LIVE with Wendy Day #015 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Wrap Kolish and thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so happy that you're here. Okay guys, I'm almost there. I'm coming, I promise I'm coming. I've got a lot of great information for you today. I'm so glad you're here. Okay guys, there's a counter there. I'm trying to beat that counter. As soon as it gets down to zero, I'll be there. Right now I'm filling up my cup with unsweet tea and extra lemon. Guys, thanks for tuning in to my livestream. We're almost ready to go. I'm so glad I'm so excited that you're here. I've got such amazing information to share with you tonight. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. Hi guys, how are you tonight? Is everybody well? It's so good to see you here. So let's see, Fat Boy Bands, how are you? I'm gonna have to move my little Uh, there we go. Dark Brothers Entertainment, how are you? Rells! Did you guys notice I changed my intro? I got to have fun with this somehow, right? We can't just— we can't just always be learning. We got to be having fun too. So I spent the day with Jordan Tower. Thank you, Jordan, for everything. I appreciate you. You so much. Um, Jordan taught me how to edit interviews, so I can start doing Skype interviews, um, on my, you know, the videos that I release Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at, um, at 11 AM. I can now interview folks. So I think I'm gonna interview Deborah Manis Gardner first from DMG Clearances. She is the sample clearance lady And I feel like I don't do enough for you producers. A lot of what we talk about has to do with rappers and singers and songwriters, and I want to do more for producers. So my first interview is going to be Deborah Manus Gardner. Give me about a week to get it right, and I'll have her talking about how to clear samples and what it means to sample stuff. Um, what you have to clear, what you don't have to clear, etc. JB Sanchez, how are you? Carl Fontaine, I'm glad you're ready. Courtney, welcome back. You can find the videos okay though, right? Like, I know you say you, you're playing catch-up. Um, you can also go to rapjewels.com. I've got them archived like in order there. And it's a little bit easier to find stuff there than on YouTube. YouTube can be a little bit scattered. JB Sanchez. Oh man, it's too much work to change it every other week. You should have seen how long it took today. Ah, too funny. Okay, let's get to it. So, um, Mal the Oddity asked me, what advice would I give an unknown producer or rapper that has a project ready for release? Um, advice in the form of how to get blog coverage and finding venues, I assume, to perform would be appreciated. Um, Mal the Oddity, um, thank you, Amal. Um, It seems to always come back to build a buzz. Are you guys tired of hearing me talk about that? And, um, if you are, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna keep going. Today I posted a video, um, that talks about building a buzz, and I didn't go too much into detail as to how to do it, but I went into kind of the basics. So make sure you take a look at that. Um, now also The way that you find venues is you start in your own city, and hopefully you know which are the venues that are rap-friendly. I'm going to assume you're a rapper here, but if you're a singer, it's going to apply to whatever type of music you make, right? You want to make sure— can you guys hear me okay? Um, you want to make sure that I move the mic a little bit closer because you know I'm awfully quiet. You want to make sure that you reach out to the promoters and the venues that normally play the type of music that you make. Meaning if— thank you, DJ Tarzan— meaning that if you, if you make street rap, it's going to be very hard to get a promoter that does top 40 clubs to let you perform, right? So make sure that the type of music that you make is, is what they cater to, right? Because it's going to be a waste of your time to perform in front of a crowd that isn't your crowd. Um, thank you, Frederick Ellis. I appreciate you, Frederick Ellis. How have you been? Oh my God, it's been a long time. Um, anywho, um You asked me about something else too besides venues. Oh, blogs. Um, building relationships with bloggers is the best way to get press coverage. When we first started with Trouble, we couldn't get anyone to write about him. Nobody cared. And the reason they didn't care was because we didn't really have anything going on. Before I started working with him, he had put out 4 mixtapes, 4 or 5, 4 or 5 mixtapes, and, um, he had stopped rapping for about a year. So he was pretty much ice cold. And it's really hard. You think it's hard to get coverage when you're brand new? It's even harder to get coverage when you come out, you build a little bit of a buzz, you start going up, and then you just disappear. When you come back, people don't take you seriously. It's very, very, very hard. So, um, what we did was we had him reach out to the bloggers individually and start to build a relationship. And he did it knowing full well that they weren't going to really start posting his music or his videos or talking about him until he proved that he wasn't going anywhere. And guys, that took like over a year before they started posting his stuff. We had kind of given up. We did not hire a publicist for him. We had kind of given up, um, and we just figured that at some point they would catch on. And then all of a sudden, one day, we noticed that, um, one of the— one of the bloggers posted one of his videos, and then another blogger posted that video, and then another blogger. And then from that day forward, they just started posting whatever he sent them. But he sends it to them directly. We don't do it. It comes from Trouble directly to the bloggers. He's built a relationship with them. Um, he, he also read a lot of their articles and started conversations with them about some stuff that they were writing. Whether he agreed with what they were talking about or not, but he showed them that he wasn't just asking them to talk about him. He was part of their community as well. He was definitely, um, you know, reading everything that they were, that they were posting. And then he would also go in and repost anything that they wrote about him. He would repost on all of his feeds, his Twitter his Instagram, um, his Facebook. Um, and some of it, I think we've even posted to the website, but it showed them that he was supportive of them covering him. And at, at the point in time where they finally started to cover him, you know, he had like over 100,000 Instagram followers. So when he would post, um, a, a link to an article that they wrote about him, or on Twitter, when he would post a link that they wrote about him, there were a lot of eyeballs seeing that article, and they would go there and read the article and then comment on the article. And eventually the bloggers noticed that when they posted one of his videos or a song, then, um, there would be a lot of comments on whatever they posted, you know, about him. And, and they like that. They like to know that you're bringing eyeballs to what they're writing about. Meaning if they write— if there's an article about you on one of the blogs and at the very bottom where it says comments, there's no comments, that's a problem. That's even more of a problem than if you get trolled and there's like 15 comments saying you're whack or you're garbage or whatever. At least they know that somebody's actually, um, watching. Hey Tammy, how are you? Um, at least they know that somebody's actually, you know, reading the blog. So, um, I hope I answered your question, Mal. Let's see if there's any questions over here. Okay, JB Sanchez is saying, um, Wendy, I saw your video regarding how to be a manager. I understand how managers get paid, but do you have tips on how to properly negotiate with artists and how they will compensate you. Um, I don't know that I can give you tips on negotiation. A negotiation is just you stating what you want, listening to what they want, and then meeting somewhere in the middle, and a middle that you can both live with. Um, when I do negotiations, I make sure that everybody walks away feeling like they won. Because if we're negotiating and you feel like I beat you when we walk away, then nobody's won because you're not gonna fuck with me anymore. And I could have the best deal in the world, but if there's no— if there's no project coming out or no money coming in, then what did I win, right? Managers get paid 15 to 20% of income, so they're