That Retail Chick

MADD Society Films, Inc / 360i Network presents the motion picture premier “We Was Homeboyz” featuring Pastor Troy.  The main characters Ice (Pastor Troy), Nature (Mr. Mudd) and Drew were always homeboyz. They grew up and got money together in the rough streets of Atlanta, but the death of Drew has the whole city puzzled.  They have dreams of getting out of the streets, but they soon learn that it’s hard to turn back, once you have gone so far.  Names have been changed to protect the Guilty…

The screening for the premier of “We Was Homeboyz” is this Thursday May 10th.  Red Carpet is from 6pm – 7pm and the movie starts promptly at 7pm.  Tickets are available at the Rialto Theater which is located at 80 Forsyth st  Atlanta, GA 30303 or you can call the Box Office at 404-413-9849.

According to industry trade HDD, there may be some changes in the works over at Warner Music.  But as we know, the more things change in the music business, the more they stay the same.  No one ever really leaves the dance floor, they just change partners.

Here’s the buzz from the rumor mill over at HDD.

The latest buzz is that Mike Caren will stay at Warner Musicrather than jumping to a rival music group. Word is that Warner has promised him a much better deal for his publishing company. If so, that bodes well for Lyor Cohen’s chances of keeping his team intact. At the moment, however, uncertainty still surrounds the next moves of Craig Kallman,John Janick and Todd Moscowitz.

I love this interview.  It’s really inspiring.  It shows the awesome business sense that goes along with the development of urban music coming out of the south.  Tity Boi obviously gets it…the value of merchandise, having a website, and working with a team of people who can create that “machine” people speak of.

S/O to @AlLindstrom for the interview.  He always gets a great conversation out of artists.

Can’t believe Kanye West is still dropping vids from his last release My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  I love the concept of the video however the song doesn’t hit me as something I would categorize as “Press Play Power“.  Here’s a little more info about the video:

Filmmaker Ruth Hogben collaborates with award-winning musician Kanye West to create a film for his single Lost in the World. The song, which features Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, is taken from West’s fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Hogben’s piece breaks the mould of popular rap aesthetics while still celebrating the extraordinary talent that has made West a modern icon.

 

MMG is busy working with their new singee Omarion.  Check out the behind the scenes footage of the video for Omarion’s 1st single off the label “Let’s Talk”.  I’m excited to see what Ross and his team will do for this young industry veteran.

For all you Billboard readers check out the issue with Usher on the cover.  In the weeks leading up to his June release of Looking For Myself on June 12, 2012 we can expect to see Usher on many more covers.  Looks like the RCA machine is in full effect for his 7th studio album.

Jay Z is a true “Band Ambassador” if ever I have seen one.  He’s connected with Bing, American Express, and now Google has requested his presence to perform at the YouTube Brandcast Launch.  According to Billboard.biz

Jay-Z has been in talks with YouTube channel partner MyIsh and founder Michael Hirschhorn about a potential docu-series, tentatively titled “Life & Times of Jay-Z.”

His performance was a great way to close out the Launch which was an overview of YouTube’s future in premium channels (some of which will include music and pop culture channels).  The Warner Sound’s Rick Ross Press Conference that made waves on social networks yesterday is a great example of one of the premium channels.  Other premium channels will come from sites like Pitchfork and Noisey, and venues like The Bowery in NY.

Now for the story… which was reported on February 27, 2012 in Ad Age Digital.

If you needed a sign of just how audacious YouTube’s $100 million experiment in original content is, consider the asking price for advertisers: as much as $62 million for the exclusive on a package of “channels” in categories such as music or pop culture.

No one has paid that yet. Early deals are in the $5 million to $10 million range, but the aggressive asking price reflects the ambition for YouTube’s 96 premium “channels,” designed to bring to the site TV-like appointment viewing, as well as TV-like advertising dollars.

A smattering of the nation’s biggest marketers have signed on, including Unilever, which is sponsoring “Young Hollywood Network,” founded by well-known YouTube star R.J. Williams,Toyota, which is backing a host of channels targeted at women, including “Cafe Mom,” “Kin Community” and “Mom’s View,” and GM, which signed on last week to sponsor Red Bull’s action sports channel and a package of automotive-focused channels. Chrysler, AT&T and Lowes are also appearing on channels that have already been launched.

….

According to a rate card distributed to ad agencies, two hot verticals — music and pop culture — were $62 million apiece for one-year sponsorships, a package of sports channels was $40 million, an autos package was $16 million and a mom’s interest package $10 million. YouTube has since subdivided the verticals into smaller packages in categories such as “Celebrity News,” “Music and Film” or “Geeks, Gadgets and Games,” which cost $10 million to $20 million to sponsor. YouTube also lets advertisers exclusively sponsor a single channel for anywhere from $2 million to $4 million on an annual basis.

Source: AdAge & Billboard