is somewhat flawed but to absolutely devalue it because you can’t physically touch it is ludicrous. The practice of illegal downloading hurts REAL people. Most sensible people wouldn’t want to see their favorite artists quit doing music (most in pure disgust because of the rampant theft of their music) would they? What about that hard working guy or gal who is helping that artist be able to concentrate on music? Put yourself in their shoes.

My suggestions…

Record labels - be forward thinking and creative in how you present your music/product to consumers. I know the current climate is tough and it makes you nervous but engage people. Most people when given the choice to do right will choose right and purchase your music. Position yourselves with EASY ways for people to have access to information and previews. Have good products. Good music will sell itself and will flourish if you promote it well enough to media/radio etc.

Artists -ditto.

Fans - Support the music. Yeah, $17.98 was a lot for a CD wasn’t it? Well, buy the record before it drops and you’ll usually get some free bonus stuff AND save a few bucks. Plus you can’t beat what it does for the release… more sales usually mean more media / radio attention. Your few bucks of support can have far reaching effects. Consider it the exact opposite of music theft (which does hurt in tangible ways) where you can give a favorite artist a boost.

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Sound off in the comments and read Part 1