Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Lego Animation
Thinking about my banner pic got me thinking about mini cities
here is a good mix of lego city with a little bit of crime
here is a good mix of lego city with a little bit of crime
Dope shit
This pic was taken down in Cuba
banksy has taught me to love drawings on the wall
PS. This pic gets cut off a bit because of the borders I dont know why
so click the pic to see it better
Ahmad Jamal - Pastures; Jay Z - Feelin it Sample
This is for Jay Z - Feelin it
on the reasonable doubt album
really hot song one of my faves
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The song in that Lebron James commerical
This song has also been sampled plenty of times
and its just overall dope to listen to.
I know this time of the year is the downtime (the cold time)
but u can listen to it and think about all the nice times that you are going to have during the warm summer months
Imeem Gets License And Death Sentence (some article I read about my favorite site)
Imeem Gets License And Death Sentence
December 19th, 2007
Return to Archive
The press recently gushed over Imeem signing a deal with Universal Music Group -- the last of the four major labels to grant them a license to stream complete songs to visitors to their popular web site. The NYT said, "..[it] might be the breakthrough the music industry needs." Far from a breakthrough, it is a death sentence for Imeem. Under a dark cloud of looming lawsuits, Imeem entered into a crushing financial agreement that allows them to survive as long as venture capital money continues to flow into the company, but spells almost certain financial calamity once outside funding halts. Reporters classified the deal as a "license" with "advertising revenue sharing", implying it is a new structure from the labels. A more accurate description would be an ownership position with substantial upfront payments, plus required ongoing payments regardless of revenue generated by Imeem. To put it another way, it is the same onerous deal labels have foisted on digital music companies for the last decade.
Here are some of the notable deal elements that I have been able to ascertain from my sources. First, Imeem had to give UMG shares in their company. They demanded an equity position which would not be dilutable. Normally, an equity stake in a company can be diminished if future financing (investment) takes place, but UMG demanded that they get more shares each time the company accepts new investment so their percentage ownership in the company remains the same regardless of what transpires in the future. Simply stated, UMG received a double-digit ownership in Imeem.
In typical "advertising revenue sharing" as the Imeem license is described, advertising revenue is collected and then split between the parties. For example Google's widely popular Adsense program splits the monies about 50/50. Half goes to Google and half to the website operator. Traditional business relationships are usually either a low fixed rate guaranteed payment or a higher percentage payment with no guarantees. Imeem's contract with UMG calls for payments of just under one cent per song play, regardless of whether there's any advertising that actually happens. That's not a revenue sharing relationship. However, Imeem's obligations go beyond that -- requiring more money if total web site advertising revenues (not just from their music) exceeds a certain number. Imeem must then pay even more money -- the higher of either the song plays fee or a percentage of ad revenue. While technically it has an advertising revenue sharing component, it is not a typical advertising deal where both parties share in the risk on both the upside and downside. In this relationship UMG wins regardless.
Finally, Imeem is obligated to give to UMG a $20 million prepayment. A prepay is an advance of monies from which future royalties are deducted. Imeem doesn't have $20 million because they have yet to generate substantial revenues from their business. Consequently, they paid a portion of those monies now and are required to pay the remainder in the near future. A portion of future financing monies will go to UMG. Imeem has similar deals with the other three labels (Sony/BMG, WMG and EMI). Since UMG is the largest, its numbers were proportionally larger than the other labels, but Imeem has prepayments or guaranteed minimum payments to all the labels.
A financial analysis of a royalties plus operational costs reveals that Imeem cannot ever turn a profit with this financial structure. Setting aside the large prepayments, online advertising revenues will not even cover the one penny-per-play song, much less the operational costs of running a net company, such as servers, personnel and bandwidth. (This is only slightly worse economics than webradio which will never be profitable for all the same reasons.) Candidly, Imeem personnel will say that their hope is to sell Imeem to a large conglomerate that desires the substantial traffic Imeem currently receives and is willing to overlook the underlying economics. While this "YouTube" strategy may experience fleeting initial success, it's no way to build a long-term viable company, and it is most certainly not a blueprint for a healthy partnership between labels and digital music companies.
You might be wondering why Imeem's executives would enter into such a dubious financial relationship. First, it is helpful to understand their business. Imeem is a social network site where users upload media files (audio, video and pictures) that are then made available to others to view or listen. Very quickly Imeem has grown a massive library of popular music and videos. Earlier this year, Warner Music Group sued Imeem claiming their business is illegal because that music is unlicensed. Fighting in court can take years and millions of dollars. During that period is it difficult, if not impossible, to raise more money because nobody wants to put money into a company just to watch it get drained away by attorneys. Rather than battle in court, Imeem decided to settle. Their analysis is they might overpay for a legal settlement, but with strong traffic growth and a top 200 web site they will find a suitor who will desire them. That party won't look too deeply at the economics or they can renegotiate the terms as the music industry changes in the years to come. But this way the deck is cleared of lawsuits and they can focus on growing their business.
