Spotlight : Red Tempa

Hip Hop meets Trance; it's back to reality for Red Tempa

British hip hop artist Red Tempa, has just announced the release of his latest single with Starharbour Records entitled ‘Back to Reality’. The song has a light summery hip-hop vibe, contrasting with a floor-filling trance chorus produced by the Oxford based Trance DJ Marcus Taylor. Red Tempa told us that he “loves trance music” and was heavily influenced by dance music artists such as Lisa Lashes, and Anne Savage from a young age, when living in Germany.

Red Tempa’s debut album is due out on August 9th, including the singles ‘Stand up lets dance’ and ‘If only I knew’. The release party on the 9th August will be held at the Oxford Four Pillars hotel, fans can join the Starharbour Records facebook group event for information on booking tickets.

You can hear 2 songs from Red Tempa on London Web Radio (now part of the KryKey Artist Airplay Network) on KryKey Personal Web Radio.

The New York Rap/Hip-Hop Scene

The New York Rap/Hip-Hop Scene
by Machette - 27th March 2009

The Hip-Hop scene in New York is alive and well, although it’s the culture keeping Hip-Hop alive not the music industry. The origins of the culture hailed from the underground independent realm. As people are tiring of hearing the same average 15 songs in the commercial circuit, mixtapes and the underground are keeping the ears of the public satisfied. There are many venues to see up and coming artists share their talent and their dreams. Therefore, the fans have somewhere to go when the industry is looking grim as it is at the moment. New York is one of the few states that has always had the capacity to keep Hip-Hop alive. Good thing the urge to dance will never die. Because aside from all the conspiracy involved in the music business. Music still soothes the savage beast! Covering the New York Rap/Hip-Hop scene wouldn’t be complete without also covering some of the talent in the city, and in this report we have two of the best, Just Will & Anthony Bigs

Just Will is a 33 year old from New York City, USA. He began exploring music at the age of 13 in Brunswick and Brooklyn rapping with his peers and then a few years later attended LaGuardia Community College and enrolled in the Recording Technology Program to progress his skills and knowledge of the music industry. The attendance at LCC gave him the opportunities to do his own thing in Rap, Producing and Developing Artists. He has also used these skills and the knowledge that he has gained to become a co-CEO and partner of Developmental Sounds Labs, which is the home for some of the hottest MC’s and Producers in New York City. You can hear Just Will on WCUT Radio daily.

Anthony Bigs hails from the mean streets of Birmingham England, came to New York and instantly fell in love with the all things music. He began DJing at the age of 14 after watching his brother spin at house Parties in Brooklyn’s Notorious “Pink House Projects”. At 17 he created Renegade Productions which enjoyed several years of controlling dance floors in all 5 boros. Talking to Bigs he said “I had a lot of fun Djing. I wish I had the team I have now back then, we would of have been big, but at the end of the day I aint mad. It was what it was!” Developmental Sound Labs was formed when he met up with Just Will, and they joined creative forces and built the foundation for what was originally just a simple studio which was to focus entirely on making beats and instrumentals but evolved into a full function recording facility with 2 locations. He said “I’ve always wanted to produce and make music and always dreamt of owning a studio. Things just fell together and it was blatantly obvious that we had to keep growing and its snowballing into this huge entity that’s unstoppable right now! I owe this all to my partner Just Will and Waldy (laughing). Were going on two years in a couple of months and it’s been a hell of a ride. I look forward to the future because every day we’re growing more branches and more and more good people are coming into our circle.”

Developmental Sound Labs, WCUT Radio and KryKey Personal Web Radio has just launched the Ultimate Independent Artist Package which is a program to help Independent Artists, and it covers the creation of the music, airplay of the music, the sales of the music, and even merchandising. They have even partnered with other web radio stations in Europe, England and in the USA to play Independent Artist’s music, to give them worldwide airplay. This program is a truly a revolution for the music industry and you can contact WCUT Radio or Developmental Lab Sounds for more details. Their web site addresses are : www.WCUTRadio.com - www.DevSoundLab.com

(graphic and some text by KryKey Personal Web Radio)

Is An Independent Music Revolution Coming?

Is An Independent Music Revolution Coming?

Over the last few decades the music companies have been calling the shots. Why wouldn't they as they controlled the production, the distribution and the marketing. Control for them meant massive profits and being able to dictate to their Artists. Over the last few years things have started to change as software for computers have gotten better and produced great Studio systems that one can even use in the home, and the Internet has let Artists market their music to a huge amount of people.

