Youth Movement Records

Event Production Company Meeting

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday last week! We got back on Monday, November 29th and had our regular company meeting, with a focus on Event Production.

We kicked off the meeting with a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament as our icebreaker. Shout out to Elijah Dunn for winning! We then moved on to our weekly status updates on key projects, before discussing questions for the next Member of the Month - Tania Pulido. For our "Did You Know" segment, we highlighted the definition of a film treatment, and the North Pacific Garbage Patch! For the Event Planning 101 portion of the company meeting, we discussed event production in terms of the following elements: Event title and description, Date, Objectives, Venue, Demographic, Marketing Strategy,
Expenses & Budgeting, and Evaluation.

Check out the PowerPoint slides below for details! If you click to view the slides on Slideshare.net, you'll also have the option to download the original PowerPoint file for all of the notes as well.

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Independent Labels vs Major Labels Company Meeting

The last company meeting on Monday, November 15th engaged attendees in a discussion about independent labels versus signing with a major label.

Regardless of how you choose to progress your music career, branding is important. Your image is how the public perceives your act, based on all the information they are given about you over time -- your music, your look, your attitude, your album artwork and merchandise style, your political opinions (or lack thereof), etc. Imaging is the process of building and reinforcing this image over the years (hence, branding).

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Meet our intern Armando Emery from Metwest HS

"Hey whats up I’m Armando, I currently intern at YMR, I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Metwest High School. I was born and raised in Oakland Ca. I'm interested in hip-hop media and I would like to become a hip-hop journalist. I am a big fan of hip-hop and its culture, it’s what keeps my day going, no matter what mood one can be in there is a song to go along with it. I came to Youth Movement Records because I was told that it is a organization for the youth to express their creative talents. I will be here at YMR until early June every Tuesday and Thursday. I am skilled in video production, great camera man, and just an all around people person.

A little something I am working on as a part of YMR and for my school, is a hip-hop documentary talking about the roots of hip-hop and the culture from the past and how the culture is changing with time. I was inspired to do this film because I noticed how today's commercialized hip-hop does not liberate people but actually oppresses them in ways that most might not notice. I think the world revolves too much around trends and what people see in the media, people are beginning to forget how important it is to be unique and creative and that is the whole purpose of this documentary."

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Online Marketing Company Meeting

The focus of the Company Meeting November 8th was Online Marketing. We got the energy going with an impromptu "Teach Me How to Dougie" session courtesy of the Cali Swag District music video as our icebreaker. (Don't worry- we laughed too)

We also discussed how we each keep up with our favorite artists these days. Some of the sources mentioned were blogs, Twitter, Facebook, WorldStarHipHop.com, radio personalities, the artist website, E! News, YouTube, and other social media.

Special guest Jake Schoneker from UC Berkeley's School of Journalism joined us to talk about a new partnership we're developing with KDOL. YMR will be working to generate more segments that combine news and music for the TV station. The project is tentatively called "MuseVideo."



We went over some slides courtesy of Daniel Aguayo of Digipendent.com about marketing for artists in this digital age. This was important because without marketing you don't have a business, you cant make sales, can’t develop a fanbase or database, and you will not have a long term income. It’s essential for any artist to market their music if they want to make money in the long run. Check out the PowerPoint slides below for information on the state of the digital union, anatomy of a modern musician, fans, building your dream team, generating revenue, and stocking your digital toolbox with all the essentials.

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Mixtape Release Company Meeting

Hello beautiful people of Oakland, my name is Tania and I am going to break down our last Youth Movement Record company meeting for those who missed out! We started the first day of November listening to the Youth Movement Records mixtape that was recorded this past spring. The meeting was oriented around mixtapes, from defining a mixtape, the differences between mixtapes and albums, mixtape strategies and critically analyzing our own.

What is your favorite mixtape? Was one of the questions asked to start the momentum, Drake- So Far Gone mixtape was very popular amongst folks. What is a mixtape? It’s a compilation of songs that are recorded and show the artist style and ability. What is the difference between a mixtape and an album? A mixtape is typically used for promotional purposes, and can include freestyles over another rapper's beat, remixes, and songs not found on the major release, or album. What are mixtape strategies? In the words of one of the hottest cats out there, Drake, "A mixtape can't be the songs that don't make your album, or songs that aren't good enough to make your album make your mixtape…”

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Music Publishing & Copyright Company Meeting

Monday, October 25th we welcomed Claytoven Richardson and Larry Batiste to speak to the crew about music publishing and copyrights. Larry and Claytoven are longtime supporters of Youth Movement Records and were the 2 dynamic individuals that helped YMR pioneer our Musical Mentoring Project in 2009, which culminated in the production of Pure Delite.

