LIVE with Wendy Day #021 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Rap Polish 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 put I promise I'm coming. Hey, 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 you're here. I've got such amazing information to share with you tonight. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. I like that little number thing that flashes at the bottom. It's amusing. Can you guys hear me okay? Hello! We're having such a bad, um, storm here in Atlanta. I can hear hail hitting the roof of the house, and they've got to be like the size of golf balls. Knight Rider Films, how are you? DJ Sincere, Trash Can C, how are you? Hey guys, so, um, let me start doing this before we lose power because this storm is kind of wicked. You know what's weird is it was like 60 degrees out today. I don't understand how hail can be hitting the, um, the roof the way that it is. It's pretty bad, but that's okay. So, um, I have a question from Jordan Randall asking me, um, I'm an artist slash engineer slash producer. I'm working with my business partner and we're working on creating a brand as not just an artist but a producer engineer, which I think is smart. Um, I'm working with my partner to create the brand not just as the artist, but one concept he keeps drilling into my head is that the market for oversaturated. My question is, is it a good idea to allocate time and money into the recording arts as a way to stick out in the marketplace? And which would you say is more important to be spending my time on? Thank you. Um, I don't know that I can tell you what's more important to spend your time on because you've got to do what's in your heart, right? You, you have to be super passionate about whatever it is that you guys, um, are doing with your lives. This music industry can be really challenging, as most of you know. And when it knocks you down, and it's going to, you've got to really have something more than just the money and the opportunity and the fame that's going to help you get back up. You know, um, for all the times that I got knocked down doing what I do I realized that I was helping so many people and I was doing good for so many people that if I stopped doing it, there'd be no one to fill my void. And that passion about helping people succeed is what helped me to get up every time shit didn't go right, or every time it got really hard. I don't mean hard, I mean really hard. And you guys know what I mean. Like, there are times where you just sit down and you go, oh, Why am I doing this? Like, do I want to keep doing this? Is this for me? And it's the passion that gets you through those times, the fact that there's nothing else that you could possibly be doing that would make you as happy as this does. So that's really the question you need to ask. Did you see that lightning in the background? You see the lightning? Um, that's really the questioning you need to ask when you're deciding what to do with your life, whether to become more of an artist brand or whether to be more of a producer, engineer. But I think that they're both extremely viable, um, and, and this is also a point where you've got to have kind of a strong conversation with yourself, you know, where, um, Jordan, you're going to have to ask yourself, like, am I good enough as an artist to stand out from all of the other artists that are out here Or am I such a great producer engineer that I can stand out amongst the oversaturation in that as well? I think the great thing about having a studio and being branded as a producer and an engineer is that you're going to meet all of the artists that are coming through your area just naturally. You're going to meet them, especially if you are the only game in town. So everyone that's going to do anything is going to have to come through you at some point, and I think that that's, um, that's tremendous value. But to tell you which direction to go, that's got to come from you, and it's got to come from in here. Okay, Predator Records, how are you guys? I'm about to release my second mixtape. My views on Facebook and YouTube get a consistent 5,000 to 10,000 views. Would you advise me to pay for a DJ to host my next mixtape or focus my finances on consistent content and promotion? I would focus your finances on consistent content and promotion. Every time I have ever had a DJ host a mixtape— and I haven't done that in many years, and here's why, um, at least a decade— no, no, no, that's not true. '08, so 9 years, 8 years, 9 years, is because first of all, it alienates all of the other DJs. If you choose one DJ to host your mixtape, every other DJ is going to be looking at you like you're crazy, like why you didn't pick them. If that DJ is on all of the music, um, throughout your release, it's going to be hard to get other DJs to play it with that DJ on there. You're going to have to release a non-DJ version And the last thing is you, you're doing it because you're trying to get the audience that that DJ has. And I just think it's better to build your buzz and get your own audience and get yourself to the point where the DJs start approaching you, and you can do like, you know, 6 or 7 different releases, one with each different DJ. And you will get to that point to where you can pull that off. I guess most of you saw Future release 2 albums in a row instead of doing a double release. Um, he released his music a week apart. You're gonna get to the point where you've got enough fans where you can do that kind of stuff, where you can drop a different DJ version, you know, weekly or biweekly. And, um, I just think it's better to stand out on your own be consistent, drop a lot of music into the marketplace and let people know who you are rather than trying to, um, use a DJ's audience to build your career. And there's, you know, there's two different schools of thought. That's just my opinion. There's, um, many, many people that are going to go out and do the opposite of that and be successful, but I, I would just build— I would just suggest you build yourself as an artist first. Predator Records, how are you? The Real See-Through TV. Shay Malcolmson, how are you? Font Kilsum, global warming, yes. We're making jokes because there's a really bad storm in Atlanta right now. It just got quiet. You guys can still see the lightning happening, but at least the thunder has stopped. And my dog does not like thunder. Creator of Music. What does a publicist do for an artist? A publicist, um, informs the world as to what you're doing with your movement. When you put out music, they hook up, um, passes for you to go to different events, to walk red carpets, and they're basically like a megaphone. I've got a whole video that explains what a publicist does and how you choose one. I know on my YouTube page it's a little hard to find The videos, they're kind of like just mishmashed in there even though I have them in different categories. But if you go to wrapjewels.com, um, they're actually there archived and they're in order. And for the ones where I have a blog post that's similar, I've actually cut and pasted the blog post. Um, like for writing a business plan, for example, I happen to have a blog post called How to Write a Business Plan, so I cut and pasted that and put it underneath the video so that it's kind of one-stop shopping. And the rain just started up again. Ido, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be doing this. Misi, Desario, how are you? Top of the Gate Records. DJ Sincere, what would be the best way for two companies to work together on one artist? Wow, that's really hard because who's going to make the decisions. Like, who's— if you disagree, who's going— whose word is going to stand? Who's going to invest? Who's going to put the money up? Um, I think you just sit down with that person and talk it all out, figure out who's going to control what, put something in writing on paper so that, um, if you forget what the terms are, they can kind of point it out and go, look, look, look. If they forget, you can pull out the paperwork and say, look, see, see, see. But you've got to decide who's going to make decisions, who's putting in the money, who has the last right of refusal, who has the say-so on the creative side, on the marketing side, on the promotional side, on the finance side, on the funding side. You know, at some point when you blow this artist up, major labels are going to come calling, and what happens if they want a deal and you don't? Or you want a deal and they don't. You know, you've got to discuss everything that could possibly go wrong before it goes wrong. It's kind of hard to be that foresightful, but you also have to figure out what happens if you guys hate each other in this process. You know, what happens if 3 years from now you can't stand to be in the same room together? You know, if you— do you have the right to buy each other out, or does the artist have the right to buy you out, one of you? You know, what happens. So you got to discuss all that, put it in writing, and then both sign it. It's real hard for two companies to work together on one artist. Um, back when I was managing artists, people used to ask me all the time to co-manage. I did it when I was brand new. Um, I co-managed a group with Mona Scott from Violator Management because I needed to learn how to manage. I needed the connections and the experience. And in that respect, um, I basically worked for her. She was the shot shot caller. So it made it real easy. There