LIVE with Wendy Day #022 | Answering Your Questions Live

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. There we go. I couldn't find you guys sometimes. Um, okay, I'm gonna blame it on my computer. Sometimes my computer's really stupid. Ah, too funny. Yeah, that was human error. Hi guys, how are you? How was your week? Hope you're all doing well. Who's here? Knight Rider Films. Emily, how are you? Are you well? I hope you guys are doing well. So I got a slow start today, um, but that's okay. Tomorrow I'm headed to, um, do this interview for Oxygen Network. They have a new docudrama series coming about unsolved mysteries, and they're doing an episode on Tupac and Biggie, and they have invited me to come and do an interview, um, regarding Pac because I was close to him. So I'm looking forward to that. Um, actually I'm not. I really don't like doing that, but you know, it It's like, if nobody speaks about him now, then how will people in the future know what he was really like, you know? Um, there's just so many different, uh, movies and different shows floating around about Pac that I just feel like I should do my part. And I feel like if I passed away, he would speak about me, you know. So I just feel like people should really know who he is. You can't see me or hear me? Okay, rebooting. Ha! Can you guys hear me now? I just rebooted my whole system. Dark Brothers Entertainment, Knight Rider Films, Emily J, how are you? Rats, you still can't see or hear me? Okay, crap. Okay, the mic's working. Can you guys hear me or see me? Crap! Okay, let me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Oh, can you see and hear me now? It says that I'm streaming. I think you guys still can't see or hear me though. Yeah, you still can't. Crap. Okay, rebooting. Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Rap Coalition. Thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so— can you guys hear me or see me? Or at least hear me? Yay! Yes! Can you hear me? Woohoo! Yay! I don't know what's wrong. Obviously it was human error, but I don't know what I was doing wrong. But you can hear me, you can see me, we're good, right? Yes, we're good. You can see me, you can hear me. Okay, good. Woohoo! I'm sorry, guys, that was crazy. When I first set it up, I knew something was wrong because it took forever to start streaming, and then it told me that I was streaming, and obviously I wasn't because you were telling me in the chat that I was not. But, um, okay. Dark Brothers Entertainment, Knight Rider Films, Emily J, how are you? Oh, you guys are doing good tonight. Chill Cortez, you're so welcome. Wow, look how many times I rebooted. I rebooted 3 times. Flawless Leon, how are you? Predator Records, King Peavy, hey! Cash S, Siobhan, how are you? Lyric, did I shout you out already? Never Yield Biz, hey! Good, Lyric, good for you. I'm, I'm glad you're doing better. That's a beautiful thing. And just take it easy, you know, do what you got to do. Hi guys, so let's see, let's start with questions, shall we, while you guys ask me shit. Um, this is from— oh, let me ask this one because I was supposed to ask this one last week and I missed it, it was stuck in my printer. So, um, Fury Figueroa, I don't know if you're here yet or not, but I know that you will tune in to hear me answer your question. Um, you really— you say you really like the Jake Palumbo interview. He seems like a cool dude with a lot of game. That was a good interview, right? The thing that I liked about Jake is he's made something from nothing and he's really made it work for him. Um, you know, and sometimes when you want to be a rapper and you can't make money rapping, you got to figure out another way around it. And he did. And not only did he— did he figure out a way to do it with the studio, but He's so loved and well respected, it's crazy. I got more emails about that interview than, than any that I've done. I haven't done that many yet, but, um, how cool that like the feedback was so amazing. So your question is, Fury Figueroa, when artists go on promo or concert tours, what if any expenses do they get to write off on their taxes? Um, they get to write off travel to and from the, uh, show date. If they are flying, they get to write off their— the cost to get to the airport, to park. Um, if they're— if there are any expenses on the road like food, they get to write that off. Depending on your accountant, you may get to write off your outfit for the show. It just really depends on your accountant. Um, some of my guys write that off, some of them don't. For some of them, it's the cost of doing business. If you take any DJs out to eat, or if you do any