going to compensate you when the money comes in, your percentage is going to be cut to you in a check. And then at the, at the end of the year, when it's time to— for everybody to file their taxes, they're going to send you a 1099 form that states exactly how much they paid you, so that when they pay taxes, they're only paying taxes on the money they actually kept. They're not paying taxes on the money they earned and then paid to you. So it's kind of important that everybody pay their taxes. Um, I'm a firm believer that when an artist starts making money, they should have an accountant, and they should have a music business accountant. Um, and the money should go to the accountant, and then the accountant should pay the manager, um, you know, whatever needs to be paid. And the man— and the— and the accountant should put money aside so that when April 15th comes along, you're not hit with a $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 tax bill that you can't possibly pay. So, um, JB, does that answer your question? Um, that's how you're going to get compensated. The money that comes in from all income that that artist produces, you're going to get a percentage of that. And again, it's usually somewhere between 15 and 20%. Now, if you're, if you're managing a superstar, that, um, that amount comes down, the percentage comes down. Like, if you're managing Drake, you're not going to get 20% of Drake. You're probably going to get somewhere between 2 to 8%, and it's going to be on a sliding scale so that the more you do for him, the more money you're going to get paid. Does that make sense? Okay, Liz. How are you? Yes, Tammy, I remember you. Frank is asking me, would I consider signing with an independent the same as finding an investor? No, it depends on the deal. I shouldn't, I shouldn't say no so quickly. If you find an investor, that means you're going to be in control. It's your career, and you're going to be the one who chooses who to hire and how to market yourself, what music is going to come out. Kind of like the buck stops with you, right? Um, and then your investor is going to negotiate with you to get a share of profits. So they may get 25%, they may get as much as 50%. So you may find somebody who puts up the money, and with the, with the, the label that you start together, it's a 50/50 share. So you're getting half of the profits from the label. If you sign to an independent label, the chances of them giving you 50% are really slim, because if they're an independent label That means they've done the work before to build their company to a level where it would be attractive to you to sign. And that tells me that they probably have more leverage than you do. But if you have no money and no outlet and no way to get your music into the marketplace, then Signing to an independent label may be a little bit better for you than going it alone if you, if you truly can't afford this and you have, you know, you have no experience in marketing and promotion. And that's a decision that each of you would have to make yourselves. You know, the thing that's attractive to me about an investor is that you get to call the shots so that you can you know, whatever you feel your image is and whatever image is best for you is the image that you get to portray. You don't have a label advising you. And if you do need the advice, like if you do need input, you can seek out a person in the industry that's kind of great at that and hire them to work for you specifically and help you with your imaging and your styling and choosing the music. Um, you're not really forced to deal with whoever works for that independent label. And, um, the great thing about indie labels is most of the time they have experience in putting out music, and they've got other artists that are signed to the label that they can leverage on your behalf. You know, like, um, Think It's a Game is a great example because they had success with Trinidad James, and then they came back right away and had success with Rich Homie Quan. And then like a year later, they came back and had success with YFN Lucci. So when Think It's a Game calls a DJ, they're going to have a little bit more clout in the marketplace than me calling that DJ because I'm calling about trouble. So I've got one artist really that I'm working that, that they can benefit. But if Fly from Think It's a Game makes that same phone call, you know, he's got a stable of artists that, that DJ can benefit. So there's more, there's more value to that DJ to be in bed with Think It's a Game than with us, right? So there, there are pluses and minuses to every situation, but I've also found that it's a little bit easier to find investors than it is to find a label to, um, to sign you. Um, S. Lewis is asking me, do artists get paid when they do award shows? Um, not usually. It depends on how big the show is. Um, the Grammys, they do not get paid. To show up to the Grammys, but there's a lot of benefit in winning a Grammy or even exposure on the Grammy. Like if you're giving away an award, you know, you're the person up on stage that's opening that envelope to give away the award. There's a lot of benefit for that for an artist. If you decide to do the S. Lewis Awards next week in, you know, Denver, Colorado, you are probably going to have to pay people to come through because nobody really knows who you are, and the perception might be that you're doing an award show in order to, um, pimp artists' popularity so that you can make money. Carl Fontaine is asking, when you put out consistent content for your fans such as videos, do you pay to promote them? Facebook ads, etc. Um, yes, you do. You want to not only do Facebook ads and Google ads, but we also hire— for a song that really has single potential, we hire a video promoter, and that video promoter will usually get the song on— I almost said MTV Jams— on BET Jams. Used to be MTV Jams, right? Um, on BET Jams, and then also on Fuse and Revolt and some of the other smaller independent video channels. Um, there's a slew of them in the Pacific Northwest. There's just a ton of independent video shows. And then I think there's still one in New Orleans. I'm not sure if, um, if that one still exists or not. Um, and then another thing that the video promoter does is they get your video on the reel that's sent out to certain retail spots. Um, and then that, that reel of videos, it's like a compilation, right? Is playing, it changes monthly, is played in, um, like LA Fitness, Foot Locker, Hot Topic. Um, I can't remember all of the stores, but it goes out to a lot of retail stores so that when somebody comes into the mall and they're shopping, or when they're at the health club, you know, running on the treadmill, or, or in a spin, you know, on a, on a, on a, on a stationary bike. You can tell I don't do that from looking at me, so I'm tripping up on the correct terminology. Anyway, when the videos— when the monitors are up on the wall, the hope is that somebody's looking up and they see your video, and if they're not familiar with you or your artist, it will— they'll get very excited and maybe do some research if they like the song and find out more about you and find out who you are and maybe even become a fan. So yeah, we hire video promoters too. They run somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 a month. The really good ones lean more towards the $3,000 a month, and you hire them, um, for a month to work your video, and it goes like a little bit longer. Sometimes it goes like 6 or 8 weeks. And yes, we do Facebook ads and Google ads. Facebook ads are awesome. Because you can really target, you know. You can target by demographic, you can target by geographic area. Like, you can get really finite with your targeting. It's, it's pretty fucking awesome. Bomb Productions 205. So 21 Savage, of course, those of us in the know are aware that he wasn't truly independent. I'm a little familiar with Mindy deals. Can you break them down and how they work and are acquired? Um, yes, they're, they're very similar, right, to— I mean, it's a record deal. It's, it's basically a deal you're signing to a label. Um, MGK did this back in, in 2012, um, and I was, I was helping his team at that point in time. They, um, they decided that they wanted to sign to Puffy, to Bad Boy. He was through Interscope at the time, but— and he wanted to sign him. He really saw the value in MGK, and he wasn't ready to put out MGK's music yet. He was probably 6 months to a year away from putting out— being able to put out his music because of the projects that he