was no decision-making there. But at this point in my career, if somebody wanted to work on an artist with me, I would so pass on that. I just— I don't see the upside. You know, we all have really strong opinions on what to do and what direction to go, so I could see where it would be really hard. But, um, keep me posted on that if you do that. I'm interested to know um, how that works out, because you might just be like in simpatico. Like, if Tony and I, um, worked an artist together, it would be— in fact, we work trouble together, so it would be easy. Um, we just have to decide who, who's, you know, who gets the last say if we're completely opposed in a certain direction. Fort Kilsum. For producers, is it feasible to start an LLC for a production company? Absolutely. Um, you should start, guys, you should start companies for any company that you start where you run the risk of getting sued. And with the production company, even if you don't sample, at some point someone is going to find a sample in one of your songs, whether it's really there or not. It could just be, you know, a happy accident, but you want to make sure that you're protected from somebody being able to touch you personally if they sue your company. Knight Rider Films says that my connection is glitching bad, and the cable guy was just out here again today for the third time in two weeks. Emily J is saying, I enjoyed your interview with Sonny. Yeah, it was good, right? Like, he, he had a lot of info to give. And the great thing about Sonny is that he is an artist himself, so he knows the questions that artists are going to ask before they ask them. So, um, that's why I chose him. I thought he'd be a really great person to interview. We're going to have more distribution people speaking to— I'm trying to get somebody from TuneCore right now. Call Me Heavy: For people that produce and make beats, where do I start to get placements and beats heard from big-name artists? You don't start to get beats from big-name artists. You kind of start at the bottom and work your way up. It's gonna be next to impossible if you start handing beats to Jay-Z, not just because he's not gonna listen to them He has earned the right to have people with tremendous experience in making hits around him. So not only is your sound not going to be attractive to him, but your ability to, um, work on the back end paperwork, it's going to make it really difficult. You're not professional enough yet to deal with somebody at that level. Um, so you want to work your way up from the bottom and get your sound out there and have other artists really vibing. I noticed that it was just like 6 months ago that Zaytoven got in the studio with Jay-Z, and Zaytoven's been producing here in the South for at least a decade, if not longer. So I would suggest that you either find a manager that shops beats, or you start networking and getting to know artists, um, so that you can get placements. And Call Me Heavy, I've got a video that I did, um, just for producers. I think there's a couple of them now, um, that just talk to producers about how to place beats. And if you go to rapjewels.com, you will see that. Money Time Music Group, Davey Lee, how are you? Um, absolutely, I see your phone number here. Um, can you reach out to me on email, thisiswendyday@gmail.com, please? Because I think that, um, after I finish this, I think the, um, I think the live chat goes away. I'm not sure, I've never gone back and really watched one of these to see. Desario, for those clients aiming to service radio, can you touch on the importance of having a clean radio mix? Yes, um, Desario, not just a clean radio mix but a squeaky clean radio mix. Um, when I took Ready to Radio for Trouble, um, we had to clean that song 3 or 4 times because I kept missing things that were in there. I mean, a lot of it is that I can't understand 100% of what he's saying, so that plays a role in it. My ears didn't catch everything. Um, but it's also more than just, um, the words that you want to take out. You know, there's a lot of words that you can't say, but then there's also a lot of words that kind of have double entendres that you can't have in there. And of course, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, um, but anything about like super violence or, um, killing somebody— if you're a brand new artist, it might be really hard. If you have something in your verse that says kill all the white people, um, it might be a little challenging to get radio to play that. And even though there's no curse words in that, you're probably going to have to clean the radio version of your song. So yes, it's very important to have a clean radio mix. And let me take this a step further, Desario, because you asked such a great question. Let's just talk about the importance of having a good mix and a master version that you take to radio. Um, and I'm talking slowly just in case this is skipping a lot. I don't want you guys to miss this. Um, your song has to be of great quality, not good quality, but great quality when you take it to radio. It's going to be played next to Future and next to Kanye and next to Drake and next to Jay-Z and next to Beyoncé. So it has to be of that quality where when you put your record side by side with one of theirs, that it sounds just as good, just as tight, just as professional. So really have a great mix engineer and then have somebody else with different ears that's great at mastering master the record. That way you've got two different sets of ears. On your song. Shay Malcolmson: Recently rebranded and have singles or videos to market. I'm planning on marketing mainly online with AdWords and Facebook ads. I'm wondering about shelf life of online videos, gauging by view count and the tapering of that view count. Um, you know, Shelf life. Damn, that's the problem with putting a video on YouTube. If, if you don't have a big enough audience, your count's going to be low. And with YouTube, you don't want to boost that count with fake views because then they will take it down and it's like not even having it up in the first place. On the flip side, you've got to start somewhere, so You've got to have your video— just have to market and promote it correctly. You've got to build a buzz, um, and, and you've got to boost your views naturally with the fan base that you're building. So the shelf life— I mean, the shelf life is as current as that song is. It's going to be current, and it's always going to be a new video to somebody that hasn't seen it. You know, I've got videos on my channel from October which are really old to me, and I've gone and talked about that topic to death in other, um, in other videos. But I don't take the old ones down because I still want to reach people who are going to go back and watch the old videos. And that's kind of what you're going to do too. You're going to have as many videos posted as possible both on your YouTube and website, and I suggest that you embed them from your website with, with YouTube viewers so that they count every time somebody watches the video at your website instead of on YouTube. And another thing that I want to say about videos is if you're going to post videos to Facebook, do not embed a YouTube video into Facebook. Upload it to Facebook. If, if you link to a YouTube video on Facebook, they will throttle you so that even less people will see that video. They don't want you to cause people to leave their server and go to another platform. So you're gonna have to upload your face— your videos to Facebook in Facebook. Makes sense? And you can buy Facebook ads for those in order to boost that. Yay! Thank you to Kyle Craft for recommending me to you. That's awesome. Pro's Creations is being friendly. Yes, that is the same Mona Scott from Love Hip Hop. Prior to Love Hip Hop, um, Mona ran Violator Management with Chris Lighty. She was his partner. Thank you, Sincere Predator Records. Am I familiar with Yangaroo DMDS? No. And if so, can you give me some information as if they truly help indie artists? I'm thinking about hiring them. I'm sorry, I don't know them. If you hit me privately and send me a link to their website, I will go check them out, um, and I will ask around in my circle if anybody has worked with them before. I'm happy to do that. This is Wendy Day at Gmail. One Trey Entertainment. Mr. Smith, how are you? You're an artist, producer, and DJ. How can I best utilize the DJ aspect of my talent on my label. And thank you for the little extra thing since I've already mentioned your name. Excellent. I see you tuned in very early on, on my YouTube life where I didn't know if people wanted me to shout them out or not. I have since found out that you guys do want me to shout you out, so I pretty much shout out everybody. How can you best utilize the DJ aspect? The great thing about you being a DJ is you know how to approach other DJs. I'm not a DJ, so I can't have a DJ conversation with another DJ. And how amazing would it be if I brought a record to a DJ that was brand new and said, hey, this will mix really well with, you know, um, the Migos new record, or Drake, or whatever the new hot record is that's out right now. It would be great if I could have that conversation. It would also mean that because I was a DJ, I knew the perfect metadata and the way to tag my song so that was really easy to find. You know, these are things that I hear DJs complaining about all the time from new artists, and these are mistakes that you're not going to make because