MEET TONY MERCEDES AUTHOR OF REVERSING THE GAME

THIS IS WHAT THE GRAMMY AWARD WINNER HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

When I first embarked on my journey to write this book, I could barely control the thoughts of all the money I could make from book sales and speaking engagements. Not to mention all of the other income generating revenue streams presented through authoring a book. Oddly, now five years later, all I can think about is the book’s intended purpose. That purpose is to expose the record industry’s tricks of the trade and provide upcoming artists with the knowledge they must have to succeed. While contemplating what would happen to me career wise upon the release of this book, my brother-in-law, Dwayne Sutton, shared with me this knowledge, he said, “Tony, you know you have arrived when you get to a point in your life when you are more interested in making purpose as opposed to just making money.”

Man, damn purpose, I was in it for the money! I mean look at me, a country boy born in Germany, dropped in the Republic of Panama, and raised in the dirty south, by way of Augusta GA. I was doing shit I never thought I would ever do.  I had the blessing of having the number one Pop record, the number one Rap record, and the number one R&B record all in the same week in Billboard Magazine with (NO SCRUBS by TLC and WHO DAT by J.T.MONEY). I had a record that stayed on the Billboard charts for 56 weeks with DAZZEY DUKS.  I was blessed with winning an ASCAP song of the year and a BMI song of the year.

I was blessed with wining a publisher’s Grammy Award for NO SCRUBS and had career record sales of over 20 million copies, and to cap it all off, I can literally take credit for putting Beyonce Knowles and Destiny’s Child in their first film. I won’t tell you the name because the film was a hot mess. lol The film was a flop! Therefore, out of respect for Beyonce and her father Matthew Knowles, who was and is my friend, I forbid anybody to try and cash in on a re-release of that raggedy ass movie, especially when Beyonce’s career had skyrocketed.  With all that I’d accomplished, and the day came that I took a look in the mirror and saw I was turning into what I despised, it changed things for me. Now Dwayne’s comment sunk in and made perfect sense. I may not have all the material things I once had, I may not mean what Tony Mercedes name once meant, but when I tell you my life has purpose you can take that to the bank and tell em’ Barretta sent you!

“The Truth About This Business of Music”, with Tony Mercedes”

BULL*(&^!, IT’S THAT PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

That’s the truth about what the record business is, corporate bull(*&^!  These corporate bull%$#&ers decide who gets famous, who gets signed, and what genre of music wins the award nominations each year. Discouraged? Don’t be. You just have to understand that this is a business, a multi billion dollar a year business.  When you speak of that type of dough, that isn’t nothing to laugh about.

I can guarantee if you have in this business longer than a week, you have already realized you are at an unfair disadvantage. Therefore, I give to you knowledge, a few tricks of the trade, and mantras (lessons learned) so you won’t get screwed. I have to be honest with you though. You have a better chance of playing professional basketball in the NBA, having never dribbled a basketball before in your life, than you have being a successful rapper or singer in the music industry. Forget all that “you can be all you want to be” bull&^%* you hear from we who have made it. Many times we get paid to feed you empowerment speeches at music conferences as a way of justifying you paying your registration fee. Don’t get me wrong there are exceptions to any rule, and somebody you know can get a lucky break and make it out here in this music world. The odds are really against 99.99999% of you making it. I’m committed to keeping it one hundred with you giving you the real facts and statistics.

My philosophy is, and will continue to be, to tell all of you up and coming producers, songwriters and artist to get out of the music business and get into the business of music. It’s entirely two different businesses!

So what is the business of music? How can I get out of the music business, and get into the business of music? In these articles and my book “ Reversing The Game ” I will show you how. By the time you finish reading this book, you will learn about how artist and producer royalties are calculated. You will learn the truth about 360 deals, and the truth about the importance of not selling your publishing. This book is designed to allow a high school dropout to be empowered enough to sit down in a room with Sean “Diddy” Combs or an LA Reid and gain their respect, not by how creative you are or by how hot your music is, but by your understanding of how this business of music works. Contact me at tonymercedes3000@gmail.com and send me questions that you want answered.

Well guys, that’s the take on the Business of Music by the author of “Reversing The Game”. If you have questions, Tony Mercedes says, “He has the answers”…

Hit him up and let him know; “The Heat” sent you!

Feel “The Heat”