Buy Veteran this Veterans Day

Over the years at Altavoz Entertainment I made a concerted effort to make sure that we worked with US Military Veterans. From spending hours on the phone with new label owners helping them understand the ins-n-outs of entertainment today to pushing out releases from veterans because their story's matter and I've always felt they needed to be heard.

In 2015 - Altavoz launched a VetMusicDeal and it was working with some of the releases that are coming from this that Altavoz decided to bring as many Veteran made releases out for Veterans Day this year.  And! readers here will of course be hearing more about this effort shortly.


Moreover; I hope others see the light and help to ensure that come Nov that we're all able to offer something made from Veterans to be purchased; So, they too can enjoy the Holiday of Sales err Veterans

This Veterans Day  lets all push #BuyVeteran not deals.  Oh yeah, from the looks of sales make sure it's in a physical format since it's still the majority of the sales.

Changing the game sometimes is just adding a new paint job and snappy name.

For a while we've all heard the cry for innovation, the people aka crowd has been clamoring for it in Music since, well the start of the music biz, and we're hearing about it from citizens demanding and getting their local libraries to open up new activities from 3D printers to installing recording facilities such as DC's Martin Luther King Library as done going back at least a decade.  As I was front row for DC's Mayor Williams ground breaking public libraries effort as a conversation facilitator in the 2005 Speak Out America public forum. And seeing this come to pass a decade later is uplifting.

To that end our company +Altavoz Entmt just launched something so new and innovating that it's making heads scratch, artists get in line and some in DCTech down right upset*

An Exclusive Library Release (TM) ELR thats right since there are 120,000 public libraries and they carry digital & physical entertainment with Altavoz Emtnt as one of the few companies that can upload content into the public libraries via it's LibraryDistributionDeal.com

What remarkable about ELR is that it was done digitally, and ensured that the label was able to participate without subjecting itself to demands of physical manufacturing and now set this release up to be always known as the 1st Exclusive Library Release (TM).  For  Phillip, his record label, Altavoz and the Public Libraries will have a connection that will ensure a unique marketing angle once it's made available to the public on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and retailers.  We'll also have for every to convince all 120,000 libraries to pick up a copy of history.


To learn more please visit ExclusiveLibraryRelease.com And, for those that wonder why we still try to sell records, according to those that keep track of such things it's still 54% of the market for music sales.

* I posted the news of this release on a local DCTech facebook page and the administrator deleted it without notice. I asked the admin why he censored it and he said that it wasn't relevant to DCTech.  

Every major city in the USA has same problem the Halibutronization of culture

And, the theft of it's music to the world and enumeration for it. 

I wanted this to be the whole blog title; However, life is too short and most or my titles aren't normally. So what am I saying.   For one the Majors, each use the Import Export Bank IMEX to finance US Made Film, NPR News even made a point of it yesterday when covering President Obama's plea in front of Nike (irony) for more Exporting of US goods.

However what he didn't say nor has any news outlet even hinted at is that the same Majors don't use the Import Export Bank to finance US Made Music.

Think about it the biggest stars in the world, well most of them, are US Recording Artists. Don't use the IMEX bank nor are any of their release being tagged Made in the USA and exported out of it. Now when you here major country stars that sings about the their love of the USA how about asking them how come their releases aren't exported out of it?

We've Halliburtonized the Music of America.  I personally feel this is a real conspiracy; Since every day someone at the Department of State is going on about Cultural diplomacy and even crowing about the impact of Arts. When we don't even bother to export the one art form that we dominate --Music. Last year we exported -397 % in this trade category.

So what does this mean for our USMusicCities It means that the voice of the streets, the soul of the home, the lift in the heart is stuck there just like them.  Meanwhile the best artists, bands, groups are zipped up into the Majors and that city and it's culture will never get another dime from it and the US will lose yet another important exporter of American made Intellectual Property, which is another twist in President Obama's speech yesterday which was protested and I have to ask how come no one is calling out this Administration on it's role in undermining US Made Music?

The two artists that President is most widely know for hanging with don't export one single unit of pre-recorded music out of the USA.  I'd say if the better half of the two alone did that we'd have a trade surplus and our local Blu-Ray, Cassette, CD, DVD, manufacturing plants, not just vinyl operations would be working around the clock.

Here's where it comes home to roost, beside the loss of local economic co-development that Music industry is know for the voices from the people aren't getting out.  Think about it we've had a number of large civil movement in the last decade and not one protest song has made it into the stream of media.    There is a very simple reason.  Most of the protests are about large multi-national companies are taking over the world and guess what they did and likes frogs in pot we're boiling over and protest like the one in Ferguson and Baltimore will keep happening.

