GenDigital

Pepsi Signs Mariah For Ringtones

Mariah Carey has signed a new deal with Pepsi, the number two soft drink company and number one snack food company among college students, to write and record downloadable ringtones as part of an upcoming summer promotion. The deal with Mariah will be a part of a broader music effort Pepsi will unveil on its Pepsismash.com web site which will offer several more ringtones from popular recording artists.

Music Watch: Promoting Soon To Be Asian Hip Hop Stars

I saw this piece in the UCLA Daily Bruin, the unversity's campus newspaper. At the end of the day for Gen Y, it is still all about the music...don't believe me? Look at what's top of mind: American Idol, iPods, iTunes, CD burners, etc. I find the musical tastes of Gen Y to be very heterogeneous, one second they are listening to a jam band like Dave Matthews and then next second its rap from Jay Z. Bottom line, this is an audience segment that enjoys a wide variety of musical genres. Given the fact that Asian Americans have been pretty much absent from the hip hop scene, it was intriguing to see what one ambitious student at UCLA was doing. David "FD" Nguyen runs a site called Aznraps.com which promotes up and coming Asian American hip hop artists. The site has become more than just a grass roots success, he recently received an on air mention or "shout out" on BET's popular Freestyle Friday from hip hop artist Jin, who is also Asian. Just as Gen Y gets really into reggaeton or Latino style hip hop, one can expect the same thing to happen with Asian hip hop artists and you can refer to David Nguyen as the ambassador of the genre. The tenacious four year student at UCLA wants to own his own label, clothing line and all the associated goodies, right now I'd say, he's in a good spot to make those dreams become a reality.