As someone who has been in, and is currently in, a lengthy legal battle with record labels, I am certainly sympathetic. EMI is suing MP3tunes because they want to block consumers from putting music they own into their own personal locker. (If this is true, you should think twice about buying music because you don't truly own it.) There is no right answer to this dilemma. Until more legal certainty is brought to the digital frontier, companies will have two risky propositions: battle in court in a do-or-die situation (MP3tunes, Veoh, Divx, etc) or settle and shoulder a crippling economic burden that you can try to escape later but probably won't. A middle ground does exist: a true partnership between technology companies and music companies in which both companies share in the risk and reward, but Imeem is most certainly not that. It is not ground breaking -- it's just breaking.
--MR
December 19th, 2007
Return to Archive
The press recently gushed over Imeem signing a deal with Universal Music Group -- the last of the four major labels to grant them a license to stream complete songs to visitors to their popular web site. The NYT said, "..[it] might be the breakthrough the music industry needs." Far from a breakthrough, it is a death sentence for Imeem. Under a dark cloud of looming lawsuits, Imeem entered into a crushing financial agreement that allows them to survive as long as venture capital money continues to flow into the company, but spells almost certain financial calamity once outside funding halts. Reporters classified the deal as a "license" with "advertising revenue sharing", implying it is a new structure from the labels. A more accurate description would be an ownership position with substantial upfront payments, plus required ongoing payments regardless of revenue generated by Imeem. To put it another way, it is the same onerous deal labels have foisted on digital music companies for the last decade.
Here are some of the notable deal elements that I have been able to ascertain from my sources. First, Imeem had to give UMG shares in their company. They demanded an equity position which would not be dilutable. Normally, an equity stake in a company can be diminished if future financing (investment) takes place, but UMG demanded that they get more shares each time the company accepts new investment so their percentage ownership in the company remains the same regardless of what transpires in the future. Simply stated, UMG received a double-digit ownership in Imeem.
In typical "advertising revenue sharing" as the Imeem license is described, advertising revenue is collected and then split between the parties. For example Google's widely popular Adsense program splits the monies about 50/50. Half goes to Google and half to the website operator. Traditional business relationships are usually either a low fixed rate guaranteed payment or a higher percentage payment with no guarantees. Imeem's contract with UMG calls for payments of just under one cent per song play, regardless of whether there's any advertising that actually happens. That's not a revenue sharing relationship. However, Imeem's obligations go beyond that -- requiring more money if total web site advertising revenues (not just from their music) exceeds a certain number. Imeem must then pay even more money -- the higher of either the song plays fee or a percentage of ad revenue. While technically it has an advertising revenue sharing component, it is not a typical advertising deal where both parties share in the risk on both the upside and downside. In this relationship UMG wins regardless.
Finally, Imeem is obligated to give to UMG a $20 million prepayment. A prepay is an advance of monies from which future royalties are deducted. Imeem doesn't have $20 million because they have yet to generate substantial revenues from their business. Consequently, they paid a portion of those monies now and are required to pay the remainder in the near future. A portion of future financing monies will go to UMG. Imeem has similar deals with the other three labels (Sony/BMG, WMG and EMI). Since UMG is the largest, its numbers were proportionally larger than the other labels, but Imeem has prepayments or guaranteed minimum payments to all the labels.
A financial analysis of a royalties plus operational costs reveals that Imeem cannot ever turn a profit with this financial structure. Setting aside the large prepayments, online advertising revenues will not even cover the one penny-per-play song, much less the operational costs of running a net company, such as servers, personnel and bandwidth. (This is only slightly worse economics than webradio which will never be profitable for all the same reasons.) Candidly, Imeem personnel will say that their hope is to sell Imeem to a large conglomerate that desires the substantial traffic Imeem currently receives and is willing to overlook the underlying economics. While this "YouTube" strategy may experience fleeting initial success, it's no way to build a long-term viable company, and it is most certainly not a blueprint for a healthy partnership between labels and digital music companies.
