LIVE with Wendy Day #009 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hey, this is Wendy Day. Thanks for coming to my livestream. 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 Diet Coke. I'll be with you in a minute. You're gonna get some great information 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. 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 with you in a minute. You're gonna get some great information today. I'm really excited about this. 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. 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 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. Hey everybody, how are you? Notice the new background? Okay, let's get started. Thanks for tuning in, Misi. Have a good night. I think that's awesome that you guys show up to tell me, hey, I can't stay, but thanks for having me. That's very cool. Thank you, Coupe de Ville. I appreciate you. Desario, I hope I'm saying your name right. Welcome. This is, um, Desario's first stream with Wendy Day. Native, how are you? Um, Native, I just put up my, um, podcast. I need the theme song. And I need it soon. Um, yeah, I didn't have enough to do, guys, so I actually started, um, posting podcasts. You can see them at iTunes. They're called, um, Raponomics. I almost forgot the name. Oh, that's fucked up. Um, it's called Raponomics, and you can find it on, um, SoundCloud, or you can find it on iTunes. You can search Wendy Day Raponomics. All one word, Rappanomics. Um, a lot of it is, um, just the sound to these videos for those of you that want to listen while you drive or while you're doing other stuff, and you can't really do that, um, with YouTube, can you? Um, so you guys sent me lots of questions this week, and I'm going to try to keep up with the feed like I always do, but you know I'm a little bit, uh, slow on the uptake on that. Um, Charles Banks is asking me about songwriting. How do I go about doing it? Um, he thinks he has to get BMI or ASCAP. BMI and ASCAP are performance rights organizations. Until you are performing live or your song goes to radio, there isn't much they can do to help you. Um, and you guys ask me a lot about songwriting. I'm gonna get Ray Daniels to do an interview with me so that we can educate you guys on songwriting, because I don't really know enough about it to be of any help to you. It's not something that I do. I don't, I don't shop songs. I don't sell songs to artists. But I do know— what little I do know about it is that you've got to get more connected into the music industry. You've got to get connected with, um, the publishers that actually look for songs. You've got to build relationships with the artist directly. If you're trying to write for artists like, um, Rihanna, Beyoncé, like the larger artists, there's a whole inner circle of people that you got to break through. And it's probably going to be a little bit easier for you to find a manager that's in that circle. And again, I'm going to ask Ray Daniels to do an interview with me about that, and that'll be sometime in the beginning of 2017. And I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful on that. You know, after 24 years, there aren't many questions that I can't answer, but that's one that I can't answer. I'm certainly not gonna blow smoke up your ass and tell you something I don't know about. Thank you for noticing the new background. I appreciate you. That was Shante Smith that said that. Zico, you didn't miss me, here I am. Amadei is asking which is better, TuneCore or CD Baby. I get that question every week. Um, you should go back and watch last week's live stream with Wendy Day. Um, it's within the first 30 minutes that I talk about that. And I think I'm gonna have to, um, I think I'm gonna have to write an article about all the different distributors too. Zico's asking for some advice about working a single. Um, absolutely, you want to work it on the streets first. Um, pass out copies of it if you are in an area where CDs still matter. I suggest that you pass out CDs. Um, if you're in an area where people do more downloading, like New York or the Northeast, most major cities, people tend to download more than they listen to CDs. Ditto if you're going to be working college campuses. You might want to print up some business cards that have all the different links to all the different songs— excuse me, to all the different platforms that people can listen to your song on. If somebody prefers YouTube or iTunes, or if they prefer SoundCloud, you want to make sure that you've got a link there that they're comfortable with. You don't want somebody to go outside of their comfort zone to discover new music. Bomb Productions is saying, getting with Warner Chappell, I guess any big publisher is a big help. Um, I'm not a fan of big publishers, I gotta tell you. I know that they always sign artists and they say they're going to shop work for you, but I've heard so many artists complain that that hasn't happened for them that it's hard for me to, to co-sign that. But maybe what I'll do is ask one of the guys at either Warner Chappell or Sony Publishing, Sony ATV, or Universal Publishing to do an interview with me. What's a good time frame? King Peavy's asking me what's a good time frame I should promote my release date before I drop a project to build hype. Um, I usually drop the projects right away as I'm building the hype because the thing about the new music business is that everybody wants everything now. They don't want to hear about something that's coming 3 weeks from now or a month from now. And since we're independent and first week sales don't matter to us, um, what matters is all sales, not just first week sales, right? So why not put the project out there and then promote it while it's already out there? So if somebody goes to discover one song, they can find them all. That kind of makes, um, sense to me. Guys, you're, um, your, your, your, your computers are freezing. I had that problem last week. I was actually streaming through my phone because of that storm. My Wi-Fi went out and I was going through my phone in order to broadcast live because I didn't want to miss you guys. And, um, that was just crazy to me because it kept slowing down in spots. Like, I would— I'm looking at myself, right, on my laptop, and it would just kind of freeze. But I knew you were still there because my feed kept going, so I just kept talking. And hopefully it worked. I haven't watched the, the video from last week, so I don't know how bad it looks. Okay, Jermario Jefferson, I hope I'm pronouncing your name right. Um, you're saying, how long after dropping a mixtape should a new artist wait to drop another? Because timing is crucial. Somebody's been watching the videos. Um, with Trouble, we drop every 5 months or so. I would like to drop every 4 months. But that's just a little bit too fast, um, for his process. He's somebody that records like 100 songs and then picks the best 10. So it's very hard for me to get him to drop every 4 months, but in today's economy, I prefer to have as much music out there as possible. I've noticed that his price goes up commensurate with the amount of music we have in the marketplace, so Um, I, I wouldn't drop any faster than every 4 months. Um, as a new artist though, like every 4 to 6 months seems like it's a good amount of time. Don't just drop and sit back though, right? You got to promote it, you got to market it, you got to bring the fan— you got to bring your music to the fans and get them, um, excited about your movement. Lamont is saying he has so many videos to watch, he's gonna have to have a full book of notes for my videos. There's no doubt. Um, and thank you so much, I appreciate you guys. JB Sanchez is asking, can an artist sell their music with a very limited budget? You know, that's funny because that's one of the questions that I have here tonight, um, that somebody asked me, and, and I noticed that it's not you that asked that, so I'm gonna— two birds, one stone, right? Um, it is very hard to promote with no money, right? It's very hard to promote with a limited budget. What I suggest you do is make a list of all the stuff that you want to do to promote your music and then price it out. Figure out what the cost is. You know, if you want to give out t-shirts, put that on the list. If you want to press up CDs to hand out, put that on the list. Download cards, put that on the list. If you want to travel to some of the cities nearby the city where you're based, put the travel on the list. Figure out everything you want to do, price it out, look at, look at that cost, and then figure out one of two things. Either can you afford to do that? If not, where are you going to get the money to do it? And if you can afford to do it and you can't get the money to do it, then what are you going to take off the list? What are you willing to not do in order to promote yourself? I have yet to see anybody succeed with no