Mocking Jay Part 1

I'm aware that Mocking Jay is a movie and not music, but I thought it was a good topic to touch upon. I really love the series so I had to go see it. It was better than I thought it would be. The novel Mocking Jay had a very slow beginning, even my sister exclaimed "why are they splitting this book up the first half is so slow!" As we all know, movies aren't exactly like the books, as much as this bothers many people you do need to take into consideration that this is another persons perspective and interpretation of the story. It could've used more action, and fighting, but the movie did what it could with the story.
The music for this movie was also pretty good. But nothing can compare to the amazing shots full of emotion, props to the cinematographers! If you haven't seen it yet I would recommend it, especially if you liked the other films!

AMAs 2014 (Part 2) - New With Social Media Marketing

The American music awards are still on my mind, but not for the show. Obviously the performances were fabulous, and the presenters did mostly a good job. The main reason I still wanted to talk about the AMAs was because of what was done differently, and that would be snapchat.
I'm not really sure how many people noticed the snapchat story that was the AMAs, but a lot of the story was sponsored by Samsung. My thought is this is going to be a big piece of marketing, especially for events like the AMAs, New Years Eve, and other award shows and performances.
What makes this different from other social media marketing is it is still new, and it gives the consumer a point of view that they have not seen before. Usually in a snapchat story you'll see a small clip of your friends driving around town, or a photo of your friend's cat, but the night of the AMAs there was video of celebrities on the red carpet, and photos backstage, which are pieces of the show we as the viewer don't normally see.
I do see this as a big step in the future of social media marketing, especially in the music and performance industry.

2014 AMAs (Part I)

It is time for the 2014 American Music Awards, and so far it has been beautiful.
Taylor Swift's performance of "Blank Space" was amazing, playing into the psychotic man eater that the media thinks she is. The flames in the background were a perfect touch! The dancers also did a great job, and the props were perfect.
Charli XCX performed after her, introduced by the beautiful Ansel Elgort. Performing her two songs "Boom Clap" written for The Fault in Our Stars and "I Just Wanna Break The Rules." The change of costume was fabulous for this, and she was great all over the stage!

Everything You Knew Before You Knew Everything

Static in Verona releases its second full length album, Everything You Knew Before You Knew Everything. Rob says "[This album] took over 4 years to record and I went through a lot during it which inspired many of the songs (my parents separated, my children were born, I moved to a different town)." Something I find personally unique about Static in Verona is that it is a one man show! All the sound, writing, and singing comes from Rob Merz!
The album is available on bandcamp, and is donation based, I encourage you to check it out.
This album is following up their first album Be Quiet As You Leave, which was released in 2010, and is similar in subject matter but the sound is a little different, fans will surely enjoy both albums.

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

This morning I was thinking about the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and a little over 10 minutes ago it happened! Taylor Swift posted she will be performing!
I have to say I'm not shocked. One of the biggest "fashion" events of the year, and there is always an amazing artist. Tay had to be there. Performing is marketing.
Selling music isn't all of the music industry, selling shows and merchandise are other pieces.
As I have said before musicians are businesses, but they aren't just a product or service, they're a product, service, and personality. Product being her album, and service being her 1989 Tour.
That is the next piece to market, so I wouldn't expect Taylor Swift to slow down anytime soon.

Taylor Swift Inc.

I've been writing a lot about Taylor Swift lately, and for a good reason, she keeps doing big things. From releasing her album to having an app that follows her music video.
This pop star is full of power moves, not only is she now on the cover of  Time Magazine, but she was also on their list of 100 influential people in the world.
Many may not respect her music, for one reason or another, but it is hard to say that Taylor Swift is not a great business person. Selling more albums than any other artist in the music industry this year, even when music sales in the whole industry are not doing well. Taylor even managed to out sell her past albums.  Taylor and her team know where to market, know who their target market is, and how to keep them coming back. It is not enough to just sell your music, there is so much more than that, branding yourself, or your band is a big factor.
For starting musicians to "make it big" they need to realize that there is more to music than just art.
Musicians are a business, and Taylor Swift understands that.

Who is Jay Woodward?

Photo by: Leslie Chou

Local music is a big piece of the music industry, and supporting it is more important.
Jay Woodward is a talented indie folk artist from Venice, California. His album titled Letters We Told was the start of his music career in 2013. "Letters We Told, is a concept album that takes a look at the human experience through the eyes of one of America's sons." Woodward's music is similar to Fleet Foxes and Bright Eyes; and his inspirations include: Nick Drake, Willie Nelson, Brand New, Elliot Smith, and Monsters of Folk.
He is now in the studio working on his second album, which should be released in the Summer of 2015. The album is currently titled Good Grief and was inspired by friendship, death and, loss. I'm very excited for this!
Jay Woodward's current music from Letters We Told can be found here!

Blank Space Experience

Wow, an app for a music video?
Taylor Swift does not disappoint. The Blank Space Experience is something completely new to the music industry, or entertainment industry for that matter. Marketers are always focused on immersion, getting their target market completely involved in their product, Taylor and her team know how to do just that.
At the start of the 1989 take over Swifties were hash-tagging "Taylurking" and "TS1989," and now they're literally following around Taylor in the Long Island mansion where "Blank Space" was filmed. That is a big step for communications and marketing.
If you don't know what the "Blank Space Experience" is, it is a free app on the Appstore, called "American Express Unstaged." This app allows users to follow the music video (a version of it) 360 degrees. Viewing Taylor and Sean as they move about the mansion, if you can keep up. It last as long as the song does, but you can start it again.  Users can tap on different things in the house, to explore it a little better, and move from room to room, practically putting you inside of the video.
Miss Swift was on Good Morning America this morning to talk more about it!    

"Shady CXVpher"

To those of you that think Eminem isn't as good as he used to be, you probably haven't heard the new "Shady CXVpher." 

Eminem, Slaughterhouse, and Yelawolf teamed up for a 19 minute-long cypher of purely rhymes. Eminem's freestyle was about 7 minutes long and can be found here! (Parent advisory, explicit content). Let me know what you think of it!   

EMAs and Ed Sheeran

Last night the EMAs were on MTV, and that's a big deal so I had to write about it. There were a couple of winners that really shocked me.
"Best Hip Hop" was the first category whose winner surprised me. Nominated was Eminem, Drake, Iggy Azalea, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj. Now don't get me wrong, Nicki has some talent, but I was very surprised with her victory, feeling like someone like Eminem was more deserving.
The other category that really shocked me was "Best Female." There were some leading ladies in the music industry in this category, Beyonce, releasing an entire album without a single leak, and Taylor Swift, having the only album to go platinum in the United States for 2014. Yet, Ariana Grande, still fresh to the music industry won.
There were also some great performances last night, my personal favorite was "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran, off of his album X. I'm very excited to see the future of Ed and his record label that is planned to start up in 2015!

Blank Space

So Taylor Swift's music video for "Blank Space," off of her latest album 1989, came out today, and Swifties are going crazy! 1989 already made a big splash in 2014, being the only album to go platinum in the United States.
The video is hilarious, making fun of the way the media sees Tay!
The link to the video can be seen here!
1989 was full of power moves for Taylor.  She visited many talk shows and adverted with Target and Subway. After the release of 1989 Taylor Swift and her record label made the decision to remove her music from spotify. Artist make very little money from streaming their music, and 1989 became the first platinum album in the United States for 2014 after this big game move.