Please Listen To My Demo lets you showcase your music directly to A&R executives (the talent scouts and overseers of artist development) at major record labels. As an artist or a manager you get direct access to label execs, their feedback and their insights.
We’re sure many artists out there have at one time or another mailed off a demo to a record label, hoping that among the thousands of demos labels receive each year, yours might be listened to and if the stars were aligned correctly you’d hear back from them. Times have changed. The Internet has democratized a lot of things, from videos to photos, social connections, and most importantly, music. We want to take it a step further by connecting artists and managers of artists directly with record label A&Rs to listen, critique and collaborate.
Chris Lighty
In an era when label CEO’s drop albums, romance pop-stars and parlay their mogul-dom into multiple endorsement deals, Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator Management, is a bit of an anomaly. Since 1989, his company has been stealthily creating strategic multi-million dollar opportunities for its artists’ – among them 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, LL Cool J, Diddy, and Soulja Boy – in the areas of film, television, advertising, sports and finance.
Lighty prefers to keep a low profile letting Violator’s numbers speak for the company – 70 million plus in combined record sales and millions in brand related ventures. In spite of his behind-the-scenes persona, Lighty’s successes and achievements were brought to the forefront when Forbes magazine outed him as “one of the industry’s most influential talent managers,” and the business mastermind that helped transform 50 Cent from multi-platinum artist to a $200 million dollar industry encompassing CD’s, films, tours, video games, book deals, G-unit clothing and an unprecedented investment/endorsement deal with Glaceau’s Vitamin Water.
How was Chris Lighty able to emerge as one of the most formidable businessmen of the hip-hop generation with no college or B school degree? Lighty’s response to this: “I earned my MBA…in hell.” Turns out the grizzly streets of the South Bronx in the late ’70s and ’80s provided one hell of an education.
Raised by a single mother of seven in the notorious Bronx River Projects, Lighty was no stranger to poverty or the desperation it fostered. Violence, fueled by the explosion of the crack trade, was rampant. Some, like his mother, believed that education was the best escape route. She tried her best to instill those values in her children. As the eldest, Lighty was charged with making sure his siblings were dressed, fed, taken to and picked up from school and completed their homework. No great fan of school, but appreciative of the daily escape it provided, he attended regularly and got good grades. Yet still, he was always aware that those accomplishments did not solve the immediate dilemma of putting food on the table. Eventually, he would turn down a scholarship knowing that education was not his only exit strategy.
Others may have dismissed the Bronx as a cauldron of urban blight, but Lighty saw businessmen with flourishing businesses – from the barely legal to the felonious. “The streets taught me that as impoverished as that environment was, it really is possible to make something out of nothing.”
“Street entrepreneurs had set hours,” he explains. “They created sales and cultivated a viable product. They had to advertise, market and promote to make themselves distinguishable from the next man who was always ready to move in on a competitor’s territory. They had to be provocative enough, and productive enough to find ways not only to create repeat customers but loyal ones too. And given the volatile nature of most of the hood’s enterprises, businessmen had to have the leadership skills necessary to run an organization that could easily run amok if left to its own devices.” Perhaps the most important lesson Lighty learned was that in an environment where everyone has nothing, the most valuable commodity is time. “If you frittered it away, you were left with nothing. Use it wisely and you can make a lot of money.”
Young, hungry and looking for a way out, Lighty invested his time in the one industry with stronger growth potential than the crack trade. Hip-Hop. “It was all I cared about. I didn’t listen to the Jackson 5 and Marvin Gaye, I was listening to Bambaata and breakbeats. So when people around me like Scott La Rock and the Jungle Brothers were getting signed, I knew I wanted to be a part of that.”
Lighty’s first job in the industry was carrying crates for DJ Red Alert. His second was road managing a tour for the Jungle Brothers. But what should have been a lucrative time was consistently marred with financial disappointments. When the Jungle Brothers got signed to Warner Bros for 1.7 million and ended up with a paltry $35,000 a piece, Lighty realized he had to get into management.
“Even artists like Scott La Rock who went to college, were at a disadvantage when it came to the contracts because they didn’t know the business side. So I became the person who would read the contracts and ask a lot of questions. I read books on the business and books that I could apply to building business strategies like The Art of War, the Bible, and the Koran. I considered it my investment, and it paid off.”
In 1989, Lighty joined Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen at RUSH Management. Shortly after, he started the indie label Violator, signing Fat Joe and Beatnuts. In the early 90s he moved the label to Def Jam, inking multi-platinum artists like Warren G and Foxy Brown. In 1999, while maintaining his management position, Lighty sold the Violator Records roster to Def Jam and relaunched the label at Jive Records. Today Violator is a multi-million dollar company.
After tasting success with Violator, in 2007 Lighty struck a joint venture partnership with Warner Music Group to start his next company, Brand Asset Group. With the declining sales of music in the record industry, Lighty saw the need to create diversified revenue streams for artists. Brand Asset Group was designed to develop product endorsement opportunities and implement strategic, integrated marketing campaigns with artists for the vast array of Fortune 500 companies. Clients of this new venture came to include Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Alberto Culver.
Lighty’s ability to speak both the language of the streets and the boardroom are the characteristics that make him so valuable to both his clients and the industries anxious to work with them. “I’ve learned to speak to people in their own dialect. If I’m going to the bank, I dress like a banker. If I’m going to the show, I dress like the audience. When you’re dealing with multi-million dollar corporate entities, being the Hip-Hop guy is not enough. Because nobody wants to give a million dollars to a guy they think can’t give it back – tenfold.”
Mike Dizon
Michael Dizon is a seasoned technology professional with over 10 years of experience in design and technology management. His clients range from startup to Fortune 500 companies, as well as a handful of celebrity clients including Kevin Liles and Kelly Rowland. Most recently, Michael has been consulting with a number of NYC and Silicon Valley technology startups including Mixstro, and Big Voice Unlimited.
Prior to his consulting career, Michael worked with Publicis-Dialogue to relaunch bermudatourism.com — the online presence for The Bermuda Department of Tourism. In 2004-05 Michael worked with ContextWeb to develop their proprietary contextual ad-serving technology. In 2000-01 Michael worked with the technology team at Goldman, Sachs & Co., to develop GSWeb applications for the firm. His career began at the age of 16, when he became a front-end developer for Alfy.com – an online portal for kids.
© 2011 PLTMD, Inc. All rights reserved.
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