Independent musicians need permission from featured artists and their labels to release collaborations. Major labels rarely clear features for unknown artists, and established artists typically demand full upfront payment. Build buzz through solo releases and promotion first, then established artists are more willing to feature for free and labels clear the deal.
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Hi guys, so I'm going to talk about features and side artist agreements. Look, I have no glasses on! What the frizznick? What's going on? Anywho, I just wanted to switch things up. So side artists, when you feature an artist on one of your songs, you need to have the permission to do that from whoever they're signed to. If they're independent or unsigned, then you don't need an agreement from the label that they're signed to. You just need for them to say, "Yes, you can use my likeness and my voice and my face." Um, but if they are signed to a record label, then you need their permission as well as the artist's permission. And here's the thing: when a label signs an artist, they're not super excited about spending all that money to build the artist's brand and market and promote them so that another artist can come along and benefit from the feature. So it is not always easy to get a label, especially a major label, to clear the artist that you want to use. And where this becomes a little bit problematic is for those of you that spend the money to actually have somebody appear on your song. And I don't want to use any examples because I don't want to embarrass anybody, but I've seen a lot of unsigned artists, do-it-yourself artists, independent artists that will go and sign— that will go and feature someone who's signed to Atlantic or Universal or Warner or Sony or Def Jam or Interscope or whoever. And then they get frustrated when either they don't have the permission to put the song out because they've already paid the artist to do the, the, um, the bars or the verse or whatever, the hook or whatever you have the artist doing. A lot of people get frustrated because they lose money this way. And if the artist has a really great relationship with their label, they can kind of push it through on their side. They can get the label to clear their appearance, but one, they have to have a great relationship with their label, and two, they have to have incentive to clear it. So if you've already paid somebody to appear on your song and the song is completed and they're paid, there is no reason for them to make any effort if they don't already have a relationship with you to clear the song. So normally the way that's done is you pay half of the money in advance and then you pay the other half once the song is cleared. The problem is most rappers and singers that are already signed aren't going to agree to that. They're going to want 100% of their money up front because they're going to be afraid more of you jerking them than of you getting the permission to utilize them from their label. So having said all that, I also want to say that this is not a great way for you to get on as a new artist. And what I mean by that is if you feature an established artist on your song, if nobody knows who you are yet, it's kind of a wasted feature. It's not like somebody is going to check you out because you've got a famous artist on a song with you, for the most part, it's going to attract fans of that artist. They're going to check out the artist's verse and they're going to keep it moving. The time that a feature really benefits you is once you start buzzing, like once you've already got a little bit of a regional buzz and people kind of know who you are. If you go and do a— get a feature, then it sort of takes you to the next level. But it doesn't take a brand new artist to the next level when nobody knows who you are. So it's really kind of a waste of money. Not only the fact that it's going to be very hard to get a clearance from a major label when nobody knows who you are, it's much easier to get approval from a label when you've got a little bit of a buzz. So the, the labels want their artists to feature on projects that are coming off the streets, but projects that are bubbling, or projects that have a nice buzz, or projects that are by an artist that people have heard of before and that are kind of blowing up a little bit on the underground, it makes an established artist look like they're still really close to the streets, and they want that. That's why you see Drake getting involved in, um, songs by artists that many of you haven't heard of, but I promise you those artists are bubbling in the areas where they're from and in the regions where they're from. And Drake is utilizing them to keep his name close to the streets and close to being in touch with what's happening. And artists want that. They want, they want to be bigger artists, right? They want the respect of their peers as well as to be making money and, um, touring and dropping projects that people are super in tune with and super ecstatic about. But the way that you bring in new fan base and stay close to the streets is by appearing on the songs of the artists that are coming up next, the ones that are about to blow. And it just makes the signed artists look like they're super in touch. So all that to say, if you're gonna pay somebody, you know, $5 grand, $10 grand, $20 grand, $30 grand to appear on your song, you may be wasting your money when in reality you could just buy a really hot beat and be on a song by yourself that blows up. And then once you're in a position where you've got a strong buzz, you're going to be able to attract bigger artists to get on songs with you for free, and that their labels will be happy to clear because of the level of buzz that you have. You know, Roddy Ricch has no trouble getting artists to appear on songs with him. You know, Rod Wave has a really nice buzz in the Atlanta area, so I'll bet he has no trouble getting artists to appear on songs with him. That's when it does you the most good. You can't really use an established artist when nobody knows who you are yet to get on. It just, it doesn't work. And I've tried, I've tried it many, many, many times. It just really doesn't work. It's too soon. It's a waste of your money. It's better to put your money into marketing and promoting and build a buzz to get yourself to the level where somebody that has a name and somebody that is established recognizes and wants to jump on a song with you. Okay guys, I hope that was helpful, and, um, this will be appearing on YouTube tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in to another 2020 Vision, and, um, haha, I'm not wearing glasses today.