You might be wondering why Imeem's executives would enter into such a dubious financial relationship. First, it is helpful to understand their business. Imeem is a social network site where users upload media files (audio, video and pictures) that are then made available to others to view or listen. Very quickly Imeem has grown a massive library of popular music and videos. Earlier this year, Warner Music Group sued Imeem claiming their business is illegal because that music is unlicensed. Fighting in court can take years and millions of dollars. During that period is it difficult, if not impossible, to raise more money because nobody wants to put money into a company just to watch it get drained away by attorneys. Rather than battle in court, Imeem decided to settle. Their analysis is they might overpay for a legal settlement, but with strong traffic growth and a top 200 web site they will find a suitor who will desire them. That party won't look too deeply at the economics or they can renegotiate the terms as the music industry changes in the years to come. But this way the deck is cleared of lawsuits and they can focus on growing their business.
As someone who has been in, and is currently in, a lengthy legal battle with record labels, I am certainly sympathetic. EMI is suing MP3tunes because they want to block consumers from putting music they own into their own personal locker. (If this is true, you should think twice about buying music because you don't truly own it.) There is no right answer to this dilemma. Until more legal certainty is brought to the digital frontier, companies will have two risky propositions: battle in court in a do-or-die situation (MP3tunes, Veoh, Divx, etc) or settle and shoulder a crippling economic burden that you can try to escape later but probably won't. A middle ground does exist: a true partnership between technology companies and music companies in which both companies share in the risk and reward, but Imeem is most certainly not that. It is not ground breaking -- it's just breaking.
--MR
Saturday, November 22, 2008
I hope you know this song
This is just one of those one hit wonders
thats just so good
and I am not talking J-Kwon or Houston good
this is an ageless 1 hit wonder
I had this CD a few years back
I didn't like too much of everything else that was on that CD
but times have changed I think I need to find that CD on the net again
Damn Lebron is going to New York
Damn it seems more and more likely that Lebron is going to head to NY
They are now talking about two. 2!! big free-agent signings in 2010.
They want to sign Lebron and Chris Bosh.
Wow this is crazy imagine Lebron in New York with Mike D'Antoni's offense
that would crazy shit
with that being said
watch him dance
also
this was a sick commercial that he did back in the day
the song is too fuckin sick
Found this old instrumental CD
I have heard a lot of Lord Finesse's skills on the production side of things
and I was just browsing around and I found one of his rare instrumental cds on the web.
I don't know how I do it but I love looking for music and bumping into rare stuff
always makes me feel good to find rare music.
I guess its because its so hard to do it in real life.
To find rare and vinyls is not very common
Anyways this one song that I am gonna put up has got that old school Big L feel to it.
Those howling sounds are so fucking dope. I would really like to know what they are.
The drums are pretty bopping too
if you guys are feeling it
the rest of the cd is on my imeem page maybe I should actually make an effort to put the CD up
holler
song:
Imeem page:
http://www.imeem.com/people/xKgDwm/
Friday, November 21, 2008
Already found one of the samples for 1 of Kanye's new songs
I am pretty sure you can figure out what song this is for
if not get at me
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Possibly one of the most influential samples in rap
Wu tang - C.R.E.A.M
it definitely debatable whether this song is one of the most influential rap songs or not
but no one deny how big this song was
and how relevant this song still is today this day
It could define a generation of hip hop that existed oh not so long ago
Just remembered it today
and listened to this song like 20 times today
it definitely debatable whether this song is one of the most influential rap songs or not
but no one deny how big this song was
and how relevant this song still is today this day
It could define a generation of hip hop that existed oh not so long ago
Just remembered it today
and listened to this song like 20 times today
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Should he even be allowed
Marcus Jordan tryna diss Bow Wow on his jordan collection
is this even fair
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Foreign Accent Syndrome
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6241218
There is video inside there
And all I could think about was
There is video inside there
And all I could think about was
Friday, November 14, 2008
Jay Z - Girls Girls Girls Sample
The Jay Z song was one of my favorite songs of all time
The sample is just as sick
The sample is just as sick
Tom Brock - Let me show you how
Mos Def - Panties sample
pretty sick
So I found about that sample
but there are other songs from this guy just as sick
Maybe I will save that for the next post
Cuz that one needs a post of its own
Banksy
Just too dope
I needa find more stencil work
I am pretty sure people know all about Banksy so i am not gonna put up more shit
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Jazmine Sullivan sample
I know I been posting only youtube videos
and everyone will say anyone one can do that
but I am just tryna first show to people who I am
the the long commentaries will come after
holler
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Hadda Throw 1 down before it was all set and down
Nas - Remember the Times sample
Just had to show you guys I was serious
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wassup
i am looking forward to giving you guys goodies and samples and podcasts
I just have a general like for music
and my tastes are very eclectic
but we will see how it turns up
holler
I just have a general like for music
and my tastes are very eclectic
but we will see how it turns up
holler
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