What's more American than the Copyright, it's the one thing what we can agree is in the Constitution for our Government to protect and for what it's worth last weeks sells 57% where physical and I dare say not one of these will be backed by the IMEX or Congress via the MUSIC ACT or this President to be exported out of America and fulfilling the need to lift out communities, in music case one song at a time.

Top title for Record Store Day is a Cassette Tape from Metallica

Nothing is over until the Fans say it's over.....

According to the Digital  Music News, irony, one of the top release for Record Store Day was not a record it was a Cassette Tape. Let's let that sink in for a moment and thank Metallica for opening the door to a wider audience understanding that fans will still buy physical entertainment, ask the gaming industry, and the #Musicbiz part of it just needs to start asking them who, what, where and when they're BuyingThis(TM) next release.

2. Metallica – “No Life Til Leather” cassette

And this is the very reason why my company @AltavozEntmt has always offered a CassetteDistributionDeal.com  and artists bands and labels can get it very our PhysicalDistributionDeal.com or DigitalPhysicalDistributionDeal.com

There is a reason why we say Altavoz is the Future of Entertainment Today is because the ground work for it is in the past and it needs to be considered since, what goes around comes around and with entertainment that's Gospel. 

BTW I was wrong I thought that Physical would be higher than 55.3% of sales. Part of that is because the majors have occupied the pressing plants and Indie Artists, Bands and Labels aren't able to get time to press their releases and the consumer is getting what the Majors are cramming down their throats and it's another reason that Cassettes are making a come back.   

The Artists that said I won't release on CD and really wanted to do Vinyl can't so then when to the next not-CD item that was cool and that just so happens to be the Cassette Tape.  I sure a reading is scratching their head and saying that makes no sense; However, the hate that has been ginned up for CD's (They're just good enough) makes it hard for some artists bands and labels to understand the Musicnomics of their chosen profession and they often make decisions on how they feel or what they want to believe. 

As I've pointed out before  millennials and small children are obsessed with them and who knows, that walkman in your parents house might be the perfect gift for someones next birthday. And for next year's Record Store Day, I'm going to say that more than vinyl will be on the BuyingThis(TM) list. And! let's get back to VinylRecordDay.com being the day that is just about Vinyl and RecordStoreDay.com.com about the stores and all things music. 

Please  join my @Pintrest board  iLoveCassettes.com and share some Cassette Love on it.

Stop the Tidal wave of BS there's only 1 aritstsowned.co

So the big news was to be that Tidal is artists owned.

TIDAL is an artist majority owned company with a mission to reestablish the value of music, the protection of the sustainability of the music industry rooted in creativity and expression.

In fact there where 2.3 million articles according to the Google about "Tidal Artists Owned" and it wasn't too long for the Internets to figure out that this was more of a needle then the haystack.   And from the press each of these artists have a 3% stake in this company or if my math service me is 36% and not majority. Moreover, owing one channel in an ever going universe of options means nothing.

Let's face it Distribution is King and until Indie Artists Bands and Labels own part of a Worldwide Entertainment Distribution Co. the there, there is just not well, there... I so often love to point out that Digital is only (as of last week's sales)  45% of the sales and that makes having a Physical Distribution Deal more important that being on Tidal or any digital only service. ((See the chart below))

Having talked about a Clicks to Brick Distribution solution for years, I'm glad to see that most aren't buying this notion that owning a digital outlet is the way to go. The real challenge has been to talk on the last mile of cluster fuck that is the music business.  Ownership.   Again, since Distribution is King it stands to reason that having artists bands and labels as owners of the distribution channel is the missing key.  Not inventing a new one single source use of music.

It's also being clear that the existing digital outlets and new ones like Public Libraries are pretty good if not some of them great and when artists, bands and labels sign a Digital Distribution Deal with AltavozEntmt they're music is in every channel and store if you opt for the Digital Physical Distribution Deal 

When Altavoz says every -- we mean every and the power of that was on display last week with the US debut of John Bull and The Bandits, EP Word to the Wise who was on every digital outlet and streaming service and it charted on the iTunes Blues chart #73 and Amazon UK at #8.  This was done with less than the majors monthly coffee budget.

So here's the part that is getting lost IMHO, there is an ArtistsOwned.Co in the music business my wife and I (re)started it in 2011 and I'm very excited to say that we're now going to the next logical progression.  

Unofficially announce CrowdFundedMusic.co Just waiting on the date to be fixed and once we're done the Crowd will have financed the taking over of a Public Co Shell Corporation and making it the ownership vessel for the artists and the crowd to come together and what really is the Future of Entertainment Today 

See everyone at MusicBiz.org annual convention. MusicBiz2015

Library’s local music collection is a huge hit your's is next

This article, Newton library’s 
local music collection is a huge hit  by Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb and it's about an emerging trend of libraries and local music meeting up at the last place most would think to look --  Public Libraries. However it's so new that many Cities are unaware that their own libraries even could be host to the local musician and I believe this is about to change.

