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Platinum R&B heavyweight Donell Jones has been producing real R&B since his debut album ‘My Heart’ in 1996. Even without a label throwing their full machine behind his albums, Jones still manages to stay relevant, creating fans all over the world, by creating timeless music.

 Singersroom: What’s your plan for social networking and becoming more interactive?

Donell Jones: I’m throwing myself in it whole heartedly man. It’s the new thing. I mean you can connect with your fans and be one-on-one.

It wasn’t like this like ten years ago when I first came out. When I first came out, you had to send in your fan mail and now you can talk to your fans directly; you can even do a video chat.

It’s crazy how technology has changed but it’s the best thing for music right now.

 I think for a lot of people in my position going independent, it’s going to help in a major way because not only is the music business suffering a lot, the record labels are really killing themselves because they are letting go of a lot of  great artists right now.

 It’s almost like they don’t know what they’re doing…like they don’t understand the internet. This is a big marketing tool and they are still going off the old ways they ran business.

Singersroom: Yeah man…I always wondered why these labels don’t create music portals for themselves internally.

Donell Jones: Exactly…I be thinking about how would you let iTunes come in and make a music store and you haven’t thought about doing it yourself. That to me doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

They didn’t think about it and somebody else jumped on it. I guess this is why the deals that they are giving up right now are 360 deals.

 I think that’s kind of terrible.

A lot of these artists really make their money from going on the road and now they want a piece of your shows.

So it’s like, is it really worth it being an artist on a label?

I mean they have the money to back you as an artist but at the same token you’re never going to make anything because they are going to pad the books so bad that you are always going to be in the red.

Singersroom: So what advice do you have for a new artist that is approached by one of these deals?

Donell Jones: It depends on how much money they are putting on the table. I mean I gotta look at it like this, some of these guys never had money before and the type of money they might give out probably could help someone’s family. Sometimes you have to take it, but as far as a person in my position, I wouldn’t take it.

 If you already have a fan base and you know how to connect with your fan base, it makes no sense to go get a record deal, not unless they are putting up a hell of a lot of money (laughter).