work in the area, you get to write all of the expenses off for that. If you stay an extra day, you'll get to write off your hotel expense if the, um promoter isn't paying for the, the hotel. And, um, there's two ways to write off your vehicle expense. You can either write it off per mile, or you can write it off as a percentage of doing business, and your accountant will handle that. My best suggestion, even though you didn't ask me this, Fury, is to set up a savings account and automatically put 30% or even a third of your money into that savings account because you need to pay your taxes, your state taxes and your federal taxes, um, in advance— 4 times— not in advance, but 4 times a year, as opposed to waiting till the end of the year and cutting them a check. If you wait till the end of the year, they're going to charge you interest for doing that, and, and there's usually a fee for not paying them quarterly like you're supposed to. So when you set up your touring company, and let's just say that you set up Fury Tours LLC or Fury Tours, um, Inc., you're going to want to make sure that you keep all of your receipts. Um, I would hire an accountant to keep track of everything. You are just less likely to get into trouble if you have a professional. I always make sure that my guys have music business accountants because there's always different stuff that comes up that somebody that doesn't handle musicians might not know. Like, for example, you have to pay state tax in the state where you perform. So if you're from Georgia and you do a show in Baton Rouge, you're going to need to pay Louisiana state tax on the money that you earn doing that show. So there's all kinds of little, um, oddities that kind of pop up in the music business, and I would hate to see you get screwed by them. And I would also hate to see you, um, not put the tax money aside so that when it becomes December 31st and you have to write a check to the IRS, that you've got the money to do it. Um, nothing's worse than making half a million dollars or a million dollars in show money, and then you owe $200,000 and some odd thousand dollars in taxes and you don't have it to cut that check. Um, the government doesn't play. The IRS, they're the biggest gangsters out there. So, hey Siobhan. Julio R: I'm the best at this. I've been watching since Jordan Tower and Emre. Thank you, I'm so glad. You know, I, I love doing stuff with Jordan and Emre. I'm just always so nervous because, you know, they focus on the, um, the sensational and the scandalous. And I'm always afraid that I'm gonna say something that they're just gonna pounce on, you know. Um, it was funny because I was talking to them about like life in general and I mentioned Tupac, and I guess they didn't realize that, that I had a relationship with Pac, you know, a friendship with Pac, a business relationship with Pac. And, um, man, they jumped right on that. And I was like, I was really like taken aback, like it kind of made me nervous. I'm like, oh, what are they gonna to say, um, but it turned out fine and they're great guys and, you know, they've got a wonderful niche. So if you guys aren't following Jordan Tower and M-Wreck, it's Jordan Tower Films, um, and M-Wreck, and it's M-W-R-E-C-K, I believe. Um, you should, because they, they talk about the news every day and what's going on in hip-hop. J Boy, I have just recently released a mixtape. Should I pay to do mixtape releases at the clubs? I wouldn't. Um, I mean, if you're doing a release party, I would get a sponsor for that. I don't think I would actually spend money to do that, you know, unless you are a big enough draw in your area where you can do a mixtape party and you can get some people to pay. I mean, you're not going to charge the industry to pay, you're not going to charge DJs to, to get in, um, but you might charge fans, you know, $5 at the door, $10 at the door, and it's just a way of, um, building some more hype and some more promotion for yourself. So, um, would I pay to do a mixtape release at a club? No. Um, would I do an event that brought paying fans in? Absolutely. If you don't have a buzz big enough to do that though Um, like I said, go get a sponsor. Maybe there is a, an audio car audio place in your area, or a place that sells rims, or a jeweler that wants to sell more, um, jewelry to like artist fans and artists, and maybe they would sponsor your party for you if it didn't cost too much. Or maybe you put a couple companies together and get a sponsorship. Never Yield Biz: Are lyric videos good for promotion or focus on the music video for the hip-hop artist? I use lyric videos all the time. I think they're