you're a DJ. You also know what type of DJ you can give your record to because you know if it's gonna move the crowd in a club, or if it's just a music to smoke a blunt to and hang out, or if it's gonna go great on mixtapes. Like, as a DJ, you kind of already know what box your song is gonna fit in, and it just makes it easier because when you talk to somebody and you tell them, hey, I'm a DJ too, and you're asking them to show love to your record, they know that you understand them better than somebody else like myself would, you know. I think anytime you talk to somebody where you have similarities, it is to your advantage. Desario saying you can't service the same song for radio or club in my experience. Um, I, I don't know if you're talking about clean versions or dirty versions. I'm assuming that you are, so I'm going to, um Keep it moving. Yeah, Knight Rider Sonny did great, and, and he was a little bit nervous. You know, I've known him forever, um, he worked with me in the past, and, um, he always does great. And he was a little bit worried that, you know, he either gave too much information or wasn't clear or didn't give enough information, and I thought he did great. JC Kush. If you want to start a record label in the future, can you start your publishing company with the same name that you want to use for the record label? Um, yes, you can. And then once you start your label, you're going to add like something to the end, like music or records or entertainment. So let's just say the name of your publishing company is Kush, because I see that that's part of your name. So when you go to start a record label, it might be Kush Music or Kush Entertainment. And then at that point in time, you might want to even differentiate a little bit more and rename your publishing company Kush Publishing, or maybe your publishing company is Kush Music and your record company is Kush Records. But yes, you can, you can definitely use the same name. I wouldn't use the exact same name, like, um, like let's say you wanted to call your, your record label Smoke Some Kush. I wouldn't call the publishing company Smoke Some Kush as well. I would have some different— differentiation, um, in that. Okay, Carlos Garza, how are you? Dark Brothers Entertainment TV. Polly Foster, how are you? Twist— Sun Twisted! I almost did it. I've been saying his name frontwards and backwards, um, because I didn't understand if it was written properly or not, and he was kind enough to explain to me, which is great, where it came from. It's really an interesting story too, so you guys should go check him out and find out why his name is Sun Twisted. I think it's really cool, cool story. Um, I don't know, um, Desario, if Trouble is going to do a song with Remy. Trouble does songs with people that he feels like he's got to have. Um, he's got to have a level of comfort and, um, some sort of a relationship. Um, he also has a new manager who is moving him in a little bit of a different direction. So I doubt that, um, there will be a Remy Trouble collab. And thank you, Sun Twisted, because that's not what I'm here for. Okay, Desaria, I did get it right. Yeah, you meant dirty for, for club and clean for radio. Absolutely. Just make sure that, um, when you clean your versions that you run it by some of your radio friends first, like whoever your radio promoter is. They will let you know if it's clean enough for radio or not. I now run them— I've got friends that are program directors. I never ask them to play my record, but I do send them the record and ask them if it sounds okay for radio. I just really like the feedback. Polly Foster has an artist whose music is encoded on Nielsen, which is BDS. Does he need to get it encoded on MediaBase as well? Absolutely. Yep, absolutely. You want to encode your music on both MediaBase and BDS. You don't have to encode for, for SoundExchange. You don't have to encode for Digital Radio Tracker either. They automatically catch it by the metadata. But you do have to make sure your metadata is tight. That's the second time I've said that tonight. It might be kind of important, huh? And you can watch last week to find out exactly how to do that. The last week's edition of live, we talked about that. Bryce is asking me, how do I go about getting an interview by an artist, and how do I copyright my video content? Um, how do you get an interview by an artist? With an artist? Are you trying to interview an artist, or are you trying to give an interview being the artist? Um, and, and you're gonna copyright the song that's in the video, correct? I don't know anybody that has copyrighted a video. I'm sure it's been done. I just don't know of anyone that has because it's usually the song— it's the underlying composition that you copyright, um, not necessarily the— well, movies are copyrighted. I don't know the answer to that. Could you go to copyright.gov and, um, take a look around their site and, and see how to see what movies do? And whatever a movie does is what you're going to do for a video. I don't know anyone that's done that though. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, it just means I don't know anyone that's done that. DJ Sincere is asking, how important are websites compared to social networks? And it's funny because I get, I get, I get hate mail all the time because I say that you guys should have websites, and folks keep telling me that it's 2017 and you don't need a website. But the problem is, if, if you're, if you're really heavy on Facebook but not on Twitter, then folks who are on Twitter don't really even know that you exist. If you're big with Snapchat but not with Instagram, then folks who are on Instagram don't really know who you are. And the great thing about a website is it's sort of a central clearinghouse for everything about you. So if somebody's looking for you and they Google you, like if you Google Wendy Day, you can see all of my social media, but you can also see my website, and my website has links to all the different things that I do. And you won't— you wouldn't know by going to my Snapchat, for example, that I have a YouTube page, and you'd be missing this. If you just go to my Facebook page, you wouldn't see that I do this because I'm not a Facebook person. You'd only see it on Twitter, on Google+, and which I never use and Instagram. I'm very, you know, I'm very heavy on Instagram, so that's kind of where you find out about me. But there's a lot of people that don't really appreciate Instagram and only are on Snapchat. So what I suggest is you have one central clearing area of everything about you. It's got a calendar of any shows that you're doing, it's got your videos, it's got your music, so that somebody can just go to your website and see all of your videos. They can see all of your— they can hear all of your music. They can read your bio. They can see articles that other publications have written about you. You can even store your logo and photographs on there so that if you're on the road and a blog reaches out to you and says, hey, we want to, we want to do a story on you, send us a picture, send us your logo, you can just direct them to your website and they can pull it off of there. So I'm a big fan of websites. I'm also a big fan of newsletters, and you're going to want to have someplace where you can store all of your back issues of your newsletter so that people can read it. Like, if they just discovered you today, shouldn't they be able to go and see what you did in October or in 2015? I think they should. Again, guys, this is all just my opinion, so, you know, um, you got to do what's best for you. Predator Records is asking me what I think the next wave in regards to the tech and music world. Um, AI is, is coming along. Um, it's big. It's It's, you know, I'm looking at the different VR, you know, virtual reality players, for lack of a better term, that are selling. I was in Barnes Noble yesterday, and I haven't been to a bookstore in ages because I read on my iPad and my iPhone. I read through Kindle on my devices, and for like 10 years now I haven't, I haven't read a, like, a physical book. I read online. And I noticed in Barnes Noble that they were selling a virtual reality. I was like, Barnes Noble, really? And it was $30. It was like really affordable. So I think that, I think that that's where we're going, virtual reality. You can actually you can actually go to different sites now and you could be standing on stage watching somebody perform. You can look out into the crowd, or you can go into the crowd and look up at them. Like, there's so many different things that you can do, and that's just amazing to me. And I think it's, it's built for music, it's built for performances. It must be really cool to be able to watch somebody's video and participate in whatever they're doing on the video, like to become part of the video. That's just, you know, that's some next-level shit to me. Call Me Heavy is asking if there are any specific music events that are happening that I would suggest local artists and producers attend for networking. South by Southwest is coming up in, uh, 2 weeks. I think South by is an excellent opportunity for you to attend panels for 5 days. It's not cheap. It's a very expensive conference. Not only does it cost money to get in, but the hotel rooms are extremely expensive. But if you can get down there, I don't think it's a great opportunity to spend money to perform because I think that the crowd is just, you know, all over the place