already had. In the pipeline at Interscope. So what a Mindy deal is, is it's an— it's a label signing an artist and agreeing to keep it quiet. Because if, if MGK had just sat still, he had put out a, a mixtape called Laced Up, and it, it was just bubbling. He put it out in, um, I think he put it out on Halloween, so it was like the end of October, beginning of November. And it was bubbling. And Puffy signed him in December. He signed him actually on the day before New Year's Eve, and he wasn't going to be able to put him out until the summertime. So if MGK had just sat down and done nothing, his buzz would have died. But if he had released to the world that he was signed to Bad Boy, then no one would have supported him without, you know, without getting paid to support him, meaning they The DJs would have their hands out, um, anybody with the videos would want to get paid for the videos, the radio if he was able to garner radio. So what happened was Bad Boy had a small budget to give him in order for him to work his music as if he were still independent, and then when they were ready to put his music out through Bad Boy, then they would announce that he was signed to Bad Boy Records. And it really did kind of make sense. Actually, I think it's called Bad Boy Entertainment, but who cares. Um, it really does make sense because it gives the artist access to a major label staff that's going to help them without having to come under the wing of the label and wait until there's an opening and they're ready to drop a project. So I don't— I can't speak for 21 Savage. I'm not I'm not in his inner circle. I do not know if he was signed to Epic this whole time. Um, I know Tony believes that he was. You know, we, we argued this many, many times. Um, it appeared that he got amazing coverage. It appeared that he got on some tours that, as an independent artist, it was surprising that he could land that level of a tour. Um, with the amount of buzz that he had. Um, and he had a great buzz, don't get me wrong. I mean, he did really well. And then there's the question of, well, who paid for the radio play, you know, for the Metro Boomin song, for X? So there's a lot of speculation. Again, I don't know, so I don't want to speak on it one way or the other. But the bottom line is that he is now signed to Epic Records. And I'm really anxious to see what they do with him. Um, and I'm watching it closely. But that's how, that's how Mindy deals work. It's a, it's a record deal, so you're still signing for somewhere between 12% and 18% of the retail selling price of the music, um, after you pay back everything that was spent to market and promote you. And that includes the money that was spent while you were independent. And just to make sure that there's no speculation, um, Trouble is 100% independent. There is no major label involved. Hi, Chandra. Oh, you're so welcome. Yeah, that was me back then in Power 30. I wasn't excited about that. It brought a whole lot of time wasters into my world. Um, the second year that they put me on there, I begged them not to. They did it anyway, and I got into a really ugly fight with the editor of The Source back then. Not a proud Wendy Day moment. I actually threw a bottle at him. I think I hit him with the bottle, actually. Not a proud moment. The problem with being given accolades is that it's not what I'm in it for. It doesn't benefit me for what I do. I don't really care if the average person knows what I do. I care that the artists that I work with know what I'm doing, and I care that whatever I'm utilizing to build their success, that those people know what I'm doing. But it doesn't help me for a bunch of up-and-coming artists to know what I'm doing, or for a bunch of outsiders to know what I'm doing. I actually ended up having to hire extra staff just to answer my phone from a shit ton of people that were calling and asking for stuff that I couldn't do for them. And I'm not being, I'm not being ungrateful at all. I'm really humbled and honored that they would think enough of me to put me in the Power 30, but it really didn't benefit me. I just, there's no, for me there was no upside. It's not like I could get a raise from my boss because I had more value. And I already— my phone calls already get answered by label presidents, so it's not like it's getting me into doors that I needed to be in. So it was really just kind of a pain in the ass, to be honest. That sounds really ungrateful, doesn't it? Sorry, it's true though. And you guys will all learn because at some point you guys will be given accolades and awards that bring a whole bunch of people around you, and then you will completely understand why guys like Drake say no new friends. You will learn that. It's a fucked up lesson, but you will learn it. Chase Fetty, back on deck! How are you? Yeah, I'm looking forward to Made Entertainment. Teddy Bear Productions, welcome back. Lowkey Okay, Lowkey1000. Last week I spoke on reaching out to the DJs, um, like the, like the Coalition DJs. Would it be a good investment paying the DJs for some rotation, or is that a bad way of trying to build a relationship? Um, I gotta tell you, this is, this is, this is an example I, I gave last week too, but, um, when I have paid for play with DJs, it hasn't done very well. When I haven't paid for records, they've become hits and they spin them anyway. So I feel like it's all kind of like balances out, like the stuff that I paid for never really caught on, but the stuff that caught on I didn't pay for. And it's sort of like somehow it all justified each other. Um, but I didn't build a relationship based on paying DJs. My relationship with DJs is based on me really caring about DJs and wanting to do as much for them as I can and building a relationship and a friendship with them. And then the financial side comes in usually from my clients because the clients will want to come in and instead of building on my relationship, they'll see it as an easier way to just pay $5,000 or $7,500 or $10,000 to get a record spun by, by, you know, by a crew, by a DJ crew. The problem with doing that is no one has a budget, no one has pockets deep enough to pay every DJ in the United States to play your record. So once you pay one, how do you not pay the next one? How do you not pay the one over here? How do you not pay this guy? How do you not pay that guy? Like, how do you choose who's worthy of paying and who's not. And remember, they all talk. So as soon as one guy finds out that somebody else got paid to play the record, is there incentive for him to spin your record? I don't think so. So I, I just believe in building a relationship. If you've got to pay for it, I, I just don't know that you have a strong enough record. That's just, you know, my opinion. But you got to do, you know, you got to do what feels best for you. I remember David Banner did something really smart with one of his singles. Um, he couldn't afford to pay all of the DJs, and this was in Miami when the Nike store first opened. Um, he gave everybody— everybody meaning a DJ, right? He gave all the DJs in the area, the radio DJs, the club DJs, like all of the DJs that mattered in the South Florida area, got a $100 gift card for the new Nike store, and they seemed to be really happy with that. And it wasn't offensive. It was a brand new store. It had just opened in Miami. It was kind of like the place to be. And, um, nobody, nobody was offended. You know, sometimes if you walk up to somebody and you hand them $100 and they're used to getting $500 or $1,000, handing them $100 could be a little bit offensive. But giving them a gift card for that $100 kind of worked. You know, it wasn't offensive. It was a brand new store, and it was, you know, there's a lot of hype surrounding it, and it just seemed like he was being, you know, he was looking out for him, and he was. And he spent thousands of dollars to do that, by the way, but far less than if he had had to pay every DJ to play his record. We Want In South Management Entertainment— wow, that's a mouthful. Um, do I help artists get a buzz or a major deal? I don't believe in major deals, so I guess the answer to that would be no, unless we built the buzz strong enough. Like right now, um, my client Trouble has a really strong buzz, and he would probably land a multi-million dollar deal. So if he were to say to me, Wendy Day, I want to be signed to a major, um After they brought me back because I had a heart attack from that. Um, yeah, I would, I would negotiate him a deal with a major because he has enough leverage. And yes, um, my company helps