budget. That's actually the question that I was emailed, um, what do you do if you have no money at all? Um, you go and you get a job and you get some money so that you can market and promote yourself. Unfortunately, this is not a free industry, and you're competing with other artists that have budgets. So in order to stand out, you're going to have to have better music than everybody if you have less money. And you're gonna have to be extremely lucky. And I would rather tell you to wait and stack your bread until you're at a point where you can market and promote properly than to put out a little bit of money and lose it all, right? That's just my own opinion. You got to do what is best for you. There's a million artists out there with no money promoting and, you know, trying to, to get lucky. So Give it a shot. Courtney is asking me, how do I feel about producer showcases and beat battles? Are they worth the money? Courtney, I can't answer that. I don't know anybody who has built a career as a producer through beat battles. I know of a lot of guys that enter them. I know a lot of guys that have won them, but I don't know anybody that's actually built their career doing that. Um, I, I guess if you enjoy beat battles, and I do, I, I like watching them, um, I guess if you enjoy them, there's no harm in doing them. But do them because you like them, not because you're expecting to get on or sell tracks from doing them. Do it for the sake of doing it, right? Do it because you enjoy it. JB Sanchez is asking, how can an artist gain fans so they can do bigger shows? You gain fans by marketing and promoting your music. You spread your music to as many people as possible, um, and you find the ones that like it and you kind of keep them in your, in your purview. So you engage with them on social media, you might build a mailing list and email them monthly what's going on in your life, what your new music is, where you're doing shows. You gain fans by building a buzz. Building a buzz means you're gaining fans. And if your music is really great, people will spread it to their friends. When somebody really likes your music, they're gonna share it with people that are like-minded. Hi Joshua, how are you? Thank you for all the nice comments that you left. Um, I just went through and answered all of my— well, I didn't answer, I responded to all of the posts that you guys had, um, put on my YouTube page in the past 3 weeks. It's, it's very hard for me to find time to do the, um, the videos that I do and the podcasts that I now do, as if I don't have enough to do. And get my work done. So I'm a little bit slow sometimes on getting to your responses, but just bear with me. Knight Rider Films is asking me, if my budget is only 10 grand, in what way would I promote with such a small budget? The truth is, Knight Rider, I wouldn't promote with 10 grand. It's just not enough for what I need to do for my clients. My clients depend on me to help them make money, and I don't think I could get a return on investment with $10 grand. Um, the truth is I spend that just on pressing CDs, so it wouldn't be enough money for what I do. But for what you do, if you were to only have $10 grand, um, and you can go back and look at either the first live or the second live event that I did, I answered the same question. Um, but what I would do with that 10 grand is I would definitely move around a little bit bigger than just the city that I'm based in. I would go outside of my city. So I would have a budget out of that 10 grand. I would budget enough money for gas, food, hotels. And I would— what else would I do? I would probably— I would definitely press CDs. And again, this depends on what area you're in. Because not every area is conducive to handing out CDs. For example, in New York City, if I went out and handed out CDs, people would look at me and say, why are you handing out these giant coasters? Like, they wouldn't even know what they are. Um, I would hand out download cards. Um, I would also probably get on some showcases so that I could perform and hone my skills. Um, what else would I do with 10 grand? Wow, that's hard. That's a really hard— I would definitely do a lot of promotion online. I would probably, um, hire somebody that's skilled in social media marketing, and I would build my fan base online. That's probably the, the most inexpensive way to build a fan base. But just remember, you can't just build a fan base online. You've also got to do it in real life too. Hi Alloy7, nope, I just started, um, about 20 minutes ago. Zico got an idea, yay! Did the light bulb pop up? Hi Joshua, I'm not sure I understand this question. Um, you're asking me if you're in a group home, is it possible to be a rapper? You've got some family problems. Um, absolutely. I know homeless guys that became rappers. Um, David Banner was homeless when I met him. In fact, he lived on my sofa for 6 months. Um, it doesn't matter where you're from, your attitude is what matters. Bubble, um, Bubble, you can check out my podcasts. You can check them on iTunes or SoundCloud. Um, the podcasts are called Rappinomics, and, um, most of them are just the MP3s from my videos. Um, I do have one up on touring that Tony and I did that's different than— it's the same topic, but it's different material than what we posted, um, online. Tom Sofford is asking me biggest fear, mine or yours. Um, my biggest fear is being bored. It's always been that. I'm terribly afraid of being bored. Um, prior to that, one of my biggest fears was disappointing my mom. She has passed away, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. But what's really funny is I never really disappointed her, but it really— it was a fear, and like most fears, it was unfounded. Um, sometimes I have a fear of heights. Um, but that comes and goes, you know. Sometimes like I'll be on the ladder and I'll get woozy, and then sometimes I can be standing on a roof looking down and I'm fine. So I, I don't, I don't know where that one comes from. I hope you meant me because that's what I answered. JB Sanchez is asking me any tips on launching a successful email blast campaign. I don't do email blast campaigns. They have never worked for me. Um, so I probably don't have any tips on launching a successful one. Um, but you should definitely reach out to folks that do have successful blast campaigns and ask them what they do differently. I know that the most important thing in any email campaign is getting people to open the email. So I would Google, um, how to get people to open my emails and read some, you know, some, um, folks that do that for a living. See what they have to say about the subject. Joshua Evans, is there a way to get noticed fast? No, pretty much there's no way to do anything in the music business fast. Even if you were to punch Chris Brown in the face on video and get WorldStar to put it up, yes, you would get noticed quickly, but you'd be forgotten in about 2 or 3 days. Some people would always remember you as the guy who punched Chris Brown in the face, but would they remember, you know, Joshua Evans the rapper? Probably not. Um, I think the only way to do this is through hard work. I've never seen somebody come up really fast and, and last, unfortunately. Trinidad James is a great example, and he's a really good dude. Misha's asking me, what does it take for an artist to get me to manage them? I don't manage, so it's impossible for an artist to get me to manage them. Emma Day, you're welcome. Niz is asking me how much is a good budget for being my client. Um, I don't want to make this a sales pitch for Wendy Day, so you can go to my website, which is helpfulangel.com. And that'll answer any questions that you have, because I really don't want to sit here and like— that's not my motivation here. My motivation is to help you guys, and, um, I don't think pitching my services— I'm extremely expensive for what I do. So the reason that I do these and my podcasts and my articles is so that the people who can't afford to hire me still have knowledge so that they can do it themselves. That's really my mission. I don't do this because I want to get hired. Mac the DJ is asking me, um, do I have any advice for DJs to get on the radio or on tour with an artist? That's really cool that you asked that, um, because that's another question that I printed out, um, for this week. There was a DJ out of Philadelphia that asked me the same thing about getting on tour with— about getting on tour with an artist. And to be a tour DJ, you've really got to build a relationship with the artist or the manager. You know, they're the ones who actually decide who is going to be the tour DJ. So it's really important for you to build that relationship And then, um, to get on radio, you need to have a demo that you can hand to program directors when they're looking to fill slots. Um, bear in mind that most radio stations want to utilize DJs that already have a fan base built in, somebody that's got a buzz. For