Tomorrow, we’re doing it all over again with our second cross country road trip. The first one was a blast, full of good music (thanks to you), good coffee, good food, and great times, and we’re excited to do it all over again, this time for good. You can follow our adventures on Twitter at @iemediagroup. Also, we’ll be doing updates each morning on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/IncorporatedElements. We’re doing the same route this time as last time (Tacoma-Portland-Boise-Salt Lake-Denver-Kansas City-St Louis-Nashville), so if we’re coming to your area, let us know so we can shout you out. Also, be sure to subscribe, as we’ll continue these updates from the studio (and other musical locales) in Nashville once we get settled. So the fun will keep on coming long after this trip is in the books.

Thank you each and every one of you for your comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube during our first trip-we see each one, and had a great time reading them. Keep them coming-we love hearing from you all.

Until next time…

Nashville or bust.

So with Nate and Eric moving cross-country over the next couple of weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of planning, trying to ensure that the process is smooth as possible. We thought we covered all of our bases-until we took stock in our travel time. We will be driving to Nashville from Washington state-not once-but twice, which makes for A LOT of driving. And we all three agree-every road trip needs theme music.

This is where you come in.

We need suggestions. Sure, we have our favorite music already queued up, but you can only listen to Pat Benatar’s greatest hits so many times before you need a switch. If you have music that you feel we need to have for the trips, let us know, and we’ll go to iTunes and check it out. We’ll try to keep you all updated via our twitter (@iemediagroup) which of your suggestions we’re listening to on the trip, and where in the country we’re listening to them. And if we really love the music, you may even get a shout-out.

Thank you for your help!

-IE

As many of you know, I.E. currently operates out of two primary locations: Nashville (Ric) and Tacoma, Washington (Eric & Nate). While we’re able to make this work pretty efficiently via the Internet and phone calls, it’s become evident that the only way we are going to be 100% effective is if we were all in one central location. So after 18 months of planning, the time has come…next week, Nate and I will be driving down to Nashville to begin the moving process.

With that, this week will mark the last week Nate and I will work out of our faithful home studio, Winona Drive Studios. After nearly 7 years, it has served us well. Take a good look-for us Washingtonians, this is where it all began…

Ok, here we go…I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me or take things the wrong way, so that’s why I’m doing a blog on it, instead of tweet after tweet after tweet.  Feel free to leave comments when you’re done reading.

The situation as it happened sucked.  I am not at liberty to talk about details of it, because it’s not my business to.  But, since so many people have feelings about my tweets yesterday, I will explain as much as I can.

First off, it goes waaaaay beyond one song being stolen and leaked.  What happened is a felony, and when the person is caught, they will be in BIG trouble.  My comment about people being “accessories to a crime” may have seemed a bit harsh, but in a pure legal sense that is what it is.  If you knowingly download a song/video that  was not directly being given away BY CHOICE by the artist or label, then that is illegal.  I know “everyone” does it these days, but like I’m sure many of your parents or grandparents have said, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”

I was mainly taking out my frustration on the person who initially stole the file(s), and the DJ who leaked the song everywhere.  That is where my real anger lies (oh, and I’m pissed at Perez Hilton too, but that’s another story).

I truly appreciate all KC fans, and those who have come to be fans of mine in some small way.  I would never want anyone to feel threatened by me (except Perez and the guy who stole the files).

I was really just trying to explain that if people keep taking the songs (from any artist) and posting them without permission, and fans keep downloading them (again, without permission), it hurts the artist in the long run.  Yes, artists make money on touring, but they don’t make as much as you would think.  Managers, promoters, the record label, production costs, crew, travel, etc., etc. take a toll on the bottom line.  Therefore, song royalties and record sales still matter very much to artists.

People purchasing the music once it’s made available for sale is still EXTREMELY important in the music industry.  For instance, if I write a song with an artist, and it goes on an album, and that album is released, but more people download it from a file sharing site or bit torrent, than buy it…that hurts me as a songwriter a lot.

Yes, I know I get paid for touring with KC, but let’s say that I wrote that song with Rihanna…I don’t tour with Rihanna, so I don’t get any money from her tours.  That means if I lose money from my song with her from illegal downloading, then I just lose it.  How is that fair to my wife and kids?  Just sayin…  Same thing with KC…what if SHE wrote a song for Rihanna?  She, obviously doesn’t tour with Rihanna

Also, if a few hundred thousand people download a KC album for free, then her label will say, “Well, next time, we can’t put that much money into your album, because we lost too much last time.”  If that happens again and again, pretty soon artists won’t be able to put out music that we love.

I understand KC, Kings Of Leon, Lady GaGa, etc. are going to be around for a while, because they’ve already sold multi-platinum, but think of this scenario with your favorite new band or indie band.  If they or their label can’t make enough money to cover the costs of recording and touring on their first or second record, they won’t be around to release more records.  What if that would’ve happened to KC after Thankful…we would’ve never been able to hear Breakaway, My December, All I Ever Wanted, etc…that would suck!

The police aren’t going to come after you for listening to Cleopatra online, but my point was that if we stop supporting people who leak this kind of stuff, then they will stop stealing stuff, and artists can release songs when the songs are really ready to be released.

I am only mad at the main people who stole and initially leaked the song (oh, and still Perez too), so please don’t think I’m mad at any fans.  These are all MY thoughts, so don’t connect them with KC and/or the rest of the band either (although I’m sure they’d agree with at least most of it).

I truly appreciate all of you, and love the fact that you’ve welcomed me into the KC camp with open arms.

thanks,

Ric “DJ Form” Robbins

Hope you guys enjoy seeing parts of the tour from my perspective…

Kelly Clarkson & Co have been touring overseas for the ‘All I Ever Wanted’ world tour, and have already been getting great reviews of the show. Ric ‘Form’ Robbins even got a mention in the latest review from Bournemouth, UK:

‘Very subtly the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams was seamlessly slipped into another track from the new album, If I Can’t Have You, by DJ Rick, who was far better than the name suggests.‘

You can read the rest of the review here.

Or, you can just watch this clip from the show itself. Thanks to Jason Halbert for video footage.

Check out our remix of Luda’s Grammy nominated song ‘Wish You Would.’ Download the song below, and pass it along to all your friends. Thanks for your support!

Here are a few pics from Europe so far…I’ll try to keep updating with more as we go…

Grits’ hit ‘Ooh Ahh’ is still on the itunes hip hop/rap charts, sitting comfortably at #32. It has been as high as #28. We’re working hard, trying to get it to break the top 20! Thank you all for all the support so far-keep spreading the word!

With the debut of the new MTV show, The Buried Life a few days ago, there has been a huge resurgence of the song “Ooh Ahh” by Grits.  This song was co-written by Ric “DJ Form” Robbins and produced by Incorporated Elements.  It has already been used in such films as “Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Big Momma’s House 2″, among many, many television shows.  But, with “Ooh Ahh” being the opening theme song of The Buried Life, it has begun to climb up the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap download chart.

We would love to see it break into the top 10, but we need your help to do it.  If you would like to support Incorporated Elements and DJ Form, consider downloading “Ooh Ahh” by Grits from iTunes and asking friends, family, and music fans everywhere to do the same.

Even if you don’t go download it, we really appreciate all the support we’ve been given from you all so far, and we look forward to continuing to connect with more and more of you out there!  Below, I’ve posted some links to some videos using Ooh Ahh and one new song.

Thanks!!!

The I.E. Team

Ooh Ahh from Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift

Kobe Bryant highlights with Ooh Ahh

The Ooh Ahh Dance?

Here We Go video – another Grits hit by I.E.