MySpace Killers

 On Wednesday the 29^th of June, Specific Media Inc. concluded a deal to buy MySpace for a mere $35 million dollars from News Corp.

The deal included $35million dollars and 5% stake in Specific Media shares. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the $580 million dollars News Corp paid for MySpace in 2006. Another interesting fact about this fire sale is the fact that Justin Timberlake is also involved in the deal. What JT knows about running a social network is still a mystery to everyone. Maybe all the time on the set of “The Social Network” taught him a thing or two about running a “real” social networking website. We can only sit back and wait for the outcome of this deal. In my opinion this is just another bad deal that might put the final nail in MySpace’s coffin.

People are quick to say Facebook was what brought about the demise of MySpace but I disagree. Facebook did not in any way start out to be a competitor or a MySpace killer. I am tempted to say that as at the time Facebook went online Zukerberg did not consider MySpace a threat.

Assumptions aside, two things contributed immensely to the death of Myspace:

1: MONEY:  The First Version of MySpace was online sometime in August 2003 and only 3 years later media mogul Rupert Murdoch flashed $580 million big ones in the face of MySpace developers. It’s interesting however to note that Murdoch, prior to purchasing MySpace has had little or nothing to do with social media, albeit he was head honcho at News Corp. So how MySpace developers decided going into business with a 70+ year old man still baffles me. Credit must however be giving to Murdoch/News Corp move to buy MySpace as this is the very reason why social media is seen as big business today.

Just a few months after purchasing MySpace Murdoch said on the street that MySpace revenue would generate revenue of over $1billion dollars. This was probably when the trouble started. The pressure was on, and engineers and the entire MySpace team were working tirelessly to make sure this target was met. In retrospect, Murdoch really didn’t speak out of turn because at the time, MySpace was doing insane numbers and they seemed unstoppable.

Conspiracy theorists; me included, have come up with a reason why Murdoch was interested in MySpace in the first place. Long before the Myspace deal, Murdoch had a string of unsuccessful Internet investments. Delphi: An internet service provider and iguide. All failed. Why then did he decide to buy MySpace? I think the reason was MySpace user data base. That user data would have been a useful tool in News Corp’s marketing and now that he’s gotten what he wanted out of MySpace, it’s no longer useful.

P.S I’m just saying!! Don’t quote me o! I don’t want to be smuggled into the back of a black limo with a bag over my head!

GOOGLE: Whilst Facebook was fine tuning its code, user platform and all other geekness that makes a site run, MySpace was looking for more money. Enter Google; The Google boys decided to sign a $900 million dollar sole adverting deal with MySpace, who in all sense of the word was still a “startup” at the time. This in itself is the very reason why your MySpace pages loaded so slowly and was always having some “unexpected error”

The deal required a certain number of MySpace user page visits for Murdoch and his team to receive the agreed $300 million dollars every year for the next 3 years. Hence the introduction of unnecessary pages and banners. Notice how you have to click and click and click just to send a message? So for every page you load it’s a new ad and another and another. This deal prevented developers from fine tuning the site and getting rid of unnecessary pages for fear of losing revenue. All this while Facebook was gaining ground. By 2009 Facebook had grown to 77 million users while MySpace dropped to 68 million. The rest they say is history

P.S: when your favorite site suddenly adds an unwanted page just so you listen to music, or watch a video, something you did right there on the home page before,  you know why *cough* notjustok *cough*

Giving users the ability to create and design their own home pages with wallpapers, banners, music and video also contributed to the demise of Myspace. These users know little or nothing about code. They go on some website saying free MySpace layouts and copy the code on there and load it on to Myspace servers and add a video and music that plays as soon as you visit their page. Whilst all this is going on google is making sure you have some ad flashing on at least 3 spots on your screen.

The fact that MySpace did not keep up with growing trends in social networking also did not help matters. Case in point: Facebook newsfeed. It would take MySpace 2 years to implement that on their website and another 1year or there about to allow 3^rd party developers to create applications for their website. Which is a moot point as most of the applications have closed shop on MySpace.

In my opinion MySpace is a really bad investment and I don’t see the site recovering from this. If they try rebranding as a music focused social network. I think the combination of YouTube and Twitter would be hard to beat as artistes can interact with their fans and link to their songs on YouTube. So what exactly would be their game plan? Give Facebook a run for its money? LOL!