artists get a buzz. Um, I'd rather not talk about that here though because this is not like— I don't do this because I'm trying to be a giant commercial for Wendy Day. I do this because I'm trying to impart information. So if you go to helpfulangel.com you can see what it is that I do and how I do it. Um, Teddy Bear Productions, it's all Facebook pages. You basically have your own fan page as a producer or as an artist or as a singer or as, you know, for me, I wrote a book, so I have a Facebook page for my book. And when I place ads, I place ads for the page, not necessarily as a producer, an artist. It's for the— it's the page that does the advertising. And if I— if, if that answer wasn't what— like, if that didn't make sense to you, reask the question because I didn't really understand what you asked. Carl Fontaine is asking, um, videos as far as vlogs, performances, general speaking, etc., not just music videos? Um, I don't know because I've only ever worked music videos, and I don't want to speak on something that I don't know anything about. So I'm sorry, I can't answer that question. Um, but I'm guessing that, like, I do Facebook ads for my book. Um, I do Facebook ads for my audiobook with Slick Rick, and it works really well. So, you know, anytime you can reach somebody that is interested in what you're doing, um, but doesn't know you exist, and you let them know you exist, I think that's a good thing. And that's what Facebook ads do too. LG is asking, do I know a great A&R team? And I'm from Amsterdam. Is that a problem for the industry in the US? Yes, it's, it's very difficult to get signed in the US when you aren't from the US, um, and it always has been. I know that they're— RCA signed a bunch of Nigerian pop artists. I don't know why. We haven't seen what they're going to do with them yet, but yes, it's a little bit hard to get a, a record deal when you're not in the US. Also, LG, um you're going to want to build a buzz. And if you're in Amsterdam, it's going to be a little bit hard to build a buzz in the US from Amsterdam. You should probably, um, come to the US and spend some time and build a buzz and show them that there is, um, a fan base here for you, you know. Uh, you can do it online But I know that a lot of the labels, in fact almost all of them, really want to see not only, not only what you're doing online, but what you're doing in the real world too. You know, in the real world people go to concerts, and in the real world people buy merchandise, and it's a little bit hard to, to gauge how people online are going to react to you in person. It's much better if you can remove their, their, um, their fear of risk in signing you, right? Stan Smith, how many times do I hit the same market on promo tour— the colleges, high schools, pool halls, etc.? As many times as we need to. Um, with some artists, we've gone through an area 3, 4, 5 times Um, and then with other artists, we go through once and the artist starts to grow legs and they start getting paid shows. Now when they get paid shows and we go back into that marketplace, we still hit the streets pretty hard. You know, we get there early enough that we can spend the day in the marketplace and then perform that night. Um, and that's also great for the promoter because it lets people in the city know that you're in town. You know how it is in a small town when somebody arrives, everybody's, you know, on their phones telling everybody else, you know, hey, you know, uh, whoever, 21 Savage is in town, or Trouble's in town, or whoever. Um, the only thing you've got to be careful of when you're getting paid shows is you can't hit all the clubs. You can only hit the club that has paid to bring you into town. If you go to the other clubs, they're gonna get really upset with you. And the last thing you want to do is rock your show money. Thank you, JB Sanchez. Um, Genre is saying, you've heard my take on how important a budget is when building a buzz, and you agree, but there are artists like Young Thug that have built a huge budge with— without a budget. You think he didn't have a budget? Huh? Are you in Atlanta? Um, how is that possible? He had a budget. He spent money. Um, the thing about Thug too is that his budget wouldn't have had to be as large as, say, the next artist because he is the king of trolls. So he really gets people talking about him online. If you remember when he first came out you saw him in a lot of pictures linked arm in arm with a man, calling that man his hubby. And you would see him wearing skirts and all sorts of like weird stuff. He was really good at getting people to talk about him. And then, um, he went from that to, um, being part of Rich Gang, which got— he and Rich Homie Quan— which got people talking about him. So he's very good at drawing attention to himself, but he definitely had money when he started out. Antoine is saying you pay once, you have to pay forever. You're absolutely right. Stan is asking me, how do we utilize college radio when you're on promo tour? Do you use them for street team promotion, radio spins, and what do you feel is the best way to bring them on board? To building a buzz. Um, we utilize college radio the same way we use terrestrial radio. We, um, show up and do interviews at the radio station. Um, we do drops for them. Um, there are some stations that have a lot of value, and sometimes we'll co-promote with them. I have printed, um, flyers, you know, postcards that have my artist on the front and then the radio station, um, like an advertisement for the radio station on the back. And then we will hire the street team to do promotion because most college radio stations don't have a budget for promotion. So we make sure that we, um, we help them out whenever we can. Um, there's also a lot of radio stations where I've built a relationship by whenever I come through town, whether it's alone like on vacation or whether it's with an artist, I always make sure that I stop by that station and show love. Sometimes I'll bring dinner, some like chicken wings or whatever. Sometimes I'll bring a couple six-packs of beer. But, um, I love radio stations. I, I think that they have an excellent reach. My concern about college radio is if I don't know them, I don't know how many people are listening. So with some college radio stations I don't know if there's 10 people out there listening or whether it's 100,000 people out there listening. So it's a little bit daunting to spend money when I don't know what their listenership is. And then there's other radio station, Bulls Radio, which is on— it's in Tampa, Florida, on campus. I forget what school it is. University of Florida? I forget. It's on the campus at one of the colleges, and And their radio station is extremely well respected. So whenever I go to, um, to Florida, I make sure I stop by there. And when the guys come to Atlanta for A3C, I go to see them. And, and, you know, I'll take pictures with Slick Worthington. You know, I've gotten him into events before because I've got so much love for him. He always shows so much love for my artists, and he's never asked me for anything in return. So we have like a genuine relationship. So I guess what I'm saying is you got to build those relationships. And there was a second part to your question. Um, do we use them for street team? No, we don't. We don't really hire— we hire street teams for street team promotion. There's people that do that for a living in some of the areas, and in some areas there aren't street teams or there's really bad street teams, so we bring our own team with us. And there's a guy on Twitter and Instagram that you should all be following. His name is Kingpin. He's @rapjuggernaut. And then I use Barry B a lot, who's @barrybmp3. And you should follow both of those guys and just kind of get a feel for what they're doing. Not in terms of their promotion that they're doing online, but when they're out on the road. And you got to kind of follow them for a while to see them go out on the road. But you want to see exactly what they do. And they post pictures all day, every day when they're out on the road. You'll see them hanging posters, you'll see them stapling posters to each other, running them up flagpoles, running them up light poles. You'll see them hanging posters outside of a venue before their artist is about to perform so that when people pull up, it's, you know, you just— you're inundated with all the posters. All over the place. So if you follow them on Instagram, it's, um, and I'll put their contact info, um, below this video. It's going to take me a few