and they're seeing too much talent for you to stand out unless you're established, you know, if you're a known artist. I think It's great to perform there, but if you're just trying to break as a new artist, I don't, I don't really see the value to be one of 7,000 artists all vying for the same eyeballs. Um, but South By is an important conference. Um, A3C here in Atlanta is in, um, October, and that's an important conference. It's just hip-hop. I'm not a big fan. I don't, I don't really spend a lot of time at A3C, but I would if I were coming up and I needed the knowledge and the relationships. I absolutely would. For me, it's a great place to go to see friends that I haven't seen all year, so I do a lot of breakfast, lunch, and dinner and coffee meetings during A3C while people are in town. Um, I went to CD Baby last year. I thought that was really good. It was in Chicago last year. This year it's in Nashville at the end of August, somewhere around the 26th. It's a DIY conference, is a do-it-yourself conference. It covers all types of music, and that's what I like about it because you're getting points of view from people in country and EDM and rock that we can then take and use and bring into our urban environment and stand out a little bit because they may be doing something that we don't do. And, um, you obviously want to do stuff that other people aren't doing in order to attract attention. Okay, Bryce is trying to get an interview with an artist. Bryce, if you're trying to interview an artist, you're going to have to go through their publicist. Or through their manager. Publicist would be your first choice, and then management would be your second choice. But a publicist, that's their job to get interviews, so you're kind of helping them do their job. A manager, they're busy doing other stuff, so they may not be as keen to respond to you, especially if you work for a smaller blog or a smaller publication. Proz Creations, thank you so much. Thank you, Sincere. Proz Creations says, I manage Elec Beats. I put up 11 CDs of original instrumentals on DatPiff. How much would we make after streaming downloads? Um, you don't make money on DatPiff. DatPiff is not a paid platform. Um, Spotify is a paid platform. Um, SoundCloud is trying to become a paid platform. Audiomack pays for the bigger artists that, um, have accounts there. Um, and YouTube pays for streaming, but, um, DatPiff doesn't pay. In fact, most people pay them to market and promote their music. Do people listen to instrumentals? I know rappers do. Ray Poindexter, you asked me the question that everybody asks me, um, does putting a video on WorldStar do any good? If you're known, yes. If you are Lil Wayne, if you are Future, if you are the Migos, if you are Trouble, if you're 21 Savage, if you're Kodak Black, yes, it does you a lot of good. The thing about WorldStar is that it's not where people go to discover music, and it's always so hard for me to explain that to an artist because you guys go to WorldStar and you guys discover music on there. You probably go and you listen to what else is there, but the average fan doesn't do that. They don't look at everything that's rap-oriented because they don't want to miss anything. So I never spend the money on WorldStar until I get to the level where WorldStar wants to put my artist there for free. And that happens when the artist has a big enough buzz that they'll drive eyeballs there by mentioning on their feed that they have a video on WorldStar, and then it will drive their fan base, the artist fan base, over to WorldStar. And of course they'll get sucked in looking at other videos because you just do when you're at WorldStar. But if you're completely unknown, no, I, I've never seen a brand new artist break on WorldStar. And maybe they would argue that with me, I don't know. I've never had this conversation with Jay to see what they feel. But as far as my artists that I'm working, I don't, I don't put them on WorldStar. MC Low, how do I go about finding a manager? You're a rapper. I have a whole video about finding a manager that I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer your question. But I want you to go check out that whole video because it's just like 30 minutes of me talking about how to find a manager. And then there's another one there that I want you to look at, um, it's for somebody who wants to become a manager. And if you would just take the 20 minutes or so to look at that one too, it'll give you such a great understanding of where a manager might be weak because I'm talking about what they should do to become a better manager. And if you're looking for somebody who's serious about being a manager, you're going to want somebody that isn't quite that new and entry-level. So if you watch that video, it'll kind of clue you in on to what to look out for as well as to what look for. And you can see them at rapjewels.com. But the way that you find a manager is when you get to a level in your buzz And the key in this is, is really trying to figure out when is a good time to look for a manager. Because when you're brand new, there's nothing to manage, right? A manager is going to get paid 15 to 20% of your income, and if you've got nothing going on and they can't really step in and apply their connections to you and right away start making money, it's going to be a little bit challenging to find somebody who's serious and super professional and great at what they do because they could go and manage somebody else and start making money. You want to look for somebody that believes in you, even though what I just said, right? They've got to believe in you. Even if they have to work for free for a month or two, they've got to believe in you. When you're a brand new artist, it's going to take you somewhere between 9 months to a year and a half to really build yourself to the point where you've got some renown. So you may need to self-manage for a while until you get to a point where you can really start to attract some great managers. And choosing a manager is just as important as choosing a husband or a wife. Like, the quality of the person can really benefit or fuck up your life. Just my opinion. Ryan Fink, money baby, how are you? Ryan Fink, for an independent rap artist, what are the main tools for merchandise? How big of a team would you need for that? What other teams would an indie rapper need? Um, the bigger the better in terms of promotion. Um, that you can't use too big of a team if you're paying them because you're not going to be able to afford like a lot of people. But if you're a person that has a lot of relationships with people who'd be willing to promote you, bring them on board. You know, you want as many people out there talking about you in a positive light as possible. Um, you need posters. It depends on the part of the country that you're in, so it's very hard for me to answer this like as a blanket statement. Um, but you're going to want to hang posters at clubs, um, anywhere that you're doing a live event. You're going to want to hang posters. Um, barbershops, the local wing shop, if they'll let you hang a poster in there, any hip-hop gear store, you're going to want to hang a poster. So you need posters, you need music of some sort. Um, here in the South, we still give out CDs. Um, in major cities like Chicago, New York, LA, they do not give out CDs. My understanding is anywhere in the Northeast They don't give out free CDs. They give out download cards, which are the size of like a business card. They can be square, they can be rectangular, they can be round, they can be anything, but they've got the information on the card of where people can go to check out your music, your videos, you know, who you are, etc. Um, in some parts of the country they still use stickers. There's, uh, postcards. You want to be able to give them out at large events. Anything that you can give out that'll make you stand out. There's a lot of artists that print coasters and give them out in bars and clubs that attract their potential fan base because they figure that if they give them to the bars, it's— they have— the bars are going to use coasters anyway, and if they give them to them for free, they figure it's good, you know, it's a win-win promotion. Right? I have an article on my blog at industryreport.com. Um, you're gonna have to search for it because I wrote it a couple years ago. Um, it's, it's either called marketing or promotion, and it's got a list of all of the things that I use for promoting an artist. It's a little bit dated, it's maybe a year or two old, it's probably 2 years old. Realistically. Um, but I still do almost all of the, the things that are on that list. I don't give away a lot of t-shirts. I know a lot of people do. I just, I don't want to give something away that I have to pay $5 for that's not music. If I'm going to spend $5 on a promotional item, it's damn well going to be an MP3 stick with the music on it. Ray Poindexter, what are the good platforms for a new artist? I'm not sure what you mean by platforms, but you'd want to get your music onto DatPiff Live Mixtapes, MyMixtapes, Spinrilla. Um, you're going to want it on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon MP3, Red, YouTube. Um, a distributor is going to get you onto most of those, and then you're going to have to go and add DatPiff Live Mixtapes My Mixtapes and Spinrilla on your own. Um, Money Babe, all of the lives are archived and they're on my page, so, um, you haven't missed anything. If