The music industry is forever changing, were music streams and followers matter the most. With more than 3,000,000 registered artist on Spotify and growing, it is undeniable that more people are becoming musical artist. Have you ever thought, where did it all begin? When did music make its big mark in the digital world? Take this in to consideration, before the Internet was widely available, music as we know was “physically” distributed to retail stores were fans could go purchase their favorite artists. CDs, cassette tapes and even vinyl would have a “barcode” listed on that back. When purchased, the barcode would be scanned by the retail store and tracked in a computer based system. File sharing communities were first formed around centralized downloading sites like MP3.com where ripped files were uploaded and then downloaded by other users. The inefficiency of this method was quickly remedied by Shawn Fanning’s landmark P2P software, Napster, released in the fall of 1999. Files could now be exchanged directly between users rather than passing through a centralized intermediary, while a centralized index of available content gave users an efficient way of finding music. The P2P network proved efficient enough to quickly push file sharing activity beyond the realm of fair use, Digital Music Distribution rendering it illegal. The RIAA sued Napster within a few weeks of its launch, and because it operated the centralized directory that listed available unauthorized MP3 files, the file- sharing company was held legally responsible for piracy. Napster, along with the early MP3 Web sites were shut down, but not before demand for downloading music had been stimulated. In 2000, Limewire carried the torch as the next P2P network which managed to operated for 10 years. It wasn’t until October 26, 2010 after losing a court battle for “copyright infringement”. A federal court ordered the company Lime Group, LLC to “shut down” the searching, downloading, uploading, trading and/or file distribution functionality. In the 10 years Limewire was functional, other similar P2P sharing client services were founded and operated on the Internet. Apple, one of the earliest to follow the trend, launched “ITunes” in 2001. By 2005, over 1 billion users were accessing the Internet daily. Datpiff, a online music distribution platform for hip-hop mixtapes become the go-to platform for underground music. By the end of 2005, millions of P2P networks and websites were operating. By 2007, more units were sold on the Internet than in any other form. We can all agree, a few things became clear in 2007, the demand for music has only continued to grow. By the time Napster was ordered to shut down, so many other P2P networks and websites were founded and operating overwhelming the system and creating a cat and mouse game for the legal system. As the music industry continues to grow, Online Music Distribution is the new normal and is here to stay. (Article by DJ Duce archived from DJDuce.Com originally posted 11/23/2020)

DJ Duce talks with ZAAY, a hip-hop artist from Lawrence, Massachusetts discovered from the streaming platform Audiomack. Follow ZAAY Music! ZAAY Facebook ZAAY Music Instagram ZAAY Music Twitter

DJDuceMixtapes re-releases Lil Wayne's classic mixtape The Drought Is Over 4. Stream And Download Lil Wayne The Drought Is Over 4

DJ Duce sits down with 32 Entertainment's own Frank Castro 1731 who has produced records for OJ Da Juiceman, Project Pat, Gunplay, Z-Ro & more! Frank Castro 1731: Frank Castro Facebook Frank Castro Instagram @frankcastro1731 Frank Castro Twitter @frankcastro1731 Frank Castro XBox Gametag FrankCastro32

Stream And Download Zovakcain Ft. CNotes - In My Eyes #Zovakcain #Cnotes #InMyEyes

Stream & Download The Lox Living Off Xperience #TheLox #LivingOffXperience #Album