days to do that, but I'll go back in and I'll put their, um, their, their names underneath so that you can follow them and see exactly what it is they do and get an idea, um, for, uh, street teams. But all of that is what builds a buzz. Everything you do to get people talking about you A buzz is just people talking about you. A buzz is people knowing who you are and caring who you are. That's really what a buzz is, right? And for those of you that tuned in a little bit late, um, I spent— I spent the day with Jordan Tower today, and he taught me how to do, um, Skype interviews. So I'm going to be able to start doing interviews with people in the industry, and Kingpin is definitely one of the people that I'll interview, and I'll ask him a million questions about, you know, how, how do you promote? And, you know, what do you do when you're out there on the street? Where do you go? How do you know how much is too much? You know, how did you learn what areas you can hang posters and what areas you couldn't? Because a lot of times the cops will come and make you take everything down because the, the area doesn't allow you to blitz with posters. They call it, um, It's like graffiti to them, right? So I'll ask him all of those questions for you, and then, um, and then you'll know. You'll hear from the horse's mouth. I'll get Barry to do the same thing too. I love Barry B. I've taken Barry B out on tour so many times, it's not funny. Tiffany is asking me, what is the difference between a radio budget and payola? What exactly are you paying for? I thought payola was illegal. It Absolutely is. Um, a radio budget is kind of payola. What you're paying for is you're paying for a middleman who has a relationship that can get your record played at a radio station, and you're giving them a budget of tens of thousands of dollars. And what they're doing, as whether you, you know, you don't really know what they're doing, but what we assume they're doing is they're going to those— the, the folks that work at the radio station, and they're paying them in order to play your record. And it's not always cash. Sometimes it's goods and services in kind. For example, um, if there's a program director who's— who has a kid who's going away to college, for example, your radio promoter might pay for the budget rental truck that's going to help the kid move her belongings from the house to her new dormitory room. Or maybe the radio promoter is paying the airfare for the kid to come home for a week at Thanksgiving, or to come home for the holidays. You know how colleges have, you know, a month break between December and January? The radio promoter might might buy the ticket for the kid to come home, you know, as opposed to giving the radio station actual money. We don't really know what they do with that money, um, but that budget is basically what you pay to gain the spins. And then you see that you gain the spins by pulling up reports at Mediabase. Or BDS, or Digital Radio Tracker, DRT.com. DRT tracks, um, not only, uh, terrestrial radio but internet radio, and they're a little bit more thorough with internet radio than they are with terrestrial. So if you pull up both DRT and Mediabase, you'll get a really good understanding of where your record is spinning. Teddy Bear Productions is asking how to get production or songs heard overseas, um, and I'm assuming you don't want to pick up and go there. Um, you're going to need to build relationships with people overseas. If you look a little bit, um, up or maybe it's down in the feed on your phone or wherever you're viewing this from, there's a lovely person here from Amsterdam you might want to reach out to that person from Amsterdam and ask how you get your record played in Amsterdam. I'll bet they could tell you. New Vintage Entertainment— oh, also, um, Teddy Bear, when you're working a record online, you're going to hit people overseas as well, because when you're, when you're promoting to the internet, it's all over the world. It's, it's global. Oh, thank you, Tammy. Tammy just told me that investing in my books is a great investment. Thank you, sweetie. That's very kind. Do I have to pay you to say that? Seriously, thank you, Tammy. That's very kind. You know what, it was a labor of love to write that book. I'm writing another one right now about how to put out your record and build a buzz. Yeah, I know you need it now. I know, I'm working on it. New Vintage says, I researched the name of my brand and found there's a company in the UK that shares the same name. Will this cause a problem in attempting to trademark my brand? When you trademark, you trademark domestically, so you're trading in the US. But let me ask you this, because this does matter. Is that company in the same industry as us? Like, is it a music company? Because if you're going to become a worldwide brand, you don't want to pick a name of a company that already has that name. Like, there's XL Recordings, right? They have Adele. And even though I could probably, um, trademark XL Music in the US, and I might not be able to because they probably trademarked it, but let's just say they didn't. Um, I don't know that I'd want to be known as XL Music in the US because there's XL Records in the UK, and they're so powerful and they're so great at what they do. I, I just wouldn't— I wouldn't want the hassle of being confused with them regardless. Stan Smith is asking, how do you set up a promo tour to break an artist that's more lyrical and appeal to more of a college-type crowd? That's exactly what you do. Um, you— I work colleges for the more lyrical artists because that's the market. Like, that's 100% your market. Um, to be more appealing to that crowd, you're gonna have to be more than just lyrics. You're gonna have to have a great beat. You know, make sure that you're appealing to men and women, right? Don't just appeal to men. Like, if you're super, super, super lyrical, like Razzkaz lyrical, make sure that you're also appealing to women. And you do that by being more melodic, right? And sometimes you have to dumb down your lyrics— not, not for women, but, uh, which leads me to a question that I have here tonight. Um, but the, the, the, the more the average person can relate to your music, the easier it's going to be to sell your music. You certainly don't want to make people feel stupid. You don't ever want to talk down to somebody in music. And most people listen to music for relaxation. They enjoy it. They're not listening to it because they're trying to learn something or because they're trying to feel like they're stupid. They don't want to, you know, pull up the dictionary on their phone, you know, every, every bar, right? You want to make sure that you're, you're reaching everybody with your lyrics. Just my opinion. Um, let me ask a question here. It's from, um, Mayra Garcia, and, um I hate this question, but I'm going to answer it because, um, she was really nice. Like, she actually reached out to me and we had a conversation, and then she asked the question. Smart girl. So I'm going to answer it as much as I don't like this question. Um, I'm just bothering to ask you again if you can please do a little lesson or a teaching or preaching about how to take on the industry as a woman. I know you're very busy, so I thank you so much for your time. Well, here's, here's the answer to that question. I never looked at this industry like, like I'm female trying to conquer it. Yes, it's been hard because I'm female. Yes, it's been hard because I'm white. Yes, it's been hard because I am a fat girl who likes to eat. But everybody has something that is gonna turn other people off, right? And everybody has something that that's going to make people hate on them. And what I did was I paid attention to what my focus was and focused on, on what my goals were. I put blinders on and I just went for it. And if it was harder, I didn't notice. I mean, I'm sure it was, I'm not stupid, but if it was harder, I can't tell you where it was harder. I can't tell you Oh, there was this time where I was negotiating a deal and they said no to me, but here was this guy and they said yes to him. If that existed, I don't know that it existed. So I just focused on the goal and just kept moving forward until I accomplished it. And I never let being female hold me back. I never let being white hold me back. I never let being, you know, a chubby girl hold me back. I just, you know, I carry myself a certain way, and people who are going to respect me respect me. I'm respectful to everybody. I'm kind to everybody until they show me a reason