http://blascosays.tumblr.com/post/748351683/antagonist-set-to-make-2010-debut-despite-cloudy-days
Antagonist’s retail CD for 2010 they year he made contact
By Jason Blasco
Of Blascosays.com
CaliFlorida Productions CEO Anthony “Antagonist” Masters knows owning an independent imprint is like having manual transmission in your car. It’s constantly shifting gears in an area of congestion like independent music.
Masters, a hip hop artist known as Antagonist, is trying to find the delicate balance between promoting himself as an artist, and being a businessman with a small imprint calledCaliFlorida Productions. Masters also coordinates all the workings that go with marketing and promotions on a limited budget.
Trying to keep up with emerging trends and technology can be daunting for this virtual one-man band as he continues to produce, mix, create beats, market, create graphic designs, and coordinate promotional materials and virtual marketing campaigns. Antagonist knows he can’t afford not to listen when he hears of popular new methods of distribution like streaming from sites such as Pandora, www.datpiff.com, Radio Tuna, Spotify, Lala.com, andTunecore. “You always have to listen to an idea and put your music in as many places as possible. My difficulty lies in the fact that not only am I a production company and label owner, but also an artist,” Masters said. “I have to wear many hats, and that doesn’t leave me as much time lately to dedicate to searching out new, blossoming ideas.”
Antagonizing what’s been dubbed “The Future of Music”
Masters, who began his music career in the late 90s, entered the business during a time of turmoil, litigation, and disorganized chaos spawned by new meduims such as Napster, Real Player, Real Audio, and others that emerged during the dot.com era. Antagonist saw this as an opportunity, not a deterrent, to catapulting his career initiatives. “I have three words, internet, internet, internet,” Masters said. “I have coverage in 90 countries worldwide, the attention of over 200 websites, and close to half a million web impressions. I did all of this without doing a show outside of California or Florida. Obviously, I’m looking to tour as soon as possible to propel my fanbase into overdrive. I want indie artists to know that just because you might live in a small town, it doesn’t mean you have to think small. With that being said, I’ve been blessed to reside in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Miami over the past 14 years. It doesn’t hurt growing up in some major music markets.”
Moving from “The Hood” to “The Cloud”
Antagonist understands the value of streaming and doesn’t see streaming as a here today, gone tomorrow trend, such as the mini discs in the late 90s and early 00s. Masters has paid close attention to Apple’s business model. He knows that, like many other ventures in the past, Apple has established themselves as trailblazers in the new territory of streaming, especially with their recent acquisition of www.lala.com.
“Like it or not, Apple has digital distribution on lock,” Masters said. “Other sites such as Amazon and Rhapsody are closing in, but right now it’s all about iTunes. New companies such as TuneCore (which I personally use) are single-handedly changing the music business. It’s up to the fans, or us as artists, if this is a good thing. On one side, ANYBODY can now make a record and have it immediately available to everybody in the world with an .mp3 player. I think that’s great for somebody like myself. On the other hand, at some point there is going to be SO MUCH music out there that finding music in the fray will be increasingly difficult. The companies who solve this problem, and the artists who find out how to make their “needle shine in the haystack,” will be the ones who survive.”
Pay to Play: Antagonist sees streaming music’s business model that simple
The revenue-sharing models of streaming music vary greatly from company to company, and organizations such as BMI, ASCAP, and Soundexchange.com are still in the process of developing a system of compensation so artists, labels, managers, and publishers get their due, monetarily.
“Streaming music is as simple of a business model as anything else, in my opinion. You have to find a company that brings major traffic to their media, and a company that has a firm worldwide foundation,” Masters said. “Once you find a company relationship you like, then you have to get a good deal as far as money per plays. If a site has a lot of traffic and you’re getting several cents per play, over time the money will add up. It’s simple internet economics. Great Site=Traffic=AdRevenue=Great Returns.”
Like any new medium, there is a transition period for consumers to adapt to the new devices in order for everything to convert. The majority of consumer retail outlets reflect that with the type of devices that are currently on the market in outlets such as Walmart, that still have MP3 players with AM/FM radio advertised as one of their features.
In hip hop, the transition will be even more difficult because this genre is still so dependent on physical marketing and promotional tools such as mixtapes and underground distribution to get the word out on the street.
“I believe it’s a perfect medium. It might take a minute for ANY fan, not just a hop hop fan, but ANY fan to warm up to paying a monthly fee to get streaming music,” Masters said. “ I think the way to market something like this is to make sure that the streaming content is purely customizable. For instance, I believe you will make more revenue if you charge $29.99 per month for unlimited plays, and the user could play any song on the site they want at any time. This is converse to something like Satellite Radio, where there are set programs and you’re at the will of the DJ. You also must have a GREAT library for fans to catch onto a streaming music site. I would not think people would pay for a streaming service if they couldn’t find the music/artists they want.”
Today’s forecast calls for flash flood warnings and cloudy skies
Making money in this long, but narrow, trench is difficult with the many different methods of recording, streaming, marketing, etc., and the constant flood of numerous acts spamming their material at consumers virtually every time they log on to their social networking site. “ Music is a strange animal right now. This won’t make sense without a 1000 hour thesis paper on it, but it’s easier to make money now, yet it’s harder to make money now,” Masters said. “The easiest way I can put it is like this. A multi-talented indie artist who works hard and gets his hands into a lot of different ventures will be able to make some great money. Yet an indie artist who doesn’t know how to approach the business of music and relies on “getting signed” by a label will suffer and probably go broke. My one piece of advice to anybody about to step into this sea of sharks is forge your own way, make your own path, and don’t let anybody stop you. Why should you rely on other people getting you ahead in this game, when these days you can literally put out a record around the world for less than $2000? Buy a computer, learn how to use Pro Tools/Logic/etc, write a song, put it online, and then spend all day every day telling people about your song. That’s how I started, and that’s still what I do today, only on a bigger scale.”
Masters will continue to adapt and hope he and his small imprint will not become too damaged by the flood of emerging artists in the current foggy conditions that have been created by the lack of regulations of the internet for both the corporate giant and the solo artist.
Jason Blasco is a music publicist, journalist, and aspiring author. Blasco has published stories on many celebrities including Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge, Vanessa Carlton, and cello player Zoe Keating. Jason has promoted a number of independent and unsigned artists, and worked with Full Circle Entertainment CEO Roger Cobbs as a consultant on Jim Jonsin’s www.beatbakery.com . Blasco is currently working with Crush Recording, and their sister company as a research analyst to aid them in the development of their business initiatives with streaming media, an outlet they foresee is the future of music distribution.
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