6 Habbits of the Wealthy

   WORK hard - The self made person works harder and sleeps less than the average person. They are more likely to sacrifice personal time. In most cases they are passionate about their work, and are less likely to see it as a chore.

   PLAN - Being successful is not an accident or just mere luck. It is planned. Every part of their day is planned to some degree. They specifically create the situations they want and go out an achieve it, Step by Step. They don't wander from day to day waiting for things to happen.

   SAVE habitually - Wealthy people certainly have the resources to be crazy spenders, but most are just the opposite. 7 out of 10 say that saving money is an essential financial goal. Never spend more than 70 cents of every dollar you earn. Poor people tend to spend their money and try to save whats left, wealthy people invest their money than spend what's left.

   INVEST - Wealthy people are more likely to invest their money in the stock market or real-estate. They understand the need to take risks in the market. They make their money work as hard as they do.

   ACCOUNTABILITY - Wealthy people hold themselves accountable for their success and their failures. They don't blame outside situations and circumstances. Most are also self educators. They read and seek out the information they need and use it to their benefit.

   GIVE back - They wealthy are grateful.  They show it by giving back to their communities and organizations they believe in. They understand the quality, lifestyle, and power of giving.

   For more on this topic check out:  

      The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in even the Toughest Times by Jean Chatzky


   Till next time...

   Aloha......

  




   








 

"Big" Music Video doesn't mean "Big" budget anymore

   I remember in the late 90's. Puff Daddy was on a speed boat with Notorious B.I.G. being chased by helicopters. The video was almost a mini movie. I think they spent over a million dollars on that video. In those days in order to have a big music video, that's what you needed to compete.

   Thanks to inventions like the iphone and the flip camera, and social media sites like facebook and youtube. Having a "Big" music video doesn't necessarily mean having a big budget. All you need now is an interesting idea and a whole lot of creativity.

   Here's some examples of what can be done using all the resources we have available today. 

  First here's a video shot by our friend Donard Sonoda for our friend Sunway. The whole video was shot in a day using an iphone 4. Yes an iphone 4, not some fancy $25,000 camera.

 

   Here's another great example of being intresting. A video by the band Hollerado . I think they shot this video in a day with the help of their family and friends.

   Here's the behind the scenes footage...

     Remember today we are no longer limited by our financial resources. The hardest part I think is coming up with an interesting idea that can stand out amongst the thousands and thousands of video's floating around the web. I hope you all were inspired by these examples.

   Let me be clear though, these videos were complicated to put together, but both were done with limited budgets, a whole lotta hard work, and a ton of creativity. If you plan right, get your team together, take things one step at a time,  and invest your creativity into your labor, you could do "Big" things too..

   Till Next time.....

  Aloha............

Yip Man reminds me of a fundamental truth

    I recently watched the Raymond Wong film Ip Man (Yip Man), a semi biographical film about Bruce Lee's martial arts teacher, a grandmaster of Wing Chun. In one scene in particular a challenger makes his way into master Ip's house to challenge him. The challenger insist that he wants to see how a martial art that was supposedly developed by a women can be so effective. Master Ip calmly says " sex or age has nothing to do with it, "it" depends on you". After a quick an exciting battle the challenger surrenders and admits his Northern style has lost to Ip's southern one. Master Ip responds "Styles has nothing to do with it, good kung-fu depends on you"
 
   This particular scene reminds me of a fundamental truth in success in any aspect of your life. For us it's business and music. For others it can be weight loss or a promotion. The most powerful force that attributes to your success is you. Growing up, all thru school I never heard that. I was lucky that in my late twenties I received this timeless advice. " Everything can change for you, If you will change." Which lead me to focus on me.

   Years ago, I was a healthy guy, nice family man, been to school a while, had a decent job, but wasn't going where I wanted. No money in the bank, car note late, creditors calling. If you had asked me why I was in that situation, I would have never blamed myself. I thought the Govt. was to blame. I thought taxes where to high. I thought that's just the way it was for people like me. It never crossed my mind to look inside and hold myself responsible. Out there is the same it's been for a 1000 years, it wasn't going to change. Night follows Day, Day follows night, Winter follows Fall, there is nothing I could do to change that. But I could change myself. I finally realized success was on me.

   All of us are in a little sail boat. All the stuff out there is simply  the wind that blows. What we need to do is learn how to set a better sail. That's the difference between success and failure, setting a better sail to carry you to any destination. In 3 years you will arrive, the question is where? Don't blame the wind, learn to set a better sail. It won't matter what the govt does, you won't care what taxes are if you know how to set a better sail.

   How do you set a better sail? Become a self learner. Build up your personal library. Formal education can make you a living, self education can make you a fortune. Be aware of whats going on around you. Take action, invest your self-education into labor. Soon you will see all the possibilities that are available to you.

   Remember you are the most powerful person in your life, human beings can accomplish anything

   For more on this topic check out Jim Rohn, most of my business philosophy can be credited to him http://www.jimrohn.com/
 
Till Next Time

Aloha..........