why I shouldn't be, and then I'm a viciously retarded pit bull, and I can be your worst fucking nightmare. And I know that, and I try not to let that side of me out. Very rarely has it come out in the music business. It has, but very rarely has it come out. Um, and I, I'm also somebody who, when I burn a bridge, I've really thought about it. I don't overreact, and I don't not burn bridges. There are many bridges that I've burned, but I've done it for a reason, and I've done it for a cause. And I don't regret it. And once I burn that bridge, I don't regret it. Once I make a decision, I don't play that, well, what-if game, you know, woulda, shoulda, coulda game. I just make a decision and then I stick with it. And I think that, um, being female is— it could easily become an excuse if you let it, but I've never let it. But again, I've always carried myself a certain way. You know, this is an industry where Guys will push up on you every chance they get, and if you become that chick who fucks everybody, you're not going to be taken seriously. And I noticed that really early on, not just in the music business but like in my life. So I made sure that I wasn't that chick, you know. I was very careful about who I spent time with. I was very careful about who I dated. Um, I don't date in the music industry. I never really have. I— that's not true. I have dated guys in the music industry, but never openly. And I've never dated somebody where I could gain something from it, or, or where there was the perception that I could be gaining from that, um, only because that's my own personal pet peeve. I want to earn shit on merit. I want to earn shit because I'm good and I can accomplish things. I don't want to earn shit because I've got a relationship, you know, where, you know, um, um, you know, screwing somebody in the closet. That's just— that's not me. So, um, to answer your question, is it harder being female? Yeah, it probably is. Um, does it matter? No, not at all. Just figure out what you want to do and go for it. And, and by the way, you're always going to have something, you know, either somebody has more money than you or somebody has better connections. I remember my, my first lawyer when I got into this business 25 years ago said, you better learn how to golf because if you want to do deals, all the deals are done on the golf course. Well, The Master P deal wasn't done on the golf course. Eminem wasn't done on the golf course. Cash Money wasn't done on the golf course. David Banner wasn't done on the golf course. Twista wasn't done on the golf course. I, I think I've done a couple of pretty decent deals, and I still don't know how to play golf. I don't think I've ever been on a golf course. So you kind of, you kind of figure out what the rules are in any industry, and then you break the ones you can, and you don't break the ones that you can't.. And, um, that's it. Okay guys, hey, Hara. Just noticed, is just getting into the production game. I have contacts with a Grammy-winning producer, but I doubt he will sign me, so I want to start my own production company. Should I get an LLC? Um, yes, eventually you're going to need an LLC. Do you need it to start? Probably not right away. Um, your best bet is to spend that money on copyrights so that somebody can't jack you for your beats, um, because that's something that happens a lot in this industry. So I would spend the money on protecting my, you know, protecting what I make money with, which is the production, um, and then I would start a company Probably when I sold my first beat, that's when I would start my corporation. And I would do that to protect myself just in case, like, I sampled something and forgot to tell them and got sued. I would want them to sue the company, not me personally. So there's a little bit of, you know, protection that goes behind a corporate veil, behind a corporation. The Real See-Through TV, I'm going to be in the beginning stage of my promo tour. You're from Dallas and you're taking the 3 to 5 hour away approach, my man. How long should I set the promo tour? Um, how many cities are within that 3 to 5 hour driving range? Um, I've done promo tours from Dallas, so let me, let me just answer that. Um, I would do I would do 30 days. I would go out in the bigger cities, like if you're going to include Houston, I would spend 2 to 3 days in Houston, but then I would probably spend a day in every other area. Um, I would hit Killeen, I would hit Tyler, um, I would go up into Oklahoma City and Tulsa, I would go into Little Rock. Um, you should plan a day for each. You could really do um, Oklahoma City and Tulsa in the same day because they're like 45 minutes apart. But since you're new to this, why don't you allocate a day for each? You're going to be a little bit bored because you're— there's not like a full day of work in each city. But I don't want to tell you to do them both in one day because if you choose to do that like in the beginning of your tour and you haven't gotten your rhythm down, um, it's, it's almost too much for one full day, but it's not enough for two full days. So I'd rather you break it into two days and, um, and do it that way. Um, maybe go as far as Shreveport. Um, I forget how far Shreveport is from Dallas, but maybe go as far as Shreveport. Um, maybe down into Houston, Austin, San Antonio. Um, Beaumont. I would, I would hit all of that. Um, if I were going to Little Rock, I'd probably hit Memphis too, depending on the type of music you have. Um, actually no, I'd hit Memphis regardless of the type of music you have. I would go as far as Memphis, and then on the way back down, um, Interstate 55, I would hit Jackson, Mississippi. I would come all the way down and probably hit Baton Rouge, and then I would hit head back to Dallas. Now I just made that a little bit wider than 3 to 5 hours, but you're hitting some really great markets. Um, Baton Rouge is a great market, Shreveport is a great market, Lafayette is a great market. Um, I'd hit, um, Lake Charles. Um, it's not a great market, but it's a good market, and it's like right in between. Beaumont is, is a good market. Um, not a great market, but a good market. It's right in between. Um, Houston's an standing market. Dallas, you know, is a great market. Killeen, Tyler, great markets. Little Rock, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, great markets. Jackson, great market. Memphis, great market. So you've got like a lot of great markets right in that area, even though I'm making it a little bit wider than what you may have had in mind. And good for you. When you, um, when you plot it, send it to me. Email me, email me your itinerary. And, um, let me weigh in on it because I've done that, that route that you're doing. I've done it many, many, many, many times. Just Notice wants to sell beats but wants to indemnify myself from sample suits. Ah, you do sample? Okay. Um, yes, then, then if you're trying to protect yourself and you're, and you're to the point where you're charging for your beats, then yes, set up an LLC or a corporation whichever is better. Research them both and see which is better for you. Most of the time it's an LLC, but please do a little research and see the difference between like a, like a Subchapter S corporation and an LLC. Um, and you can incorporate, um, pretty cost-effectively at corporate.com. That's where I've incorporated my companies. Do the research though, right? Like, like really understand what you're doing. Read as much as you can about corporations, and then, and then do it. Thank you, LG. LG put, um, LG put the email address here, so whoever was looking for the overseas information, and those of you that are watching that weren't, write it down. Like, like, hello, nice connection. Tiffany, I need to be at radio. Um, it seems like you can make a lot of side money. Yeah, yeah, but illegally. If you get caught taking payola, not only will you be fired, but it will be very hard to get another job. But yes, um, guys make money in radio, there's no doubt. @BarryBMP3 Stan Smith. @BarryBMP3. And Rap Juggernaut. Juggernaut. If you go and look at the hashtag for Promo Vatican, Promo Vatican, that leads to Kingpin, which is Rap Juggernaut. J-A-U-G, Juggernaut. N-A-U-G, Juggernaut. Yes, Leandro, I can absolutely talk about a publicist. I know I covered it pretty thoroughly in one of my early lives, like the first, second, or third one, but I will make a video dedicated just to that. And as I was saying earlier, Jordan Tower has been so kind as to teach me how to edit interviews on Skype. So I'm gonna be able to— I'm