you missed the live, all you've missed is me shouting you out. Um, you haven't missed any questions or answers. They're all— you can go to rapjewels.com and see them all. Yo123789 feels that putting a video on WorldStar is beneficial if the title is right. If there's, um, unsigned artist, no luck. For example, um, Bobby Shmurda broke on WorldStar because the title was Hottest Out of New York, and that helped. Um, I disagree that WorldStar broke him, but, um, I'm not gonna argue with you here. He was pretty hot on the streets. Flawless Leon, I appreciate all the time you've invested in my life. Thank you, Wendy Day. Thank you. You're very welcome. Ryan Fink, you're in Pennsylvania. I grew up in Philly. So yeah, I wouldn't— I don't think CDs are your market. I think you're gonna have to give out download cards. Or MP3 sticks. And MP3 sticks can get really expensive, so you're probably going to end up using download cards. Money Baby's asking for referrals to posters and things to press up. I use clubflyers.com and miamiflyers.com, but you should definitely, um, you should definitely price stuff out. Um, you can Google posters, you can Google printing. There's a place locally here in Atlanta that does it, but they're a little bit costly, so I'm not going to mention them. Um, don't forget, when you do stuff out of state, you have shipping costs, so you got to figure that in too. Call Me Heavy wants to do movie scores and themes. Where do I start? I don't think I can answer that. I've never scored a film. I've never worked with somebody that has scored a film. Did David Banner score a film? No, I don't think he has yet. He scored many commercials though. Um, I guess you get a list of the movie, um, music supervisors and reach out to them and find out what you need to do in order to score a film. Thank you, Vince. I appreciate you so much. Thank you, Flawless, that's awesome. Bubble on deck! How are you, Tamara? Predator Records is asking, are there any marketing tools besides Facebook and ad work that you should use for videos? Yes, for a video, um, Hey Vince, for a video, if it's a single and you feel that it's got some marketability through BET, Revolt, or Fuse, you can hire an independent video promotion person. They run $2,500 to $3,000 to promote your video. Um, if you have a song at radio, you should definitely hire one to help get your video on the platforms that matter. Um, in the Pacific Northwest, there are also a lot of independent video shows that they can get your video on. Um, they can also get it on the reel that goes into Hot Topic and, um, LA Fitness, Foot Locker, you know, places like that. Flawless Leone is saying, Wendy, I just want to win independently. Is it still possible, honestly. Absolutely. Chance the Rapper, Nipsey Hussle, Trouble. I'm working with Trouble right now. He, he's killing it here in Atlanta independently. The problem with doing it independently, honestly, is that when you're good at it and you start making a lot of money, um, the way that Trouble is, all of the major labels start coming at you and throwing figures in your face. And if you're not a long-term vision person, you know, if you're going to make $1 million in a year on your own and a label offers you $1.5 million, you might see that as a great opportunity because it would take you a year and a half to make that on your own. So it's kind of up to you to decide, you know, what's best for you. But yeah, you can absolutely make a lot of money independently. Um, I have a lot of clients making money. Ryan Fink is saying, if I get the chance to talk to an already signed rapper, how would I go about to have him help me, an upcoming independent rap artist? You wouldn't. Should I show him my business plan? I know it's a long question. Um, you wouldn't. Why would you want a signed artist to help you when they're kind of busy helping themselves. Not to mention the fact that if they're not, they've already got a crew of guys that they probably came up with that they need to help. It's going to be very hard as a stranger to get them to step in and help you. Um, I just feel that it would probably be a better use of your time to find somebody to help you that has experience in creating success for an artist may be the person that helped that person start their career, as opposed to the guy with the career, right? Just a thought. Sun Twisted, um, does a producer get paid for every track he produces for a major label release, or only the ones that make the album? It depends. There's a thing called pay or play. Um, if you've got that clause in your contract, then you get paid for everything you do. If you don't have that clause in your contract, you only get paid for the ones that make the album. Ray Poindexter is asking, how do I go about finding how much a feature price is for a mainstream artist? You call their manager, and usually that information is listed in the bio on their Twitter page. Or their, um, Instagram page. If it's not, you're gonna have to do some research and find out how to get to somebody in their camp to ask them. Just make sure the person that you get to is legit. Not only do you want to find out how much they charge for a feature, you're going to need to find out if you can clear it with their label, because you cannot use another artist on something you put out, even for free, unless the label gives you permission. Vince, I'm an upcoming artist and I want— is an ASCAP name a first solid step after I record some songs with a video ready? Meaning, should you have a name for your ASCAP company? ASCAP and BMI track, um, public performance like radio play. So you will need to have ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC before you take a song to radio. Um, I would set it up as soon as you're able. You're going to pay to join their organization. Um, I don't think it's the first thing that you need to do, um, but I'd say it's in the top 10. I think I have a video of the 10 things you want to do before you put out a record. You might want to check that out. It is cold in Queens. Um, that's why I moved out of New York. I lived in Manhattan for about 18 years, and I moved in 2003. I moved to Memphis. I was in Memphis for 3 years, and then in '06 I moved here to Atlanta, um, because I felt like I could do a lot of good here. And I have. It's been a great market for me. If you go to helpfulangel.com, you can see exactly how to become a client. I see that you're saying that you're serious. Flawless said LOL, but seriously, it's helpfulangel.com. One Trey Ent, thank you. One Trey Entertainment. Mr. Smith, you live in a small city. Do I suggest focusing on creating a buzz in a bigger city around where I live first? No, I suggest you start where you are and then you start working your way out. Um, I draw a 3 to 5 hour radius around wherever my client is living, and that becomes the target market. If you happen to live in a city where it's really hard— Miami is a great example. Um, when I broke David Banner, we broke him in Atlanta instead of Jackson, Mississippi, because it was next to impossible to break an artist in Jackson. So we worked Atlanta, and then after he kind of bubbled here in Atlanta, we went back and started working Jackson, and they embraced him fully. So there are some places where you might have to break outside of the area where you live. In order to break. I am 607: What are the chances of my SoundCloud getting the attention of a playlist maker at a streaming service? I would guess very slim unless you're actively seeking their attention. Um, there are people you can hire to get on playlists, but your best bet is to build relationships with the folks that are curating playlists. Do the research, find out who they are, and then build a relationship with them, whether you meet them at an industry conference or whether you, um, or whether you interact with them on social media, but you can build a relationship with them. Yo, 123789, would you be able to break down how an artist can be paid $10 grand for a walkthrough in their own city? I noticed it's big in New York. Is it the same in Atlanta? Is it easy to make a living performing locally? Um, it is for Trouble. Um, I can't break down how an artist can be paid $10,000 for a walkthrough. I've never, I've never seen somebody pay— I've seen them pay a bigger artist, like when an artist is known, like YFN Lucci or 21 Savage or even Trouble. Um, we get offers all the time for walkthroughs, we just don't do them. I don't see the benefit. When somebody knows an artist is coming to the city, they want to see a performance. They don't want to just see them hanging out in the club. And it does a disservice to the artist because it makes him look like an asshole for not performing, and it puts pressure on him to perform. So if he doesn't perform, it hurts him, and if he does perform, he cut his price, and now everybody has learned that they can spend 10 grand instead of 30 to get him to come to the city and do a show. So we don't do walkthroughs. I don't, I don't, I don't get that. Um, I don't know, maybe that's not what you mean, because it doesn't make sense for second part of your question. Um, but yes, here in the South it is relatively easy to make a living performing locally. Um, let me give you a real-life example of an artist who's getting between $10,000 and $12,000 per show and doing 8 shows a month, which would be every Friday and Saturday night. Um, that's $80,000 to $100,000 a month times 12, that's almost $1 million a year just for