Chris Blackwell - The Jamaican Witchdoctor

Chris Blackwell:


Chris Blackwell was born in London 1937. Even though being born in London, Blackwell spent near enough all of is childhood in Jamaica. With education requirements Blackwell was sent back to England at the age of 10 to finish his education and would later on return to Jamaica in 1955.
Once he returned to Jamaica he grasped a number of jobs which included real estate, selling motor scooters and having a small involvemt with a campaign that was connected to the Jamaican government.
During this time Blackwell heard a music ensemble led by blind pianist "Lance Hayward" in Montego Bay.
From watching/hearing this particular ensemble Blackwell decided to record them under "Island Records" which he borrowed from Alec Waugh's novel "Island In The Sun".

In the year 1960, Blackwell opened up the first Island HQ office in Kingston, Jamaica so that he could release a series of singles he had worked on there. By releasing the jamaican music in Kingston the Jamaican immigration in the UK were either buying or listening to the records being displayed. In 1962 after realising that the larger revenue on record purchases were being made in the UK, Blackwell decided to relocate his head quarters to the UK. After relocating to the UK it was the musical genre of Ska that was the main success of Island records however these records were still being produced by Jamaican producers such as "Duke Reid" and "Leslie Kong". In 1964 it was realised that Blackwell had released hundreds of singles from Island Records and also other subsidiary labels in both Jamaica and the UK.
Amongst these hundreds of singles Blackwell discovered 15 year old singer "Millie" and produced a song titled "My Boy Lollipop" which went to sell a staggering 7 million copies world wide which structured the global fortunes for Island Records. This also affected Blackwell due to "Millie" going on tour around the globe and constantly missing her family. After the situation was assessed Blackwell decided we wanted to produce artists that would be long term clients and go the distance as it were. After reaching great success, Blackwell licensed the record to Fontana records simply due to the fact of the limitations on Island Records as it was and independent label.

As the 1970's approached Island records became a launch pad for introducing critically acclaimed stars such as "Robert Palmer" and "Mott The Hoople". Not also was Island continuously bring out hits with acclaimed stars, Blackwell licensed distribution to other companies to launch others potential careers.
A huge part of my business "Million Dollar House" it is essential to cover as much ground as you can when searching for artists. A huge similarity with the mindset of me and Blackwell is always looking for ways to expand your business as he did in this case by distributing licenses to other companies to engulf more business.
A majority of the 70's for Island records was creating the next step for success. Blackwell did this by distributing licenses, cross labelling artists to subsidiary labels for more exposure and publicity for example Chrysalis and E.G Records exposing artists such as "Bryan Ferry, Jethro Toll and Roxy Music". He used this method so he could engulf a new set of artists however Blackwell was subsidiary labelling a lot of his artists as he wanted to publicise and expose artists of a different genre and cultural background which again relating to my business, always consider your options so it will expand a larger target market. By doing this, by the 90's Blackwell had signed artists such as "U2, Ultravox and Pulp".

In the mists of all these drastic changes that Blackwell had made during Island Records morphing stage, Blackwell retreated back to his Jamaican roots to stumble upon one of the biggest reggae artists still to this day. Island records Produced Bob Marley into the industry which would lead on to create a huge success for Blackwell and Marley. It was also in this time even though Blackwell wanted to take his career into a new musical direction, Marley was creating such a huge inspiration to reggae that there were just continuous artists left right and centre wanting to create the Ska reggae not only in Jamaica but all over the world.

Im other unique talents and expansion, Blackwell decided to direct Island in form of film and film sound production. In 1971 Blackwell backed production in his first film project "The Harder They come" which featured actor "Jimmy Cliff". From this point on alongside with the record labels. Blackwell took huge involvement within the film industry and working alongside such actors like "Bob Hoskins" and "River Phoenix".

It was announced in 1989 that Chris Blackwell sold Island Records to the UK Polygram group for £272 million. And buy being involved with film production and sound he would cleverly gather royalties from the film box office. Selling Island as Umbrella enterprise with subsidiary branches underneath it acting as branches, Blackwell would have created a gargantuan amount of record sales relating to the £272 million profit gain.

Berry Gordy - Detroit, Michigan Producing extraordinaire!

Berry Gordy:

Berry Gordy was born November the 28th 1929 in Detroit, Michigan and was the seventh sibling born parented by Berry Gordy, Sr and Bertha Fuller Gordy.
Berry was born into a middle class family so was granted more privileges than others however his parents believed in strong morals which portrayed them as a tight-knited family.
Being born in Detroit was a huge privilege for Berry as growing up he would learn that was plenty of business opportunities especially in the automobile business which the black community encouraged stressfully.

