LIVE with Wendy Day #008 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hey, this is Wendy Day. Thanks for coming to my live stream. We're gonna get started in a couple of minutes, so just chill out, kick back, and we're gonna be right with you with some great information. Pond 5. I know you're anxious to get started and you're saying, where is she? But I'm filling up the cup with with Diet Coke. I'll be with you in a minute. You're gonna get some great information today. I'm really excited about this. Pond 5. Hey, I'm almost there. Bear with me, it's gonna get started in a minute. Hey, thanks for tuning in though to the livestream. I'm so happy that you're here. I've got some great information for you today. Hang in, I'm almost there. Pond 5. Thanks so much for tuning in. Make sure you share this with your friends, and you know what, hit that little subscribe button. I'd love to have you subscribe. Hey, this is Wendy Day. Thanks for coming to my live stream. We're gonna get started in a couple of minutes, so just chill out, kick back, and we'll be right with you with some great information. I know you're anxious to get started and you're saying, where is she? But I'm filling up the cup with Diet Coke. I'll be be with you in a minute. You're gonna get some great information today. I'm really excited about this. Pond 5. Hey, I'm almost there. Bear with me, it's gonna get started in a minute. Hey, thanks for tuning in though to the live stream. I'm so happy that you're here. I've got some great information for you today. Hang in, I'm almost there. Thanks so much for tuning in. Make sure you share this with your friends, and you know what, hit that little subscribe button. I'd love to have you subscribe. Hey, this is Wendy Day. Thanks for coming to my live stream. We're gonna get started in a couple of minutes, so just chill out, kick back, and we're gonna be right with you with some great information. Hi guys, how are you? I hope you can hear me okay. We have no internet at our house right now. There was a fake tornado this afternoon. It was crazy. I was downtown, right, and there was this big glass window. I was in a restaurant and I was having lunch with my friend Anisha, and all of a sudden we looked over and the wind was like whipping like this, but it was pouring down torrential rain. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I wish I had thought to hit record on my phone so I could, um, so I could film it because it was— I've never seen anything like it. It was amazing. But I'm happy to be here tonight. I apologize if the connection is a little bit slow. Um, we are going through my iPhone. I have attached my cell phone to my iPhone. I'm attached to my laptop to my iPhone so that I could still go live. And, um, wow, yeah, we had a really, really, really bad storm here in Atlanta today. Okay, so you guys, can you, can you see me okay? Can you hear me okay? Hi, Shante! Right now my feed is not moving at all, so I'm assuming it's just a little bit slow. Um, I know, I'll just talk slow and then you'll be able to hear me. Okay guys, let's get started. Hey Bubble, how are you? You doing okay? Okay, this is from Young Crenshaw and he was watching, um, a video I did talking about Cash Money, um, with MREC TV and Jordan Tower and it spawned some questions, so I'm gonna answer them, um, publicly just in case you guys, um— oh good, I'm glad the sound's coming through. So it's just like normal? Really? Wow, that's crazy. Um, technology, can't live with it, can't live without it. Okay, so, um, Young Crenshaw was asking me, um, what masters are and what does it mean when you keep your masters when you sign to a record label and why is it so important. Masters are the actual ownership of the final mixed and mastered recording that you use to either put on iTunes or to burn CDs or to stream, like it's Spotify. It's the ownership of the physical, um, master recording, the physical original of a song or a full-length album. And the reason it's so valuable to keep your masters is when you own the masters, you control where your music goes and who you can license it to. And what I mean by that is if you decide that you want your song to be in a Chevrolet commercial or a tequila commercial, you then have the right to sign off on the use of that song. If the record label that you signed to has ownership of the master, then they get to dictate where it's going to go. Um, the only place where this is really a problem is I got a call from a rapper a couple years ago, and he said that his song was being used in gay porn. I don't know how he knew, but he said that his song was being used in gay porn, and it really embarrassed him. He felt that it wasn't good for his image, for his music to be in, you know, in porn, let alone gay porn. And unfortunately, because he didn't own the masters, he didn't have the right to control where his music was licensed. He had— he got paid for it because of the publishing, but he didn't have the right to say yes or no. Um, another thing about owning your masters is, you know, let's say that you're a Christian rapper and you don't believe in alcohol, or you're a Muslim rapper and you don't believe in alcohol. If you own the masters and a tequila company comes to you and says, hey, we love your song, we want to put it in one of our commercials, you then have the right to say no to that. It's very hard to get ownership of your masters. It's where, um, the money is for a record label. They want to be able to own it instead of master it, and they want to own it as long as possible, usually in perpetuity. Um, so masters are a great thing to, to have ownership of. We were able to do it in the Cash Money deal and in Master P's deal. Um, and then I've done a couple of deals where the masters reverted back to the artist after they achieved a certain level of sales. But it's— in, in today's economy, it's really hard to get ownership of the masters.. And then Young Crenshaw also wanted to know how advances work, what front end and back end means. Um, when you sign to a record label, usually a major record label, you get an advance. With independent record labels, you don't necessarily get advances, um, because they want to use the money. The money is more limited, so they want to use the money for marketing and promotion. Rather than supporting the artist lifestyle. So, um, so, um, what they usually do is when they sign you to a deal, they give you an advance. And that advance, it can work two ways depending on the major label that you sign to. Sometimes that advance includes your recording budget in it. So you may be signed to a $250,000 advance or a $300,000 advance and they expect you to record your album out of that music, they may give you $50,000 of that as cash to live on and then spend the rest on the