example, there's a new radio station here in Atlanta, and I got an email yesterday from DJ Scream saying that he is going to be on that station, which is really exciting. It's an iHeartRadio station, and he was hired to do one of the shows. Um, DJ, DJ Scream brings an audience because he's DJ Scream. So that's really what radios kind of— radio stations kind of look for is somebody that has some renown in their area. So the best advice I could give you if you're a DJ is to build your popularity because once you have a following, you can pretty much pick and choose what you want to do. Thank you, JB Sanchez. You're afraid of boredom too? No shit, that's my biggest fear. Seriously, I hate being bored. Julian Murphy is asking me what I think about Def Jam Distribution. Is it good for artists and does it help promote Um, my opinion about distribution is that one is as good as another. Um, what a distributor does is they get your music onto all of the platforms— Spotify, iTunes— whether it's for streaming or download sales. And then a traditional distributor is going to get your CDs in stores as well. Um, but we're talking about digital distribution right now, I'm pretty sure. And, um, and they collect the money. So as long as they're doing what they're supposed to do, I think one is as good as another. Um, the thing about like Universal or Def Jam doing digital distribution is they're going to take a split. It's going to be like an 80/20 split or, or 75/25 split, meaning they're going to take the 20%, you're going to take the 80%. Since all they're doing is getting it up on the sites and collecting the money. I just don't see why they should get more than nothing to do that. Like, that's their job, right? So why are you going to give them a portion of your income unless they're going to help you get on the front page of iTunes, or unless they're going to help you get in playlists on Spotify? But if their whole goal is just to get the music up onto the site and pay you your money, why wouldn't you go through a distributor like TuneCore? Or I think DistroKid is even the same type of platform where you pay to put your music there and then they give you 100% of the income. That just seems to make more sense to me than giving somebody, um, 20%. But I guess if you don't have the $19.99 to put your single up on TuneCore then the next best choice would be to do an 80/20 split, and Def Jam would be as good a resource as, you know, any other. Just make sure they can get you onto the platforms you need to be on. Make sure that if you get an offer from another label to do a deal that you don't have to pay a fee to leave, and ask if there are any other services that they offer that you need. Um, Marta Sheck is— am I pronouncing your name correctly, Marta Sheck? Um, you're asking what are download cards for. It's a business card that lists all of the links to your music so that people can check out your music, um, based on, um, wherever they prefer to listen to music. So if there's somebody that prefers YouTube or SoundCloud, that link would be on the download card so that they could go check out your music wherever they want to check it out. Square team is asking me to send my email address to you, thisusername@gmail.com. Um, you can just email me at thisiswendyday@gmail.com, guys. My email address is all over underneath these videos. You can, you can find it out easily. It's, it's right there for you. Joshua, to become my client, you would need to have an investor. Julian is asking me if Def Jam Digital Distribution helps artists market and promote their music to help them get a buzz. You would need to ask them that. I don't run Def Jam Distribution, so I don't know that. Um, but if they do, they're going to take a bigger percentage of your income than, um, 80/20 for sure, because they're going to be spending money. And you're also going to have to have a little bit of a buzz already in place to make it worth them picking you up to do that. My guess is that they don't do that, but they can answer that better than I can. Hi Misha, Misha, I don't know how to pronounce your name. Um, you first met me in Florida at Coast to Coast. Yes, I was at Coast to Coast, not this past year but the year before. Jay Carrilla. Okay, Josh, thanks. Fat Boy Benz. JB Sanchez is asking me what are some ways that an artist can build their equity. You read somewhere that Chance the Rapper makes $220,000 a show. Um, that doesn't surprise me at all. Um, the way that you build your equity is you build your fan base. The more money somebody is willing to pay to— for a ticket to see you, the more money the promoter is going to pay you to, um, perform. And there's two videos that were posted last week about how to get paid doing shows. Amadeus asking me if there's any good platforms or companies to promote music or music videos online. Um, I don't use any companies online, um, for promotion. I use people in the real world, even if they're great at online ventures. There's just too much fuckery that goes on online if I don't know somebody. And I don't have a relationship with them, I, I don't hire them. You know how Drake said no new friends? I have very few new friends. There's just too many people that pop up and, um, there's too many people that pop up and say they can do something when they really can't. So I really make people, um, show and prove. Okay, it was Sean Cole that asked me, um, if an artist can build a buzz with no money. And, um, his example was Bobby Shmurda and Young MA. They both blew up with two hit songs, and he's wondering if they had money behind them. Um, I believe that they both did. I'm not— I'm not part of either of their camps, so I can't speak from experience on that one, but my best guess in watching where their records went and where they blew up was that they each had some sort of a budget. Vibemaster JV sent me an email. It's not really a question, he's just asking me to explain to you guys. He's been in the industry for a very long time, and he's given me a great idea to write an article about what you have to give up in order to succeed, because success doesn't come easily. And he just wants me to remind you guys that the artists that win are the ones that are willing to go really far the ones who take that extra step to become successful in spite of all the obstacles. And he says that most artists are seen as being lucky, but they're not. It's really hard work, and that luck is when persistence meets obstacles and recognizes opportunity. And he's absolutely correct. You know, um, so many people around me said that Drake was an overnight success, and Drake was like a 10-year overnight success. Like he really worked at it. He put out, um, 2 mixtapes that I know of before he got signed, and I'm sure there were even more than those 2 that I just never— that I just never saw. Okay, this is from J Snow. Um, J Philosopher is his stage name. He's from Norfolk, Virginia, and, um, he sent me a really nice email asking me to listen to his mixtape. Boo-boo, stop. Um, gangster's going nuts over there if you can hear him. Somebody's at the door and I'm going to ignore them. Um, he's asking me to listen to his mixtape, and guys, I don't have time to do that. So many of you are asking me to listen to your music or watch your videos or give you feedback, and I get too much music to do that. So I don't listen to any of it because I'm not going to play favorites. So I'd rather listen to none than play favorites. And the reality is, me listening to your music does not help you. I know that you want my opinion, I know you want my feedback, but it's better to get feedback from DJs who are the people on the front lines of your music and from fans, because what I think about your music doesn't help. It doesn't matter what I think. So here's what I'm going to say to all of you that have asked me to listen to your music: wow, your song is really great, it's awesome. Okay, now what? I like your song, now what? I can't put you on, I can't get you a record deal. You need to have a buzz. There's nothing I can do for anybody that doesn't have a buzz. If you have a buzz, I can help you get your buzz bigger, I can bring you to the attention of some other people that might be able to help you. But without that, there's nothing I can do to help you. There's nothing anybody can help— can do to help you. I'm sorry, that's just— that's the reality of the music business. Okay, The Year DC7 is asking me if it's necessary to have a Vevo channel for your music videos. Um, is it necessary? No, I don't use Vevo for any of my clients. Um, there just aren't enough people that go there on a regular basis. And for me, it's owned by two of the major labels, right? So my guess is the focus will always be on major artists. Um, I don't use Vevo. Maybe I'm missing out, but the way I see it is, um, Vevo has a YouTube channel. YouTube does not have a Vevo channel. So I'd rather put my efforts into YouTube. I think they're more powerful