The company meeting was very well attended and we started our discussion by posing a question to the group -- "Who do you think makes more money -- Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey? Why?" as our icebreaker. We then discussed the different streams of income for each artist, as a segue to the benefits of writing and performing your own music.

We talked about songs as property and protecting your property through the process of copyright. Our guests also answered questions about how artists/writers get paid, how collaborations work, and the role of a publisher.

For some of the topics addressed in video form, check out these short clips we found on YouTube:

For some of the notes, check out the amended PowerPoint Presentation, below:

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Music & Politics Company Meeting

Monday, October 18th the focus of our Company Meeting was Music & Politics. We talked about how we each define “politics" and how it relates to music and our community. A good point of discussion was the power attached to the control of money in society.

Check out this playlist embedded below to watch some of the videos we compiled for the meeting!

The first features Lupe Fiasco speaking out against Atlantic Records about 360 Deals and pushing his new album... another way politics and music collide, and in this case one that's detrimental for Lupe as an artist and his fans. This was part of a keynote address that Lupe Fiasco gave at The Second Regional Academic and Cultural Collaborative in Dayton, OH earlier this month.

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Help YMR All Star Anais kickstart the "Love Can Burn" Music Video!

"Love Can Burn" has been a dream collaboration between two writer/producers, two filmmakers, and one dynamic diva. That "dynamic diva" is Anais, one of YMR's All Stars that participated in the Musical Mentoring Project. She is currently enrolled at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at NYU, and well on her way to launch her career. We fully support her dream, talent, work ethic, and vision and hope you will too.

Anais is now gearing up to shoot the video for the single, and the team NEEDS OUR HELP! They want to produce a video that will rival the classic R&B videos of Rihanna, Beyonce, and Janet Jackson. They have already secured professional camera and lighting equipment for the shoot, but need about $5000 to fulfill their vision for the set and costume design. The money will also help fund transportation, a fire marshal, and other incidental expenses.

Click here to watch a video about their vision, and work thus far. The project is hosted on Kickstarter, an innovative online funding platform for creative projects and ambitious endeavors. You pledge your support with as little as $1, but what makes Kickstarter unique is their "all-or-nothing" approach -- projects must be fully funded before their time expires or no money changes hands. So please pledge your support and encourage friends to do the same by November 22nd!

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ReverbNation, Marketing Yourself, and some STEPS TO TAKE 4 MUSICIANS TRYING TO "MAKE IT BIG"!

***CALLING ALL ARTISTS & MUSICIANS TRYING TO MAKE IT BIG IN THE MUSIC BIZ! PLEASE READ to learn a thing or two about steps to take to making it big in your artistic craft!***
-- Emily Moldy
Lord knows that this business isn't easy, and that despite what we see on TV and music videos, "making it big" is probably not going to look like getting picked up off the street one day, signed to a big record label and then BOOM... it's all money, champagne, and limo rides from there on out. Nope, sadly "making it big" takes A LOT of self-determination, some business skills, an understanding of the music industry, and knowing the right people.
(Of course talent and luck have something to do with it too. :))

One cool thing about YMR is... that when you come here, you are surrounding yourself with people who have the same dreams as you, and who may know some things about the business that you don't. Through Femi, (YMR's Artist Development Instructor!!!) I learned about REVERBNATION and how useful it is for lost lil' artists like myself, trying to get out there! (I am a singer/songwriter, just put out my first EP, and have been serious about my music career for about two years now)... I think you all should know about it because it has already helped me develop myself as an artist! Check it out!

WHAT IS IT?: ReverbNation is a music site made for independent artists, producers, fans, venues, and industry people to be able to self-promote, connect, and collaborate with one another. It's kind of like a music MySpace or Facebook, but with LOTS of tools provided to help you "get out there" with your music.

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YMR Fall Photo Shoot

Yesterday during our company meeting, we did a photo shoot with amazing photographer Kelleth Chinn of Rolling Jack Records. Kelleth already got us a preview of some of the gems he took yesterday, check it out below! More to come soon. Thank you Kelleth!

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