The new breed PIMP has arrived and its new WHORES are musical artists, label owners, producers and want to be entertainment moguls.
pimped, pimp•ing, pimps
To serve as a procurer of prostitutes. - The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Pimping.] To procure women for the gratification of others' lusts; to pander. - Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
pimp•ing
petty; insignificant; trivial.
British Dialect. puny; weak; sickly. - Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006
Consider the new definition of PIMP, being at the top of your game, making money while not working hard or at all. With this definition an entire new industry of corrupt businesses has come into existence.
1. BLOG PIMP – Here is a person that could never obtain certifiable credentials to become a bona fide writer. This person lives to tell stories that are mainly innuendo and conjecture but ultimately hurt the entertainment industry people they blog about. They never look for the truth only for things that can embarrass or humiliate. If you are an artist and you want some favorable online print you definitely must pay this person in advance.
2. PUBLICISTS PIMP - Here are people that have a vocation to increase awareness about an artist, act, product or service. They are the first line of promotion that should access new fans, clients and users of the people they publicize. Today’s new era publicist talks a good game but can not produce results for their clients after they have demanded money for their services. What I am finding is a long list of publicists that have massive email lists, but absolutely no knowledge of local & regional newspapers, local & regional television shows or connections at radio. What they tell you they have is direct email to thousands of individuals, what they don’t tell you is that their email opening is at times less than 2% and never over 10%. Recently I have heard of a publicist that took a substantial down payment against hourly work than sent the company they took money from a bill for research on local news outlets. The publicist has yet to write a press release, send an email or make a phone call to assist the company that hired them. Finally when is the last time you have seen a publicist that honestly wrote a press release that was legible and error free?
3. ONLINE MARKETING PIMP – Everyone understands that you need an online marketing plan to make your product or service work. What NO ONE truly understands is how to create a plan that works for more than one company at a time. The idea of one size fits all in marketing plans is entirely untrue and unhealthy for your pocket. With the advent of iPhone applications, widgets, email blasts, Ezines and more, marketing plans have to be customized to fit the client, product or service. The company selling a ready made plan that will work for you is NOT the company you want to do business with.
4. CONFERENCE & SEMINAR PIMPS - This is probably the largest pimp game available in the entertainment industry today. The music conference has become an art form in taking people’s money and not giving them any professional return on their dollars. This year alone in the South and Mid West there will be over 50 music conferences representing all types of music. Out of this 50 possibly 6 will be of significant value to an aspiring or professional artist; however the rest will be calculated to separate the artist, act or company from their cash. Several different methods are being used and they all have a ring of authenticity to them. Conference admission fees are typical, plus exhibitors or booth fees and the always present performance or showcase fee tops the list. Other fees are charged for advertising both online and in a conference book or handout and post conference shows at an outside venue. What is interesting to me is that every year there is a certain element of individual that will continuously fall for this type of scam.
5. OPEN MIC NIGHT PIMP – a concept where an artist or act can perform with the express goal of having themselves “discovered” by a major Entertainment Company. Great theory but hardly a reality. Open Mic night now consists of greedy promoters using FREE talent to build weekly audiences. In some cases the talent must pay an additional fee to perform after having paid to get into the venue. I have been looking for the act that gets signed at one of these events for the past 10 years and have not found any yet.
6. DJ POOL, RECORD POOL PIMP – If you are reading this you probably don’t have a clue on what a DJ POOL or RECORD POOL even accomplishes. Don’t feel bad for other than the pimps running these outlets no one else has a clue either. Originally created to assist labels in reaching the multitude of club DJ’s around the country, these pools have become a wasteland of fraud, intimidation and one of the easiest ways to separate a person from their money.
7. CONSULTANT PIMP – You never really know what this person honestly does, but they have written a book or article about it. Most consultants have never operated a real entertainment industry business but they want you to pay them for telling YOU how to spend your money. The interesting thing about consultants is that they have an automatic attitude complied with an increasing sense of self worth. In other words they are too good to be true.
8. RADIO PROMOTER PIMP – The most recent wave of pimpin involves hiring a radio promotion person because they ran a major label division is now one of the easiest ways to throw your money away. You can NO LONGER depend on a promotion person to get your music heard by radio programmers; in fact radio programmers NO LONGER listen to music but rely on research and consultants to choose the music heard on their respective stations. Executives that ran major label divisions had backup systems, regional and local employees that interacted daily with radio personnel. These people ate lunch, dinner, went to the mall, appeared at the remotes and became intimate friends with the radio DJ’s, programmers, sales and promotional people. The divisional head never had the accessibility or the personal knowledge of the regional or local people. When the National or Division head called into the market it was normally to fix a particular problem that had occurred. Now the wide spread belief that the Division head can deliver radio just because he or she was so well known is pure BUNK. The average amount of money I have seen sent to these executive level pimps is $60,000. Of course this amount can easily translate into over $100,000 especially if the client believes the “hype” generated by the pimp.
Please understand that these type PIMPIN games are being played around the world with numerous different styles of music and entertainment. Jazz, Blues, Reggae, Hip Hop, Soul R&B, Lounge, Dance, Rock, and religious music have all fallen under these forms on Pimpin.
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