and they have more reach. And, um, I just don't— I don't understand the benefit of Vevo. If one of you can enlighten me, if you guys have made a lot of money using Vevo, let me know. Um, I just don't see the upside of it. Um, I got an anonymous email from somebody who, uh, read my article on my blog about Digital Radio Tracker, and I guess— I, I guess my article wasn't clear because you asked me what it is. I just wrote an article explaining what it is. Um, Digital Radio Tracker tracks internet radio spins. Um, and the value is that there isn't really any other medium to track internet radio. And for a very long time, I didn't pay much attention to internet radio for my clients because I couldn't tell how many people were tuned into a station, or, you know, or who was even really playing the music. So it, it didn't really have a lot of value to me. And then 5 years ago, up popped DRT, Digital Radio Tracker, and they, um, they track it. So I'm able to pull up one of my artist's songs and see exactly where it was played and the size of the audience that heard the song. The great thing is about Digital Radio Tracker is that I'm able to plan promotional efforts around that. So for example, if my artist is based in Atlanta and I see that he or she is getting a lot of play in Alabama, I can route his promotional tour around wherever he's getting the bulk of the play, because that's an area where they're obviously gravitating towards his or her music. And it shows me that there's a market there for the artist. So, um, I'm big on Digital Radio Tracker. I think it's $40 to pull a report. It's not like BDS or SoundScan where you have to describe— where you have to subscribe to the service. Um, you can just pay per pull, and, um, they have packages. Like, if you're gonna buy 10 of them, it's like $29 each instead of $39 each. And I may be off on the price. It's, it's not my company, so I'm not intimately familiar with it, but I, I do use them and I like them very much. Jordan Kelly has asked me, um, the importance of an artist location. He's a rapper and a songwriter from Oklahoma, and he's always wondered if he should move to Atlanta or Los Angeles to find success in the music industry. Um, he knows that the internet has opened many doors for people in smaller cities, but he thinks maybe his location is a hindrance, and he's wondering if he should move. Um, I'm somebody that's moved twice for the music industry, so I'm, I'm probably a little bit biased. But, um, for me, I, I didn't have— I didn't have kids, I didn't have a husband. So I moved from Philadelphia to New York. I stayed in New York for about 15 years while I built Rap Coalition. Um, I moved to Memphis for a couple of years. Memphis was not a great spot for me. It's a beautiful city, but it wasn't good for what I do in the music industry, so I moved to Atlanta, and I've been in Atlanta the past 10 years. So, um, I'm a big fan of moving to where the community is. Yes, you can do a lot online. I think the internet is great. I use it probably 20 hours a day. But the reality is you need to be able to attend events. You need to take meetings with people. You know, there's things that you need to be able to do beyond, um, beyond, you know, just talking to people on social media. So whether you move or not is really, you know, it's up to you. For me, if I could move every 2 years to a different place, I would. Um, there's a lot of energy that comes for me when I move. Because when I get to someplace new, I'm in that, I'm in that phase of wanting to explore and find out everything and meet as many people as possible. When I've been in an area for like 9 months to a year, I get a little bit complacent and a little bit comfortable. Can you guys still hear Gangster barking? He's going nuts downstairs. I hope nobody's breaking in. I have a license to carry and I will shoot. Wow, I just admitted that publicly, didn't I? Pardon me. I'm looking for questions that I haven't answered already. Okay, H702 is asking me, I see a lot of major artists' singles getting certified platinum or gold, but their album sales are low. Does this mean we should focus on releasing singles only? Rather than EPs or albums. Um, I, I would still do both. Yes, we are going to a singles market. We have for a very long time. Um, I noticed that Jeffrey, which is Young Thug's most recent album, only sold 30,000 copies. Um, but he has a, a performance price that's close to $100,000, so he's kind of doing something right, right? Um, yes, I think that you should really release albums as well because there are events every time you do an event. And I don't mean a physical event, I don't mean like a party. I mean every time you release something into the marketplace, you're going to put marketing and promotion behind that, and it's going to attract the attention of people. So as you drop your singles, I think it's also important to drop an album, you know, drop an extended video, drop a remix. You want to keep dropping as much stuff as possible to get people talking about you as often as possible. Architect Music is asking me if I use focus groups. Absolutely. Do I think they're beneficial? Absolutely. In fact, um, one of my friends, Fly, who runs Think It's a Game Music, um, when he was putting out YFN Lucci's last album before he put it out, his last mixtape, um, or release, whatever you want to call it, it's interchangeable to me. Um, he held 2 or 3 focus groups to figure out what the single would be, and the focus groups really liked Key to the Streets, and he listened to their advice and it went number 1, um, at urban radio 2 weeks ago. Sacred G, I can't get that, um, I can't get that down and dirty. You're gonna have to email me personally to ask that question, guys. If you want to know about a specific, um, company, um, Native Gangster says hey, what up? Um, if you want to know about a specific company, um, email me privately because I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, um cosign or shit on anybody, um, publicly. Tamara Bubble is saying, I don't think the payouts are much better for people with Vevo channels. Most of them are signed to majors, so they don't see the ad revenue regardless. Exactly. What she means is when you're signed to a major label, the money goes to the label, and then once you recoup they cut you your percentage of what is owed to you. In the 24 years that I've been doing this, I can count on one hand the number of artists that I know personally that have recouped, that are at major labels. King Peevee's asking me, what if you have a New York sound but live in Chicago? Should you relocate to New York? Um, I think you need to go where your market is when you're trying to build, um, when you're trying to build your career. Um, there is— Chicago is a market I've spent a lot of time in. There is a market for, um, really, uh, lyrical rap, and I assume that's what you mean by New York rap. I'm assuming that it's a little bit more um, lyrical than what we do maybe say here in Atlanta. But there is a market for lyrical rap. Some people call it backpack rap in Chicago. It's a small part of the market, but it does exist there. Um, Joshua Evans, I do not know where Hobart, Indiana is. Um, I've been to Gary, Indiana. I've been to Fort Wayne, and I've been to Indianapolis. On tour. Um, Native, I love that you're doing this, guys. When you see Rodney Barber in this feed, um, he's asking Joshua to send him his music at nativebarber@gmail.com. Um, Native is actually one of my favorite rappers, and he's very lyrical. So if you want some feedback, I think he'd be a really great resource for you, and he's just a really great motherfucker. And I mean that in the kindest way possible. I'm a New Yorker, so we say that. That's my motherfucker, right? Okay, Crash Bandit is asking me to go into depth about copywriting his stage name. I might have answered this last week. Gosh guys, I'm sorry. I'm gonna do it again though, um, just in case. Um, you don't copyright your stage name, you trademark it. And, um, trademarking is not something that I've ever done myself. I've done a lot of stuff myself, but here's why I'm a little bit nervous to trademark a name myself. Um, one of the things that you do prior to trademarking your name is you run a search. And you pay a company to do that for you to make sure that nobody else is using that name before you claim it as your very own, right? Um, I don't know who to hire to do that. That's why I've never done a trademark, um, search myself. Like, you can go to the trademark website and you can do a search, like a preliminary search. I think they call, um, they call it a Boolean search. You can do a preliminary search in, in their, um, in their, uh, on the website, right? And it'll tell you if somebody has registered your name or not, but you have to go into more depth than just their website. So I have always hired somebody to trademark names for me. Um, if your name is a very common name, like I work with Trouble