working 2 nights out of the week. But you've, you've got to be able to attract an audience to buy tickets for a promoter to spend that kind of money for you to perform. But yes, here in the South, it's— that's extremely realistic. Desario saying t-shirt cannons are a cool spectacle at events, but sending them to DJs can work too because it's basically a walking billboard. They may wear it every now and then, especially if it's a good talking tee, a good-looking tee. Absolutely. Um, again, I'm not a big fan of t-shirts because it's a $5 expense and somebody can't even hear my music. They're just seeing the, the logo. But if I've got my music out there all over the place on the streets already and there's a little bit of a buzz on the artist so that when somebody sees the t-shirt they know exactly who it is, um, then it makes sense to me. I remember, um, when we were first building Trouble, people didn't really know who he was, and I bought these backpacks for kids that had Trouble's logo on it, and kids were coming up to me tripping over the backpack because it said Trouble, and they thought it was really cool, but they were, they were taking it because it said Trouble, not because they were supportive of the artist. So I always think it's a little better to spend money on stuff like that when people already have a little bit of a clue who the artist is. Yo123789 is saying most local venues don't pay you, you have to pay them. If you're paying them, you are not ready yet. I've never paid a venue for an artist to perform ever. I, I won't do it. I'd rather put the money into building their buzz. If you're paying people, it means your buzz isn't strong enough yet. Vince, my friend Darren Vegas, former in-house producer for Death Row, has a track on Bone Thugs' Best of CD under Ruthless Records. It went platinum and he was never paid. Are you someone that can help him? I am not, Vince. He needs an entertainment attorney. I have never had luck chasing back royalties, and I'm sorry about that. There's a company out there that, that does chase royalties. Hit me by email, thisiswendyday@gmail.com, and I will get you the name of the company. It's Royalty— I can't remember. There's a company that chases back royalties though. I am 607 saying, why don't more artists thank you at the Grammys considering the people you have helped? Probably because I don't give a fuck about the Grammys. I think the Grammys are a joke. It's a popularity contest. It has no bearing on who's really talented and who's not. And anybody that I've worked with kind of knows how I feel about award shows. Um, Predator Records is asking, does Rap Resources have video promoters? No, um, there's, there's so few of them, and, um, I wouldn't even know how to put that list together. I know the guy that does my video promotion, I used to recommend him Like, I used to like give out his number to everybody, and he called me once and asked me to stop doing that because he was, um, he was getting calls from people that just couldn't afford to hire him and full of shit and said that I referred them, but they didn't really have a record that could go anywhere, let alone a video. Um, no, yo, 123789, David Banner did not break in Miami. He broke here in Atlanta with a song called Like a Pimp in 2003. I remember like it was yesterday. Black Rich Gang Brooks, you're so welcome. Tamara Bubble, is it Tamara or Tamara? It's Tamara, right? I think sometimes I say your name wrong. Bubble on deck. Yes, Desario. Black Rich Gang, I don't understand what you're saying. I've been brand myself since I started. I think you're gonna need to say that to me again. I don't— I didn't understand that. I'm sorry. Vince, you're welcome. Navaso Productions. Yeah, it's just— yeah, we're talking about the Grammys here. Um, I'm just not a fan of the Grammys, you know. They've never really embraced rap. It's always the— it's always the awards that they give off camera. And at the height of the popularity of rap, they still didn't really take it seriously. So I've always been on the fuck the Grammy train personally. That doesn't mean you guys should. I think that, you know, if you, if you feel that, that they're a beneficial organization, you should not only support them but join them and try to make a difference within, right? Flawless is asking, do I suggest he take over his region of New York to be specific? No, I don't. I think it's very hard to break in New York. I would break in Albany. I would break in Boston. I'd break in Rhode Island. I would break all around New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington. But no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't start out in New York. You're going to spend all your money just in New York. Tamara, thank you, thank you. Sometimes I don't, sometimes I Fuck up your name. You can ask Sun Twisted, because half the time I was calling him Sun Twisted, and then the other half the time I was calling him Twisted Sun, because I figured at least I was right half of the time. That's how I was thinking. Ray Poindexter, you don't copyright your name, you trademark your name. Um, I think it's a very good idea to trademark your name if you have a very common name. The very first thing I did when I started working with Trouble is I trademarked the name Trouble. It took a year to do it, but we did it, um, and we did it because it's very, very common. Um, if I was going to use the name Ray Poindexter, I probably wouldn't be as nervous because I don't think it's as common a name as Trouble. But, you know, I came up in an area where Common Sense had to change his name to Common, and Biggie had to change his name to Notorious B.I.G. And I just don't want my clients to spend a shit ton of money marketing and promoting to have to then turn around and change a name. So, um, do I think you need to trademark your name before you put out music? I would have a conversation with a trademark attorney before I did it. I am 607 is saying New Orleans had only about 200,000 people and Cash Money was selling 30,000 per album. Um, they weren't selling 30,000 per album. They were selling between 5,000 and 25,000 when I first met them in 1997. Why is it so hard to do that here in Little Rock, Arkansas when we have a similar population? I don't know why it's so hard in Little Rock. And you know, there's a lot of areas where people just don't spend as much money to market and promote as you need to. And it's, it's, it's easy to spend money to get a little bit of a buzz, but it's hard to spend money to get your money back. So if you're just trying to build a buzz, you can spend 50 grand and make a little impact. In your town, but you're not going to get paid for what you do. You've got to really have people that invest into the music industry. And the thing about Cash Money is they invested, you know, they were around for 6 years. They put out over 30 albums in that 6-year period before I met them. So they really worked hard, like they really did it. There's nobody in Little Rock that has put out 31 albums over a 6-year period. Maybe that's why. Okay, I understand now. Black Rich Gang, thank you. I've been branding myself since I've started and always knew I needed to work on that first. Yes, building a brand is so important. You want people to know who you are, not just who your music is, right? Yes, I think you're doing the right thing. Ido, how would an artist trademark a logo? You would— my suggestion would be to hire a trademark attorney, but you can go to the trademark, um, you can go to the trademark website yourself and run searches. And find out how to trademark. It's, um, the US Patent Office and Trademark, so it's uspotm.gov, I think. You can Google Trademark Office, and it's the one that ends in .gov, not one that ends in .com. .com is a company that's trying to be a middleman and make money. Um, but if you go— if you just trademark, um, if you Google how to trademark, and then whatever comes up. It looks like uspotm.gov, to.gov, something like that, but it ends in .gov. Navaso does a lot of shows in New York. Yay! Jamel Lewis, what's going on, Wendy? I saw an interview with Fiend the other day. Oh, Fiend! In it, he said you asked him did he want to be famous or rich. I did, and he picked rich, and he picked the latter and said that's what brought me here. I love him for that. Yeah, he says a lot. I, you know, he was doing a live, um, he was doing a live broadcast on Instagram, and I entered the room because I just happened to go into Instagram, and you know, it pops up and says, oh, so-and-so's doing a live. Well, it was Fiend504 is doing a live. So I went on and, um, he stopped whatever he was in the middle of saying when he saw my name pop up, and he, he told that story. And I was so— first of all, I was embarrassed, but I was so humbled by that because you know how like you say shit to people sometimes and you don't know if they're hearing you or not? And the fact that he not only heard me but altered his career based on what I said was just amazing to me. I used to manage Fiend back in the late '90s. Fiend is an amazing, amazing talent. But, um, I'm glad you saw that. That's cool. I'm glad he said that. Black Rich Gang is saying, if I can get you to listen to my music— not gonna happen— just need feedback. Um, on YouTube as Black Rich Gang. I don't listen to music. You guys send me too much music. Like, I get way too much music to be able to listen to everything. Even if all I did every day was listen to music and not do any work, but just