PMP Regional: Jim Bond - Mount Vernon/N.Y.
Introduce yourself to the PMP Community
My name is Jim Bond and I'm a Featured Producer here on the PMP as well as a member of Dynamic Producer. I've recently been appointed as Executive Director of Dynamic Producer which is a support organization for up and coming producers. We hold several events throughout the year and we're here to basically support those that are on the grind. I know exactly what every producer is going through because I'm going through the same things as a producer myself so I can relate.
Let's start on the production side. How long have you been producing?
I would say I started officially in late 1999 but I didn't start taking it seriously until around 2001. Since then I've worked with a few artists including Jim Jones, Ghostface, Lloyd Banks, M.O.P., Serius Jones, Ras Kass and few more. I'm still on the grind to this day trying to make it happen.
PMP Regional: Ken Lewis - Cincinnati/New York City
Part I
Introduce yourself and give a brief rundown of your professional resume
I'm Ken Lewis and I'm a part of a production team called The Skywalkers. I'm also a mix engineer, songwriter, musician, vocalist you name it and I can do it. I've done a lot of work with Kanye West including hits songs like ‘Gold Digger' and ‘All Fall Down' as well as ‘Never Let You Down'. I've done additional mixing for Kanye as well as produced for John Legend. I also mixed back to back no#1 album's in the country with Danity Kane and Day 26; 5 songs on each album. I have 6 Grammy Awards and a total of 29 nominations, 46 Gold and Platinum records and 24 no#1 album's.
Mathew Knowles/Music World Entertainment - CEO/Founder
How is everything going?
I'm out in Los Angeles right now on my way to Japan. I have a compilation album called "Mathew Knowles and Music World Presents Destiny Divas Vol. I" which incorporates not only some of the top Destiny's Child songs but also current records from Beyoncé, Michelle, Kelly, Solange and Lady Lux. The advertising campaign uses those songs to help position those artists' albums that are coming out in the next three months in Japan. Compilations are very big over there.
How does the business approach differ when it comes to the International market as opposed to the U.S.?
Music World has been very fortunate from the beginning 15 years ago when I transitioned from corporate America I already had a broad awareness of the mulit-national and worldwide approach. So we've been very fortunate with Destiny's Child, , Kelly, soon to be Michelle and Solange that we've sold and still continue to sell more records outside of America than we do inside of America. That surprises most people because we have been very successful in America but we're even more successful outside of America so our focus is equally and in some cases even more outside of America.
Diversify or Die :)
For any music business entrepreneur the dilemma of monetizing a company's entertainment content online becomes more intense on an almost daily basis. The ever expanding sea of content on the internet is constantly being filled by, in many cases, the same people that you're trying to entice to consume your content (product). By now were all aware that there are many popular websites catering to people's desire to shout out loud "LOOK at ME... LISTEN to MY music", all the while the typical web user has become more a consumer of processes than product. The irony is that these are the very processes that the modern era music business entity has to master and coordinate in order to filter out their target audience, determine how these folk interface with media and understand what types of entertainment they desire to consume (monetarily).
PMP Regional: Youngfyre - Des Moines/Iowa
Iowa is usually not one of the first places that comes to mind when one thinks about hip hop and R&B. School us to the scene out there and what it was like for you coming up as a producer
Well, Des Moines, Iowa definitely isn't what most people would think. For the most part it's the same as any other city, only on a minor scale. One of the advantages of living in a place like this is that it's easy to stay focused on your craft. In most other cities, I may have gone a different route with my life, but being here allowed me to stay on the right path, and focused on my goals. There's crime, clubs, and drugs just like everywhere else, you're just not surrounded by it. That along with my strong mind kept me right. I've never touched a drug or alcohol, not even marijuana. On the downside, grinding is ten times harder here than most places, that can present a huge problem, that's why I invest a lot in traveling to network. I also take it as a blessing, because I have the opportunity to put my city on the map, the way Nelly did Saint Louis. And I'm very thankful for that.