4 simple questions that can change your life forever

   Driving home today from my visit with my mentor. I popped in an old CD from my favorite business philosopher Jim Rohn . I was reminded of 4 simple questions that can change your life forever. I could never come close to his delivery, but here's my best shot.

  1. Why? Good question why. My kids always ask why, why, why. All of us that are in pursuit of achievement should ask themselves this question. All things are possible if you have a strong enough why. You could move a mountain if your why was big enough.

   2. Why Not? If you live in America or any other country that believes in capitalism, and have average intelligence why not. We have plenty of money, plenty of banks, plenty of schools, plenty of everything, so why not. Why not roll up your sleeves and test your self? You are stuck here till you die, so why not try and see what you could do. We all are blessed with opportunity all around us, so why not.

   3. Why Not You? There was this boy that was born with dyslexia. To earn extra money he would sell matches to the neighbors from his bicycle. He found he could buy them cheap and make a pretty good profit when he sold them. From matches he moved on to selling fish, Christmas decorations, seeds, and later ball-point pens and pencils. When he was 17, his father gave him money as a reward for doing well at school. He used that money to start a furniture business that grew into what we know today as IKEA. His name is Ingvar Kamprad, and today his net worth is around $31 billion dollars. If we had a chance to talk with him today I'm sure he would say, "If I did it, why not you". Why not you? You are just as valuable as he is, why can't you turn your dreams and hard work into reality. Why Not You?

   4. Why Not Now?  What's holding you back from achieving all that you can? Too many times I hear people say "If I only had the money.." or "How did they do that?". I have some idea. They all started now, before they thought they were ready. The "How" is really none of your business. If you start now the how will come. Human beings like to try and plan things out in detail, and when they can't figure a part out they get discouraged. Life doesn't really work that way. If you put yourself out there, the how will reveal it self. If you're going the wrong way, you'll know, then all you gotta do is turn around a go the other way. Don't get stuck on the "how". Focus on the why, why not, why not you and why not now.

   If you like this type of business philosophy you can check out Jim Rohn's web site: http://www.jimrohn.com/ you may also like my other favorite "The Motivator" Les Brown : http://www.lesbrown.com/home.html

Till next time...

Aloha.........

Get the funds for your next project - Well maybe

   I , like most of us out here in the music world are constantly trying to find creative ways to fund our projects. If you've been keeping up with the latest, then you already know all about kickstarter.

   If not, Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.

  The neat thing is money raised via Kickstarter in not an investment or a loan. Project creators (That would be us) keep 100% control of ownership and control over their creative works. In exchange for the money they receive the creators offer products and experiences related to the project.

  Another cool thing is it's all or nothing funding. A project must reach it's funding goal before money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

   Here's an example:

   Say we want to record a new album for the band Hot Rain . We would log in to kickstarter and create our project. We need to figure out project cost, funding deadline and what kind of rewards we want to offer.

(rewards can be anything we choose, be it a free CD, t-shirt, credit on the album, free performance, lunch with the band.

   Once the project is approved people can start making pledges.

   If we reach your funding amount by your funding deadline money changes hands.

   We record the album, and give all the people that made pledges their reward.

   Sounds different and interesting. I like it.

   Go check out the website and let me know what you think.

  Already tried it? Let me know what was your experience like.


Aloha......

Copyrights 101 "Key Points to Copyrights"

   The music business, so therefore your business is primarily based on the acquisition, use, and sale of copyrights and the recordings of those songs. To insure that you understand this and to prevent you from giving away your rights naively, it is important you understand at least the basics of copyright law and how it relates to the music industry.

    Disclaimer: I am not an attorney or claim to be an expert on copyright law. My intent here is to help share information I have attained over the years on this topic. You should always seek the advice of a qualified copyright attorney before signing any kind of contract relating to your intellectual creations.

Definition - Copyright is a legal right that has been established by federal law, giving an author control over their intellectual creations, weather it be to protect and maintain ownership or to transfer those rights to third parties. (like record labels)

   In the music business an "author" can be the songwriter or an artist that records the song. The law protects the songwriter as soon as a song is written down or recorded. The same is true for the recording artist, as soon as the performance is recorded.

   Copyrights for written songs are separate from copyrights of recordings of those songs. Usually publishing companies will acquire copyrights to written songs through a publishing agreement, and record companies (labels) acquire copyrights to the recordings of those songs through an recording agreement. 

   Lets look at an example from one of our artist (Jay.Keyz) that just recorded a cover song on our label Afflatus Entertainment Group

   For his upcomming album "Lovers Race" Jay.Keyz did a song called "Nothing But Love" originally performed by  Peter Tosh  written by Freddie Harris and Ella Mitchell for the Wanted Dread or Alive album,. As the authors Harris and Mitchell were the copyright owners of the song. They transferred their rights to Bug Music their publishers. When  Jay.Keyz recorded this song his label Afflatus needed to obtain a license from Bug Music. This type of license is called a mechanical license. (I'll get into that in another blog)
   Now because we have Jay.Keyz signed, we own the rights to his "sound recording" version of the song and pay him a royalty, every copy we produce physical or digital we owe Bug Music a royalty because as publishers they own the rights to the written song. In turn they will pay a royalty to Harris and Mitchell.

