There’s no need for this 16 year old to flaunt any sex appeal when she’s commanded crowds all over the country. With her skillful wordplay, this 7 year verteran has graced the stages of national tours alongside Chris Brown, Bow Wow, and Ciara. Her name is Miss Nana, and she’s sold over 60,000 units of her 10 mixtapes while faithfully returning phone calls to her 10,000 plus fans on her SayNow.com cell phone campaign…
Last year, she was chosen by Wyclef Jean and MySpace as the winner of the Vibe Verses 3 Contest and was flown to Hollywood to open for Wyclef’s album release party! (She used her SayNow number to remind fans to vote for her everyday during the competition and they came through) Check her out…
I don’t know if this is actually going to happen, but if it does, it would definitely make things interesting…
MADONNA will break records when she becomes the first major artist to release an album via mobile phone….The pop superstar has announced plans to allow Vodafone customers in Europe to download her new album, Hard Candy, to their phones a week before the CD hits stores on 28 April (08). Madonna will release one song per day to Vodafone users. It’s not the first time the singer has offered phone users the chance to download her music early - she released her disco hit Hung Up as a ringtone in 2006, a month before the traditional release of the song.
Element 9 Muzik LLC, a newly-founded urban record label, has unveiled an innovative approach to collecting demo submissions from aspiring artists…the label has developed Dial-A-Deal, which allows artists to display their talent live over a dedicated phone line. The innovative approach allows Element 9’s talent scouts to hear a live stream from artists in any location….
The Dial-A-Deal concept was developed by Element 9 Founder, Stu “Xplosive” Pflaum, a 26-year-old who has quickly proven the value of youthful leadership in the industry. Pflaum started out as an intern working with Franklin’s street team and lifestyle marketing division at Asylum Records. He left to form the Element 9 Recordings Publishing Company and scored a quick success by publishing the recent Grammy-nominated hit “Crank That” by recording artist Soulja Boy.
Here’s their intro
Go hit em with your best 16 bars. The contest runs through September.
If you’re new on SayNow and you’re wondering how to make it if you don’t have millions of fans like Soulja Boy (or if you do have millions and you’re wondering why you should bother talking to your fans) you should read this great post that Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine, recently wrote.
The important question he addresses is: how do you differentiate yourself and most importantly how do you survive and keep doing what you love now that the means to distribute creative work are widely available to almost anyone?
One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans….
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans….
The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love. (emphasis mine)
5 lucky girls are gonna get these cute bears from Menudo
And one of them could be you! Just call your favorite Menudo member (or heck, call them all) and tell them why they should pick you as their special valentine.
ps. Here’s a tip…LOTS of girls are calling to say “I LOVE YOU” so if you want to be special, say something different! Also, if you can sing, well, you know what to do :-)
So, a while back we were speculating on what this message on Lost Ocean’s MySpace page could possibly mean…it looks like you can find out in the video above :)
A couple weeks ago we asked super-talented SayNow stars Edison Glass if they could help us explain how SayNow works and here’s what they came up with. This is why we love them :)
If you’d like to submit a video to us as well, just post a link to your video in the comments. If we like it, we’ll feature it on our home page and we’ll give you your very own SayNow number too if you don’t already have one!
Because all good love stories eventually involve tissues and tears at some point, Mario wants you to call and tell him about it. Maybe he’s gathering inspiration for a new song? Don’t know, but we do know that he’s going to personally call the fan who tells him the best story.
You can read and listen to some of them over here.
Cassidy’s rap battle and partnership with SayNow was written up in last week’s issue of Billboard! Here are some nice words from Carolyn Williams (J Records Marketing VP)
With SayNow, we were able to quantify the public’s interest in Cassidy, Williams says. This contest had 23,000 contestant entries and 30,000 fan votes. That’s pretty big for a small company. It also reminded consumers who Cassidy is - which is a battle rapper.
Because I know you’ve always wanted your very own remote controlled fart machine…
Larry the Cable Guy has a contest going where you can actually win one (along with a $250 gift card for Home Depot). I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but all you have to do is tell him what you want for Christmas, and if he likes what you’re wishing for, then a fully automated battery powered on-demand-cheese-cutter will be yours for the taking.
And here’s the first code which he sent only to his SayNow fans.
You might have to scour the streets to find the other codes…and I won’t be posting anymore here so you should call his number to get updates if you want to meet him. (or if you want to win any of the other cool prizes)
So…I can’t say I know what’s going on here, but it would appear that John Locke of Lost is telling Charlie to call Lost Ocean and ask them who stole his shoes. I don’t know where he expects him to find a phone, but oh well. Lucky you, you’re not on that god forsaken island and probably do have a phone…in which case, you should give Lost Ocean a call!
They’re a talented new band from Bakersfield, CA and if you’re nice, they’ll probably call ya back.
We have conclusive evidence that they do in fact call some of their fans. Hence, we like them :-)
Last night I went to an interesting panel on the future of the music industry and Tim Westergren (founder of the Music Genome Project and Pandora) said something that I thought was pretty compelling. Given the shifting landscape of the music industry, he believes that an artist’s relationship with their fans is going to be the most important thing in their career going forward.
If you don’t have a good relationship with your fans, he said, they’re simply going to rip you off and download your music for free instead of buying it.
As an artist, you’re a needle in a much bigger haystack these days and needless to say, distinguishing yourself is more important than ever!
Edison Glass is one of our favorite bands on SayNow. They’ve got a smaller audience than a lot of the major label artists who’ve signed up with us, but we think this band is going places….not just because they’re really talented musicians, but also because they’re genuinely reaching out and connecting with their audience.
Recently, they’ve been trying our Connect Live feature and it sounds like they’re having fun with it!
Talib Kweli’s new album Eardrum hit stores yesterday and his SayNow number actually made it on the front sticker! (yes, it’s teeny, we know…but we’re still psyched!)
The number is part of his “Say Something, Be Heard” campaign and you can listen to what some of his fans have been saying below.
Whenever we get a huge influx of callers at once, we try to figure out what triggered all of them, so a couple days ago, when we noticed a lot of people calling for MIMS, we poked around and found out that he’d posted a MySpace bulletin with his number. Looks like Mr. This Is Why I’m Hot wants his fans to know he’s listening. He got a 10% increase in subscribers in one day. We hope he really is listening!
Just spotted this on Cassidy’s MySpace page. Cassidy is looking for new talent and asking fans to call and hit him with their hottest 16 bars. The best freestylers win a call back and a chance to record with him - he’s using his SayNow number to hold auditions over the phone. Listen up below
Cassidy got his start by appearing on mix tapes and doing freestyle battles so it’s pretty cool that he’s doing this!
Styles of Beyond is a super talented group from LA and you’ve probably heard their song “Second to None” if you recently saw the Transformers movie. (All of us at the office went to see it the day it came out cause we’re geeky like that.)
Check out these sweet promo pieces they’re giving out on their Projekt Revolution tour. They’ve got their number on them…and they’re promising a good time :-)
I think they need to send me tickets to their show. (That’s right, I have no shame…if you see this guys, hook me up, I want tix!)
Recently, Vanae (who helps recruit and support a lot of our artists and fans) noticed a spike in new subscribers for the band Edison Glass and was wondering why. So she checked out their MySpace page and saw that they just put up a profile pic that includes their SayNow number (which means it shows up everytime they send a MySpace message or bulletin). Given that a person’s profile pic is the first thing people look at when they land on a profile page, that was pretty smart!
So…I can’t say I know what’s going on here, but it would appear that 