listen to music, I couldn't get through all the music that I receive. So rather than listen to some of it and play favorites, I just don't listen to any of it, um, besides what I think doesn't matter. Guys, I am a 50-year-old white woman what I think about your music. I'm not your market. You need to ask DJs and fans what they think of your music. Ask the people that could be your fans what they think of your music, and then ask DJs that are in touch with the fans what they think of your music. That's who can really benefit you. What I think doesn't matter. Kennessy Williams, Little Rock is a place just like Mississippi. I don't get why there is really no sound. There is a sound, it's just there's nobody there with any money to market and promote it, so it, it's not going to blow up like Atlanta. The thing that blew Atlanta up is the fact that guys put money into their projects to market and promote it. You can have the best music in the world, and if you don't market and promote it, no one will hear it. You can have the worst music in the world, and if you've got a marketing and promotion budget at least people are going to hear it. You guys wonder why there's so much garbage out there. That's why. It's got a budget to market and promote it. That doesn't make it right. I'm not saying that that's— that people are doing right, but I am saying that it's the music business. You've got to market and promote. That's the business side. The music side is already understood. I'm assuming you guys have talent if you're here because you're ready to market and promote and make some money. Mr. Smith again. I just want to tell you, there's no amount of thanks that can suffice how much these videos— thank you— and info means to me. Thank you, thank you. No, really, I'm, I'm so happy that, um, this is helpful. I'm so glad because it takes me a lot of time to do this, so I'm really glad it matters. Thank you, Tamara. I watched the interview of Chance the Rapper with Katie Couric. He said his number one income stream is merchandise. Awesome. And he sells concert tickets on his website. Is he bypassing the promoters and Ticketmasters? He is by— oh, you said it's continued. Um, he is bypassing the scalpers. We have a tremendous problem with tickets in this industry. Um, so if an artist puts their tickets on sale for $20 each, what happens is these ticket companies like Ticketmaster come in and they buy up, um, as many tickets as they can with their computer system, and then they sell them at market value. So a ticket that should cost $20 is now sold by a middleman for $200, and that means Chance isn't really reaching his hardcore fans chances reaching his fans that have money, and he wants to reach his hardcore fans. So that's why he's taking over the ticketing process. I, I support him wholeheartedly. I think he's amazing. He is taking his fame and he's trying to get education popping in Illinois. He's trying to make sure that the school system is stronger. Um, this past weekend he bought out tickets to a theater on the South Side in the neighborhood where he's from because he felt that the movie was very valuable and he wanted people to go see it. I love what he's doing. I think it's awesome. I asked— you didn't really ask me this, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. I asked Tech N9ne. I spend a lot of time with Tech N9ne. He's kind of like my poster child because I want to know how he does shit, why he does shit, and what works, and so I can come back and tell you guys. So, and, and, you know, apply it for my artist too. But the, the way he makes money, a third of his income is music sales, a third of his income is merchandise, and a third of his income is touring. And I thought that was really interesting too. So it's a third, a third, and a third. I just, I love that. He said it's almost equal. He said it's like a few dollars either way. I just think that's really cool. And, and I think it's cool that, um, Chance makes more money in his merch. You know, he doesn't really charge for his music, so that makes sense to me. Remember, he did a deal with Apple where they gave it away. So that's— I think that's really cool. And he's focused on making money, you know, with shows and merch. I just, I just, I like his business model. Ray Poindexter is asking, what about the name Dexter since it's already a show on cable network? Would I still be able to use it as an artist? I can't answer that. I'm not a lawyer. Um, you're gonna definitely need a trademark attorney to do a little research. The only reason you would not be able to use it— and, and yes, it is a show, and I even saw some of them. Um, it was pretty interesting actually, the whole concept of it. But, um, if the TV show were to block you, if they have a problem with it then you would not be able to use it. If they own the trademark in all entertainment, and I'm guessing that they do not because I don't think that when they started the TV show they ever thought to branch it off into Dexter becoming a musician, um, where you might have problems is in your merchandise. You might not be able to sell Dexter t-shirts with your logo because they may have put in a trademark claim for their Dexter your TV show to sell t-shirts. I don't know, that's a trademark attorney, um, question. And guys, I'm going to end this soon because I'm tired. Harrah S is, what do you think about the Remy Nicki situation? What I mean is, how can an artist protect themselves from scandal that can hurt their brand? Don't do the scandal. That's the only way I know. The problem with the world today is that everything's interconnected. So if you do something scandalous, it's going to hit the internet. And then we're a society where we kind of thrive on the bullshit. I don't know why. I don't like it, but it's the negativity. Like, you know, DJ Akademiks and Vlad and Worldstar and Jordan Tower and Forbes DVD— like, these guys all cover the stuff that make everybody tune in to see what's going on. And, um, the only way to avoid scandal is to not do scandalous shit. Um, I think Remy roasted her lyrically, but I think that Nicki is a superstar. Nicki's a pop star. She's not a rapper trying to break into the music industry. So Remy's just not on the same level that she is. So I, I don't know if she's gonna answer or not. And, and I gotta admit to you, I don't, I don't really get sucked into the beef side of the music industry, so, um, I don't have an opinion. Okay, here's the second part of, um, Tamara's, uh, question or statement about Chance and making gross sales on his arena tours. Does he avoid price gouging and scalpers from buying in bulk and reselling to fans at large markups? Yes, and it's a huge problem, and I wish more rappers would do this. Band Nerds, how are you? Band Nerds TV, just got into your videos, Wendy Day. I love them. My band is a blend of rap and rock. We know DJs break rap records. Actually, DJs don't break rap records anymore, but anyway, um, but with DJs on the radio not having much control, who breaks rock records? I don't know because I don't work in the rock world, um, and I'm sorry, you're gonna have to ask somebody in that world. It used to be touring where they made their money. But, um, I hate to say that because that was so many years ago and it's a new music business. So, um, I don't know who breaks rock records. You're going to need to ask some of the up-and-coming rock guys, like, what their goals are and what they're striving for, and then you'll know how they, they get broken. Broken in a good way, right? I am 607, much love and respect for your work with people like me. You're so welcome. Hara S says we need more likes for this video. I love you for that. You know, the more likes you guys give me, um, the more they share the videos. And I don't know that that applies to my live videos. I don't think that the live question answers need to be shared as much as the topic videos. But yeah, when you watch it, if you guys would hit that like, it would help put it into the mainstream so that more people see them. That would be awesome, and thank you. Desario says, um, bubble on deck, you need to trademark that and hand them teas out. Kennessy Williams, I'm in Houston since '99 and was in a group called Southfolk and I've been in the business since then. Yay, me too! Actually, I've been doing this since '92. I spent a lot of time in Houston in '99 though. I was shopping Fat Pat when he was killed, which was heartbreaking. And I really wanted to shop a deal for, um, DJ Screw. I was a huge Screw fan, and I just couldn't get the labels to see the value. It was so frustrating. Shavar is asking me, can I copyright songs using a leased beat? You cannot. It means you do not own it if it's leased. You do not have the rights to it. I am 607 says, it seems like the industry rewards archetypes and monoliths. Is there any real demand for authentic, dynamic people? Um, yes. It's, um, charisma. Dynamic means charisma. Authentic means real. Um, yes, there's a lot of real people who are doing some great things. There is demand, however, for anything someone can make money from. So if people make money from being authentic, then it will be in demand. If all of a sudden, you know, having a fat ass becomes profitable, everyone will have a fat ass. Oh, they already do. Yes, people, um, what sells is, is king. So if authentic, dynamic people can show that they make money, people will jump on it. Yo, 123789, was this the only career path I've been on since '92? Yes. Yes. Did I ever want