Chamillionaire on his digital strategy beyond ringtones


Entrepreneur interview by Bambi Francisco Roizen
June 10, 2008 | Comments (11)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/289

5

I caught up with Chamillionaire at the OnHollywood conference. Chamillionaire is a popular hip hop artist who won in 2007 a Grammy Award for best rap performance by a duo or groiup for his hit single Ridin Dirty, a song that also sold 4 million ringtones. 

In this video he talks about how he leverages the Internet to distribute his music and to reach his fans. "If you're a hip hop artist right now, there's a conversation that needs to be had between artists and the tech world," he said. "Hip hop is going digital and you have to be at the forefront of what's going on."

Chamillionaire will be on stage later today with Quincy Jones III, CEO of QD3 Entertainment, Chaka Zulu, founder of Wemix.com and Ludacris' business partner and manager, DJ Pooh, Sha Money XL, and James Cruz, CEO, Cruz Control Entertainment.

11 comments

Niko Younts
Niko Younts, on June 10, 2008
In my opinion, not only rappers but ALL artists, musicians, entertainers, celebrities, etc...are still missing the boat 10,000%. It is absolutely amazing to me that more artists are not "demanding" personal video centric web sites (.TV) for their fans. They are leaving MILLIONS of dollars on the table, PER YEAR. YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, etc, are essential tools and are obviously invaluable, but having your own .TV brand is a no-brainer. Chamillionaire is doing a great job trying to educate himself on the new media age and next generation of the Internet, but his team needs to create an interactive site featuring a database of video interviews, tours, music videos, etc... The bottom line is *every entertainer on earth should be following these same blueprints because 10/10 people would rather "watch it", than "read it". www.NLVmedia.TV

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MyLocator.com  ®
MyLocator.com ®, on June 10, 2008
chamill keep hustln. you'll learn more from Vator than at one of those conferences. Niko do you know what the #1 visited .tv domain is? I sure would like to know. The "Real Experts" live in a dot com world.

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Jimmy Wu
Jimmy Wu, on June 10, 2008
very interesting and entertaining interview! chamillionaire is articulate and has good entrepreneurial instincts, no wonder he sold 4 million ringtones. and he reads techcrunch!

