BeingAKB — Music +Business+Everyday Life

Books and Beaches

by AKB on December 1, 2010

Been hard at work building Go Forth Music and finalizing everything for Ear To The Grind’s first emerging artists compilation, Hear Here. Please check them out when you get the chance.

Over the next few days, I’ll be on a long-overdue vacation out of the city, during which I plan to read a lot (and write some post for this oft-neglected blog). Here’s what I’ll be reading:

Fortune’s Fool

How’s Edgar Bronfman, Jr. doing with Warner Music Group?

When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead

This guy is an entertainment industry legend…this book is filled with anecdotes that reveal how Weintraub operates.

Decision Points

He’s got some explaining to do.

Decoded

I don’t agree with everything Jay-Z says or does, but his lyrical genius is undeniable. Looking forward to how he breaks his records down in this book.

Extra Credit: The Mis-Education of the Negro and The Souls of Black Folk

I read these during freshman year at Hampton University. Re-reading them to see if the meaning has changed at all.

Check back on Monday for the first review…

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How To Build A Successful Career In The Digital Music Era: Vote For “The Go Forth Manifesto”

by AKB on July 12, 2010

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a project called Go Forth Music for the past year. Launching this fall, Go Forth Music is going to revolutionize the way musicians work by providing them with support services, resources, and information that will allow them to focus on their creativity and get projects done in an efficient manner. In preparation for this launch, I’ve outlined a manifesto entitled “The Go Forth Manifesto: How To Build a Successful Career In The Digital Music Era”. ChangeThis, a website that helps people publish essays about game-changing ideas, has approved the proposal for their site. Now I just need people to vote for it. If I get enough votes, they’ll publish it via their site, complete with artwork and interactive PDF features. So please, take a few minutes out of your day and click here to vote for “The Go Forth Manifesto: How To Build a Successful Career In The Digital Music Era”. I appreciate ya!

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New Article In This Month’s Black Enterprise

June 24, 2010

My wife tells me I should be more proactive when it comes to self-promotion, so here it is: I’m in an article in this month’s (July 2010) Black Enterprise talking about digital marketing along with TC Coleman (I think she’s a fellow Hamptonian) and Mary Spio. I hope we provided some helpful info. Pick the [...]

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Weekend Reading: Berklee’s Free Music Business Handbook

April 4, 2010

Hey all! Just wanted to spread the word: Berklee College of Music has just published a free music business handbook! The title is Music Business Handbook Vol. 1: Past, Present, and Future, which leads me to believe that there will be more resources like this coming. I checked it out and it’s packed with useful [...]

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I Read The Music Business News So You Don’t Have To!

March 22, 2010

Sign up for The Music Business Minute here! As a musician/artist manager/songwriter/etc., you need all the time you can get to focus on your creativity. But you still need to stay up to date with what’s going on in your industry. New deals are made everyday & new social media/music distribution tools are popping up [...]

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Diggy Signs with Atlantic: Lessons Learned from Diggy vs. JoJo

March 22, 2010

First he drops this viral video: Then he announced today via Twitter that he was taking a tour of Atlantic Records and that the signing was official. Some people are gonna hate, but I can’t be mad at him. He’s a shining example of what can happen when you combine talent and creativity with hard [...]

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Give Me 5 Years…

March 17, 2010

I attended a program called “It’s All About Business” in June 2005, the summer before my senior year of undergrad. At the final banquet, we all made a video tape saying where we’d be in five years. One of the program’s speakers, Nigel Alston, told us about this study where a group of people did [...]

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Are You Ready To “Crush It”?: A Book Review

March 16, 2010

Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It!: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion” was better than I expected. A lot better than I expected. I was really skeptical of the book because of it’s title. Despite all the endorsements, I thought it was too cheesy. Definitely surpassed my expectations. “Crush It!” is a [...]

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If I Had Time…

March 5, 2010

…I would try to write an article as great as the one I’m about to link to. But that hasn’t been the case. hypebot featured an amazing article by Topspin’s Ian Rogers. So amazing in fact, I decided share it with ya’ll. It’s an excellent read for independent artists trying to create some consistency in their [...]

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