My Posistion

Free Money Entertainment’s 1^st artist Chi-N- (Shine) releases his first single “Heat Roc”… Catering to Chicago’s nightlife and still keeping it true to the streets, “Heat Roc” is a night in the life of Chi-N- as he travels from hot-spot to hot-spot in the city of Chicago.

On October 31 2009, I began working on the first artist officially signed to my label Free Money, LLC. He is a rapper from the Southside of Chicago named Chi-N- (Shine). His talent, story, motivation and passion are expressed through his lyrics and delivery. The time and effort he puts into his craft is far beyond what you would expect from a hip-hop / rap artist.

So for the next two months I set up a couple of sessions for Chi-N- to record at Sound Scape Studios. In that time Chi-N- recorded three original tracks and recorded a verse over six different industry tracks. Since the industry tracks he recorded over would not be able for use to sell and not be copyrighted or published, I released them to as many DJs as possible and to as many people who would listen on the internet and asked for feedback. It was amazing how many hits and responses I received. At that time, it was late December and I was already working the publishing and copyrights of the two original tracks Chi-N- recorded, “Heat Roc” and “Wrong Way”. With the right collaboration agreements and some help from Columbia College Chicago faculty, I successfully got all the paperwork done in the beginning of January.

There was plenty more to be done, and with the majority of the budget at the time being spent on registrations and getting the paperwork done, there was no money to be spent on unnecessary studio time. The money that was spent at the studio during that time was for the mixing and mastering of the two original tracks. A week before I stated the spring semester at Columbia College Chicago, we diced that the “Heat Roc” would be the first single he released under the Free Money Entertainment label.

During the first week of school I found out that I had Kimo Williams for an instructor in my Applied Marketing class. It was a bittersweet feeling. Bitter because I heard stories from other Columbia students about Kimo and I knew it was going to be tough. At the same time it was sweet because I felt that it was perfect time in my life to have him as an instructor because I know exactly what I am trying to do and im serious about it. With rough copies of a marketing plan and promotional plan drawn up I am depending on my Applied Marketing class to direct me and help me execute my ideas.

By the end of February, Chi-N-‘s first single “Heat Roc” was released for free download on the internet. With information learned from class, I began pumping the link to my target market via FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter. The immediate target market is male and female from ages 18 to 30 that live in the west suburbs and south suburbs of Chicago. The Chicago rap target market is desperate for someone that can represent them and speak on their behalf. It seems that all of the rappers that come out of Chicago leave, and don’t reflect what the real streets of Chicago need. The estimated target market nationwide would be age group 12-34 estimated (36,453,103 people) male (32,702,438) / female (33,686,357) and race would be all. Once the marketing plan for Chi-N-‘s single “Heat Roc” is further along, the plan will be better executed and more of the target market will be reached.

As of today, I have created a blog where I will give week by week updates on the status of Chi-N-, the marketing plan, his new single and whatever else that will affect the goals and objectives of our plan. Hopefully within the next month, we will be prepared to move full force ahead.