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Niko Younts
Niko Younts, on June 11, 2008
Enterprise Locator, I am *very sorry you feel that way, and it is quite honestly a shame, yet another narrow minded business man/woman. We are on the forefront of the next generation of technology and the signs are flashing in bright red lights, "Enterprise Locator", wake up or get left behind! (probably again). Tv and Pc are merging and this is a FACT. If you follow the statistics, trends and investment dollars, THEY are ALL directly point toward Internet TV and a digital age most people can not yet comprehend and .TV lends itself ideally to this masterpiece and destiny. But I would like to sincerely thank you for your lack of vision, because it has allowed me to acquire a world-class investment portfolio already worth 5 times the initial investment. Not to mention (insert 3 characters here) have expressed a direct interest in our Jacksonville.TV and Indiana.TV premium Virtual real estate properties. Regardless of the fact there are only a handful of .TV domains on the Alexa Top 1000 list, more importantly, .TV is the *fastest* growing tld, *EVER*, and all reports indicate short and long term growth. (-Verisign) But I assume Verisign was foolish when they spent the *$50 Million dollars for .TV, and agreed to the $4 million "annual" payment...? Haha nice try. I guess in your "dot com world", the underground caves without electricity or communication must be difficult. I can't go an hour with seeing a .TV ad on the TV, or hearing it on the radio. The reality is actually quite simple. DOT TV is going to eventually bypass all other tld's and give .com a run for the money in the future. Unlike other tld's, including .com, ".TV" is a "global brand", and has the same meaning internationally. (Video, TV, Broadcasting, Webcasting, Multi-media, etc). ".com" is crowed "invisible" in peoples minds and this perspective is simply naive, uneducated and simply foolish. I've travelled the world and seen first hand that people in many and most countries do NOT use .COM. They use their respected cctld. (example: .ca Canada, .de Germany, etc). I guess Landmark Communications, (only one of the many BILLION dollar companies) who have accepted, invested in and now developed .TV properties. So I assume they are foolish in your opinion?!? They own and operate Weather.TV, HamptonRoads.TV, and have plans for Baltimore.TV, Richmond.TV, Hampton.TV, and Virginia.TV. The VP of Digital/interactive (chris kouba) owns Seattle.TV, LittleRock.TV, Tampa.TV, Altanta.TV, Buffalo.TV, Syracuse.TV and Memphis.TV and he is laughing at you while his investments are climbing through the roof. ABC (Pappas Telecasting) owns Nebraska.TV. Others to note, Macon.TV, Spokane.TV, 2News.TV, and NewsChannel5.TV. CBS47.TV, NBC4.TV, CBSCares.TV, Cn8.TV, Broadway.TV, OceanCity.TV, AtlanticCity.TV, Tulsa.TV, Boston.TV, Montreal.TV, RawVegas.TV, and WesternAustralia.TV. I might want to add in that Nebraska.TV is getting 4 (FOUR) times the traffic of Nebraska.com and a similar situation is approaching for *many others. .TV was so "unimportant" that these cities decided to acquire their .TV domain, instead of ANY other tld. Modesto.TV, OklahomaCity.TV, ChulaVista.TV, Glendale.TV, CoralSprings.TV, and Anaheim.TV. I'm glad NBC and Microsoft are dancing to their own tune and not listening to your personal/hidden agenda. NBC acquired LX.TV for a reported $10 Million dollars, while uStream.TV turned down a reported $50 Million for their business. Runners up! Fora.TV landed $4 Million from The Hearst Corp, while Overlay.TV received $4.6 Million. Is this not enough proof? Should I mention the $300+ Richard Rosenblatt and Demand Media has raised? Or should we talk about the MILLIONS in premium domains that have sold, that ".com" hardliners refuse to acknowledge and report? Golf.TV $600k? Vegas.TV $350k...? http://www.enom.com/domains/tv_names_browse.asp Take some time, read and review and repeat. FACTS are FACTS. NY

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Niko Younts
Niko Younts, on June 11, 2008
Thank you Meliza for your kind words and feedback. My point was, if you follow the statistics people *want* multi-media, user-generated content, interaction with their "star", and more importantly they want to watch all of the latest news, videos etc...it creates more of a personal touch of reality which equates to a larger and happier fan base. The term "stickiness" can be applied here. "Why would he need to create an interactive site for his music when he is already a grammy award winning celebrity who sold over 4 million ringtones?" ...The answer is VERY simple; BECAUSE he could sell 10 million ringtones and his fans want more. For an $xx,xxx investment he could make that back within days and have a deeper penetration into the internet instantly. Not everyone is "running the streets". I'd say it's safe to say "chamillionare.com" (the typo) makes a nice monthly revenue stream as well which he doesn't own. NY

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Niko Younts
Niko Younts, on June 11, 2008
Meliza! The "lack of vision" comment was directed toward another member and I *certainly apologize for the miscommunication! I am no genius either Meliza, just passionate and ambitious, and sometimes that gets the better of me. ;) More coming later. Thanks for understanding. NY

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MyLocator.com  ®
MyLocator.com ®, on June 11, 2008
hi nick, some tv domains are valuable. hence myLocator.tv :). I am a dot tv believer. i respect your passions and ambitions................great rebuttal. no fun or pun intended but i am still trying to find the most powerful .tv website on the internet.

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Niko Younts
Niko Younts, on June 15, 2008
Thank you. If you have a true interest in learning more about .TV brands, investments, sales, interviews, etc, feel free to contact me personally. Niko@NLVmedia.TV or visit our site; NLVmedia.TV.

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