recording of your album. You get very little say in recording. They usually choose the studios that you're going to record in. The label usually chooses the producers that are going to work on your record. They usually have the vision for how it's going to work because they put up the money. And they feel that by controlling you completely, that it limits their risk on losing that money that, that they're advancing you, right? And then anything that isn't spent from that advance, um, is then paid out to you after you deliver the record. That's the back end. So if the— if you have a $250,000 deal and they give you $50,000 of it up front, and then there's a $200,000 budget, if you only spend $180,000 recording your album, they'll usually cut you a check for that $20,000 back end. And I hope that was clear. Okay guys, Ron Flip, you are a little bit late, but that's okay. Ahaha, thanks Measy. I make Wednesday feel like Fridays. Yay for Friday! Hi Dave from DC, how are you? You're asking if there's a digital collection agency that collects royalties from artists from free streaming sites like DatPiff and Spinrilla. There is SoundExchange, which collects money from the internet radio stations, but they don't collect money from Spinrilla and DatPiff, at least as of now. Um, DatPiff and Spinrilla are 100% um, free streaming sites. Um, I know that, uh, SoundCloud is talking about paying. I know there is a paid level at SoundCloud. I think I saw that on, um, one of the last royalty statements that I saw. But in terms of, um, the mixtape sites, no, they're not monetized yet. But guys, make sure you sign up for, um, For SoundExchange, it's soundexchange.com, because anytime that your music is streamed on the internet, um, you'll get paid. And it— and, and the, the amount depends. It changes from, um, licensing period to licensing period. It's not a lot, but you know, it's something. It's certainly more than you probably have right now, so let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Okay, Ron Flip, since you're here, I will answer your question. Okay, um, I paid for a verse for an artist to be featured on my song, like a major recording artist or a big indie artist. Do I technically own his verse? No, you do not. Um, you're going to sign a contract with him, um, the artist that gives you the verse giving you the right to, um, profit from his verse, but he's going to own it. He's going to own the publishing. You're going to own the master use for that. Um, if he's signed to a label, then you need the permission from the label in order to feature that artist. For example, if you're going to put Gucci Mane on your record, you're going to have to get permission from Atlantic for him to be on the record. Now I realize that at the level that many of you are, you're gonna, you're gonna spend all of your money getting that feature for Gucci Mane. You're not gonna have the money to clear it through his record label, and you're gonna think, okay, I'll just put this out, and when they come see me, then I will pay them. Um, just understand that may work, but there's also a good chance that if the record's really hot and it starts to grow they would have the right to send a cease and desist to stop it from going to radio or to stop it from making any kind of money at all on the internet. And since you guys are, are kind of new to this, I don't know that you want your introduction into the music industry, um, to be you getting cease and desisted by a major record label. Um, Ron is also asking, well, what if he was signed to a major before, but now he is independent. If he recorded the record when he's independent, he can give you the permission to use it. But if he recorded it while he was still signed to the label, technically they would own it. Um, if it were me, I would probably, um, either say that he recorded it after he left the major, or I would ask him to re-record it. So that it would be outside of his contract. They're probably not going to spend the money to send a cease and desist. Um, for example, if the artist left in January, um, and were no longer signed to the, to the major label, and then you put the record out in March, April, May, June, sometime in there, I can't imagine they would spend the time to chase you down and ask exactly when you recorded it. Um, but just know that if they are signed to a major or an independent label, um, you have to get the permission from that label. Once somebody signed, they have to actually, um, get permission from the label to use it because the label owns them. Meezy's asking me what my favorite, um, 3 hip-hop albums are. Definitely Paid in Full. You guys probably weren't born yet when that came out. Eric B. and Rakim, that's one of my favorites. Um, wow, that's a tough one. Um, it's very hard for me to separate albums that I've worked on versus albums that I listen to, right? I really loved Young Jeezy's Thug Motivation 101. Um, that's definitely one of my favorites, and probably Eminem, Slim Shady. But again, it's hard for me to separate like the music that I've helped build and the music that I just like to listen to. And the truth is, I actually listen to NPR more than I listen to rap these days. Not that I don't like rap, I love it, but, um, I like to keep in touch with what's going on in the world, so I listen to a lot of NPR. Hi, Mike Doe. Um, I think that's awesome that Kevin Hart claims he has more money than Floyd Mayweather. Hey Ronnie Lee, how are you? Mike Dono, I don't believe that that's true, and the truth is I don't care if it's true either. I don't care who has more money. I'm driven by such different shit than money, as you can tell. Like, this is free, right? If I cared about money, I'd be charging each of you $9.99. Zico, do I think that more female artists like Young MA will have the chance to rise in the rap game, or is this a rare chance? My experience with females in rap is that they don't sell as well, they don't become as popular. There are more male, um, there are more male fans than female fans in hip-hop, and it just seems like men don't necessarily buy women's albums. Women do. I know Nicki Minaj does really well, but she's more pop, right? Um, I think Young M.A. has a really hot song right now, and I think that she'll go far with that song, but I'm waiting to see if she's got a follow-up. Um, for me, my personal belief is that she's got a really hot song, and it's the song that's blowing up, not necessarily her. But I think they're doing a really good job with her because she's performing like almost every night of the week. She's got a headphone deal, she's got a shoe deal, like she's got all these wonderful branding deals. I think, I think whoever is, is behind her is doing a really great, great job with her. She's about to go out on tour too in