So the question remains: Are all social networking sites “Here today, Gone tomorrow?” Absolutely not! Facebook is doing a good job so far. They have avoided every mistake MySpace made and more and they are constantly keeping up with new ideas and keeping their platform very open. Hence the seemingly “extra friendly” relationship with twitter; the latter which seems to be the man around town these days. Facebook has kept things simple save for a few weird and annoying changes. They are constantly refining their user interface and making the site easier to use and faster to load.

As it is with any business, running a successful social network is all about sticking to the reason why you were so popular in the first place, letting your business grow gradually and not chasing big money so soon. This way you have the opportunity to make your mistakes on a smaller scale and learn from them.

 P.S: Google just launched its very own social network; Google+. Invites are scarce though. Remember the original Gmail invites? Something like that. Would keep you posted.

BET AWARDS 2011

The highly hyped  award show started off with the pre- show which was held outdoors in the scorching LA sun. With performances from Lloyd, who decided to give the ladies a taste of his scrawny chest , Miguel also did his thing, not forgetting Diggy Simons who had his first live stage performance and it was evident from his random, over energetic  dance moves and the NSYNC type dance routine closer.

The BET chairman/ CEO, debra Lee wore the ugliest dress of the night. Her dress was so horrible it actually made 106 n Park’s Rocsi’s “little torn white dress” look a whole lot better

I was in shock when I saw YC come on to perfom that barely audible racks on racks song. To make matters worse old man Nelly with no shame at all was on stage too screaming Racks on Racks on Racks. Gosh! How the might have fallen.

Finally the Award show started and Mary J Blige opened in a sexy white one piece and performed Real Love. As always she killed the performance. Anita  Baker and her hair joined her on stage and they performed “Rapture” together. Next thing you know we are hearing DJ Khaled screaming his head off, followed by Jadakiss and his highly baggy white pants  (who wears a baggy suit)spitting a few bars amidst  DJ khaled’s screaming. MJB took the chorus and I have no idea what that song was all about. Thanks for ruining an awesome performance Khaled. I appreciate.

Kevin Hart who was the host for the night finally makes an appearance  alongside some little kids doing a dance number to Lil Wayne’s “6 foot 7”. He then proceeded to roast on everyone on the audience. Starting with Busta Rhymes Jacket,  NeYo’s head, Diddy’s name changing habits and on and on.

Taraji P Henson came on to present an award with her nipples poking out of her sequined dress.  Chris brown took the award for best male RnB artist. A well deserved award if you ask me. He’s definitely put some major work in. Kill yourselves #RihannaNavy

Man of the moment , Rick Ross (like it or not) came on to perform Aston Martin Music, thankfully he had a shirt on and of course, DJ khaled came on to scream our heads off alongside Ace Hood  and Lil Wayne, performing  “hustle Hard”. Asides DJ Khaled, it was a pretty decent performance

Remember Tracy Ellis Ross who played Joan on the urban show Girlfriends and Malcom  who played Theo on The Cosby Show? Apparently BET decided to use the Award show to promote their *yawn* Jaden and Willow smith “both” won the Young Star award and as usual Willow was dressed like a gypsy. Don’t know whos her stylist but whoever the person is he/she should be stabbed with a rusted knife

Enter Kevin hart roasting on Rick Ross and his breasts, and a really funny skit titled “Real Husbands of Hollywood”

Keri Hilson came on to present the Best female Hip Hop Artist  along side some guy who I do not know. His suit was two sizes over-sized. Funny thing about this award was Nicki Minaj was nominated along side some very low budged females who obviously had no hope whatsoever of wining. So when she was called up to receive the award, First thing she said (with all the sarcasm in the world) was “I can’t believe I won”. Way to go Nicki!

The recently slimmed Jill Scott came on to perform some really boring sleep inducing number and all I could see where her huge huge breasts! #ilike!

The Best Group award went to Diddy Dirty Money! Words cannot explain how fucked up this shit is. Diddy Dirty Money is a group? Anyways, old man Diddy (or is it “Swag” now) and his ghetto sidekicks proudly received the award.

Chris brown’s performance was ODD, First off the pants were weird and he had a jacket with no sleeves. Of course he performed “Look at me now” alongside Busta Rhymes minus Lil Wayne

The Cast of “The Game” came on to present the Best Collabo Award and promptly made a fool of themselves. Nice. The Award went to Chris Brown and crew for “Look at me now”

Kanye West won the best Hip Hop artist award. No complaints here on that one. Yeezy had the absolutely best album in the past 1 year. He egotistically wasn’t on hand to receive the award. O well!

