Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
What is
Of Music and Men?
Of Music and Men is a scripted drama comedy television series created by me, Kayona Ebony Brown,
that chronicles the life of a
young single female entrepreneur and her experiences with men and she tries
to succeed in the
music business and in love in the most
unlikely town for either, which is washington DC.
It is loosely based on my own life. For the last five years
I've run a burgeoning record company called the brown'stone recording company
I have on artist, Khalil Ismail.
Owning a label has been a dream of mine since I was a kid.
I was dj ever since I was like six years old but
by the time I was in high school, I became fascinated by the idea of actually
taking part in the creation of the music and the business behind it
rather than just playing that which was already made.
Russell Simmons was like my idol. LIke, I really wanted to be like Russell.
I model my hustle after Puffy, you know, reading his story and everything...
I always saw being a part in the music industry
from a business perspective being a part my story.
My first novel which don't even ask; I have no plans of publishing
ever. 'Least that's what I say now.
The first story was about a college girl named Kenya Shaw
who wanted to run her own record label.
I wrote it when I was in my 10th grade. It was about 300 pages, and that was
a Word document. like 300 word document pages. It was crazy long.
In Tenth Letter which is my debut novel
Kenya Shaw was a minor character. She was one of J's friends
but readers were introduced to her as a 30-year-old
young woman who's record company was actually starting to do pretty well.
I always wanted to do a television show
but never really thought I had an idea that I could run with.
But in January 2012 it hit. I mean, it his me like a bag of rocks.
When I came across an article that read--check this out...
DC is the city with the highest number same-sex relationships
and the lowest marriage rate in the country. And I thought to myself: I guess in order for a single
girl to find fine love, she might have better luck
finding a single girl.
Although it wasn't an option personally, that was it. That was the show.
Using the friendship
of uniquely different people: Kenya along with her two single female friends
Ty and J
all of whom are from Tenth Letter, will help us understand why the latter part
of that statistic exists
while we watch Kenya struggle to make it as a businesswoman.
All this is happening in DC--a city not known for the music business
and apparently not known for love.
DC is actually an integral character because of this. No other city in the world is as stereotyped
as DC
so this show aims to say to the rest of the world, "Hey
look we're not just a buncha white-collar political yuppies.
We have the same problems as you do. Where the title come?
The title comes from a stanza in the Robert Burns poem
'To a Mouse'. It goes: "the best-laid
schemes of mice and men go often awry
and leave us nothing but grief and pain for promised."
Can't the same thing be said about music and men?
Also, I wanted a title that told you exactly what the show was about
without question. Like Sex and the City.
That show was about sex. And it was about the city--
obviously the only city in the world they could simply be called
"the city" without confusion, which is new york.
This is the girl's tale of music and men, simply put.
What is the OMAM Fund? The OMAM fund is The Of Music & Men Fund.
the goals are to generate support for the show
continually engaged and build its audience
and connect the Of Music and Men brand to the corporate and consumer world's by
offering physical
digital and virtual products, along with business opportunities.
In layman's terms it's a self-sustaining crowdfunding site
and an e-commerce store, so people can not only
support to show through donations
they can also buy merch.
Why not Kickstarter? I looked at all my friends who did Kickstarter campaigns.
Some failed miserably, not even raising 1% of what they were asking for
and some succeeded in getting 100% or more
but all of them had one thing in common
they all told me about the experience and said that they would never
ever do it again.
I'd read this case study about a college that was able to raise money
in on going capacity through various marketing tactics, so
I wanted to create something similar where our supporters
can get involved and stay involved with the show.
so although I like the idea of Kickstarter
I hate the business model, for me personally, which includes extremely high
fees, a limited time line, low stipulations for artists' credibility
and of course the all-or-nothing game. If you don't reach your goal you get
absolutely nothing no matter how close you come.
My business model is much more personalized to the business and marketing plan
for this show, which allows for more involvement from my supporters
and fundraising in perpetuity.
I've always had an independent spirit with everything that I've done.
If they could do it and create and sustain it, why can't I?
So in this instance I created my own Kickstarter.
How involved were you in creating the OMAM Fund?
I say the following in an effort to discuss my heart as an entrepreneur not
to brag about doing everything myself because I really
wish that I could have been in position to create jobs for people who want to
become copywriters
or graphic designs or web designers and developers
but everything you see on that site, I had to create:
the logos, the products, the site itself, everything.
It took much more time than I care to admit but...
You know what? It's done. It got done.
So. Go to TheOMAMFund.com
and get involved