February, which is amazing for, um, somebody who's so new to the game, right? If an artist has a budget of $50,000, how would I advise them to spend that? Um, I guess what I would, I would advise them to do is shoot videos for the songs, put as much music into the marketplace as possible, um, use the money to spread the music. And, and this depends on where you live in the country and the type of music that you make, um, but you're either going to hit the streets really hard, you might hit the clubs really hard if your music is more clubby, um, or if your music is more lyrical, you might hit the colleges a little bit harder. Um, it's very hard for me to sit here in my house and advise you of how to spend money because I haven't heard your music. I don't know who your fan base is. I don't know who your market is. Um, but I would definitely work the streets really hard. I would work the internet and social media really hard. I would buy Google Ads and Facebook Ads to build the fan base. Um, I would get my music on as many playlists as possible at Spotify and Apple Music. Um, and I'd probably go on a promo tour. Um, and that's probably the $50 grand right there. If I were in the Southeast, I would press CDs. If I were in California or the Northeast, I would use download cards that had links to my music. King Peavy is asking me, after he finishes his mixtape, what should the next step be? And the next step would be to market and promote that mixtape, get it up onto all of the mixtape sites, um, make sure that you've got some presence on those sites. And just purchasing all the right packages can cost you anywhere from $7,500 to $10 grand, which kind of galls me because you're actually paying $10 grand to give away free fucking music, and I don't like that, but it's a necessity in today's music industry. Make sure that you have a distributor, even if it's like a TuneCore, so that you can get your music up on the commercial sites and all the streaming sites. Even if it's a mixtape, make sure it's all original music in order to, um, to be able to sell it. But I would suggest that you sell it as well as giving it away for free, because if somebody really likes it, they will support you, they will buy it. But market and promoting it, um, King Peavy, is, is really, um, what's important. Um, Ronnie Lee is asking me what NPR is. It's National Public Radio. It's N like Nancy. PR, NPR. It is public radio and it talks about different news of the day and different topics, you know, politics, culture, all sorts of cool shit. You know, I was listening to one of the shows on Saturday and it was like a contest and the question was what street gang in New York is named after a Ralph Lauren product. And I was so excited because it was the Lowlifes. And of course, that was started by Thurston Howell III, rapper. So, um, I thought that was pretty cool. Anywho, you can tell you're getting old when you listen to NPR. Coop de Trill, what up? You are asking me, when you sign to a label, are you also signing as a gimmick? Because a lot of these artists aren't who they claim to be. Um, not necessarily. It's, it's each individual's choice what their image is. There's a lot of people, especially here in Atlanta, that make dance songs. So they'll make like JuJu on the Beat, or they'll make like Juice, or they'll make different songs that get like young people to dance to their song and record it like on Musical.ly or Triller. And it seems like it's an easy way to build a fan base pretty quickly. The problem with doing it that way is that it's very difficult to sustain. It's very hard to put out, you know, a dance record, then another dance record, and then another dance record, and keep the excitement for that artist going. In terms of artists being real, which I think you might have been asking— I may have answered a different question than what you asked— yes, there's a lot of street artists that pretend that they're real, and they pretend that they're gangster and from the streets. There's something about that mindset of somebody with an 'I don't give a fuck' attitude that attracts fans to them, probably because we all have really stressful lives. And sometimes, like, we fantasize about being really pissed off and punching somebody in the face or pulling out a gun on them. So sometimes there is a release involved when you're listening to music, um, from a guy who's talking about, you know, punching people in the face and pulling guns on them. And, um, yes, there's a lot of times that those people are not legitimately from that world and they're pretending to be. But, you know, do you get mad when you go to the movies and you see Tom Cruise playing a mob guy, and then in the next movie you see him playing a doctor, and then in the next movie you see him playing, you know, maybe somebody who's handicapped? You know, it's, it's entertainment. So that's about all I can say on that topic. I don't believe in, in, um, in gimmicks. I think that it's important to be real. I think that society today cares about authentic, and I think that no matter who you are, that's what you should portray. Because the problem with pretending to be something you're not is you got to keep it up, you know. I don't know if you guys remember, there was a, a character called Pee-wee Herman And Pee-wee Herman was like this little weird comical guy. The problem was he couldn't take off his costume whenever he was in public because people wanted to see Pee-wee Herman. They didn't want to see, you know, the guy who was the real guy. And I just, I can't imagine going through life pretending to be something I'm not, but I guess to each his own. Thanks, Ron. I love you for that. I just set up my, my new consulting site too. It's helpfulangel.com. We restructured it over the past couple of months and I just launched it this weekend. Oh yes, the— everybody always asks me this, and if you're If you're older than 25, I'm gonna depress you. Um, Streets Influence CEO Jones is asking me what age do I think is too old to be trying to rap and get in the game. Um, the fan base for rap is 14 to 26. So if you are 30 years old and you're rapping, or you're 40 years old and you're rapping— and I mean new to rap, I don't mean like Jay-Z or 2 Chainz— I mean if you're brand new trying to get into the game and you're older than 30, if your fan base— if the bulk of your fan base is 14 to 26 or 13 to 26, you're going to look kind of old to them. Um, my experience is that if you're older than 25, or if you look older than 25, it may be a little challenging. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. It just means that it's going to— it's going to be difficult for you to get on. And yes, I know that 2 Chainz was 38 once he blew up, but he came into the music industry in his late 20s. Okay, Oil P is asking me what genre of music sells the most in my opinion. Um, if I look at the statistics, it appears that rock right now is outselling everything else. Country does really well. Um, but my, my lane is rap, so, um, I don't really look at other genres and how well they're doing. I really look at rap. If you're asking me what genre of rap sells the most, um, it's pop. Anything pop is going to sell more than, um something that's like super lyrical. Um, the more mainstream you can be, the more you're gonna sell because the more people you're gonna reach. Okay, Droba Tussin is asking me, how do you get permission to use an artist's masters for remix purposes? Um, you reach out to the, um, Business Affairs Department at the record label. You explain to them what you're trying to do and you ask them, um, what you need to do. Usually a lawyer will call for you and they will get the clearance for you to do that. Um, bear in mind, if you go— if you go through the artist and have him call his own, or her call his own, her own record company,— it's going to be much easier to get permission than if some guy they don't know out of the blue is calling trying to get permission. But if you can get that artist at that label on board, sometimes they have a little bit more pull than you would, especially if they're doing well. The label is going to want to keep them happy. If they're not doing well, it's going to be a little, a little challenging. Okay, Zico Majors asking me— thank you so much for answering your question. You are welcome. Um, for a girl like you, I would need to be consistent and work harder to build my brand. Oh, it's not a question. Absolutely. Um, as a female in rap, as a white female in rap, I have always found that I had to, um, work a little bit harder to prove myself. Um, but you know, I can't say— I can't say being white and female has, has slowed me down in rap. I mean, I'm sure there were people that didn't take to me, but I'm sure there are just as many people that didn't take to me because I speak my mind. Like, I don't, I don't stop to think about how I say something. I just say whatever's on my mind, you know. I'm a fat girl, I like to eat. So I'm sure there's people out there that look at me and say, oh, she's fat, I don't want to fuck with her. So there's a million reasons why people could choose to not really pay attention to you. My best advice would be to put on blinders, have your goals in front of you, and just go for it. Just achieve your goals. That's what I do. I just— I look at what I need to accomplish and I just plow through it until I do it. I don't really stop to think who has an issue with me, who doesn't. I wish I cared. I don't. Measy's asking me if I have any tips on building a career while working a full-time job. Um, yeah, that's a rough one. Um, what I did to start my career— and I'm not saying you should follow what I do at all— but what I did was I went and worked in corporate America, um, from when I got out of college until I was 30, and I just banked as much money as I could. I lived like I was really poor, and I banked money, and I said, you know what, I'm going to work in the music industry full-time, and if I can't make it before my money runs out, then oh well, I'll just go get a job and I'll give up my dream of, you know, working in the music industry. I worked in Corporate America, I worked in sales, I was pretty good at it, so I made quite a bit of money. So I was able to work for a couple years without having to get a job. Now, there are times in my past where business would be a little slow, and I would go get like a part-time job just so that I'd have a little bit of income until things picked back up in the music industry. I know a lot of people in the music industry that drive for Uber, and I think that's a great thing, you know, a great way to make income and still be able to, you know, pull in money. If you have a 9-to-5 job though and you're not making money in the music industry, you're just gonna have to work, you know, from when you get home, 6 o'clock at night, until maybe midnight, you know, every, every day, you know, if that's what you got to do. It's, it's how much you can handle. You know, I've always admired, um, people that had kids. I never had kids, so when, when I was building my company— and I'm 24 years in now, almost 25 years in with my company— I always was amazed at the women that could balance starting their companies and having children. You know, I, I had lunch today with Anisha, um, she's Bone Crusher's ex-wife, and they have 5 kids. And I was amazed at like listening to her talk from when she was managing Bone Crusher. It's like she had 5 kids at home, so she had to make sure that they all got to school and got home from school, and you know, there were meals on the table. Like, I can't even imagine that in my life, you know. Shante Smith is asking me about Young MA, um, females and gay community. How do I think it's going to be acceptable in the rap culture? I think the rap culture is really changing. I think younger people don't give a shit about sexual orientation anymore. Um, I watched Young Thug build his career on misleading people into thinking he was gay just to get them talking about him. You know, he's, he's wearing a friggin skirt on his album cover, and the entire industry didn't shut down and die from that. You know, I think people are getting more open-minded. I think times are changing. I know back in my era that wouldn't have happened. Like, there's no way he would have been accepted in the '90s, you know, pretending to be gay in order to get attention or wearing a skirt on his, on his album cover. He would have been ostracized. Ron is saying that, um, he went through a trial and error period with janky promoters and consultants, and he learned his lessons. Um, but he still has good relationships in the business. Relationships are everything. Like, as long as you have a good relationship, um, it just— you should keep that up because, you know, relationships last forever, pretty much. Um, at least mine do. You know, there, there are so many times where I'll need to call somebody and ask, hey, how are you doing this? Like, I see, I see your artist going on tour more than my artist does. And they make similar music, you know, what's your secret? And people will be very forthcoming with information when you have a relationship. I can't just call them out of the blue and ask them that, you know, they wouldn't, they wouldn't tell me. They would either lie or not take my call. But, um, you can certainly, once you have a relationship, you can certainly interact with people that can help you move forward. Even something as simple as asking a question or putting you on the phone with somebody, like, you know, making a, a an introduction for