Question & Answer w/ CaT

A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, I asked for topics to post about and obtained great feedback. I'm going to go with the flow right now, may touch on two right now & one tomorrow, etc etc.

digidemetrius @CathrynMarie that the industry is more about the business than music

I can go on and on for days speaking on this, but the one thing that urks me the most is Artists who make these labels, companies and names but never make it official. Just because you and your buddies sit around and come up with "Nut In Her Eye Ent" does not mean you have rights to that company. Here's what you need to do:

Check your state registrar make sure no one has the name already. You want to do this for protection reasons also, you don't want any unwanted law suits to come and bite you in the butt. You will then need to register the name. This is you making the label/company yours.

Filing a DBA is a MUST, well not a must but it is a great thing to do. (side note for the people I just lost, DBA means Doing Business As). Let me break how beneficial a DBA is in "nigga form" - you will be able to cash checks written out to "Nut In Her Eye Ent" and have NO problems (lol).

There's a lot more to do when getting into this business and truly understanding it, but those are personal pet peeves of mine. These same tips should be used for when starting up ANY business. You bet your ass someone can write me a check for Cathryn Marie or Cathryn Marie Mgt & I have no problems. I never DBA'd other things I do because I don't take it serious, like this blog, but bloggers should def think about doing the same thing when thinking of selling ads and such on their blogs.

I think I'll do a more thoroughly post at a later time on more steps to take when starting up a label that include things I spoke on previous - Building The Right Fan Base, Copyrighting your music, Knowing Its More Than Swagger , Getting On Radio and Winning Over Fans - but not leaving out creating your product, the manufacturing process, creating a marketing plan, putting your product in stores, etc etc.

Next Question to tap on:

novatribe @CathrynMarie ...penetrating a target audience without ANY HELP FROM ANYBODY...which is MY CAREER IN A F'N NUTSHELL...I need to hit 13-19 yr...i've dedicated TONS of effort towards internet communities (google NOVATRIBE....I'm EVERYWHERE)...but I need in these HS's. NOVA's strongest supporters are unreachable from "underground" standpoint it seems....I have older fans...but they aren't core. .....how can I penetrate 13-19 demographic minus MTV, BET and RADIO...at this stage in my career...?