Best New Artiste Award went to Wiz Khalifa who made a show of kissing professional groupie Amber Rose. He was definitely not the best artiste on the nominee list but he definitely was the artiste with the biggest buzz so it was deserved I guess

BET treated the ladies to half naked men themed Performances from Trey Songs and Kelly Rowland followed by a tribute to the armed forces and the BET CEO and her ugly dress giving a humanitarian award to Steve Harvey. Is it just me or does he look like Mr Potato head??  Just saying!

Mary Mary took home the best gospel album award. I would like to point out though that nominees were not called out. Only at the BETs! The Award was presented by “The Braxtons” Yes Toni Braxton’s entire family! How they came to be worthy of camera time I would never understand. Reality TV and it’s evils.

D’banj took home the best International act award in the African category. Thumbs up Mo’hits

Wasn’t the best award show, but wasn’t the worst either;

Nobody was super glammed up dress wise. I’ guessing the idea was to be very urban with it. Wish Kevin hart had gotten more face time. The Patti Labelle tribute was too long. Geez!  BET should realize that their viewership does not include people who listened to Patti.  The lady just went on and on calling out people who no one watching the show had any idea who they were.

There was too much Chris Brownism  if you ask me. I would have also loved to see Lupe Fiasco perform. But knowing Lupe I’m sure he probably said something derogatory about BET, so no surprise there.

The best performance was Beyonce’s but sadly she was away in England, so the performance was streamed live.

Riddle me this though: How do you make a name for yourself by screaming your name over and over again on a song?

Young O; Bout to Blow!!

Young O is regarded as the one of the next artists to emerge from the underground to the mainstream in 2011. Originally from Nigeria, Young O moved to South London at a young age and it’s been up and away ever since.  

Young O recognised his talents for getting behind a microphone at an early age; after establishing his lyrical content along with heavy punch-lines and a complex delivery pattern Young O started the club circuit performing at local clubs and bars around London, often battling and winning against other MC’s. After working the club scene and battling against other MC’s Young felt it was time to show his fans exactly what he was about, by producing and recording club banger, “Someone Like You” which won rave reviews with many mainstream tastemakers & Dj’s.

It was inevitable that an artist of Young’s calibre would soon be picked up by a management company who would look to work and develop his talents behind a microphone. In January 2009 Young O signed a management deal in the hope that they could further his career as an artist. Young’s management soon had him working in the studio with a number of producers searching for the right sound; the first single they found themselves all raving about was “So Cold” a track produced by Mr Lonely; this  was to be released as Young’s first single under his new management. Young O was soon travelling all over the U.K to clubs and festivals promoting his eagerly awaited single; on occasions he found himself supporting established artists such as: Tinchy Stryder, Dj Ironic and Skepta to name but a few.

In Early 2010 Young decided he wanted to take a new approach and create a new sound than that of his last single so together with his managers they enlisted top producer Silvastone to work on a new sound. Silvastone having produced for the likes of Blak Twang, Sway & Wretch32 developed a sound that was exactly what Young was looking for, however being the artist that Young is, he found himself wanting to develop this further so contacted another 5 artists all to feature on “Never Back Down,” with him. Young O along with, Jammin, Wizz, Ozzie B, Lefty London and Roachee all took to the studio to lay their vocals for this hit single. Having notched up a huge amount of support on the Internet, TV & Radio, a digital distribution in place with Island Def Jam, Never Back Down is seen as the most defining of his career to date!

Within a month of “Never Back Down” being played on BBC 1xtra, Young O signed a lucrative publishing deal with Digital 6 as well as with one of the top booking agencies within the UK - Mission Control which have the likes of Lethal Bizzle, Lisa Maffia and Kimberly Wyatt on their books.

Now with a sponsorship deal with PumaYoung O is currently working hard in the studio with the likes of Lisa Maffia, Casso Blax and Dirty Danger.

He’s currently booked to perform at Live Fest, which is the biggest indoor festival in the UK,. This is no small feat for an artiste who was underground just 3 short years ago. Live Fest’s twitter page was hounded for about 24hours by Young O fans, fondly called “Youngsters” until Live Fest organisers decided to include him in the line up.