you. Okay, Balvo 2 is saying that he is a chopped and screwed DJ and it's really hard for him out here because every time he posts his music it gets taken down because he doesn't have the master usage licenses and he doesn't know how to get them from so many different artists. And he puts his music up through— on iTunes through Soundcast and they sell thousands of dollars worth but they won't give him the money because he doesn't have a master usage license. So for the past few years, all the money's just been accumulating and sitting in the account, and he's wondering if there's anything that he could do to collect that money. And I actually answered him privately on this one because it broke my heart to read this, and the answer just genuinely sucks, that no. You know, I love Chopped and Screwed music. I just think it's awesome. But you can't make money from selling it because you don't own the rights to use that music. And by the time you clear all the artists, one of two things would happen: you couldn't afford to put the music out because they would want too much money to allow you to use it, or the song would be so old that by the time you chopped and screwed it— because it's going to take you months to get the, the clearance, right? Um, and, and that's a downside, you know. You can't put music up for sale that you don't own. That's why you can't jack beats and put them up on iTunes and sell a mixtape, um, with somebody else's beats, because you don't own it. You don't own the rights to it. And that's so frustrating because, you know, remixes are what rap was founded on. Samples are what rap was founded on. And today, if you don't clear samples, you can't upload it to iTunes or pretty much anywhere, you'll get a cease and desist, you know, you'll get a takedown notice. And that's so frustrating because a lot of creativity in hip-hop came from that. It came from being able to experiment and being able to take chances. And I hate that answer, but unfortunately you can't sell music that you don't own. The one thing you can do as a chopped and screwed DJ is you can go to the artist's artists, especially the independent artists, and ask them if they would like their album chopped and screwed, and then work out a deal with them where you're paid a percentage of the sales for the chopped and screwed version. You can certainly do that, but you need the permission of the artist if they're independent. If they're signed to an independent label, you need the permission of the independent label. And if they're signed to a major, you need the permission of the major label. I know when I was working with David Banner, we chopped and screwed every album he had. I think— I can't remember if it was Michael Watts. I think it was Michael Watts that chopped and screwed his albums. But Banner went to Steve Rifkin, who he was signed to at Universal, and said, hey, this is important to me, it's part of our culture, do you mind if we do this? And Michael Watts was paid a flat fee to chop and screw all of Banner's albums, and then they were, they were put up for sale. Young Crenshaw is asking me, what is the best type of deal, in my opinion, that could come close to the No Limit or Cash Money deal? Um, I, I gotta tell you, I just don't think there's any value today in doing a deal with a major label. The only thing a major label has really going for them is the money and the know-how. You've got access to do everything that they do. You can buy radio, you can buy the blogs, you can market and promote. And there's so many people out here today. I mean, God, hip-hop is, is 25, 30, 35, 40 years old, right? I mean, I mean the business side of hip-hop. I don't mean hip-hop as a culture. Or as music, but the business side. There are people that work in the industry, you know, shit, I've been doing this 25 years, right? So there are people like myself that know how to do this and know how to make money from music. And I find it easier for artists to find an investor today than it is to get a record deal. So I just don't, I just don't see the need to sign to a major label and give them any cut? You know, why not go right to a distributor and make 80% of the money, right? You can get an 80/20 split from a distributor. Dark Brothers Entertainment is asking me how effective I think boosting ads on Facebook and Instagram is for music. I think it's, it's very— I think it's very effective. We do it for all of our artists Just make sure that you know who your market is and who you're trying to reach. And I guess what I mean by that is if you're a street rapper and you're making, you know, shoot 'em, shoot 'em, kill 'em, kill 'em, drink lean music, I don't think you should target Drake fans with your ads. I think you should target, you know, Kevin Gates fans. Just make sure you know who your market is and because you can waste quite a bit of money, um, placing unsuccessful ads. I think it's important for you to really understand who you are as an artist. Killafuse is asking me, should you work on making your buzz by doing mixtapes and freestyles before you put a lot of music on, um, iTunes? And then he said, never mind, I just kind of answered it. Um, I, I think that there is no more development in rap music that the artists have to develop themselves. And the more music you put out, the better you're gonna get, and the more fans you're gonna get, provided you market and promote it properly, right? So I think that it's important to hone your skill. And if you're gonna hone your skill through freestyling, so be it. If you're gonna hone your skill through battle rapping, so be it. But just understand that it's music that makes money. It's not freestyles, it's not battling, it's not the skill side of rapping that makes a lot of music. That, that's not to say that if you're whack, you, you should, you should make dance songs and, and cream off on the money, right? You still have to have skill and you have to have talent, but understand that that's not necessarily what's gonna make you wealthy in the music industry. If you can make music that people dance to, if you make music that people want to hear when they go to the clubs on, you know, whatever night they go to the clubs, if you make party music and more pop mainstream rap, you're gonna make more money than if you're just super duper lyrical and you're showing your skill all the time. So, um, it's the— it's the songs that sell, but it's the freestyles and the battling that develop the skill, right? Just my opinion. Um, Denise is asking me, in my opinion, who has the best distribution deal out there and do some of them assist with marketing as well? Um, no, usually a distribution deal is exactly that. If the distributor is going to kick in some marketing and promotion or radio or video, either you're going