For one,  I happen to know quite a bit about this since my company AltavozEntmt has been partnering with two companies for the last three years to do just this and this channel has now been formalized into our our CityMusicDeal (TM)  and very soon a new deal that will reach into each and every community in the US and bring full circle the  the artists, communities and libraries.

I've always believed that where you buy or consume music is not as important as the fact that consumers and fans are still very interested in music and every TechDork that has ever been shot down in a band and thought that they would via Technology have the upper hand just doesn't understand the love affair that we have with music and it's perhaps the deepest connection we as humans share with the universe and mother nature.  

Now for any Artists Bands or Labels that are wondering how they can get into their local librarians then look no further than Altavoz's DigitalDistributionDeal.com or PhysicalDistributionDeal.com

PS Digital is still below Physical in sales for those that keep count.

Digital sill below 50% CityMusicDeals and MUSICAct

Let's be clear Physical Music Sales are 55%, if not more* of music sales and the only people that don't get it are the sales reps for digital distribution companies and Indie Musicians.  Just look, the numbers don't add up and investors are realizing that having a PhysicalDistribuitonDeal.com is vital to any companies, artists, band or labels success hence the drop in Digital Only companies stocks.

Who competes in only 45 percent of a market place, again -- Indie Musicans that's who does. And it's because they are lied to or to stupid to understand that 45 percent of a market (that is really dominated by one company) is not a success strategy. Meanwhile the Majors --you know the model that is the "WORSE BUSINESS IN THE WORLD" proclamation made by every CEO of a Digital Music play and most of their recording artists --

Yet! they are still making billions of dollars and they ain't doing it selling downloads or streams 

Now what is the end goal, clearly the multinational companies are not only interested in profits there has to be something else playing out; Because, there is more then money involved and at stake when it comes to music and it's not a good story for US Music; however, that's another blog post called Entertaining our Economy to Death.

I've been really thinking about how we frame the success of some artists when in fact their success is really from the music that came for the city or town that they happened to have been born or moved into and the City's music became part of their DNA as much if not more then they made the City's.  Since it's the City's music that is what frames the larger narrative Chicago Blues, DC's GoGO Seattle Rock, 

Looking at the simple economics of music over a few decades and the new push for US Mayors to export products nicly comes together with a project USMadeMusic.org that seeks promote the export of American made music, the idea dawned upon me to launch a City by City music deal, now called CityMusicDeal(TM) in the top USA Music Cities and (one by one) CityMusicDeal.com will turn into AustinMusicDeal.com, DCMusicDeal.com,  NashvilleMusicDeal.com and etc. connecting the local chambers of commerce, music and arts advocates and any artists band and label that wants a distribution deal. Read more on the website.

Having recently, talked with many of our US Music City Mayor's during the recent Winter Meeting 2015 they heard very clearly that getting exports out was key and most insticlly knew or have come to find out that local music is a priority; However in Washington, DC  music is an after thought other then talks of Cultural Diplomacy which it cannot do if we don't export it.

Really you say an after thought and I say yes! So much so that the only piece of legislation or trade actives I've seen carried out to help US Made Music the M.U.S.I.C. ACT has been in the waiting room for legislation and no one really talks about it.   What is this act?  It would give millions of dollars to local music makes to do just that and export it out of the USA.

Here's the quote from the intro to the legislation

“Our small, independent music labels are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their goods in the global marketplace,” said Nadler.  “This bill would help promote U. S. exports in an extremely competitive industry whose talents cannot be outsourced.  Helping these businesses access foreign markets is also an important part of President Obama’s goal to double U. S. exports in five years – an effort in which New York, home to many independent music labels and artists, continues to take the lead.”  
http://nadler.house.gov/press-release/nadler-seeks-bolster-global-market-american-independent-music

Now I'm not sure why Congress and the Administration aren't supporting this however I've stated a Change.org petition urging Congress to take this up NOW and get support to the one set of Small - large business need and that is working capital and exporting help and that is just what the MUSICAct delivers. Please sign the petition and let folks know about the CityMusicDeal.com it really make an impact on our economy and the lives of some many American's and who can't support that in the USA?

*Vinyl sales is something that I've been involved with for decades and know that what is reported in sales is not reflective of the true volume of vinyl sales.  One of the main reasons being that much of it is sold at shows by indie bands. However the upsurge is just the natural lift that comes from Majors jumping back into it which now means that all of the plants are occupied.   Kinda funny dontcha think.  Majors Occupied the Record Plants that they tried to kill.  

PS get ready for Major back titles on Vinyl to be at $45-55 dollars.