here in Atlanta from duct tape, and I trademarked Trouble's name for him. And it was extremely difficult. It took me over a year to do it. I didn't do it myself. I hired a law firm that specializes in trademarking to do it, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on Trouble. And it wasn't my money, right? It's my client's money. But I didn't want to spend a lot of his money and then have to change his name a year later, or 6 months down the road, right? Because we were spending a lot of money on, on building his career. So I hired a New York trademarking law firm that went and trademarked his name, and we finally got it. There was a little bit of static because there's a rock group, um, called Double Trouble from back in the day. So I had to write this thesis on why Trouble was different and how the fans for Trouble the Rapper and Double Trouble the 1970s rock group or 1980s rock group, um, why they wouldn't be confused. Which to me is just funny as hell. You know, I've spent 30 years or 40 years listening to rap music, so it's just really funny to me, um, that I had to explain that to, uh, you know, a bunch of old white men. But I did, and he now owns his name. I recommend that you do trademark— you do trademark your name prior to putting a lot of money into your career. Um, nothing is worse than building your name to find out that you cannot use it. Young Crenshaw is asking me if, um, trying to make some noise as an artist starting off, what are some ways to start attracting fans that are looking for music and ways to promote Um, I seem to answer this question a lot. Um, start at the street level, and you want to promote by handing out download cards, or if you're in an area with CDs, you want to hand out CDs. You want to go to high schools, you want to go to college campuses, you want to go to the malls, you want to go to flea markets, barbershops, any place where your potential fan base hangs out, you want to go there and, and spread your music. You also want to do this online. You want to interact with people on all of your social media— on Facebook, on Snapchat, on Instagram, on Twitter. You want to— and not just blast them with your music and your videos, right? You want to engage them, have conversations with them, let them know who you are. Don't just be a promotion machine. You know, talk about your life. It's kind of like what I do, even though I'm sitting here in a room by myself yakking at you guys. Everybody on here knows that I have a dog named Gangster. Everybody knows that somebody just rang my doorbell and I ignored it. You learn different things about people by the content that they expose. I could have not mentioned my dog. I could have not mentioned my doorbell. I'm sure you didn't hear it ring. It rang like 4 times. I'm sure you didn't hear it, but I chose to let my surroundings become part of this moment because it gives you more of an understanding of who I am, right? You've learned a lot about me tonight that you wouldn't normally know just from watching this. That's what you need to do on social media. You need to let people know who you are, what you think, how you feel. Let them know that you're a real person. And start an email list. Like, one of the best ways to reach people is through email. And when somebody becomes a fan of yours, they look forward to it. Like, every month, um, I get an email from Louis Black. He's a comedian, right? I love Louis Black. I think he's funny as hell. And I get excited when I get that email. And every month there's something different in it. One might— it might talk about his tour dates. Another month it might talk about he's doing a play on Broadway. Another month it might talk about, you know, all the different appearances he's made on television. You're not as big as Lewis Black yet, but you still have stuff going on in your life that you can talk about. You know, once a month it's not hard to talk about what you have done in the past month and what you have coming up, right? We all have stuff going on that we can talk about. You can capture email addresses by asking people for them and then, um, send them out that newsletter. Start with, you know, 2 people on your email list and let it grow. You know, I've got, I've got around 9 or 10,000 people on my email list now, and I started with 1 person. Native, you're getting, you're getting swamped with music. Okay, we need to talk because I can have people send you as much music as you want to listen to. Julian Murphy is asking if artists should pay for promo to make their videos go viral on YouTube, or should artists promote themselves online? Um, I think artists should promote themselves. I have yet to see somebody pay, um, to successfully go viral. I have seen many people start to go viral and then feed the, the tiger with money. But I don't know that you can just make a video— like, I don't know that I could take this video right here and then pay somebody to take it viral. I just don't think it's interesting enough for that to happen. When something goes viral, it means people by the millions are sharing it. So it's either like the cute cat doing the 'hang in there, baby, it's Friday,' or it's, you know, the, the, um, what was the challenge where everybody just kind of froze? I forget what it was called, but that was being spread. The ones that were really interesting— I watched Trouble do one of those, uh, the mannequin challenge. I watched Trouble do one of those and he staged a robbery and it was really cool. Um, I watched a gymnasium full of people do one and they were in mid, um they were in mid-action and they were frozen. That was a really cool one. Um, there were a bunch of strippers in a club that did the mannequin challenge and they froze at different positions on the pole. I thought that was really amazing. So the things that people find amazing and are willing to then share with their friends is what makes something go viral. So if you're gonna do something, make it amazing so that it goes viral, you know. And then if it starts to go viral, put some money behind it. But don't pay somebody to take it viral. I think you're getting jerked. Zico is asking me, should I get more mixtape slots over blog posts in order to promote my single better? I'm all over the place trying to promote this single more. It's getting great feedback, but I want more results. Actually, you want better results, I think is what you mean. Um, yes, you should do everything you can Um, if getting mixtape slots is going to spread your music to more people and it's affordable, by all means do it. Just make sure you put it in places where the person with that mixtape that's accepting your song as a slot is actually going to market and promote it. Because if they're just doing it to make money and it doesn't go anywhere, then you might as well not do it, right? And blog posts are only effective if people listen to the music. If they don't know who you are, it's going to be really hard to get them to click on you and, and listen to that song. Um, you know, when I first started working with Trouble, we hired a publicist and it was really hard getting him posted onto the blogs. And we finally stopped doing that because it just didn't make sense. So we blew him up on the streets here in Atlanta, in Alabama, in North Carolina, in South Carolina, in northern Florida. And now whenever he posts something on his SoundCloud page, the blogs automatically pick it up because they know who he is. But until they knew who he was, the blogs weren't helpful to us at all, and neither were most DJs, to be honest. We went right to the fans. Thank you, Mac the DJ. Um, Illflow Bastard is asking me if California still does CDs. I don't know, I haven't promoted out in California in a long time. Um, you're gonna have to look around at your market and see how people are receiving music. Ask around, ask people in your area how they listen to music. Ask them if you gave them a CD, would they, you know, would they look at you like you had two heads? Um, what I do when I come into a new area and I don't know if they do CDs or download cards, I bring both. And then as I'm handing music to people, I start up a conversation and I ask them, you know, which would you rather have? And I know immediately within about talking to 30 people whether it's a CD market or not. But I, I can't do that from sitting here in my house in Atlanta. You're going to have to do that. Your Vision is asking me what the best marketing campaign to have is. Um, if you have a hit on your hands, what's the best way to promote it? Um, the thing is there's not one marketing campaign, there's not one thing that you do. You do a variety of different things. Um, I did a video, I think it was this week, on timing Go check out that video on timing because it talks about, um, blog posts, radio, social media, publicity, advertising. It talks about all the way you work a project. And, um, that to me is the best marketing campaign, and it's, um, pretty