I’ve been so busy lately that it’s been very hard to blog, not only because of the time issue, but because I have so much to blog about it’s hard to know what to choose…
Right now I’m in Beijing working on 3 different music projects and doing some other music business meetings.
As I’m working here not only as a music producer, but artist manager through my record label, Pro Soul Alliance, I’ve been thinking about this dual role I play.

In the past, it was considered a conflict of interest to be a music producer and artist manager, but it has always made sense to me because you would naturally want to see success for something you worked on and are invested in. With more and more artists taking the ‘Do It Yourself’ method, a traditional manager may not only be unnecessary, but also impractical for many artists.

I think in the internet age of the new music industry, more than ever, with the right person, this is a practical solution for artists.

More thoughts on this can be found in the article here:
www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2008/08/the-producer-as.html

I’ve launched a new video on ProSoul.com featuring myself talking about what were doing for artists, but given my schedule, it still needs a lot of work…

I blogged recently on Pro Soul Alliance about Warner Music Group removing all their content from youtube rather than earn millions per month in royalties in it’s ever increasing number of one terrible business decision after another.

We’re now a victim of this decision, having received a removal notice from Youtube for Laura and my video ‘Enjoy The Cylons‘ since we did a remake of a Warner track by Depeche Mode. The band of course has no say in the matter as they don’t own their music.

I decided to allow the video to stay on youtube, I would replace the audio with licensed content. Unfortunately, youtube doesn’t let you use your own selection…
We would have gladly paid a royalty to release this video, but Warner is not interested.

The fact that Warner is not only missing huge promotional opportunities for their artists, but throwing away income for them in doing this is a sure sign that it is now a very bad idea to do business with a major record label.

Well, it’s the new year and 2008 has been a truly incredible one for me, with more traveling than I’ve done in a long time, so I thought I’d go through my top five moments from 2008 as well as my one most memorable moment of the year.

1. Completing production and release of Elika Mahony’s Fire and Gold CD
2. Traveling to China for the first time and then getting to go again the same year
3. Getting to experience the most amazing and modern city on the planet, Hong Kong
4. North American Theatrical release of feature film I was sound designer for, Sweet Amerika
5. Launch of my new, innovative record label, Pro Soul Alliance

It was hard to pick just five amongst all the incredible things that happened this year, like the exciting new music I produced for Heather Dore, my trip to Las Vegas with Felisha, the collaborative music promotional project with talented artist, Laura Harley, ‘enjoy the cylons‘ which was viewed by over 16,000 people, the california Baha’i music weekend, Working with the talented Phil Morrison & Keith Williams, Jing R, and Cheng LIn in Beijing, and the completion of various other video and music projects…

If I had to pick one most exciting and incredible moment though, It would probably have to be getting stuck in the middle of a raging Nahatlatch river with my nephew Aaron while Whitewater rafting and getting out of it with barely a scratch!

I had a really tough year in 2007, so I had decided this would be an amazing year of travel and exciting things, and it sure was! Amazing how when you really set your mind on something, it happens.

As for last years resolutions unfortunately things didn’t go so well with them. In fact I actually managed to offend some people I truly care about with some of my blog posts and other casual blunt remarks…  So this year no resolutions, except a determination to improve balance in my life, and drastically simplify things over the next 2 years so I don’t have to work so damn hard all the time.

This first blog post of 2009 is particularly exciting for me because it’s the first one I’ve done using speech recognition software, Dragon MacSpeech Dictate, the best in the world. My typing is terrible ever since I quit that pre-widespread computer use high school typing class (because why on earth would I need to type people letters?)
So yes I actually spoke everything you just read, which I feel gives things a little more personal touch don’t you?

Enjoy 2009, and all the best to you!

I’m back from an amazing and productive trip to Beijing where I got to meet and work with some fantastic new artists as well as the immensely talented Elika Mahony. I blogged all about it on the new Pro Soul site, where I will be posting a lot of my music business entries from now on: www.prosoul.com

Yes, that’s right, Pro Soul Alliance, the new innovative 21st century record label is now live and ready to take on the artists of a new music industry! It’s a very exciting accomplishment, and we’ve put countless hours of research and effort into creating a truly ground breaking solution for artists everywhere.
We’ve assembled an amazing international team that is consistently expanding to provide an incredible range of services and research to assist artists of all genres from all over the world to connect with their audience and monetize their music in new ways that reflect the changes in the way people want to hear music.
There is really nothing like Pro Soul out there for artists and you will undoubtedly be hearing more about it in the near future! Would love to hear your comments and feedback.

