Tony Zeoli is Founder and CEO of Netmix.com and Radio Station by netmix.® Originally launched in 1995, Netmix was was considered by Billboard Magazine to be the "innovation and advancement of dance music on the Internet." Tony had launched the world's first Internet mix show website featuring the most influential DJs from around the globe. After two-and-a-half decades, Netmix has since evolved into an online station directory and powerful WordPress plugin, Radio Station, for broadcasters and webcasters to manage their statioon's show schedule in WordPress. Tony has been an innovator at the intersection of music and the Internet for the past thirty years in project management, product development, and digital strategy,. He is also the founder and CEO of Digital Strategy Works, a WordPress web design and digital marketing agency. And, Executive Producer of the Asheville House Music Society, an online House Music mix show. Tony is located in Asheville, NC where he loves to mountain bike, hike, and play golf with his son.
I’ve been following Sebastien, a producer who hails from Hamburg, Germany, for a few months now. He’s got a deep house and tech house sound blended with emo and pop stylings. On this mix, he tones down the anthemic festival sound of Kyau & Albert to give DJs a more accessible mix for radio and the clubs. If you’re not following Sebastien, well, you should! He’s sort of like Germany’s version of MK. In fact, I play their tracks back to back in my mix sets and out in the clubs.
Looking for an interesting take on Prince’s classic, “Purple Rain?” We’ve got one for you, courtesy of Mousse T. Check out this deephouse and soulful reworking of this legendary song. We’re digging it and hope you’ll drop it in your next set!
A few days ago, I caught this incredible video from Chicago rapper, Gemstones, being shared around on Facebook. At first, by Ibo-Granmoun Bakalulu-Baka, who had posted the video to his Facebook timeline. At the time of this post, the video has over 37,900 shares with 5,400 likes and counting. Curious, I set out to learn more about this artist and the song, “Fire In My Heart.” (Lyrics)
On the original post, Bakalulu-Baka writes:
This is what Hip Hop suppose to be if she was never raped, prostituted and discarded by major and small record labels.
Who is Gemstones and why is this video going viral now?
According to Rap lyrics site, Genis.com profile post about Gemstones, his real name is Demarco Castle. He grew up in Jeffrey Manor/South C on Chicago’s South Side. Originally known as Gemini, he signed to Lupe Fiasco’s 1st and 15th Recordings, but later split from the label. After changing his artist name for legal reasons to Gemstones, he released the mixtape, Elephant In The Room on October 27, 2012 at CMPLX 2010 on Chicago’s South Side to friends, families and supporters. This raw, homemade video, was shot in the basement of the complex.
I’d say this specific video of the track, “Fire In My Heart” (which kicks off the mixtape), is going viral, simply because of it’s strong message to rappers about being fake, capitalizing on the misfortunes of others while limiting his opportunity, which he says he’s overcome. Gemstones had left the game for a bit to regroup. He also says that he found God and from what we’ve read so far, Gemstones if focused on changing his lyrics and approach from street lyrics to bringing a bit of reality and positivity to the rap game. So far, he’s doing a fantastic job.
Our favorite verse:
All you fake MCs that’s misleading our youth
Talking about the cars you all ain’t got
Crack that you never sold
Neighborhoods that you know you can’t go in
You ain’t real
Be yourself
It’s Gemstones and there ain’t no question who’s the elephant in the room
You’re gonna wish you never met me
What’s really interesting about “Fire In My Heart,” is that it’s backed by a house beat, which had been increasingly rare in Hip-Hop since the mid-90s when both genres were more similar than they were different. If you listen to the entire mixtape, it’s extremely creative and uses various samples. One that stands out is a riff from “Say, Say, Say,” a collaboration between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
There are other references to electronic music interspersed. For example, the intro and hook on the second track of the mixtape, “Irregular,” are from Armin Van Buuren’s “Never Say Never.” Very creative, different and refreshing for the Hip-Hop arena.
We hope this solved the riddle for a lot of folks on Facebook who are hearing the song and discovering Gemstones for the first time. We wish him the best of luck and look forward.
Here’s his latest, “Let Your Light Shine Final.”
YouTube will attempt to monetize it’s service with paid subscriptions by asking users to pay a monthly or yearly fee to block pre-roll advertising before music videos play. Many YouTube music videos have ads that play before the video begins, which users can often times skip after a few seconds by clicking on the Skip Ad overlay that appears at the bottom right of the video window.
