MTTV Influencer- Steve Stoute

INFLUENCERS in-depth Series / STEVE STOUTE from R+I creative on Vimeo.

I first saw this documentary months and months ago, this is when I first heard the name Steve Stoute.  Stoute understood the power and influence of Hip-Hop and connected some of the biggest names in entertainment, with some of the biggest brands in America. 

The Tanning Effect with Steve Stoute

I have been spending the past few days doing research for my Company Leadership Research Presentation for my Executive Leadership class. This presentation is based upon a successful entertainment company or leader that I admire or may want to work for in a chosen industry. Check back in a few days for my presentation on Steve Stoute.

Jay-Z, Pharrell, Lady Gaga & Jimmy Iovine On “The Tanning Of America”

Former music exec Steve Stoute is a  matchmaker between music and corporate America. His hookups included Justin Timberlake with McDonald’s for the “I’m Loving It” campaign, LeBron James’ partnership with State Farm Insurance, Gwen Stefani’s with Hewlett-Packard, Lady Gaga’s deal with MAC Comestics, and Jay-Z’s Reebok line. To promote the release of his new book “The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy” Stoute is developing a video series, “The Tanning Effect” with AOL. Here’s a video preview of interview highlights:

Onesheet: EPK Tool for Artists

Onesheet is a new tool for musicians created by Brenden Mulligan, founder of Artistdata.  In private beta for the past month, Onesheet has already signed up over 10,000 artists. The service allows an artist to create a simple page that contains basic items such as a picture, a video or an audio stream.  Because Onesheet allows users to connect their page to other services, fans can also access tour dates, tweets, Facebook posts and other items. In addition, traffic data can be accessed through the user's Google Analytics account and Onesheets can be assigned a custom domain name. 

After watching the quick 'how to video', I created this Onesheet for my music partner Blake Kelly. With the upcoming release of his mixtapes 'Layover' and 'Plane Mode' we are starting an online publicity campaign and needed a straight-forward EPK to send to blogs, labels, and other interested parties. It took me no time to create Blake's profile by pulling in videos from his YouTube page and message streams from his Twitter and Facebook Fan pages. I also added a hi-resolution photograph and bio (click here to see the finished product).

It is too soon to say how effective this service is, but here are some features of the website that I do like:

•   The product makes it very easy to link to online networks. 

•   The clean design is free of clutter.

•   It's simple to share your profile with others. Just copy and paste the link.

•   It's an excellent EPK platform. All of the elements essential to making a good EPK are present: Bio, Music, Photos, Press Mentions, & Concert Dates

•   An added feature that makes it great as an EPK tool is the fact viewers can browse your important social media profiles and see how active you and your following are.