April 13th 2016, one historic night in the NBA

On April 14, 2016, SB Nation posted an article about an NBA team breaking an impressive record that hasn’t been done in nearly 20 years. The Golden State Warriors had an amazing season this year. Winning 73 games out of 82 for the season, they surpassed the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls making history in the NBA. It all started when the Warriors shattered the record for best start in NBA history by winning their first 24 games and have posted one of the highest margins of victory the league has seen. Steph Curry who was the league MVP last season, has led the way for the team by setting a record of 400 three pointers made in a single season. During his interview after winning game #72, Curry stated: “We’re in the moment enjoying the ride but the goal is to win the championship.” I have no doubts in my mind that the Warriors will most likely win it all again this season with all these breaking records from beginning to end of the regular-season. The Warriors are the first team to win 34 road games in a regular season including the first team to make over 1,000 three pointers in a single season. Last year, when the Warriors won the championship title, they put forth one of their best seasons of all time by winning 67 games and this year, they set many NBA records making history all around the game.

Kobe Bryant played the final game of his 20-year career on April 13, 2016, scoring 60 points which made his exit even more memorable. As the third-leading scorer in NBA history, on his final night as an NBA player, Bryant showed the tenacity, toughness and talent that made him one of the all-time greats in basketball history. The ticket prices were unusually high ranging from $500 to $20,000. With a sold-out arena, Kobe Bryant AKA Black Mamba put on a terrific show. It was reported that the Staples Center sold 1.2 million worth of Kobe Bryant merchandise to set one-day record. It was an amazing night for the Lakers organization. Kobe’s past teammates as well as his close NBA’s friends gave a farewell speech that touched the heart of fans all over the world.  According to Variety.com, on the league's final night of the regular season, the Golden States Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe Bryant’s final game) combine to draw 7.1 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.

Business Plan Expert - Tim Berry and Kathleen Kennedy

Tim Berry is a not just a business plan expert, he is also a successful entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. With 2 graduates degrees, one a Stanford MBA degree and the other a MA in journalism with honors from the University of Oregon, he had obtained his BA in Literature magna cum lade from the University of Notre Dame. He has written several books on planning, including the plan-as-you-go Business Plan. He is the principal author of Business Plan pro and also the co-author of 3 weeks to startup. He also wrote Sales and Market Forecasting for Entrepreneurs and Hurdle: the book on Business Planning. Tim Berry has read and reviewed about 50 business plans per year as an investor member of the Willamette Angel Conference (WAC), which is a local angel investment group.

He mentioned a few key components that investors look for in a plan stating the fact that investors are not all the same. Investors look for the following: 

1.     A management team with a proven tract record

2.     A defensible product with a competitive advantage

3.     Reasonable valuation

4.     A clear statement of the investment offering

These are considered key because they are all important factors to investors. The suggestion that I am considering from Tim Berry is when he elaborated on reasonable valuation. He stated: Divide the amount you plan to take as investment by the percent of ownership you're offering to give in exchange. For example, offering 50 percent of a company for $5 million means you're valuing your company at $10 million. An outrageous valuation shows investors you may still have your head in the clouds. This is a big factor to consider when looking for investors.

Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer who is known for her work on the 1982 film E.T the Extra –Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990’s. She is the co-founder of Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall. In 2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise. Her work has included over 60 films, 120 Academy Award nominations and over 11 billion worldwide including three of the highest grossing films in motion picture history. According to nytimes.com, there are 5 things prospective investors are looking for in your business plan: your background in the industry with your business experience, the potential for a big success, your pricing and sales strategies, how you plan to be different from your competitors and a return on their investment. These are considered key because you are asking someone to invest on your project. Therefore, you must show your strategy on how both of you can make a profit out of it. The one suggestion that I am considering is to research your competition thoroughly. I believe this is one of the major factors to do when writing or starting a business plan. How can you stand out from the rest and make people want to do business with you.