Mashable writes that Google, the company that owns and operates YouTube, generated about $53B last year. Google doesn’t break out revenue for YouTube, but cites a report from The Independent, which quotes anonymous sources estimating the service added only $3.2B in to Google’s bottom line, short of analyst predictions of $5B.
To improve the numbers, Google AdSense and AdWords exec, Susan Wojcicki, took over CEO role at YouTube in February after reports indicated YouTube losing market share to AOL and Facebook, resulting in a drop in ad rates. A subscription music service is one way the company is seeking to add to their bottom line. However, many independent record labels are not happy after receiving an updated agreement reducing compensation in the future. And, in an increasingly crowded content marketplace, new content creators are finding it more difficult to find an audience and generate revenue to support programming.
More companies today are looking to the consumer to pay a subscription fee to turn off ads in content and consumers have gotten used to paying a nominal fee to block ads. However, as more services turn to this type of offering, consumers will be faced with having to decide which services they really need. YouTube is now entering a subscription world, competing with Netflix and cable television for the consumers dollar. It remains to be seen if enough people will pay to block ads on YouTube, when they already have a Spotify subscription, combined with a cable subscription (or at least high speed Internet) at home and Sirius/XM in the car.
Today, consumers are faced with an issue of privacy. Accept the freemium advertising model and agree to be tracked and targeted for ad wherever you go. There are now ad auction exchanges set up to deliver advertising to websites instantaneously as traffic ebbs and flows. Prices rise where there is more traffic and reduce where there is less. This makes Internet advertising more efficient, while at the same time putting pressure on media creators to keep eyeballs on their content. That’s why Internet meme sites like Upworthy, which promote short, viral content scientifically analyzed and optimized to constantly drive eyeballs. Users are also tricked into staying engaged by being forced to to click through page after page of images, so that the site can deliver more page refreshes to deliver more ads. It’s for this reason, it is not a stretch to see why consumers would want to pay YouTube to turn off ads. The question is, can YouTube be trusted to deliver a completely ad free experience?
When we first started paying for Cable TV, cable companies delivered ad-free programming, but soon realized they could both charge consumers for content and display ads at the same time. Given that the quality and amount of content was far more than was available on free television, cable companies got away with this for many years. But now with cable’s monthly costs reaching into the hundreds of dollars and other media competing for our attention and wallets, as well as the Internet supplying high quality content, many cable subscribers are cutting off their TV and paying only for high speed Internet access.
The same has happened at Sirius/XM. While many of the generic, programmed music channels are ad free, we’re starting to see some content creators that license content to the popular satellite radio service insert ads in their programming. Again, consumers have grown accustomed to this, so their is little outrage when it happens. However, as we make our way into a world of asking consumers to subscribe to everything, companies need to be careful about stepping over the line.
As for this blog, we do host advertising and recently turned off ad units being delivered by one of our partners, who now publish video content inside advertising blocks. Those types of ads have become intrusive and are affecting our readers ability to focus on our content, so we’ve turned them off in favor of our general Google AdSense program. That begets the question, do Internet companies really need advertising to survive?
In YouTube’s case, billions of dollars in ad revenue last year is nothing to sneeze at, but can one solely base their entire business on advertising? History has shown that diversification is critical. Finding and testing alternative revenue models is important. The over reliance on advertising without a strategy for expanding revenue in other ways is now proving troublesome for YouTube. Facebook faced this issue for the past two years and quickly found mobile revenue from ads as well as allowing anyone to place a targeted ad or promoted post to get attention to their content in Facebook would be its future. In a closed network like Facebook, controlling the ad revenue stream is different than simply selling ads to brands. They’ve created products around promoting likes and shares, which is advertising like, but also a utility for content creators who want to employ the tools to reach a wider audience. What kinds of tools can YouTube give to content creators to promote content in the YouTube network?
Lastly, it’s important to note reliance on advertising is something that our brightest minds are looking at and trying to solve. In a recent The Atlantic article, “The Internet’s Original Sin,” author and Director of Civic Media at MIT, Ethan Zuckerman, writes:
Advertising became the default business model on the web, “the entire economic foundation of our industry,” because it was the easiest model for a web startup to implement, and the easiest to market to investors. Web startups could contract their revenue growth to an ad network and focus on building an audience. If revenues were insufficient to cover the costs of providing the content or service, it didn’t matter—what mattered was audience growth, as a site with tens of millions of loyal users would surely find a way to generate revenue.