to quit? Yes, yes, yes. Last week I wanted to quit, but I don't. You know, there's a point, and you guys know this, there's a point where you get too far in and you can't quit. Like, what else would I do? You know, there's a point where you know when you're coming up, and this is This is kind of what happened to me. Like, when I was coming up, I didn't make money for the first 6 years that I did this, and it was very frustrating because I worked really hard, like 20-hour days, 7 days a week, and I didn't understand why I couldn't make a living. And then I started to talk to other people in the industry and found out that they weren't either. Everybody kind of had a day job except me. Um, everybody kind of had a day job, and that's where they made money, and then they came into the music industry. So I learned how to flip real estate and decided that I was going to make a living doing that, because in order to make a living in the music industry at that point in time, I had to own artists. I had to own the publishing in artists in order to become wealthy, and I was not willing to do that. Like, the artists that I've worked with have sold more than Puffy's artists. Or more than Rockefeller's artists. But I didn't make the money on that because I always wanted the artist to go and succeed on their own. I wanted the artist to own their own shit 100%. And to me, that's more important. And there's never been a time where I'm bitter about that or where I'm unhappy about that, because I— that was my mission. I did what I set out to do. Um, are there times where I get frustrated? Yeah, I'm dead serious. Last week I said to Tony, maybe I should get into, into the tech world. Like, like, this just, you know, you work really hard and, and people don't appreciate you, and it's very frustrating. And when I get to that point, I remember why I'm doing this and why I started this. And I didn't start this so that people would appreciate me. I didn't do this because I wanted people to say thank you. I did this because the music industry needed the artists to have power and to empower themselves and to own their own shit. And I've made a huge difference in the music industry in terms of how artists do what they do. Like, there would be no Chance the Rapper in the '90s. That, that just wouldn't have happened, you know. So I'm hugely thankful for the opportunity that I've had, and I'm hugely thankful for the opportunity that I've been able to give to other people. And that's why I do what I do. And even though I get frustrated just like you guys do, I don't ever quit. I can't. It's an addiction. It's some sort of a sick attachment that I have to the music industry. And I'm gonna die in this bitch. I just know I'm gonna be here forever. Thank you, Black Rich Gang. I appreciate you. Jamelle Lewis is saying that, um, a mentor of mine here in Houston told me I need to attack P2 markets for radio. Is that a good strategy? And can you explain a P2 market? A P2 market is a secondary market. Um, okay, you're in Houston, so a P2 market would be, um San Antonio, uh, Austin would be like a P2 market. It's a smaller market. Tyler, Texas, that might be a P3. Um, Beaumont, Texas, that's probably a P3 too. It's like a smaller market than Houston, New York, LA, Chicago, but not quite as small as, uh, Sugar Land, right? That would be a P2 market. And my suggestion for radio— I have a whole video on radio, um, I would suggest that you build, especially in Houston, that you build your song on the streets and in the clubs and then take it to radio once it starts to bubble and grow legs. And then you take it to radio because you're going to spend a lot of money to break a record at radio in Houston, and you may not. You may end up wasting, you know, $100,000 or so. Kennessy, you're right. Um, Kennessy saying, I remember when Fat Pat got killed and the labels care less for people that really love the music. You're right, but in fairness, they are, um, they are in this as a business. They're not in this because they're trying to build the culture. They're a business, you know, they're trying to make money. Um, Coca-Cola is not trying to make the beverage world a better place. Coca-Cola is interested in selling soda. It's a business. It's capitalism at its finest. Sun Twisted, you can't collect through BMI, SoundExchange, etc., unless the song is copyrighted. No, a copyright just protects you so that if somebody steals your song, you can sue them. Um, and SoundExchange and BMI— SoundExchange pays you for streaming, so when you're played on places like Pandora, SoundExchange pays you. BMI pays you for radio play and live performances. Shabari, shabari, shabari. Um, thanks for answering my question. Thank you for telling me how to pronounce your name. I hate when I fuck up your names, guys. It drives me crazy. Waiting for the next book. Yes, I'm still writing it. But yes, Untwisted, you don't have to copyright a song to get paid. It just protects you. Jamel Lewis, I went to Tyler, Texas this past week and passed out CDs of Found the King Trapper. He took me to the strip club and they played my record on repeat 5 times. Is that a viable option for the future? Yes. Take that exactly what you just did and multiply it by every city the size of Tyler in, um, Eastern Texas, because I don't want you to like go all the way over to El Paso. It's too much dead space in between. So all of Eastern Texas, like from the middle all the way to the right, um, do that in Arkansas, do that in Oklahoma, do that in Louisiana. And then come back and tell me how it goes. Actually, by then I'll be calling you because you'll have a buzz and I'll know who you are. Tamara saying, was or is it easier for you to shop artists to labels or artists to investors? Um, it is easier to find investors than labels, hands down. Always, always has been, always will be. You got to have a really strong buzz for a label to um, to really like be interested in your career. Kennessy Williams, it is a point where you want to quit and say fuck it, and then right when you say fuck it, it starts happening, and then you keep going, sort of like a drug. Yeah, I guess so. It, it is like that, you know. And I'm always afraid, like when I was coming up— I'm not now, but when I was coming up, I was always afraid that the day that I stopped that the next day is the day that like a huge check would come in in my name, you know. That was always my fear. You, you get to a point where you've just got too much time in. It took me 6 years to make money in the music business. It took me 10 years to make enough money where I could support myself in the music business. And nobody ever tells us that. Like, if, if coming in somebody had told me that, I would have stayed. It's not like I would have left. But I wouldn't have felt inadequate when I wasn't making money. I thought there was something wrong with me, you know. Yes, Eado, I get it. Okay, Eado says, I, I see now that I have to put the periods between E and A because I don't want to do the EA like EA Sports. Yes, because you look like E-do. And I didn't know whether I should pronounce it E or A. It never crossed my mind to say E-A because the A is lowercase, which made it a word, not two initials. So yeah, you're gonna have to put E period A period do. E-A-do. Kennessy Williams: Wendy Day, I would pay you. It's nobody that can say I didn't pay them, and I'm proud of that. That's good. I have no problem getting paid anymore. I had a problem with Cash Money, but I sued them and then they paid me. Ah, Desirius says, I about to leave cuz I thought you were about to leave. Yeah, I was going to leave like 45 minutes ago. I'm tired. I'm now at an hour and a half. Kennessy is saying, what do I do, just contact DJs and send them the music? You build relationships Kennedy, you build relationships with the DJs. It's, it's not— you can't just wake up on a Monday and start working your record on Tuesday because you want to build the relationship. So before you really start recording, you want to just start going and hanging out with the DJs and get to know them. Go to the DJ meet and greets, go to their meetings, you know, ask them if there's stuff that you can do to help them. Back in the day, I used to carry crates in to the clubs for the DJs. Now they don't have crates, So it's hard to do that. Um, when I go into an area where I don't know a DJ, like if they're on the air and they're doing a live remote and it's hot out, I'll go to the, to the store and grab cold water, like ice cold water, and bring them bottles of water so that while they're outside they have something to drink and introduce myself. Like, I still do that shit 25 years later. I build relationships. I don't, um, I don't expect people to know who I am. Or why they should help me. They don't have to help me. They're not here to help me. Thank you, B Vanilla. I appreciate you. Yes, I got to the end of this after an hour and a half, guys. I want to go eat dinner. I'm tired. It's been a long day. I love you very much. Thank you for making it all the way to the end with me, and I will see you guys next Wednesday. Please send me questions. thisiswendyday@gmail.com. Com. Send me your questions for me to ask next week. If you sent me one and I didn't answer it, please forgive me. I will answer it next week. I had the cable guy here again all day today trying to fix why my stupid ass Wi-Fi is so slow, but I think we're okay. I think we're okay now. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. Talk to you soon.