clear. Native, you rock. Alloy 7 is asking me if I mind him chiming in. Um, he, he believes that— Alloy 7, I think you're a guy. Yes, you are. Sorry, a little blind. Um, you're saying that unless you have, um, experience with Google Ads, they can end up costing you a ton of money for limited results. Absolutely. Um, my best suggestion would be that you study this a little bit, or you hire somebody that knows what they're doing. Ditto Facebook ads, ditto Twitter ads, ditto Instagram ads. Absolutely. Um, I'm just learning Instagram ads. You know, Instagram for a while was so expensive to use because it's not, it's not clickable, right? Like with Twitter and Facebook, you can post something in the body and somebody can click on it and go right to your website. Well, with Instagram, you can't do that. And with Instagram, you can't really have a lot of type in your advertisement. And I wanted to run ads for the contact list, you know, the, the radio stations and the, and the record label list that I have. And I spent a lot of money running these ads, and they weren't really effective because It's not, it's not an environment that's conducive to reaching people who want to buy lists. It's— using a photograph of the list is not a great way, go figure, to sell a list. So you got to be really careful when you're doing this. You got to know the platform that you're on, understand what your, what your customers or fans are looking for, and hit them with what they want. Right. Ronnie Lee is asking me if working a single is different from working a mixtape. Nope. Um, we work singles because it's easier to get somebody to listen to one song than 15. Um, we use the single as the appetizer and the mixtape as the meal. We hope that when somebody listens to the song, they will want to go hear more music and go search for it. So, um, that's why we focus on singles. It's also very much a single— and I'm not mad that you're late. You remember you can go back and watch this, right? Anytime. This will post like archive in like an hour from now or something, so you haven't missed anything. But in— it's a singles market. Like when people stream music, and that's how, you know, 40% of the population is listening to music. It's even higher in hip-hop. In hip-hop, it's like 60% of our market is streaming right now. So when somebody's streaming, they don't necessarily stream a whole album. When they go to Spotify, they're in the playlist, and the playlists are, are like compilations, right? They're like all different singles. So you want somebody to hear your single, really like it a lot, like really relate to it, really grab on to it, and then go listen to the rest of your music. Like when they're done listening to that playlist, you want them to go and research you and figure out you know, who you are and what else you have. Jose Luis is asking me, I'm a hip-hop music producer and beatmaker and artist. Should I sell beats or focus my time on being an artist because selling beats is slow? Um, it's very hard to sell beats. It's an extremely oversaturated market, and very few rappers can afford to buy beats today, right? It's, it's, it's, it's a tough sell. So, um, you need to do whatever is best for you in order to succeed. So if you're a better rapper than you are a producer, you should absolutely rap. If you're a mediocre rapper but a great producer, you should produce. Like, do, do what you're good at, do what you're passionate about, do what you're comfortable with. So, um, Ill Flow Bastard is saying, make sure you get my book. Thank you. It is called How to Get a Record Deal. And, um, thank you, I really appreciate that. I really enjoyed writing that book. I wrote it like— oh, I'm going to tell you guys a secret too. Um, I wrote it like I was sitting next to you on the sofa, so that when you read it— because, you know, a lot of people in our community, the hip-hop community, don't like reading. So I wrote it very much like I'm sitting next to you. But here's a really cool secret. So I have an audiobook coming, and it's coming this week. And guess who is the voice of my audiobook? Native, don't tell them, don't tell them. The voice of my audiobook is Slick Rick, and Slick Rick is like my hero. Like, he's an icon, right? He's a legend. And he called me one day last year and he said, you know, Wendy Day, I just read your book and it's amazing. I really love it, but I'm a little bit nervous because our community doesn't really read. No shit. So he said, you know, you've done so much for me over the years, you know, can I, can I go into the studio and read your book and then you can put it out as an audiobook? And I said, you know what, I'll do you even one better. Um, I will— if you go into the studio and record it, I will put it out and we will charge a price for it, and you and I will split the money, and it will be an income for both of us. So, um, I'm very excited. It's How to Get a Record Deal. It's the audiobook by Slick Rick. Yay! Okay, so H702 is asking me, what are some places to promote your music in the streets without getting in legal trouble? Um, if you're promoting your music— um, thank you, El Flow Bastard. I'm excited. To. If you're promoting your music, as long as you're not disturbing the peace, I don't think you're going to get in trouble. Um, I have been thrown out of shopping malls for giving out music, so I'm very careful when I'm in a mall. Um, I obviously don't pass out music in front of security. I'm very careful. A lot of people go to the food court and they pass out music. I don't do that because I think that that's inviting security to come. I don't want to annoy somebody while they're eating. What I will do is I will put postcards in a store at the cash register so that when somebody is paying, um, they will see my postcard because there's nothing else to look at while somebody, um, is running their credit card or handing them back change. I think that's really effective. In some of the hip-hop gear shops, I will even give them CDs to put on the counter so that Um, people will take the music. Sometimes I'll offer the CDs, they can put them in the bags when people buy something, and they're happy to do that. It's like a free giveaway. Isn't this lovely? One of my friends gave it to me. Thank you, Denise. Um, Denise, you're here! Thank you, love. And thank you, Native, for doing this. This is awesome that you're, um, making yourself available. Um, at high schools, that's another place where you can get into trouble. Um, so, um, H702, to like further elaborate on your question, um, if you are on the property at the high school, they get a little annoyed, um, especially if you're giving out explicit versions, which I do all the time. I, I'm not willing to press special copies that are clean. I hate clean versions of songs, so I tend to not give away my music to children because I just don't want to clean the music. I hate the sound of a clean version. I do it for radio, but it even bothers me to do it then. It changes the, the sound of the song, you know, when you hear that, that blank or that somebody's spinning the word backwards. It's just annoying and stupid. Um, as, as if a kid hasn't learned what shit means, right? And as if they don't say it when the grown-ups aren't around. But anyway, they get really upset when you give away music, um, on the high school property. So what I have always done, I always use wrapped vehicles when I go out on promo tour. I'll usually pull up across the street from the high school just as they're letting out. I usually open up the back doors, I play the music, and I start giving out stuff to the kids. They usually cross the street, and security never has had a problem with that. I've never gotten kicked off of a high school campus before. Denise is asking me, how can an indie artist get into the playlists that are on Spotify and Tidal? Um, two ways. You want to reach out to the curator of the playlist, whoever's putting the playlist together. They almost always have their email address, um, in their, um, you know, in the little bio for, um, Spotify. If they don't, you can find them on Facebook or LinkedIn, do a Google search for them, reach out to them, ask them how they would like to receive the music. Um, some people prefer a link, some people prefer you attach an MP3. There's also companies that are, um, that you pay like $2,500 to get you into playlists. But, um, my best suggestion would be rather than pay somebody to do it, do it yourself first. Like, get comfortable with that process because once you build a buzz and once those folks are familiar with you, it's going to be much easier to get your music into the playlists than when they don't know who you are yet. And if you need to, um, if you need to know who those companies are, um, hit me by email when you're ready to hire them. Um, Tony's about to hire one of them right now, or he may have done it, um, on Monday, but I'll know in about 3 to 4 weeks how effective they are, and