to pay out of your pocket for that because you have a distribution deal, or it's going to be more of a joint venture. So if, let's say, I sign to— let's say I'm signed to RED Distribution and it's a straight distribution deal, right? They're Sony's independent distributor. If I wanted— if I didn't want to go and hire my own radio promo person to work with me and I wanted to use somebody at Sony, I would— I could probably work out a deal where they would give me a credit to hire that person and then take the money out of my income. I could probably do some sort of a hybrid deal like that. For me though, I wouldn't do that. I would keep my distributor and all of my marketing and promotion separate because I would want to control that. I wouldn't necessarily want to have Sony's radio department work my record. They have so many other priorities on their desktop. I'd be worried that because I had just a distribution deal and they only made 20%, you know, for distributing me, I'd be worried that they would focus on a record where they could make more money, where they had like maybe 85% ownership. Ronnie Lee is asking me if I pay for Trouble to get on WorldStar. No, I never pay for any artist to get on WorldStar. WorldStar is not a place where fans go to discover music. It's a place where they go to see naked women slap each other, or bum fights, or some other sort of sensational stuff that's going on in terms of video. Um, my experience is that the artist has to have some awareness, like some renown, for people to actually watch their video. Um, I've noticed a lot of the newer artists don't get a lot of hits on WorldStar in comparison to like the known artists. So we didn't put Trouble up on WorldStar until they started reaching out to us and asking for his videos, and then we started putting them up on WorldStar. WorldStar exists because they want people to come to their site and they want to be seen as, um, breaking music, right? But they want to break known artists like Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Lil Yachty. Um, they're not trying to put like MC Bobo up there that doesn't really bring anybody to the site. And it's funny because I argue with my clients all the time. The first thing they want to do is get up on WorldStar because they go to WorldStar themselves as artists and they see other artists and they want to be seen on WorldStar because they're there. But you don't make money from being on WorldStar. You don't really build your reputation. So many artists have, you know, not listened to me and put their videos on WorldStar and it doesn't work. And then they call me and say, man, I should have listened, I just blew you know, $7,000 or $10,000 or $25,000 on WorldStar. And, um, it's just there's better places to spend the money until you're known. Once you're known, then it has value to them to put you up because it brings in the fans. Is it good to make— um, this is King Peavy— is it good to make different songs for different markets when building your career? No, I think you should pick a market and stick to it. If you're all over the place, what's going to happen is somebody's going to come to listen to your music because they liked a certain song that you made, and when they find that your other music doesn't sound like that, they might, they might not embrace you any longer. It happened to Trinidad James. He had all gold everything, and then none of his other music sounded like that, and people didn't embrace him because they expected everything to sound like all gold, everything. Good night, Ron. You're welcome, Denise. Okay, um, Ron Flip, who just left, and hopefully he'll watch this and I'll let him know, um, but he asked how often should he post his promo material online on his timeline. Um, and the thing about your social media is you want to use it to engage your fans. You don't want to always be promoting and selling because nobody's going to want to look at your feed. They're just going to like whiz right by it because it's, it's just always promotiony. It's important to put other stuff up. So I can't really answer how often you should do that. Um, I know on some of the artists that I work with, the only time we post anything promotional is when they have a new song dropping. Um, on that day we might post once or twice that there's a song dropping. Um, I know for my own, um, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, I'm really careful about not being like a promotion whore on my social media. You know, like I've got a ton of sites that I utilize to sell contact lists, right, to, um, to do consultations, right, to set up labels for people. And if I was always on my feed pimping that, like, you guys wouldn't, wouldn't ever look at my feed. So I always make sure that I'm focusing on showing you like pieces of my life and quotes that really resonate with me. You know, if I'm on Instagram and I see somebody post something that I really agree with or something that I really care about, I'll repost it. Or same with Twitter, I'll retweet it. But you notice when I go live on YouTube, I say it one time. I go on to my, um, Instagram and I go into my Twitter usually at about 6:45 to remind you guys that I'm going live. At 7, but that's it. I don't, I don't blow up my feed because I don't want people to unfollow me. And you got to really make sure on social media that you're interacting with people so that you're talking to people. Don't just use it to like put your stuff out there. Don't always be like just throwing stuff at people, you know. Interact with people. When people make comments, you know, respond to the comments. If it's somebody that you know that you haven't spoken to in a while, you know, hit them back and say, hey, how have you been? Go to their page and like a couple of their pictures. It's, it's, it's just like real life. If every time I saw you in person you were trying to shove your music down my throat, I would avoid you like the plague. Um, this social media is not any different, you know. You don't always want to be like pushing at people, pushing and selling, pushing, selling, pushing. It's like, God, So, um, it's up to you to figure out what's too much, and I would err on the side of not being too promotion-y because I wouldn't want to see my— I wouldn't want to see my numbers drop. Um, Ron is also asking me if I know of any investors that would be interested in a project that's already mixed and mastered. Um, unfortunately I don't. When artists come to me to hire me, they've already got their investors in place. Um, I guess if I had investors on tap, I'd probably be like the most, um, popular girl in the music industry, wouldn't I? Um, most of the, most of the folks that hire me, their investors are people that they've known for a while, or people that saw