By eleventh grade, Berry dropped out of school to become a professional boxer in hopes of becoming rich quick which even myself and many of others aspire to at a younger age which sometimes included footballer or a rockstar.
From this interest of becoming a boxer, Berry perused it after dropping out of school until 1950 where he was drafted by the U.S army for the Korean war where he would spend three years before returning.

After returning from the Korean war in 1953 it was this time that Berry started forming and creating a very high interest in music which began to merge into a very gifted trait of is which was songwriting.
He was quickly following this trait by opening a small record store which was mainly based around Jazz music.
As the store was unsuccessful by lack of customers and revenue Berry was offered a job at a local talent bar where he meat Jackie Wilson.
Jackie Wilson recorded "Reet Petite" which Berry had co-written. By this time Berry was starting  to develop and put together ideas on what he wanted to do as a career.

Motown:

One of Berry's most successful career highlights was the invention of Motown, a business idea taken from the way automobiles where wade on a continuous rotating carousel. The idea berry had was to bring the artist in, record the track and the artist would leave and the process would start again.

In 1957 Berry reinvested in  successful songwriting profits and began to produce. It was also this year that he discovered "The Miracles" and began to build a portfolio of successful artists. From encouragement from certain artists, Berry borrowed $800 from his family to start up Tamla Records, a small rhythm and blues label (R&B). By 1959, The Miracles released "Bad Girls" which was the first ever release under the early Motown movement. In February 1960 The Miracles released a number 1 hit "Shop Around".
With Motown being established as a independent company, in 1961 "The Marvelettes" released "please mr postman" which had risen in the charts. Even to this day in my generation the influence of Motown is huge. In 2009 dubstep artist Cragga released his own interpretation of "Please Mr Postman".

By 1960 the two labels Tamla and Motown merged together to become "Motown Record Corporation"  which happened on the 14th April.
As Berry's thirst for new talent grew and his unbelievable gift for finding it, in the next decade he signed artists such as The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, the velvelettes, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5. 
With every artist that Berry signed he made sure that there was always careful management and a certain public image which he would maintain for everyone. This is what turned Motown into a Major international success.


Berry kept to a task of not signing white artists in the beginning due to the location in Michigan he wanted to Privilege the black communities in the Northern states where in South you had Blues and swing being originated in New Orleans.
It was a rare occasion that he would sign White artists to the Motown Record Corporation which included "Nick And The Jaguars" and "Mike And The Modifiers".


Even when Motown continued to sell major hits through the 1970's and 1980's Berry decided to sell the interests of Motown Records to the Boston Ventures and MCA in 1988 for $61 million. The reason behind this is that Berry felt what the company/label was before had completely changed. From the carousel idea to having relocated to LA having long term recording artists. He then went on to sell the publishing interests to the label EMI which consisted of about 15,000 songs including the 240 he had co-writen.

Berry Goldy's mansion purchased in 1967

Located: Detroit, Michigan.

Travis Barker - The Music, The Business/The Drummer, The Businessman!

On this page will identify the background of Travis Barker. It will also identify the Traits, Characteristics , strengths, weaknesses and successes of Travis's Music and business career.

Travis Barker: 

Travis Landon Barker was born on November 14th 1975 in Fontana, California U.S.A.
He is notoriously known for being the drummer in critically acclaimed punk band 'Blink 182'.

Since drumming for Blink 182, Travis has risen to fame for drumming for a number of various artists including The Transplants, Yelawolf, Boxcar Racer, +44, Cyprus Hill, Kanye West, Tinie Tempah, Lil Wayne and many, many more.

One of Travis's key features on his rise to fame is the global selling sole trading enterprise that he created in 1999 "Famous Stars And Straps".

At an early age Travis took a very large interest in drums. At just the age of 4 he received his first drum kit from parents Randy and Gloria Barker. He began taking lessons at the age of five and was also playing the trumpet. At the age of 15 with multiple music tuition surrounding Barker, he still had no aspirations of taking music has a career choice. It was in this time where he wanted to become a professional skateboarder as that was the trend in junior high. With wanting to cut music out as a profession Barker Stated "I always migrated back to drums, though. That was the one direction that kind of felt like I was connected to and I could kind of understand. I could express myself better through playing drums than I could do anything else" which indicated he was more comfterble conveying his personality through music but still had no interest in pursuing as a career.

In the 1997 Travis was playing drums for a band called 'The Aquabats' who at the time were touring as a support act for the band "Blink 182", it was in this year and this specific tour where Blink drummer Scott Raynor was fired from the band due to alcohol problems. Travis was given just 45 minutes to learn the set and temporary fill in for the band. After the tour had ended it became promising for Barker as bass player and vocalist Mark Hoppus asked him to join the band.