By: Wendy Day By, Bob Lefsetz This is a music business issue. Despite the corroded infrastructure of the twentieth first century music business, based on terrestrial radio and a small number of top of the chart records, the best way to reach the target demo, the youth of today, with music, both old and new, is TikTok. We heard about gaming. Music is secondary at best, background noise. Guitar Hero and Rock Band? A limited number of tracks, you couldn’t play EVERYTHING! But on TikTok, the uploaders use a cornucopia of songs and many see traction elsewhere, on Spotify, YouTube, et al. Some even become gigantic hits. Not that this is an unknown paradigm. There are big acts like Drake feeding songs to the service, trying to jump-start or enhance their trajectory in traditional music media. But on TikTok, the public, the users, pick the songs. And successful clips can be viewed triple digit millions of times, and more than one person can employ the same tune, this is oftentimes the case. TikTok is a hotbed of track development, it can not only make careers, it can bring the ancient back to life. But the conversation in the music business is always about the past. Those with power want to preserve old systems and keep bitching about their cheese being moved, they abhor change. First and foremost TikTok illustrates that breaking records will move more and more into the hands of the public. And the public decides what is a winner and what is not. And the gap between what is employed and what is not will be even greater than it is on streaming services. In other words, gatekeepers lose power, and the music business loves gatekeepers, that’s what streaming service playlists are all about! Get the company to insert your track and…most people using playlists are listening in the background, it’s hard to convert them into active listeners, to pick out a track, it’s not vastly different from Muzak in the office. But when a song is used on TikTok, it’s frequently integral to the action, without the song there is no clip. And the hook is key, demonstrating the axiom that hooks are nearly always necessary for great success in the music business. It’s a free-for-all, and the music business HATES free-for-alls, it wants to control and constrict the narrative, isn’t this the history of music online, starting with Napster? And then the old artists and the ones working in the old manner, a few years to make an album which drops all at once, can’t stop complaining about social media, they keep telling us they’re artists, and you’re impinging on their creativity if you make them do anything other than sit in a studio and record twelve tunes. But the history of music on the internet is it blows up via word of mouth, which is hard to control, if people like something they pass it on, and if they don’t… This is very different from radio, where you’re trying to convince the programmer, online it’s straight to the customer/listener. And Donald Trump wants to shut TikTok down. Here’s where music and politics merge. Here’s where you’re out of the loop if you’re not reading the headlines. Because you have no framework, no sense of reference. Donald Trump wants to shut TikTok down because it’s a haven of anti-Trump activity. It is hard to gauge TikTok’s effectiveness in this area, but one thing is for sure, the arena wasn’t full in Tulsa, could that be as a result of all the TikTokkers asking for tickets they were never going to use, the president to promise an overflow crowd that did not appear? Did you see the second stage outside the BOK Center, they started tearing it down during the event inside, there was no one there. But if TikTok shuts down, the music business is collateral damage. But the music business is silent. Used to be the music business was cutting edge, where you went to get the news, now it’s caught flat-footed. Don’t you defend your turf? Everybody else in America does. So sure, Trump doesn’t like China having control of TikTok, hoovering up all that data, but why does TikTok have to shut down NOW?! TikTok is a community. Of youngsters. And anti-Trump fervor is rampant on the service. Which assembles its army to fight Trump in the real world. Meanwhile, Microsoft says it’ll buy TikTok. But this is not good enough for Trump. Because this won’t solve his problem! Which is less about China and more about him and his election prospects. The TikTokkers were all in a rage, downloading their content, crying in their fruit juice. That’s the difference in the Trump era, in the sixties users would fight back! But today’s youth are used to having their freedoms taken away. Then again, one of the great things about social media, including TikTok, is its effect is essentially unmeasurable. All the data won’t tell you the ultimate reach and adoption. The service can’t be controlled and… TikTok is not Facebook. All the conversation has been about disinformation on Facebook, not realizing that its users skew older. As for Snap… Snapchat made its bones on an evanescent service. But its hook was Stories. But before Stories had mindshare outside a small coterie, Instagram copied it, stealing the momentum. That’s the narrative of the internet, there’s a first mover advantage, but you can never rest on your laurels, you must not sleep, you must keep on pushing. Which brings us to the strange case of Travis Kalanick. Travis employed this strategy to turn Uber into a behemoth. So, he was lauded by the same people who ended up criticizing him, and the end result was that Lyft gained traction and now Uber is not the leader it once was. It’s a jungle out there I tell you. So, Facebook and Google can’t buy TikTok, no way. The only thing accomplished in last week’s hearings was to spread the word that these entities are duplicitous monopolists. Don’t expect any change to the existing services, but don’t expect it to be business as usual going forward. The government would never allow these two entities to buy TikTok. But Microsoft? Zuckerberg can’t compete with TikTok, even though he’s trying. You see TikTok has critical mass. It was small once, when kids used Musical.ly in the U.S., but then that service was merged into TikTok and became a behemoth. TikTok was not secret, but somehow Zuck missed it. It grew too big right under his nose. And now there’s nothing he can do about it. Is TikTok forever? History tells us social media sites are fads. Even Facebook itself, now the company’s main driver is Instagram. But TikTok’s growth proves that despite the footprint of the tech majors, there are still holes, they can still be beaten. TikTok won’t be shut down. The public won’t stand for it. Microsoft will purchase the service. Then again, Trump has done so much with little consequence. And as stated above, the youth have acquiesced in many cases. But the youth are activated, that’s what the anti-Trump TikTok rebellion is all about. And Trump should remember, every action has an equal reaction. But the music business is looking at this from afar, hands-off. People were file-trading and the music business was up-in-arms. They came for the record stores and the music business was up-in-arms. But somehow, when it comes down to what might be the best way to expose music today, the business is silent. Talk about being ripe for disruption…