gonna be able to interview people for my videos, and a publicist is definitely going to be somebody that I'm gonna interview, a bunch of them actually, because they are— they are very important to what we do. They are the megaphones to our movement. Harris saying, so if the payola is going to a middleman, who allocates the funds to the radio personality? The middleman, isn't it? Isn't there a legal way to pay to play? Better yet, a technical loophole? Um, they have found, they have found a way to do it because I don't know any radio guys that have gone to jail. I don't know any radio promoters that have gone to jail either. So they have figured out a way. Um, here's the problem though. The problem is because there's a middleman. What if you pay them and they take the money and run? And that happens all the time. So you've got to really do the research on who you're hiring and make sure they're legitimate. Block to Block is saying, I mentioned single potential. How and who should pick the single an artist would push? And does having a big name feature help or hurt an unknown artist on their first single? I think it hurts them. Okay, here we go. Um, this is a great question. I could make a video just about this question, um, and probably will. Thank you very much, Block to Block. When you see it, you'll know it's because of you. Um, the single should be picked by, by DJs and fans. Um, I think the, the smartest thing. I use DJs. I have about 16 to 20 DJs that I send 3 to 5 songs to whenever I'm about to put music out, and I ask them to rank them for me, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And the reason I ask so many is I know that I have a single when the same song or two come up as number one, right? But if I send them out and I get like, like different DJs telling me different ones are the single and it's kind of like evenly spread, then I've got a problem. It means I don't have one really hot lead single. The smartest thing I've seen somebody do is Fly from Think It's a Game. Um, when Lucci finished his last album, he did, um, he did market research on with focus groups, and he brought together young people, high school people. He did one with college people. He did one with young professionals. He brought— and one with DJs. He brought people together into a room, played the entire album for them, and asked for their feedback so that he would know which were the hottest songs. And Key to the Streets was like hands down the, the best song. It was not the first single that they put out, however, um, because they didn't— there were other artists. Trouble was on that record, the Migos was on— were on that record. So it wasn't owned 100% by Think It's a Game. So they would have had to spend a lot of money to market and promote a record where they didn't have a lot of ownership. You can see where I'm going with this, right? Because you just asked me, does it make sense to have a big name feature. Well, if nobody knows who your artist is, then they're going to notice the feature, but they're going to know that you paid for it because they've never heard of your artist. But once the artist has a little bit of a buzz and is able to attract a larger artist, first of all, they don't pay for it. Like, Trouble just recorded with Drake. We didn't pay for that. Nobody paid for that. It was based off of mutual respect between two artists, and that's the kind of feature you want. You also, in a perfect world, want a feature on the other artist's album. Um, when Trouble did a song with, with Young Thug, it was on Thug's release. It wasn't on our release, and it was Thief in the Night, and that benefited us because it gave us the association that we wanted, but it wasn't, it wasn't our record to have to work. And we knew that it would take him to the next level more so if Thug put it out than if we put it out. So should you have a feature on your first single? I don't do it. I especially don't do it because when that artist is performing the record, what do they do during the verse that's not theirs? Do they just stand there? You see what I mean? It's, it's, it's not, it's not comfortable. Do they rap along to it? You know, are— is that featured artist the hottest thing about that record? In which case, are DJs just going to play the hot artist's verse and nothing else? Which of course doesn't benefit you. So I just think you should have a little bit of a buzz— no, I think you should have a lot of bit of a buzz before you get features on a record, or it looks like you just bought them and, you know, kind of who cares about that, you know? Like, who cares that you've got 21 Savage on a record or Young Thug on a record or whoever? Drake, you're gonna care if you have Drake on a record. You're gonna care. New Vintage is asking me how to find your target audience online and off. This is such a hard question to answer, and I think I mentioned that last week somebody asked me this as well. Um, before you really have a fan base, it's hard to say what your fan base is. If you've already got a fan base, you can look out into the audience and see exactly who's there, and you can interact with people on your social media and ask them questions about themselves to find out, you know, are you in school? Do you work? What kind of job do you have? Are you male? Are you female? You can see from the picture, you know, are they, are they white? Are they Black? Are they Latino? Are they Asian? So you can kind of get a feel for who your audience is once you have an audience. But I know that's not what you're asking me, okay? You're asking me, how do you find a target audience when you're just starting out and you don't know? And like I said last week, you want to, you want to figure out whose music is similar to yours. Not, not who do you sound like, that's not what I'm asking, but whose music is similar. Are you more like Kendrick Lamar, or are you more like Yo Gotti? Are you more like Drake, or are you more like Rick Ross? So I'm sure you're seeing the difference in what I'm asking you, as you know, as if you're an— if you're a rapper. So once you figure out whose music, whose lane you're kind of in, like, are you more street or you— are you more pop, you know? Are you more J. Cole or are you more, um, Kevin Gates? Once you figure out the lane that you're in You can pull information from those artists that you're similar to and figure out who their artists— who their fans are, and more than likely that's who your fans are going to be. That's also a great way to get more followers on Twitter and Instagram and even Facebook by going to see who the fans are of the person that you're similar to and follow as many of them as you can. And then come back a day later, unfollow all the ones that didn't follow you back, and follow a shit ton more. And you know, it's, it's kind of an easy way to pick up a new market. Just my, just my idea. Um, in person, you're going to be able to find out who your target audience is because they're going to come up to you. When people are really passionate about your music, they can't hold it in. So if you're on promo tour, somebody who really likes your music is going to come up to you and tell you. And when you start seeing that type of person over and over, you know, is that person more ratchet or are they more bougie? Are they younger or are they older? You're going to start to get a feel for who your target market is. Frank is asking me, would I ever consider putting out a blueprint for sale that artists could use to build themselves? The knowledge I possess is immense. Um, no, it would be very hard for me to put out a blueprint because every artist is different. The way you market one artist is very different from the way you market another artist. And, um, you know, the, the best example I can give you— I'm here in Atlanta, right? So I watch 21 Savage come up along with Trouble, and they're somewhat similar in their subject matter and the type of music that they make, but they're also very different, and they were marketed very different. And had we switched them, like, had, had I worked Trouble the way 21 Savage's team worked him, and had 21 Savage used my marketing plan for Trouble, it wouldn't have worked. You've really got to build the plan around who the artist is, what they're willing to do, the type of music they make, who their fan base is. Even if their fan base is identical, there's still going to be stuff that you do differently with one artist than you do with another. So it would be very hard for me to, to put together a blueprint or a marketing plan, um, and the time