The Life Of A Tour Manager

My area of interest in the entertainment world is being a tour manager. I believe that the job of a tour manager is to make sure that life on the road runs smoothly for everyone involved. This implies getting the band securely to venues and lodgings, overseeing cash coming in and cash going out, and dealing with Promoters and Venue Managers. During an interview, tour manager David Norman stated: “My day consists of moving the Artist and band from city to city, along with my Travel Agent, booking flights, ground, hotels, etc. Doing day sheets (info on what your day will be like including departure times, show times, soundcheck times, travel after the show)”.

On August 14, 2015. Tom Begley posted an article about How to put on a mega–gig: the tour manager’s story. He explains how the life of a tour manager is not easy. There are issues that you have to deal with such as being woken up at 4am to take a singer to the hospital, or the lost of a $3000 dollars guitar unit, equipment not being provided when it should be and so on. Every artist and tour is different. A tour manager is involved in everything from booking hotels, flights or a masseur to getting people the food they want. Basically being the middleman, between the artist/crew and the promoter, and sometimes the band and the fans, especially at signings.

The bigger the band, the more crewmembers there are. Begley also stated: “You don’t see the city you’re in: you don’t leave the arena. At the really big shows, my job is all about getting the band in and making sure their food is all there. Generally, everything is well organized. You still get problems but, ideally, the show should be exactly the same every day, because things run like clockwork. Everything is super-scale: even the rehearsals involve so much gear; it’s like putting on a full gig”. Whatever needs to be done is the tour manager’s job. If the singer wants to stand in the cold for an hour and a half signing autographs, the tour manager stands there with them.

Here is an example of a daily itinerary of an Artist that is on tour. 

http://nashvillemusicianssurvivalmanual.com/Blog/?tag=tour-manager

Universal Music Publishing

On June 30^th, 2014, the Complete Music Update (CMU) posted an article about Universal Music Publishing pledging to make its entire songs catalogue accessible via its website, including the facility to export a list of every work owned or coordinated by the major music publisher.

The absence of a dominant database that tells licensees which organizations control or speak to the copyrights in musical structures and recordings, on even a national not to mention ecumenical substructure, has turned out to be a greater amount of an issue as of late which drove as a consequence of both the amplification of a grassroots sync market, and the raise of the computerized music area, where publishers permit advanced stages specifically, instead of authorizing the names which discharge recordings of their musical pieces.

In spite of the fact that copyright ownership information is an issue for both the record business and the music publishing area, most see the issue as being greater in the last space, with distributer data for the most part harder to get to online than name information, in addition to obviously there is significantly more co-responsibility for in the publishing world.

Obviously, Global Repertoire Database (GRD) project was designated to be addressing that issue, however some publishers and digital accommodation providers have commenced to become frustrated with the slow progress in that domain. Meanwhile, pressure perpetuates to elevate in the political community (and elsewhere) for music licensing to be simplified, and copyright ownership information is a key part of that procedure.

In the United States, the issue has emerged again as a component of the civil argument about whether the publishers ought to be permitted to pull back from the aggregate authorizing framework in the advanced space, so they can cut direct deals with any appearance of Pandora as opposed to giving licenses by means of their social orders BMI and ASCAP.

Pandora has whined that if any likeness of Universal pull back from the BMI/ASCAP authorizing course of action it makes issues, since it's hard for the computerized administration to work out what songs are spoken to by the major (the circulation of distributed sovereignties to the right distributer/songwriter having dependably been the gathering social orders' issue to date

That puts much more weight on the organization to do a rapid direct contract with the publisher, with the goal that it doesn't get itself incidentally gushing songs no more secured by its BMI/ASCAP licenses. Also Pandora would likely contend, is another reason the music publishers ought to be obliged to keep permitting online radio administrations through their gathering social orders. All-inclusive information offers, subsequently, is likely intended to counteract one of Pandora's contentions in this question.