DJ Duce sits down with 32 Entertainment's own Frank Castro @frankcastro1731 in this exclusive interview. DJ Duce: For those that don't know you. Give me your back story, where are you from? Frank Castro: I'm from Arkansas. Forrest City, Arkansas to be exact. Population a little over 15,000. Growing up in Forrest City was rough, you had to jump off the porch early regardless if you wanted to or not. It's an eat or get ate world and growing up there definitely prepared me for the world at an early age. DJ Duce: What was growing up in Arkansas like and at what age did you start producing music? Frank Castro: Growing up, I actually wanted to be a rapper. I was heavily influenced by Master P and Three 6 Mafia. So I would get my mom to buy the singles because they all came with instrumentals. That was the only way I could get a beat. In 1997 at age 7, I told my mom I wanted to do music for a living. She supported me from day one. So as I got older, I was tired of using instrumentals and was curious about how to make my own. This was the late 1990's heading into the 2000's, equipment was extremely high and having a home studio was practically unheard of. One year for Christmas, I got a drum pad with pre-programmed loops on it. It was a nice start but not quite what I was looking for. At 12, I was introduced to Fruity Loops (now known as FL Studio) by a friend named City Bang. DJ Duce: What was the first instrumental you ever made and do you still have it? Frank Castro: The first beat I made was actually nice. It's so old, it's on a floppy disk 😂. I have about 95% of the beats I made in my life. I have multiple backup hard-drives just in case an unexpected accident happens. DJ Duce: What’s the hardest thing about being a producer? Frank Castro: For me personally, it's definitely the over-saturated market and lack of respect for the producer. You have a ton of competition on all levels. You will have people stealing your sound and selling beats for a fraction of your price. That will take customers, potential placements, and money away from you! Labels/artists will try to low-ball you and take your royalties if you are not up on your business. DJ Duce: What advice you have for upcoming producers? Frank Castro: The most important thing is to know the business. The industry changes a lot so it's hard to know everything but educate yourself on the business end. It's 90% business, 10% talent. Don't never get discouraged, always have faith in yourself and your talent. DJ Duce: How did your relationship develop with OJ Da Juiceman? Frank Castro: I've been a fan of OJ since he came out with Everything On Me. I got his On Da Come Up CD and have been a fan ever since. I used to be on social media digging for contacts and ways to send beats to artists. I ended up getting 3 of his emails. I had the bright idea that I would send beats to all three. I had it in my mind that even if he didn't like the beats, he would know the name Frank Castro since I was sending beats to all his emails 😂. Roughly a year later, he put out his Return of Da Juiceman mixtape and I produced Track 10 First Round Draft Pick. I was overly excited and I tweeted the link. He immediately followed me back, told me he wanted to sign me, and that he had used my other beats. He sent me is number in a DM, we talked the next day for almost 3 hours. It's been history since then. Tom Brady & Bill Belichick 😂. DJ Duce: What’s your favorite OJ record and why? Frank Castro: That's like asking a parent who is their favorite child 😂. He got so many classics, its hard to pick just one. Alley Cuts and Hallways, Kush Got Me Faded, They Call Me, Life On Da Edge, Swag Like Me. That's like my top 5 favorite. Out of all of our collaborations, my favorite records I produced are J's At My Door and First Round Draft Pick. J's At My Door is an undeniable record. I feel like this record showed our chemistry on another level. First Round Draft Pick is another one of my personal favorites, because it was our first record released that started it all for us. DJ Duce: I follow your Instagram quite a bit and see you are a fan of the strip clubs? Tell me what’s the best strip club you’ve been to? Frank Castro: I never was a big fan of strip clubs until I moved to Chicago. A good buddy of mine name Will, had this club in Markham, Illinois called Red Diamond. The experience is next to none. DJ Duce: What’s the best part of being at a strip club? I heard they got good wings 😂. Frank Castro: Outside of music, my favorite two past-times are, eating and being around women 😂. So, anywhere I can do both at the same time, I'm in 😂. Strip clubs definitely got good food. I can have thighs and breasts on my plate while also looking at thighs and breasts 😂. DJ Duce: What artist have you worked with? Frank Castro: OJ Da Juiceman of course, Project Pat, Starlito, Lil Bibby, Benzino, Z-Ro, Shawnna, Drumma Boy, and countless others. I'm working with many majors now, stay tuned😏. DJ Duce: Any new projects dropping to be on the lookout for? Frank Castro: I'm working on two projects now. We have another OJ Da Juiceman & Frank Castro project on the way, most definitely expect my solo debut after that. I have my own imprint under the 32 Ent. umbrella, called 1731. We have a group project coming as well. DJ Duce: It was nice chopping it up with you bro, shout-out all your social media for everyone to follow. Frank Castro: Frank Castro Facebook Frank Castro Instagram @frankcastro1731 Frank Castro Twitter @frankcastro1731 Frank Castro XBox Gametag FrankCastro32 #FrankCastro #OJDaJuiceman #32Ent #Interview (Article by DJ Duce archived from DJDuce.Com originally posted 07/23/2020)

Stream Big C Ft. OJ Da Juiceman Ya Digg (Remix) Download Big C Ft. OJ Da Juiceman Ya Digg (Remix) #BigC #OJDaJuiceman

Stream Dave East Believe It Or Not Download Dave East Believe It Or Not #DaveEast