them hustling and really liked their work ethic and wanted to help them because they saw them really struggling and, you know, out there every day passing out flyers, out there every day passing out music, you know, doing shows a couple times a week even if it's for free. I think those are the traits that attract somebody to investing money with you because they know that you're not just going to take the money and trick it off. They know that you're actually going to work hard and and make it happen. Okay, Pro is asking me what do I think is a fair percentage in a split sheet when I have an artist featured on my tracks. Um, I'm assuming you're a producer asking me that. I'm going to answer this both ways because I really don't know if you're a producer or an artist. Um, a producer should always own 50% of the song because they made the beat. So you're going to own half the publishing, 50% of the publishing, right? Because it's 50% of the song. Um, if you're an artist and you're asking me about split sheets when you have an artist featured on your song Um, most— what this is, everybody has their own opinion, right? What most artists seem to do is they break that remaining 50% of the song. 50% goes to the producer, and then the remaining 50% of the song, they usually break into 4 pieces. So each verse, if you've got 3 verses in the song and a hook, each is worth 12.5%. So if you have an artist that comes in and does the hook for you, they own 12 12.5% of the song. If, um, if you have somebody featured on one verse, they would get 12.5% of the song. If they're on there for half a verse, then they would get 6.25% of the song. Um, again, that's not carved in stone. It really depends on, you know, your leverage. My guess is if you featured Drake on a song and he did a verse or a hook and you offered him 12.5%, my guess is you'd get a call from his manager saying, oh, oh, hell no, we get a bigger piece because it's Drake. So again, it's all negotiating, it's negotiable, right? You get what you negotiate. You don't get what's fair, you get what you negotiate. Oil P is asking me if Taxi is a legitimate site. Um, I believe Taxi is legitimate. I don't know of anybody in the rap world that has gotten a deal from Taxi. Um, there are no websites that you can go on to get discovered. Um, that's one of the biggest fallacies in the music business. You don't get discovered in the music industry. You build a buzz and then the labels sign you because they see financial value in you. S. Lewis is, um, answering somebody about, um, negotiating as we speak. Um, it is very hard in the music business because investors are nervous to touch it. It has a very high failure rate, um, and that's probably why investors gravitate towards folks that are already doing something on the street, because it reduces— and by on the street, I mean marketing and promoting, right? Um, because it reduces their risk. They can actually see you working, and they can see your buzz. They can feel your buzz. So it's much easier to— it's much easier to invest in somebody that's doing something than somebody that is not, or that tells you that they're going to but they haven't started yet. Alicia is asking me, can your city be hard to break, or are you not working hard enough? No, every city is— it's hard to break into every city where everybody lives. It's hard, always hard to break at home. Most of the artists that I work with, we break them outside of the city, like in the smaller areas in the surrounding areas, and then once we get them buzzing, we bring them back into their home area. AKW Beats is asking me how I feel about beat leasing producers and artists. I am not a fan of beat leasing because I can't put money into marketing and promoting a record that the artist doesn't own. So I am not a fan of beat leasing. I'm a fan of exclusive exclusivity. Um, I talked about this at length, uh, last week live and in the very first live that I did. Um, somebody just asked me— here it is. Zico's asking me if I think Houston is a good market for independent artists. I think every market is a good market for independent artists. Um, a lot of success has come out of Houston. I think it's a little bit harder today to pop in Houston, um, than it was 10 years ago. But I think that as long as you market and promote properly, the great thing about Houston is there's a very large fan base of rap fans who live there. So I think it's a great market for that. And Zico saying that, um, You relocated from your hometown so you could move more in your career. I think that's smart. I moved, um, I moved from New York to, um, I moved from New York to Atlanta because Atlanta was kind of, um, a rap mecca back in the late '90s. And I was coming here so much that around 2006 I said, shit, I should just move there. So I did. I've been here 10 years now. You know, it, it's, um, you're asking me compared to other cities, and I think no matter where you're from, unless you're from like the plain fields of Iowa where there just aren't a lot of rap fans, potential rap fans, I think wherever you are is a good market. Remember, you're not going to just work the market where you live. I'm here in Atlanta, and when I work with an artist from Atlanta, I hit all of North Florida, I hit Alabama, I hit Mississippi, I hit North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee. So you go in an area that's a little bit larger than just your hometown. You're never— I shouldn't say never, it's going to be really hard for you to blow up just off of the local area where you are. You need to reach as many people as possible. There may just be 1 out of 1,000 people that are going to appreciate your music, so you're going to have to hit like 100,000 people to get 1,000 fans. So you're going to have to go outside of your market in order to hit the demographic that is going to support rap music, which is usually like 13 to 14-year-olds up to 26-year-olds. Lamonica Tolliver is asking me, Wendy Day, do you have to pay DJs to play your song, or will becoming a mutual friend be enough? It depends. It's, you know, it's both. Um, I don't play DJs. I don't pay DJs to play music because once you play— once you pay one— I'm tongue-tied tonight. Once you pay one DJ, you're gonna have to pay all the DJs. Um, you know, the music industry is this big and everybody talks. So if you pay one DJ coalition or you pay one DJ, then you're gonna have to pay everybody, and there's just not that much money in a budget. So I always make sure that I work the streets. Um, you're welcome, Denise. I make sure that I work the streets super hard to, to blow the artist up so that the DJs have to play the record because the fans in the clubs want to hear the record. They hear it on the streets, so they want to hear the record in the club. And you should