URGENT! BECOME A MILLIONAIRE LEARN TO CREATE AND BRAND YOUR OWN CLOTHING LINE! Whats up! How are you? I pray all is well. For myself Im doing good trying to stay focused ya heard! But in the meantime and between time Im hustling and grinding everyday making it do what it do baby! You got to get out here and get yours in this world cause anit nobody gonna give you sh%t! You may not be the best rapper or singer but if you got a mean hustle you cant be stopped you WILL achieve whatever goals and dreams you have. But anyhow today we gonna kick it about making paper from your merchandise so lets get it poppin! MAKING MONEY THROUGH MERCHANDISE SALES I remember when my homeboys and I went to go see Run DMC in concert we were some young fly B Boys. I had on my black Lee Jeans, a terry cloth white kangol hat with a black tee shirt with Fresh To Death air brushed in white letters and on my feet I had on a pair of crisp white shell toe Adidas with black stripes. Run DMC came out on the stage and the crowd went crazy! RUN told the the house man to turn on the lights, then Run told everybody to take off one of their ADIDAS and hold it in air. Man everybody in there had on a pair of ADIDAS when you looked around all you saw was ADIDAS everywhere my point is that RUN DMC started branding ADIDAS during their concerts, the company that owned ADIDAS started noticing increased demands and profits, they wondered what spark a sudden increase in demand for their product, it was brought to their attention that a Hip Hop group named RUN DMC was responsible for the increased attention and demand for their brand. Because they were wearing ADIDAS and their fans were too. This was the start of branding a artist with a product, Hip Hop started with a entrepreneur spirit thanks to the God Father of Hip Hop Russell Simmons. Modern day Hip Hop entrepreneur Jay-Z has continued hip hops branding connections with deals with Budweiser and Reebok and perhaps most successful at branding in recent years is ya boi 50 Cent, who has worked out branding deals with everyone from Echo Clothing line to a equity share in Vitamin Water for his Formula 50 sports drink (Vitamin Water was subsequently purchased by Coca-Cola, earning 50 a reported $400 million!) Not bad for a brother who has no college education raised by his grandmother in the tough streets of New York City. (much respect) Hip hop entrepreneurs realized early on the importance of taking advantage of segmented revenue streams. With rap recording sales falling from 100 million units in 2002 to 59 million in 2013 live shows, ring tones and cultivating corporate branding opportunities are more important than ever. Aligning themselves with artists through branding provides companies with the opportunities to bring relevancy to their brand and open a line of communication to another generation of consumers. Companies are always in search of artist that share the values of their company and able to represent their products through branding. Which can be very lucrative for the artist. Its your manager job to seek out companys that share similar values and interest and negotiate deals for you to capitalize on. HOW MERCHANDISING WORKS, WHOS INVOLVED, AND WHERE THE MONEY COME FROM You as a artist must optimize all your possible revenue streams and realize that although being a musician is at its core a creative endeavor, it is also a business with income, expenses, employees and vendors. Just like all business you have to spend bread to make bread ya dig. One of the most lucrative money making areas for you as a artist is merchandise. There are a lot of things that are not completely in your control (traffic at your show, a blogger making a post of your show on his blog, your van breaking down between gigs) but you do have complete control over your merchandise unless you license your merch rights to your label or a third party. What you sell and for how much is up to you. At your Live show to have all your fans rocking out with you, they are feeling your music they loved the show. Now they want to take something home with them. This is the moment when your fans are searching and looking for your merchandise and if you are prepared which I know you will be you can offer them your merchandise. There are a few ways to go about selling your merch, mostly dependent on where you are in your career, how much control you want over distribution of your image, the outlets where your merch will be available, and the amount of resources you have to successfully operate the merchandising arm of your company. Merchandise On Your Own You can handle all your merchandising yourself if you wish by working directly with the printers and manufactures. Many artist start off this way out of necessity, but some larger artist like French Montana (Coke Boyz) Jay-Z (Roc A Wear) P Diddy (Sean John) have also retained their ability to create merch on their own behave. Retaining the right to create your own goods does a couple of things. First, youre not splitting the proceeds or getting a royalty on items you sell. Second you can create your own merch have the freedom to work with whomever you want, as well as have complete control of quantities and distribution. Well I respect your time so I dont want to be to long winded so we will kick again real soon. Next post we will talk about Working With A Merchandiser So until next time take care of yourself and your business. Best Regards, Mark Flagg P.S. Follow me on Twitter https://twitter/flaggemdown P.S.S. I need you to do me a favor tell me what are your top 2 questions about merchandising? Send your questions to my Facebook Page https://facebook/pages/Flagg-Em-Down-Entertainment-Inc/151424681595497?ref=hl #MusicBusiness #MusicMarketing #MusicBiz
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:54:38 +0000
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