In addition to Live Fest, he’s also performing at the Thurrock Festival and also The Fenland Festival

The most amazing thing about Young O’s meteoric rise is the immense support from his fans. This can be explained in two simple words RAW TALENT! From the first listen you can tell this is not your regular hyped up artiste but rather a really talented young man who is currently teetering on the brink of stardom. Young O is currently working on the video to his next single; Tesco Truck (sure to be another banger).

Check out his latest offering ; Au' Voir Ft Danger here  

Go on the KixManagement youtube channel here and you'll find all of Young's work on there.

Follow Young O on twitter: @youngoartist

Young O is definitely one to watch out for in 2011.

I Do Not Like Notjustok.com

I do not like Notjustok.com. Yes I said it. I do not like notjustok.com. Neither do I like Gidilounge nor any of those look alike sites.

Why? There’s too much crap music that makes it on to those websites while people who actually have the talent and really great songs don’t get a chance to get on the website.

For the longest time I have had a certain dislike for the websites like this. Every day you hear stories from upcoming artistes about how their song was shunned by the admins at notjustok or whatever other site they try to get on.

A few days ago, whilst surfing the net and trying to keep up with what Nigerian music is out there I realized something. Do you know that nowhere in NotjustOk’s misson statement does it say the website is dedicated to hosting songs from upcoming artistes? Neither does Gidilounge or any other heavy traffic music blog/website promise such. So my question is where did this idea come from anyway? Who put it in the head of underground artistes that Notjustok and Co exist to promote upcoming artistes?

You have to realize that regardless of all the talk, the website is first and foremost a business and not an NGO. The first criterion to be a business is to make profit. That been said, whatever means Mola and Ovie (and every other admin who runs a website like this) can utilize to make profit would be explored. Either getting paid for promoting any artiste and I mean any artiste or selling A-list artistes albums. So if you are still sending emails to these admins then it means you really are not ready to take your music seriously!

Every day you hear things on the radio like, “new artistes hour” yeah right! That’s whole load of horse crap. I can tell u from experience that if you send in your CD’s it would languish in some carton under their table there. People who get on those shows are either personal friends of the DJ or show producer or OAP or Label managed artistes. So don’t dull.

Take Rebecca Black and her “Friday” single. That song was probably the worst song ever put on YouTube. Even worse than majela’s shenanigans, but she’s made over 1.5million dollars from that’s song. How did she do it? Well YouTube is free innit? Why not upload your track and drive traffic to your song. Remember no one can chase your dreams for you.

A lot of artistes out there have over 2,000 some Facebook friends. Why not post a link to your song on facebook and go from there? Say of your 2000 friends , 1000 of them see the post and re post it to their say 500 friends each who in turn re post it. You do the maths! Even not just ok cannot boast of such hits if you eventually succeed in getting your song on their website.

Everyday some lame hash tag (#) thing trends on twitter. How do you think that happens?  Why can’t that be your name in front of the hash tag? The reality is promo companies and website would very soon become obsolete.

Set up a reverbnation.com page! Its absolutely free. Link it up to your Facebook and twitter accounts. I can’t tell u how many times I have clicked on someone’s twitter handle just from something a friend retweeted and from there spent about a good amount of time listening to their songs on reverbnation or sound cloud. That’s one more fan they can call their own (provided the songs good sha)

We all have friends who have blogs. Trust me I know from experience that every blogger needs content. So why not give them a concise bio and a link to your songs on 4shared.com or reverbnation/soundcloud.  There are blogs like towsynuab.blogspot.com, that cater to just upcoming artistes and they are always looking to put buzz worthy artistes on for free.

These are just a few examples of how you can create your own buzz for free and in some cases get paid. YouTube and Reverbnation are decent revenue sharing opportunities. Fact is no Label that’s worth anything is willing to sign anyone who does not have at least a decent enough body of work and buzz.

Remember, nothing good comes easy.  Quit sitting on your a** and hating on WizKid and his axe. Do something! Get a day job! Save up and get in the studio. Keep honing your craft believe me one day it would pay-off .  If you believe in yourself so much why not put it all on the line.

On the other hand you can keep emailing notjustok.com. One day God will answer your prayer.

Beyonce - 4: Review

Beyoncé’s fourth studio album leaked online on Tuesday.  I would like to point out here that I am not at this time admitting that I own a copy of the album, digital or hardcopy. All I am willing to admit is I had a listening session.