always build relationships with DJs, whether you pay them or not. You should always build relationships. Pro is asking me, is it hard to clear a sample? Um, not for me. I hired Deborah Manus Gardner from DMG Clearances to clear them, and she does a great job and she's affordable. Angel Lane is asking me if Baltimore is the next city to blow. I don't think there is a next city to blow. I think wherever there's an artist that has great music with, um, with a proper budget to market and promote I think that's what blows up. And I think if that person lives in Baltimore, then that person will blow up in Baltimore. If they live in Atlanta, they will blow up in Atlanta. If they live in Miami, they will blow up in Miami. It's really about marketing and promotion. It's not about where you're from. And cities don't blow, artists do. And I don't mean that in the, um, yeah, you already know. Oil P is asking me if I think there will ever be a market for a child rapper again. Um, I don't know. I think most fans are 13 to 26, so I think that market is what most people that understand the data— and, um, you deliver, you deliver music that your market will buy. Um, will 13 to 26-year-olds buy an 8-year-old rapper? Probably not. Um, there aren't a whole lot of 8-year-olds that have access to their own money. Their parents have to really buy it. So you have to appeal to the parents of the child in order to sell music to a child. It's also really hard to work with a child rapper. You've got to have the contract approved by a judge. And then when that person turns 18, um, the contract automatically nullifies. So you have to re-sign them, and they would have the opportunity at that point to go elsewhere. So, um, I don't know that a label would want to invest in somebody, you know, who was like maybe 14 or 15 years old, to know that, you know, in 3 years after they invest millions of dollars into them, they can just leave. S. Lewis is telling me, I've been at this so long and just seeing light. I know. Um, I was the first to help you with contracts on Rap Coalition back in the AOL days. This is no joke, and I'm not even an artist. Thank you, love, I appreciate that. Um, yeah, you know, my whole career I have just believed in helping people. I think that knowledge should be free. Or relatively close to free, and I just feel that there is unlimited wealth and abundance in the world. I don't feel that I should keep all the, the information to myself. I feel that I should share it with people because it's the right thing to do. And just because I succeed doesn't mean you won't, and just because you succeed doesn't mean I won't. We can all succeed. And if we've got great relationships, then, you know, we all win. Just my opinion. Hey, did you guys see my, um, my shirt? Isn't this fly? This is my logo. Isn't this cool? Woo-hoo! I had a meeting today, and AJ, the gentleman that I was meeting with, brought me t-shirts with my logo. I just think that's so cool. I love my t-shirts. Akeel is asking me, how do songwriters and producers, the people behind the scenes, develop a name or brand for themselves since they are almost exclusively not in the spotlight? Um, you network with the people. If you're a songwriter, you network with the people who buy songs. There aren't that many people, and you get to know them really well. You develop relationships. It's the relationship that matters first. And the second thing that matters is success. So somebody who has written a hit record for, um, I don't know, Rihanna, is going to find it really easy to place records with other pop singers because they've already had success. But that's definitely a relationship business. Drobotusin is saying he never figured— I'm assuming you're a guy, forgive me if you're a girl— I never figured Uzi Vert to be from Philly. I'm from Philly too, I bet you never figured that. Thank you, I like my logo too. Thank you, I like my shirt too. Well guys, thanks for putting up with me tonight. I've been rambling for a little bit over an hour, so I think I'm gonna stop here. Um, I, I hope it hasn't been slow, the connection. My Wi-Fi is out because we had really bad weather here in Atlanta. We had a fake tornado, um, but the wind was just really bad and it, it rained like an amazing amount in a very short period of time and it knocked out my Wi-Fi, my internet here at the house. So I am streaming this through my phone. I'm on my laptop, but the connection is going through my phone. So, um, shout out to AT&T. I hate you bastards, but, um, thanks for, for, for letting me, um, stream tonight. Um, Angel Lane is asking about ghostwriting. I'm gonna have, um, I'm gonna interview somebody who does that. The problem with ghostwriting is that you really need the relationship. It's still taboo. I guess you guys all saw the Meek Mill versus Drake hubbub about ghostwriting. It's still pretty taboo, but I'm gonna see if I can get Mad Skills to let me interview him on here in the next couple of months so that you can, you can learn about ghostwriting. But again, you've got to be, you've got to really be in the mix. You've got to have relationships to do that. And Miguel Bain, yes, it is good to have a street team, um, and it's good to have street teams in person and online. Guys, thanks for tuning in tonight. I appreciate you. Bubble, thanks. I'm not sleeping on that Tether action. I'm really thankful. You should have seen me at 5:07. I was panicking to Tony. Oh my God, oh my God, I can't get along, I can't get a live. Fix the Wi-Fi, fix the Wi-Fi. As if it's his fault, right? Like he created the tornado. So, um, he's like, calm down, we're gonna tether your phone, it's all good. And it was really easy to do, so I'm happy. Guys, thanks for tuning in. Um, this is going to post to YouTube in a couple of hours, so you'll be able to watch the replay. And I'll go through it in the next day or two, and I will put below any links. I think tonight I only talked about soundexchange.com. But I'll put the link below just so that you have it. And you can always check out, um, rapjewels.com, R-A-P-J-E-W-E-L-S dot com. Um, what I do is I post these videos at Rap Jewels, um, so that they're in order so that you don't have to like go through— I noticed with my YouTube channel it's kind of pandemonium. It's just like everything's kind of posted in there all over the place.. So I tried to be a little orderly on RapJewels.com. Um, I posted everything in order, and then if I have any articles on my blog that are appropriate, I post them below the video so that you kind of have all the same information in one spot. Thanks for tuning in. I will see you guys next Wednesday. Make sure you email me questions, thisiswendyday@gmail.com. And I'm happy to answer as many questions as I can. Okay guys, take care, have a good weekend.