Since joining blink in late 1997 the band quickly escalated to world success after releasing "Enema Of The State" in June 1999. This is where Travis's career would segment into multiple musical and business ventures.

December the 8th 1999 Travis barker started up his on business "Famous Stars And Straps".
This would turn Travis into not only a musician but sole traded businessman. After founding the company he set up the business headquarters in Ontario, California.
The company sells a huge variation of products including:

• T-shirts
• Hoodies
• Jeans
• Belts
• Hats
• Sunglasses
• Vests 

As the company continued to develop Travis wanted to push the business further. He has always stated that the "FSAS" was created to stand alone. The target market was directed at Skaters, Musicians, Surfers and any one involved in that particular seen. He never saw it as a trend but a trademark or a community for The specific target audience.

He has now even got the company involved with MMA and other extreme sports which is interacts with individuals to create sponsorships and endorsement roles, so that he his always pushing the business forward.

However due being a musician Travis is scheduled to be on tour for months on end which results in a loss of control over the company. This involves missing out on sponsorship deals and the continuous repetition of recruiting new faces to the business.

For more Information, Watch both parts of this interview to discover more of "FSAS".

To this day Travis Barker is worth 85 million US dollars due to the Famous Stars And Straps Franchise plus his own segment in the DC shoe company of which he released a signature pair of shoes and for his success with "Blink 182".

Travis stated that his company was never and will never be about him. Famous is for everyone involved whether or not you are making designs, delivering the items or wearing the merchandise. "Famous" is everyone.

My business Goals - Similarities & Differences

Similarities

• As Travis did in 1999, one of my business goals in the future is to create my own clothing line "Million Dollar House Clothing"
• Travis had a specific target audience for "FSAS" which included Skaters, Musicians, Snowboarders. So with Travis directing his clothing line at extreme sports with huge musical influences, i aim to Target "Million Dollar House" at local musicians and for anyone influenced  by any musical genre.
• With starting up a business I will take the "Sole trading" approach to my business as like Travis I am very independent with continuous ideas and striving to get my work out to the world.
• Not only are both me and Travis musicians but we are both drummers.
• I would also be building on new ideas to keep pushing the business forward like travis does with eventual sponsorship deals to MMA fighters and BMX riders. I would sponsor musical artists whether or not if its Solo or band.

Differences

• I've always wanted to be a musician or pursue music as a career for as long as i can remember where as Travis never had any aspirations to become a musician until a much later age.
• Regarding Travi's musical choices, from a very young age was having multiple music lessons where as I have been self taught from when i started playing until quite recently.
• Travis's main Business branch is a clothing line which acts as an umbrella with individual business segments underneath it where as "Million Dollar House" Is a enterprise that will consist of (Record label, Event Management, Production, Clothing and possibly Talent Scouting) So the clothing aspect could be seen as more of a advertisment rather than solid clothing line.

Mike Langley - Million Dollar House Magic Maker

Name: Mike Langley

Age: 20

DOB: 21st January 1993

Current Education: Studying Business Diploma at Playsomething Academy. 

Interests: I love everything about music whether if it's physically playing a show with a band or if it's     understanding more about the industry itself.

My Biggest passion is playing the drums. I have been playing drums for 4 years now and have been completely self taught since day one and continue to develop my skills everyday. I hope that in the future I will be able to forward this passion into a long term career and have the opportunity to play with some very talented artists/musicians.

Future Endeavours: To be in the music industry whether it's performing as a session musician or in a band or even having some involvement within the music industry as I am constantly working on ideas that could develop into a business. My target audience would be specifically aimed in the music industry itself whether if it's major or independent involvement.

For Example;

Million Dollar Houses

• Clothing line specifically aimed at the local music community and local artists. 
• Future promotional company for unsigned acts that are usually involved with open mic nights.
• Small record company to project local artist material.
• A&R company to scout for local artists.

One big company made up by four individual segments to make the business evolve and expand.

Providing easy ways to project local artists.

Influences: My musical influences are a wide spread of artists, producers, businessmen and even designers (merchandise, clothing companies and Album/poster artwork individuals). 

Here are a few examples;

Michael Jackson, Queen, Rolling Stones, Blink 182, Alexisonfire, letlive, Don Broco, Mallory Knox, Chris Blackwell, Buddy Rich, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Travis Barker, John Feldmann, Joey Sturgis, Dan Korneff, Kevin Lineman, LA Reid, Berry Gordy etc.