Zuckerman, who was a former employee of Tripod.com, the company that created what we now know as the pop-up ad, which is an ad placed on a pop-up page that appears on top of the content you’re viewing, says that there are two kinds of ads: expensive and cheap. The expensive ad is the one that pops up in Google when you’re ready to buy something. It’s a lead generator, which is why companies will pay top dollar to get your attention.
The cheap ad is the ad that competes for your attention with the content the user is interacting with. Those ads are obviously going to pay less to the content publisher, because interest to action is low. Therefore, web publishers must look for other ways to monetize their digital business, because we’ve gotten to a point where so much freemium content is available, advertising prices are dropping considerably and these companies will not be able to survive on ad revenue alone.
Needless to say, YouTube have their work cut out for them. We’ll be watching to see how this new ad free model plays out and how consumers adjust to companies asking them to open their wallets, instead of agreeing to view content in exchange for their eyeballs.
The world’s hottest dance label, Ultra Records/Sony Music releases Mystique – “Brand New” on 8/22. The song is available for download on Beatport.com. This is a House track that will be sure to shake up the end of the summer parties in Ibiza. The video’s not yet available, but there’s a preview from Mystique’s YouTube channel, which we’ve got for your below.
For you twenty-somethings, the vocal sample, “You make me feel brand new,” was most likely resung by a session vocalist and that voice was put through and effects processor. The original idea comes from a classic slow jam by The Stylistics, a Philly soul group from the late 60s and early 70s.
Also, check out Mystique’s latest Beatport chart.
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This classic originally produced by Ruffneck feat Yavahan in 1995 took that years Winter Music Conference by storm. It’s heavy kick drum and sweet female vocal declaring that “Everybody wants to be somebody” made people move on dance floors around the world. It’s interspersed male vocal popping up throughout the track added a sense of urgency contrasting against the sweet female vocal that quietly reminded us that we all want to be someone. Today, house music lovers around the world immediately identify with the original. It’s 19-years since it’s original release and we’re finally seeing remixes of this classic house music track. Check them out below.
We’re diggin the Lucas and Steve Remix, but if you’re looking for something with an EDM flair, then you’ll want to check out the Luca Guerrieri Remix. Thanks to DJ Strobe for putting us down with this new anthem, which is featured in his latest MixCloud set. Of course, DJs can purchase the Lucas and Steve Remix as a download at Beatport.
Ruffneck Feat Yavahn Everybody Be Somebody (Lucas & Steve Remix)
Ruffneck feat. Yavahn – Everybody be Somebody – Luca Guerrieri Remix
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An incredible and beautiful treatment from DJ David Morales who on Fracesco Rossi ft. Ozark Henry’s “Godspeed You” (Energy Production Records) is expanding his sound beyond what we’re used to getting from this house music legend. It’s a warm summer record that we’re sure will be well received at end of the season parties in Ibiza. You’ll surely hear this record at sunrise on a beach somewhere.
While the drums are Latin house flavored, the overall vibe of this remix is deep house and tech house with progressive house elements. Very unique mix from David and certainly one to listen for one dance floors around the globe. Leave a comment and let us know what you think of this record.
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Imogen Heap is one of our all-time favorite modern electronic music artists. We absolutely love how she blends her unique singer/songwriter vocals with the melodic patterns of downtempo electronic music (sometimes called folktronica) by incorporating beats and synths underneath her gorgeous piano patterns and bright, sweet and breathy vocals.
Imogen traveled the world recording this new album and says that there are 14 videos for all 14 songs on the album. We can’t wait to follow along and post them one at a time as they are released.
Her new album, Sparks, is now on pre-order from iTunes. You can preview it here on NPR.
Check out the album preview on YouTube.
Or, listen to the interview with Imogen Heap, “Painting Her Songs In the Air, Imogen Heap Keeps Innovating” on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.
Pre-order by clicking on this button: [itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sparks-deluxe-version/id899603432?uo=4″ title=”Imogen Heap “Sparks” (Delux Edition)”]
Check out DJ Strobe’s opening set for The Chainsmokers on August 14th DJ/Producer/Remixer Billboard Reporter, DJ Strobe has been releasing records commercially since 1989 with several gold records and Billboard #1 remixes.
Strobe is also the program director for 412live.com – 5 stations of global electronic music streaming 24/7.
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