THIS IS THE TITLE OF PIECE WRITEN IN THE NY TIMES ABOUT BRANDS GETTING IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS,SHOUT OUT TO MY MAN GEOFF COTTRILL
Geoff Cottrill of Converse at a 5,200-square-foot space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that the company is converting into a recording studio.
THE STORY BASICALLY TALKS ABOUT BRANDS AND RECORD LABELS DOIN BUSINESS,THEY BRING UP TAG RECORDS AND THIS WHATS SAID
Two years ago the Island Def Jam Music Group announced Tag Records, a joint label with Procter & Gamble’s Tag Body Spray that promised a “multimillion-dollar marketing effort.” A Brooklyn rapper, Q da Kid, was signed, and the veteran producer and music executive Jermaine Dupri was established at the helm. But in less than a year the new label collapsed, Mr. Dupri left Def Jam, and Q da Kid was stuck in contractual purgatory.
“I was with a company that didn’t understand the music business,” the rapper said in a telephone interview. “They‘re used to their brands flying off the shelves like it ain’t nothing, and they thought, ‘If we put enough money behind this, he’ll be big.’ And it wasn’t like that.”
Whether Tag fell apart because of a clash of corporate cultures or a more typical major-label power struggle — Mr. Dupri was known to feud with Def Jam’s chairman, Antonio Reid — is not clear. (In an e-mail Steve Bartels, Island Def Jam’s president, leaned toward the culture-clash explanation. “I think the interaction could have been more focused,” he wrote. “The nuances of developing a new artist can take years.”) But Tag Records’ fate points to the reality that sneaker and soda companies are ultimately in it to sell sneakers and soda, not music.
NOW THE REAL STORY ,TAG RECORDS DID’NT WORK BECAUSE DEFJAM COULD’NT UNDERSTAND WHY TAG WANTED TO INVEST ALL THIS MONEY INTO A
NEW ARTIST.Q FIRST VIDEO, BUDGET AND PROMOTIONAL LAYOUT WAS 10 TIMES MORE THAN THEY GIVE A NEW DEFJAM ARTIST AND I DONT THINK THEY
KNEW HOW TO JUSTIFY THAT.I WAS APPOINTED THE PRESIDENT CAUSE THE PEOPLE AT TAG KNEW MY LOVE AND COMMITMENT FOR BREAKING NEW
ARTIST.BOTTOM LINE IS THIS, IF BOTH PARTIES AGGREE AND WORK TOGETHER THIS IS THE NEW WAVE OF WHERE WERE SUPPOSE TO BE .
Neneh
Wasn’t this type of Merger (this is not a good word, business agreement rather) goin on already ? ie. Adidas and Def Jam?
Neneh
This just seems like a logical next step…
Ballajb
This does seem to be going on a lot
Terrance D. Jackson
I am Terrance D. Jackson, author and publisher of Get Rich and Grow Wealth, 10 KEYS TO BEING AN EFFECTIVE LEADER IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY- #1 entreprenuership education in the world, endorsed by Capital City Bank and Trust. Retail: $19.99. I have a global marketing and distribution deal with FraserNet, http://www.frasernet.com, worth over 4 Trillion Dollars.
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Terrance D. Jackson
Ink Blot Management
Flawless
That’s why it’s wise to be independant, cause it allow us to be liberated with our creativity.
Observer
Culture Clash my ASS. Only if the clash was between a progressive, forwarding thinking group wide open to possibilities vs. a stone-aged, narrow-minded, set-in-their-ways dinosaur ran by a bunch of people who wish they were superstars (to quote NAS). That, I suppose would be a culture clash. You don’t get to be company 10x the size of the ENTIRE RECORD INDUSTRY by being set in your ways, close-minded and blind to innovation.