  What about Peter Tosh? We don't pay him because as the performer he or his label owns the "sound recording" of the song not the written song. We just recorded the written song. Peter Tosh can get paid if someone uses his "sound recording" of the song in a commercial, movie or t.v show. That is called licensing or sync licensing where your music is synchronized along with visuals, but that's a whole other game I'll also cover licensing in the future. Jay.Keyz can also get paid in this manner for his "sound recording" of this song.

  Here's some other points to know:

  Copyright protection will exceed your life span. Even though copyright protection begins as soon as the song is created it ends 70 years after the death of the creator. If a band was responsible for the creation of a song, copyright protection ends 70 years after the death of the last surviving member.

   Songs by unknown musicians of musicians for hire have a copyright protection term for 95 years from the published date or 120 years after the songs creation. Which ever is the shortest amount of time.

   After a copyright expires, songs go back into the public domain. All the copyright protection rights no longer apply and anyone can do what they wish with the songs.

   Songs do not need to be published to be copyrighted.

  One of the best an easiest ways to protect your rights to your recordings is to place a copyright notice on all copies of the recordings. It should include a "P" in a circle for "phono record or recording" and a "C' in a circle for the copyright to the CD, followed by the year of the publication. It should be legible a permanently fixed to the CD. This will notify the public that you are claiming a copyright. Also it protects you in two ways. First, it prevents anyone from claiming that they innocently didn't know your work was copyrighted and second it lets the public knows who owns the recordings. That way if someone wants to use your work in a commercial they know who to contact to obtain a license and who to pay.

   Even though a song is protected by copyright law as soon as its created, it is essential to register it with the US Copyright office. It can prove difficult to defend in court that someone stole your ideas if you skip this step. People have had their music and ides stolen because they failed to see the importance of this step. The laws can't really work in your favor if you don't take measures to use the laws to your advantage. Don't be Lazy!

   I just scrapped the surface here, but hopefully you have a better understanding of copyright law then you did before.

  For more info the U.S. Copyright Office has a lot of good information. You can visit them here: www.copyright.gov

  Aloha......................








   



  
  



 

Got a "Hit Song", do your fans know? - Advice on Music Marketing

     You've practiced till your fingers started bleeding, You scraped up enough funds for studio time, You poured all your creativity into your project, Everything was done to the best of your abilities, You got your songs on iTunes, Now here comes the glory, girls, concerts and endorsments..right....wrong. There's one more step, probably the most important one.... MARKETING. If you can master this skill you can see remarkable results with your music.The best part is everyone can do it.  I'll cover this topic in more detail in upcoming blogs, but here's some basic advice and ideas to get you started.

   1. Don't give your music away for free - If something cost nothing, it's perceived value is nothing. There needs to be some kind of value to your product or most people won't care. This isn't to say that you can't let them download it when they sign your email list, or win it in a contest. Even if everybody's a winner, That's how those sign up here and win a free trip ad campaigns works, and its been working for years.

   2. If you feel you must - give only a sample away. This way the listener can see if they like the song, then must purchase the full version. Same thing applies to Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc. If people know something is free the value gets diminished.

   3.  Same for local shows - Don't play too many or too few. If you play too many your fans will think they can come and see you at what ever time in the future. Which most times is never. Playing too few will have fans forgetting about you. You need to play enough where all your potential fans can see you, and still sell out the house. ( Don't know how many Kalapana and C&K reunion concerts I've been too, hawaii people know what I mean.) And it works. Look at AC/DC concerts. You got the parents that grew up with those songs and  the kids that are new fans. You can credit that too 1. they are really good, but 2. they don't over saturate themselves in their market.

   4. Throw Parties - Not just shows, selling them stuff, and promoting all the time. This will keep you from burning out your loyal fans and help you to keep things interesting. Plus imagine the viral social networking possibilities if 80 people tweet their at your bands party or a Facebook event : 80 people checked in a "yourbands" party

    5. Network like crazy - Treat your band as a business and take yourself seriously. Get to know your audience, find the "gate keepers" and network with them. Print out business cards and pass them out to event coordinators and promoters. Get on Facebook and interact with your fans. I know of a band that spends an average of 4 hours a day networking with their fans. Thru their efforts they make about $800.00 a week on itunes downloads alone. It's not hard to be successful, but it takes time and work. Be PROACTIVE!


    These are just a few of the basic ideas to get you started. Like I said earlier I will spend more time on the various marketing strategy's in future blogs. Like all things not everything works for everybody. Try out a few, see how it works, change it around, come up with own. There are no real hard rules. Be creative. You know your fans best.

Aloha...........