I'm happy to, I'm happy to share the information. Desario, thank you so much. I just think information should be free. Like, it's not like by me sharing how I do stuff, it's not like it's gonna make me less successful because you guys are gonna get more successful. I, I come from a world where, like, when I grew up, my mom taught me that everybody should win. Like, we should all band together and help each other, because we'll be more successful if we're all coming at it as a team, you know, like a basketball team. If LeBron James was on the court and he was playing against the worst team— and, and who should I pick on? The 76ers. I'm from Philly. The 76ers suck. Um, they didn't always suck, but they suck now. If LeBron James got on the court against the Sixers, even though they're not a great team they would still win because they're a team, and you always do better as a team than you do solo. And that's the way I was raised. So I just feel that sharing this information is necessary, and I'm doing it because I see so much misinformation online. Like, there's so many people out there that are still telling you guys to record a demo and send them to the A&R guys, and that doesn't work. You need a buzz. I don't know anybody that has been signed to a major label from just a demo. You've got to have some sort of renown, at least in your own city, for a label to, um, to have interest in you. Um, Il Flow Bastard is asking me, what's an affordable way to get a wrapped van? Do you rent or buy the van? Um, I've, I've seen my clients do both. Um, I've rented a white van when I was working with David Banner We rented a white van from Avis. It doesn't matter the color because you're going to wrap it. But we rented a van, um, for 30 days. Actually, I think it was 28 days to be exact. I don't think you can rent a vehicle longer than 30 days in some states. So we rented a van for 28 days, we wrapped it for $3,000, and we went out on promo tour for 28 days. Um, we took it back in, we re-rented it for another 28 days. It was still wrapped. Then at the end of that second 28-day period, we had the wrap taken off and we returned the van and it was fine. Um, a wrap is vinyl. It doesn't damage the vehicle. In fact, if anything, it protects it when you're moving around and the bugs are hitting it and the stones and stuff are hitting it. It's not chipping the paint, it's actually hitting the wrap. And because the wrap is vinyl, it doesn't really chip. Sometimes it does, but it doesn't really chip like, like paint does because it's, it's got a little bit of give to it. It's a little bit rubbery. And the most I've ever paid to wrap a vehicle is about $3,500. Your Vision is asking me, um, he understands that I'm the one who got Cash Money their deal with Universal. Yes, I did, 20 years ago. Is it worth obtaining a record deal anymore? Nope, I stopped doing— I stopped negotiating, um, deals in 2005. The last deal that I shopped was Bootsy and Webbie. I ended up not negotiating their deal because Trill Entertainment, um, wanted to go someplace else, which was crazy to me, but it's their company, not mine, so I walked away. Um, but that was in 2005. Once 360 deals came into vogue, I stopped doing negotiations for artists because I just didn't— I've never seen a 360 deal benefit an artist, not ever, not one time. So I would rather work with an artist and help them stay independent so that they can make the lion's share of the money, right? I would just rather help somebody become a superstar independently. Jose is asking me, um, about featuring other local artists on a mixtape. Contract-wise, you can verbally agree for free, but that can change very quick. Absolutely, you should sign an agreement with everybody, whether it's an artist on your mixtape or a producer on your mixtape. You should make sure that you Um, oh, you meant how cheap to go? How cheap to go? How to go cheap? I'm not— okay, now I really don't understand what you're saying. Okay, I'm gonna answer it, and if I answered it wrong, I apologize in advance. Um, but you should have an agreement with everybody. If even if you don't have an attorney, you should write something out yourself, at least with an understanding of who owns what. Because you're right, when the money comes, it changes. You know, people have selective memory. So somebody who wrote a part of a hook, when your song starts to blow up and all of a sudden millions of dollars are at stake, they're going to tell you they wrote half of that song, if not the whole song, because that's how they're going to remember it. So I suggest that you get it right there in the studio. Use a split sheet, and right there in the studio, fill out split sheet and everybody takes whatever, writes down whatever percent that they, that they contributed, and you— everybody signs it right there. And then you've got a legal document so that if somebody comes back and says, oh man, you only gave me 5% of the song, I should really be getting 85%, they signed it. Like, you've got a legal document, they signed it, they signed it in the studio, they signed it and they put the date on it. So um, it's just better to do it that way. Um, I've seen more selective memory than not. Sacred G is asking how I feel about selling CDs and download cards rather than passing them out for free. I would love that, provided you can actually sell them. Um, most of the people that, that are tuned in here are relatively new to their career, with the exception of, of a handful of people. Um, and most of these people need to be building their fan base and spreading the word. They aren't even at a point yet where they're getting paid shows. Um, once you start getting paid shows, guys, you should be selling merchandise at those shows, and you should be selling your music. And I'll even go a step further and say that What you should do in terms of monetizing your music is every time you put your music up on like a DatPiff or a live mixtape, make sure that you're also going through a distributor like a TuneCore or a DistroKid or whoever, whatever digital distributor you choose to use. Make sure that your music is on iTunes and Spotify. Um, it's just, it makes good sense to have it everywhere. There are people that are going to love your music and want to support you, and they're going to buy your music even if you're giving it away for free. I'm not sure what you're asking me, El Flow Bastard, about how Apple goes about charting You've seen an indie artist top the hip-hop chart for like 30 minutes. I'm guessing what they do— and I don't work for Apple, so if I were you, I would Google this question, or if you've got a friend that works at Apple, ask them. Um, but I'm guessing the way the charting works is that it's in real time. So if somebody launches a release and they sell 30 copies at noon, at noon they're going to chart wherever those 30 copies puts them on the list, right? Um, I'm working with an artist out of Rhode Island called Flawless, and he was number 23 on the iTunes chart, um, this week. He dropped on Friday, and it just means that he was the 23rd best-selling hip-hop artist for that day on iTunes, or for that week on iTunes. That's what that means. Um, I don't really look at charts because our goal is to monetize music So I don't necessarily care where my artist ends up on a chart. I just care that it's selling. And I'm just as happy with an artist who streams as an artist who sells digital downloads or CDs. Okay, I'm gonna save that one for next week because that's a pretty long answer. Matthew and Dua, I don't remember if I answered this last week. I know you sent this in a week ago, so I apologize, um, if, if I missed it last week. And guys, if I already answered this, um, I apologize to you for sitting through it again. Um, but he found out about me through Cole Mize, and he watched a bunch of my videos, and he has a question that he thinks would make a good topic. He's asking me if— how I feel about artists practicing out loud. Do I think artists should develop and hone their skills privately until they meet a certain standard, or do I think it's okay for them to post work that isn't amazing? I think I answered this, but I'm going to answer it again because I think it's important. Um, because you want to get better at your craft, right? Um, remember that anything you post on the internet lasts forever. So if you post whack verses on the internet today If you become famous like Drake, guess what's going to come back to haunt you? So my suggestion would be that you hone your craft before you start posting stuff. And a great way to do that is at the open mics and the showcases that are in existence in almost every city in this country. So my suggestion would be that you do cyphers with your friends you perform at open mics and that you get your skills up publicly because you want feedback from other people. That's how you get better. Or film yourself and watch the video of you performing. But you want that feedback. You