In what its seems to be an insatiable appetite to make more and more money, their unwillingness to change with the new technology and to keep the control, the music companies have seen the sales of CDs drop each year. First they stamped out Napster instead of embracing them. Then they tried DRM on MP3's. Kept CD prices ridiculously high. Stopped the production of the Single. Now they try to enforce high royalty rates on the web streaming services, which has the effect of putting these services out of business, where as they should be using them to 'promote' the music they sell.The latest thing is forcing ISP's to cut off people who download any music that hasn't been paid for after being warned 3 times - 3 strikes and your out! Big Brother is here!

In the last month a new concept has again arrived to challenge the music companies and give Independent Artists a way of promoting their music, selling their music and make more of the money. WCUT Radio in New York is an Independent Web Radio Station which offers Independent Artists the opportunity to play their music to an ever increasing listener base. It is early days, but each week the web Radio station has more listeners. These listeners want to hear new, unsigned, unheard of Artists, and as the word gets around, listeners have come from outside New York, all around the USA and in Australia, England and parts of Europe.

This week WCUT Radio has teamed up with three other popular web radio stations: Red Babe in Minsk, Belarus; London Web Radio in London, England; and Desert One in Las Vegas, USA; and negotiations are under way with web radio stations in Australia and India, to play some of the music from WCUT Radio. They have also partnered with KryKey Personal Web Radio to sell MP3's and merchandise in their store, giving Independent Artists an opportunity to sell their music and also t-shirts, caps, etc with their logo. Developmental Sound Labs is also in the mix with Studio facilities to create great tracks.

Is this where music is going? Artists teaming up with smaller companies, making music, promoting and selling the music and all the while keeping the majority of the money? Is it the opposite of what is happening when an Artist signs up with a music company? Time will tell!

The Revolution has started. Viva Le Revolution!

As Barriers Crash, Golden Opportunities Arise

What we’re seeing on the Internet right now is a major upheaval of business models, a revolution that’s going to be viciously fought from both sides, by the newbies disrupting everything, and the old-world powers very upset at how the newbies are breaking down what were lucrative barriers for them.

That high marble tower the newspaper industry used to peer down from is crumbling. The music industry, or should I say last century’s music industry, that acted both as boon and filter of music, is also facing demise. No longer can a mighty few decide what is news for the masses to consume, and no longer can they decide who becomes an overnight sensation. After they spent billions, years, and enormous amounts of clout conglomerating and streamlining, the media world suddenly decentralized under their feet.

It wasn’t just that the audience got tired of packaged news and packaged music and packaged choices—they did tire of that, relatively quickly—it was that the Internet provided the autonomy media companies had actively blocked. And they’re still trying to block it, still trying to turn it back to the old way.

Quoting the Borg, "resistance is futile". They need new business models, not to reinforce old ones.

While they figure that out, it’s good news for upstarts, locals, small ventures, and nimble, creative types the old media world effectively blocked out in the past. The new guys are understanding and taking advantage of sites like YouTube. The decentralization YouTube spearheaded floods the market with competition, which something conglomerates over the years worked very hard to push away.

It’s their own fault. A music video is essentially a three-minute commercial for a band. The second the music industry start treating these promotional vehicles as anything but what they are was the minute people started rebelling. YouTube and sites like it just add another promotional channel and a very effective one at that.

That’s why I like this story about a Denver-based singer who says YouTube helped him go from playing tiny blues bars for, at most, hundreds, to playing for thousands. Joe Bonamassa says fans go to YouTube to check out local artists before wasting their energy to see them live. Meanwhile No Doubt gives away downloads with concert ticket purchases, and Lamb of God sells commemorative CD/USB/Vinyl packages with tracks separating out drums, bass, and guitar for those who emulate them.

Or how about WCUT Radio and Developmental Sound Labs who are working in conjunction with KryKey Personal Web Radio to help Independent Artists by offering them the opportunity to play their music on the air (web radio), sell their music through digital downloads and with merchandising and all this by passing the music companies. Now that's innovation........

It’s starting to become hard to remember that it used to be different, that bands and musicians had to trek around in the wastelands of obscurity, hoping (usually in vain) to be discovered by some music giant. If that never happened, so many gave up to go into real estate and insurance sales One wonders if they’d taken the same route if they’d had the advantage the Internet is giving musicians just ten (five) years later.

And that’s the point. Those barriers are gone and good riddance.