You all may remember our quick post about Spike Lee’s deal between Spike DDB and Goldmic.com last month, while we weren’t able to get a statement from Spike DDB Goldmic’s Managing Partner David Lemoine was happy to answer a few questions about Goldmic in general and give his thoughts on his deal with Spike DDB.  The concept is interesting and has a ReverbNation hip-hop aura to it.

Goldmic.com is a Hip-hop social network that is specific to underground and independent artists; how does this translate into unique product features on your site?

Goldmic.com is meant to be a platform for aspiring artists, semi-pros AND also ANYONE who wants to share their original creations and get feedback from the community. The sharing aspect means a lot to us. Beats, songs, mixtapes, poems, rants, short vids, you name it. No elitism here, it can be any kind of material as long as it is hip-hop related. Most of the material out there is original content but members can also post any non-original content they deem relevant (articles, vids). For instance you can find some vids of Fresh Daily or Mickey Factz (as I haven’t found their profiles on Goldmic I assume some fans of theirs have uploaded their vids).

In a nutshell, our members run the show, they really do. Some are extremely talented, some are slightly less. Yet it doesn’t matter, we welcome anyone who wants to share their creations with our community. Goldmic is all about creativity, freedom of expression, fraternity and entrepreneurship…that’s the spirit of Hip Hop.

What is the most popular feature on Goldmic.com?

Battles by far (text, audio, or video battles) then beats, songs, and videos.

Has anyone ever been signed from posting content on the site?

Not officially as rumor has it that Soulja was discovered on MySpace More seriously, we know a couple of up-and-coming artists who have been with us for a little while (X-Dash is one of them). They haven’t been discovered on our network per se, yet A&Rs took a look at their contributions on Goldmic. We also have some underground artists who are interested in collaborating further with us in order to increase their exposure. For instance I’m thinking about Final Outlaw (check out his new video “hip hop 4ever” on Goldmic) or Sciryl. We also work with local indie entertainment companies to connect with new artists (holla at CEPA Entertainment in Washington Heights - NYC).

What makes Goldmic.com different form any other Hip-hop social network?

The user-generated content part (including the battling platform) is in our opinion more important than the basic social networking features you can find here and there. On other sites people create an account, link up with friends they’ve been hanging out with in real life then they interact. On Goldmic the process is totally different; our members drop their beats, songs, rhymes and so forth THEN they exchange with the members who took a look/a listen at their creations and wanted to give their feedback. That’s the main difference. Goldmic.com has been soft-launched a little while ago without any financial backing whatsoever and all the hard work is finally paying off. We are here for the long run and we can’t thank our community enough for supporting us.

How does Goldmic.com make money? Is it solely ad based?

Advertising in all shapes and colors.

Can you share any information on your recent deal with Spike Lee’s agency, Spike DDB?

Spike Lee and his team teamed up with us because they like Goldmic first and foremost. I certainly won’t put any words in his mouth nonetheless I can say that Spike likes the philosophy within the site. Knowing what he is all about and what he believes in, it’s an immense honor for us. It kind of validates our concept, it demonstrates what we’ve been trying to do with/through Goldmic and adds some sort of legitimacy (besides the daily support and feedback of our community). Now what we’re going to do with him and his team? The nature of the partnership has been made public through the press release. Beyond that we hope we’ll work together soon on other projects that may be on the road ahead.