want other people to tell you what they like and what they don't like about what you're doing, right? So that you can get better. And then once you get to a point where you feel like you're okay, you're pretty good, then start posting that online. But don't post Don't post like the bullshit. That could be really embarrassing. It could be like Mobb Deep wearing a tutu, or, you know, Dr. Dre in the glittery crap in the glove. Embarrassing. Although they say, you know, no press is bad press, right? At least, at least, you know, I just mentioned Mobb Deep, I just mentioned Dr. Dre, so, you know, I guess that's not so bad. Jose is asking, um, how much an artist with an investor needs to have. Again, you can go to helpfulangel.com. There is, um, a list there of 3 different plans that I offer, everywhere from a quarter million down to, uh, I think $50,000 is the lowest plan. Wow, an hour and 20 minutes, guys. I think I've answered all of your questions unless there's a drag here. I've answered, um, okay, I have one more. Dark Brothers Entertainment has asked me, now that you've generated a buzz, your promo and street teams are active and popping, you're being booked for shows, now here comes the labels. Can you go into depth about when you finally get that call from a label, when you're taking meetings, who should be with you, and what the process is like? You're asking for a general synopsis of what goes on behind closed doors. Okay, once you, once you've gotten your buzz up and, um, the labels start calling in, and I'm assuming that you want to, um, you want to sign to a major label. You're gonna go to the label, they're gonna— they're going to try to woo you. They're going to fly you at their own expense into either New York or LA, wherever they're based, and they're going to have a meeting with you. And at the meeting, they're going to play your music. They're going to make you feel like you are the second coming of Christ. They're going to tell you how wonderful you are and how they can make you the next star. They can make you bigger than Drake, bigger than Jay-Z, bigger than whoever. Um, and that's their job. They're trying to sell you, and that's not a bad thing. There are many artists who do very well on major labels, and if you are an artist that has no entrepreneurial business sense, then you need a record label. And it would be better to be at a major label than to be signed to an independent because the risk is going to be a little bit higher for you to sign to an independent. I think you should start your own independent, but if you're going to sign to a label, if you're going to sign to somebody else, my best suggestion would be to sign to a major that's been in business for many, many, many decades, as opposed to like a brand new independent record label, unless they're successful. But there's very few successful independent record labels, let's be real. Most people want to get record deals and they say they're an indie label because their goal is to get a bigger deal. But let's just say that you're somebody who feels that a major label would benefit you. So you're at this meeting. The one thing you should ask them is to introduce you to the heads of all the departments. You want to find out who is in charge of marketing. You want to meet the person in charge of publicity. You want to meet the radio person. You want to know if you sign there who is going to be working your project, and you want to do that for two reasons. You want to see if they know who you are, if they're familiar with your project, and you want to see if you like them. Like, if you're talking to the publicist and you think that the publicist is a raving asshole, then you might not want to be at that record label because that's the person who's going to be responsible for your career and getting you onto red carpets and getting you into the blogs and getting you on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. So you want somebody that, you know, that is a pretty decent person and that seems very outgoing. If they're an asshole to you, they're probably an asshole to everybody. So you really want to kind of see, you know, you can't really tell who they are because it's just one meeting, right? But you want to get a glimpse of who are the people that are going to be working my project. If you meet the radio person and the radio person tells you about all the different songs that you have that could have gone to radio, and they give you feedback, and they know the names of your songs, and they know the stations that have played your music, or the stations that haven't where they thought you might have been able to get some play, you can tell who is blowing smoke up your ass and who has really listened to the music. And if somebody is genuinely excited about your project at a record label they have shared your music with everybody in the building that they respect. You know, they're gonna have gone to the radio guy and say, hey, listen to this. So you're gonna be able to get a sense for, you know, how genuine is this label? How interested are they in me? Is it just the one guy who's the A&R guy that is excited about me, or is everybody in the building all abuzz because I'm in the building, right? That's what you— that's what you want to know. Um, who should you have with you? You should have your team with you. If you have a manager, your manager should be there. If you have a lawyer, your lawyer should absolutely be there. Um, if you have somebody negotiating for you, somebody like, like, like me— and, and don't ask me to do it because I don't do it— but if you have somebody on your team that's a negotiator, that person should be in the room. When you're signing to a label, it's like a marriage for your career. You want to make sure that you can live with this company for the next 7 years. And if your A&R guy gets fired and goes somewhere else, or if he chooses to leave and he goes somewhere else, then you're stuck with all those other people. So you want to make sure that they're people that you want to be in business with. I see somebody asking me, I think it's Your Vision, is radio worth it anymore? Absolutely. Um, radio is not completely dead yet. Our target market for rap is 13 to 26-year-olds, and a lot of 13 to 26-year-olds are not on radio, are not listening to radio. They're, you know, streaming Spotify or Pandora or on internet radio. But radio still reaches a very large portion of this marketplace, and if you are trying to reach millions of people at one time in a cost-effective way it's still one of the best ways to do it. Um, if you're trying to sign to a major label, like the, the example that I was just giving, um, you absolutely need radio because major labels want radio artists. They want artists that can be more mainstream. They don't want niche artists. They want mainstream pop rappers. So, um, yes, in the case of a major label, you absolutely have to have Radio Records. And I'm going to answer one more question. London's Most Wanted TV is asking me what my thoughts are on vinyl. Um, for the artists who are more lyrical, we press vinyl. For the street artists, we do not because it does not sell. Um, vinyl is very much a niche amongst sort of like creative hipster type people. So if that's my market, I press vinyl. If it's not, I don't. Um, that's my thoughts on vinyl. It can, it can get a little costly if you press it and nobody buys it. So, um, thank you guys for attending. Within about an hour, um, this will be posted online. So if you missed anything, um, over the next couple of days, I will go back and I will skim through it really quickly, and I will list all the topics below. So that you can always go to one of these, um, live events that's posted and look underneath it, and you'll be able to tell what topics we talked about so that if it's of interest to you, you can listen to it. If not, you can skip it. I also archive these at rapjewels.com, rapjewels.com, R-A-P-J-E-W-E-L-S dot com, and they're all in order there. So for those of you that like organizations like myself, If you like to be organized and you like to be structured, go there to watch the videos because I've noticed on my YouTube channel that they're kind of all over the place. And also my new podcast, Rapinomics. It's on iTunes and it's on SoundCloud, and I will post a link— I'll post a link under this video when it goes live, but I'll also update my wendyday.com site and put links to the new podcast there. Guys, thanks for tuning in. I drop videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 AM. My podcasts come out Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday because I don't have enough other crap going on. I just needed something extra to drive myself really crazy. Um, and then we go live every Wednesday at 7 PM. If you want your questions answered, please email them to me at thisiswendyday@gmail.com. Thank you for tuning in, and I will see you guys next week. Take care, bye y'all!