Anyways, I am not Beyoncé’s biggest fan neither do I own any of her previous albums. I do however respect her work ethic and the quality of music she has put out so far. From “Crazy in Love” with Jay Z  to “ Baby Boy” with Sean Paul to “Irreplaceable”, not forgetting “Single Ladies” You have to admit that she has put out some good music.

When I finally listened to the first single off the album sometime in April, I was totally and utterly disappointed. I am not saying the song in itself was horrible but I really did expect more. C’mon Bee you could do better than that cheap ass beat and lackluster lyrics. When I saw the video, all I could do was wonder whose idea this was. The entirety of the song was a repetition of the phrase “who run the world, girls” with a dash of MutherF***ing thrown in at regular intervals. At this point I wasn’t looking forward to the album.

Few weeks later, on the American Idol finale, she debuted the opening track on the album titled 1+1, introducing it as her favorite song on the album. The track was almost a capella. All you hear is her lovely voice and the piano. On the track she sings “Make love to me” in such an orgasmic voice (Yes please) and I felt like this was more the Beyoncé I know. Thus my Faith was restored.

Fast-forward to the 7^th of June when i “attended a private listening session” a full 3 weeks before the album release date. Really  Columbia??? Jay Z?? smh. Anyway, the 12 track album opened with 1+1 and from then on its all R n B ish  ballards which beyonce took advantage of to remind us that she really can sing. “I miss you”  “Best thing I ever had”, Tracks 3 and 4 respectively, are tracks that you would definitely have on repeat. I see those 2 topping the charts in a couple of weeks.

Mr Andre 3000 showed up on the 5^th track “Party” which was produced by Kanyewest. Trust 3000 was the only high point on the song. But with a good video, I see a lot of potential here. I know everyone who has any idea what good music is would definitely want to see Andre 3000. His study leave at Julliard sure left me missing him *cough* (No homo)

Track 6 “Rather die young” and 7 “ start over” are your standard R n B singing/crying. Nothing to see here. *skip* *skip*

The 8^th track titled “Love on top” has a retro 80’s feel. That I am sure everyone would definitely enjoy for the nostalgic feel. Thumbs up Bee!

Track 9 titled “Countdown” is probably my best track on the album. Maybe I am just a certified hiphop head. Jay Z or Kanye  had better jump on this one and make a remix. Honestly this is the only track I would have on repeat on the whole album. Just keeping it real folks! *repeat*

Track 10 “End of time” is the weed smoking cousin of “Run the world”. Curiously though I think she sampled Fela Kuti on this song. Regardless though it wasn’t enough to salvage this junk. Just too awful! *skip*

“ I Was Here” which is the 11^th track is such an oddly placed track. But it’s hauntingly beautiful. Ok maybe I’ll have 2 tracks on repeat. I actually liked this one. Beyoncé went all out on this. All Beef aside, she’s got some amazing pipes on her. *repeat*

The album closes with the horror show that is “Run the World”. How or why this song made the album I would never understand. *Skip to track 9*

Overall, it’s not one of Bee’s best body of work, but it’s not horrible either. I think the whole idea behind the album was going back to her R n B roots, which if you ask me is not a bad idea, due to the fact that that genre is relatively dormant at the moment. Is this the album that would re-awaken the genre? Abso-fuckin-lutely not! But it is a step in the right direction.

Obvious in the album is the fact that it seems like she really has an alter ego. The album is split in 2 parts one very tame part and one Fierce and energetic no nonsense part. I am inclined to say I like the Sasha Fierce half better but then again with songs like “Run the World” im left wondering if Sasha has gone tone deaf.

A lot of planning obviously went into the album, and I am sure that is the reason why the album is more R n B than the border-line pop everyone was expecting and in my opinion the reason for that is very simple RIRI!!! The album is totally different from RiRi’s . So anyone who compares both album should probably go get a CAT scan. Or just get a cat and stick to listening to its annoying  purrings and leave music alone.  It was never a competition in the first place anyways and it seems like Beyoncé has realized that.

Long story short. If you love RnB then please get the album. It’s decent and a good listen. Only 2 good songs on there for me but feel free to let me know what you think when you eventually “buy” the album. If you decide not to buy the album, then please let me know what recent RnB album you have in your collection. NeYo? R.Kelly? smh

See ya!

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