that it takes Like, if you came to me and asked me, could you hire me to put together a marketing plan? I mean, sure, I could do that, but the amount of time that it would take me to put together— like, how do, how do, how do I charge somebody for that? And then a lot of, a lot of working a record is, is feeling. So I'll put out a record and I can tell when it's not bubbling properly. That's not something I can teach you. That's not something that I can't write a book and say here's how to tell when you do not have a hit single. Or, you know, we all know what it feels like when you have a hit single. Every DJ in the world calls you and asks for the record, and then all of a sudden it starts to spread. You start getting calls from, you know, the other side of the country asking for you to come do a show, right? They want to pay you to do a show. So we all know what it's like when you have a hit record, but what I can't teach you is what it's like when you don't. You know, is it that the record you're working is going to take more work, or do you not have a good record? Is it not reacting? That's not something that I can teach you. That's something where I need to be in the situation. I can't even sit at my desk and tell you that. I need to be in the situation. I need to be on the streets and online and talking to people and getting real-life feedback about your music in order to know if we should keep pushing it or not, you know. So I, I— all that to say, a very long-winded way of saying it would be really hard for me to, um, put out a blueprint. I'm having a really hard time writing. I'm writing a book right now about how to put out your own music and market and promote and build your buzz, right? And the hard part about that is because I, I'm not writing it about one type of artist I've got to cover everything, right? I've got to cover singers, I've got to cover pop rappers, I've got to cover gutter street rappers, and everything is different. So I've got to do it in a way where it's not confusing, where somebody who sounds like J. Cole doesn't read something that I've written for a Kevin Gates type of sound and run with it, and then all of a sudden they fucked up their career because they read my book. So I'm having a really hard time with that. And everything changes so quickly. Like, I'll get through a chapter on promotion, and then in rap we burn things out so quickly that by the time I'm ready to say, okay, I'm done with that chapter, it's already been burned out. Like, right now we're burning out playlists at Spotify. You know, so many people are buying slots on Spotify that you know, by the time I would put out a book, that shit's gonna be over. It's gonna be dead. So it'll look like I don't know what I'm talking about in the book, and I'll be, I'll be over here in real life not buying Spotify lists, and you guys will be reading in my book, oh, Wendy says to go, you know, buy Spotify lists, get play on Spotify lists. And it's just, it's a very, it's, it's a, it's a very difficult thing to do. I'll just leave it at that. But I'm trying. I'm figuring it out. Casino Roulette, I don't listen to music. Um, I posted a video about 12 hours ago explaining why, so go check, um, my most recent video. It's the one with all the yellow writing on it. It explains exactly why me listening to your music is a waste of my time and yours. Um, J.R. Ewing, thank you so much for putting Kingpin's name there. Um, guys, if you go through the feed, you will see Rap Juggernaut. He spelled it properly. I love you. Thank you. Snap City says, I met you at a Core DJs retreat some years ago, if I'm not mistaken. Um, it would have been 2008 or before. I stopped going in 2008. To the Core DJs retreats. They just didn't benefit me. Toronto T5 DOA is saying, is it smart after you record your tape and/or music to hire a manager and a booking agent? Um, you hire a— and I see that you're independent. I, I'm sorry, I didn't finish reading. Um, you're saying if you're independent, which I am, if not, what to do after the music is done besides the marketing? Marketing is what you do. That's pretty much it once the music's done. And you spend about 5% of time making the music and 95% marketing and promoting. I think I'm making up those, those percentages, but I feel like that's what it is. You hire a booking agent once you have done a bunch of shows for money, once you've gotten paid. After you've done, I want to say, a good 3 to 6 months of paid shows, you'll be at a point where a booking agent can help you. Um, they cannot make you get shows, they can only find a market for you that already exists. So you're gonna have to have enough of a buzz to draw a crowd in order to book shows. And a manager, you hire when there's something to manage. And, um, I, I did a video on management, it's probably about 3 or 4 months ago. But if you go to rapjewels.com, not only is there a video there about how to choose a manager, but there's a video there for somebody who wants to be a manager. And even if you're an artist, you should watch both because you should see the advice that I'm giving to somebody that wants to be a manager so that you know what to look for when you're choosing a manager. Okay. Hector, either one. Corporate.com, I think, incorporate— well, maybe they are different. Corporate.com is the one that I use. They're called The Company Corporation. They've— I've got, I've got 5 companies in music and I've got about 7 in real estate, and they are who I use to incorporate all of my companies. I have one company that I did not incorporate through them, and and that's Rap Coalition. And that's because it's a not-for-profit, um, and I incorporated it in the state of New York originally, and I wanted to make sure it was done properly. So I actually hired an attorney, um, and paid way too much money to get that done. Corporate.com, just notice. Denise Snap City Vision is saying Miami is a funny market for radio. Yes, it is. They don't support the artists or the DJs. So where should you start? When somebody from Florida hires me, from South Florida, I don't start in Miami. It's too hard of a market to break. It's too hard and it's too expensive. Until you've got a buzz, you're not gonna get any love in Miami. Miami is a players market. You've got to already be on in order to get on in Miami. So I usually take an artist through Central Florida, Northern Florida, through Georgia and Alabama. And then once they start getting love outside of Miami and Broward, I bring them back into Miami. And by then they're at a point where Miami's ready to embrace them. And even then it's not easy. You know, I was working with an artist, Ozzy, out of Miami, and it took a year for his team to really make inroads with the DJs. It's, it's not an easy market to break into. So guys, I think I've answered all of your questions here. Yay! Thank you for tuning in. I do this every Wednesday night at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time. Make sure that you, um, subscribe because then it will— if you have your notifications on, it will tell you when I'm about to go live so that you don't have to remember. It will, um, your phone or your email will let you know. And, um, I— wait, what, one more question? Oh no, nope, nope, that's the Miami question. So, um, guys, thanks for tuning in. I post videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11, so check them out. And if there's a topic that you think I should cover, um, in here, there's a topic that I'm going to cover. So this was helpful. Um, let me know. Email me at thisiswendyday@gmail.com and be a little patient with me. You guys have been, um, hitting me up with a shit ton of questions, so it's been a little bit hard for me to, um, get back to y'all. So just be a little bit patient. I'm running, um, I'm running about 2 days behind on my email in terms of answering them. Um, Denise, thank you. Um, Denise says she loves wrapjewels.com. It's, um, it's, it's like having Wendy's Library in chronological order right there for all of my subjects. Yeah, I did that because I just found, um, I found YouTube to be a little scattered. Like, like YouTube groups them into categories, but it's not easy to find, especially the live events that I've done. They're a little bit hard to find. So, um, Rap Jewels com. Thanks guys, this is going to be posted to YouTube in case you missed some of it. You can go back and check it out. Um, thank you Prestige Entertainment, I love you too. I will see you on Instagram. Um, give my love to your artist, I miss him, I hope he's well. Okay guys, thank you so much.