It sure has been an exciting year, and things are just getting going! Hard to beleive it’s almost December.

I’ve been hinting at a big venture I’ve been involved in and working hard on with my partner Roshena Huang for some time now, even though haven’t said much lately, but i’m ready to start talking more about it. It’s the relaunch of my record label, Pro Soul as a totally reinvented company… more on that later. First though, why exactly did we have to reinvent the company? Because the music industry is drastically changing as is more than evident these days.

So where is it going? Well, no one can really predict the future, so we can really only guess. As Andrew Dubber has said, Anyone who says that they know where the music industry is going is either a liar or a fool. Either way, ignore them.

We DO know what the future of the music industry WON’T be. The future will not be the past.

That means if you’re doing what you were doing ten or even five years ago, you are simply not relevant in the music business! If you are not undergoing an aggressive period of radical change, completely redesigning your business from scratch in this industry right now considering where things are going, then your in trouble, just like the big guys.

So that is what were doing with Pro Soul Alliance – aggressive, radical change and complete redesign. And it’s a lot of work, but it’s also very exciting and different, stay tuned!

Are you a musician / artist?

I’m wondering if you can spend a minute to help me help artists like you.
I am trying to gather some anonymous research data from artists on what is an affordable amount of money per month for them to spend to obtain assistance towards a successful music career.

I have been in the process of trying to restructure my company, Pro Soul to be able to assist artists. We are exploring various monthly subscription based packages that will provide artists with consulting, services, and resources they need to develop a strong healthy career and fan base depending on what they need and can afford.

All you have to do to assist and state your opinion is fill out 2 short polls:

WWW.jarome.com/poll/

Pro Soul’s new mission is twofold: To provide music fans with great music by diverse International artists and to affordably assist artists in developing their career in a changing music industry to build a strong, long lasting audience they have a close relationship with that will create financial rewards that far surpass those possible with simple CD sales.

The new music industry is drastically changing, moving away from major record corporations and back to independent artists, moving away from physical product to digital media. Economics will bring in $4.8 billion in revenue from digital downloads in the US alone in 2012.
I blogged about the changes in the music industry more here:
the-end-of-the-music-industry-as-we-know-it

In this receding tide, Pro Soul’s aim is to assist artists to clear the path of discovery and purchase of music by enabling artists to more easily connect with their fans, and enable fans to purchase and access music more easily than they ever have before.

Pro Soul will consult artists with information provided by the worlds most knowledgeable experts in the future of the music industry, and provide virtually every aspect of what an artist will need in their career, performing those duties the artist does not want to take on themselves. We will provide the latest innovative techniques and services that have been proven to work to bring paying, dedicated fans to artists.

Key individual behind Pro Soul will be myself founder, music producer, audio engineer, and composer for over 17 years, Jarome Matthew. I achieved early acclaim with gold dance tracks on top 40 radio and a number of major label compilations in the early 1990’s and now produce and consults artists internationally and teach these things at a local college.

Although expenses and financial goals will be important in the first year, focus will be on assisting clients to become successful in generating enough new fans for them to see the signs of a successful long term career in the industry.

Right now all of this is just an idea developing. Based on the results of the poll and other research and consulting I am doing, and financial analysis, hopefully this will all be a great asset to artists and help me finally achieve my dream of really being able to help them.

Visit again to keep updated on how it’s going.

Read that headline and ponder, if your serious about music, how can you ignore Asia?

That’s what most labels and artists have done. “Bootlegging”, or “They don’t speak english” might be one of the excuses, but not anymore, and even if they don’t, that doesn’t mean they can’t memorize words to your song and sing along, it happens all the time.

When I went to Asia, I got bitten by some kind of bug. I didn’t get sick, I just got the fever – for Asia.
You could argue this is attributable to many things, and you would be right, but I think my instincts were sensing what this article is eluding to: That you can’t ignore Asia if your serious about music.

Asia Pacific Market Grows – radioandmusic.com

Oh, and if that article isn’t enough to boggle your mind, this WILL.
From my sources in China working in the industry: the Chinese internet base is the largest in the world with 221 million users. At 16% penetration, this still leaves huge room for growth. That’s right, that stat represents 16% of China. You do the math.

Keep your eye here for more about my plans for music in Asia through Pro Soul.