great. Um, it's a very inexpensive way to get your music out there. I think it's important, um, to get as much, um, video out there, whether it's you performing, whether it's a music video or whether it's a lyric video. And I think it's a great idea to mix them up so that it doesn't get boring. If you only ever did music videos, it would just be kind of dull, right? You, you want to have some live performance footage in there. You want to have some lyric videos. Um, I wouldn't do all of any one thing, but yeah, I'm a big fan of lyric videos. Julio is saying, I think your honesty counts. Thank you. It's how I stand out. Wait, you do mean me, right? Or do you mean as an artist, honesty counts? You know, both sides. I think it's important in life to just be transparent and honest. People won't always like what you have to say. Sometimes it has backlash, but I promise you that honesty has less of a backlash than getting caught in a lie. Okay, is it hula? Fat stash? Hula? Jula? Hula? Um, do I know how to upload music to Spotify without a middleman? I do not. You need an aggregator. You're gonna either have to have TuneCore or DistroKid. DistroKid is probably the cheapest place out there to upload music, but you need to have a middleman. You can't go direct. You can go direct to get in the playlists once you're there, but you can't get uploaded to Spotify without a distributor. Raymond DeWear Gaunt tuned in from Makin' Moves LLC down in Fort Pierce, Florida. Raymond and Kim, hope all is well. Love these video hustles. Yay, I'm so glad. I think I've made— I think I've made $100 now for my videos. I'm not doing it for the money. I guess you guys know that. Black Rich Gang Brooks: Hey Wendy Day, do you think it will help me as an artist to start going to different states to start handing out free t-shirts with my music? It's going to be expensive to hand out t-shirts. I think you should just go and hand out music. Should you go larger than just your own area? Absolutely. I would suggest even like a 5 to 7 state area, um, depending on where you are. If you're in Texas, um, that like counts as 3 states because it's so big. But yeah, you need to go in a larger area than just your own area. The, um, the way that I always suggest is that you take a map and you draw like a 3 to 5 hour driving radius around where you are If you have a healthy budget, I would do 5 to 7 hour driving radius, and that becomes your target market. And I would blitz every town and city within that circle, and I would get it done. I would not hand out t-shirts. They are $5 apiece. I find that a little expensive. Um, I think a better suggestion would be an MP3 stick with your music on it. Um, if I was going to spend money to give something out, I would rather spend $3 for one of those that has my music than $5 for a t-shirt that if nobody knows really who you are yet, it might not help you. Um, I would rather you give out the music and sell the t-shirts. Just a thought. King Peavy, I, uh, you're asking me, um, I'm fine, thank you. You're asking me what companies do I recommend for social media campaigns. I, I don't recommend any. I got burned by so many social media companies that I finally started my own. Um, I used to work for other artists and then it just got to be too much. Like, everybody wanted to, um Everybody wanted to, um, buy fake followers, and I'm just not with that. Like, I tried to build fan bases so that artists can make money. So we do everything in-house now. Tony does it. Um, that portion of what we do is called a scratchy throat. But there's, um, I can't say he doesn't do any outside work, but not really. We really work on our own artists. King James is asking me, how far does BMI or ASCAP go back? My understanding is it's 2 years, but could you reach out to them and ask them? Because I really don't know. That's, that's like what other people have told me in the industry, but I've never asked ASCAP or BMI how far they go back. So if you could call them, if you go to bmi.com or ascap.com and just call the main number and ask them how far back they track money. Um, and it's not exactly that they go back, it's that you've gotten radio play in the past and the money is held for you for a certain period of time. But if you ask them just the way you asked me, they'll be able to tell you. And I'll bet it's different for both, so call them both. Desario, yes, this is my 22nd live Um, with Wendy Day, and I think I've answered the same like 3 questions every episode. I think there's at least 3, maybe 5 that I've answered every episode. I don't mind though. Um, Julio, yes, um, Trouble is a new— actually, everybody that I work with is new. I don't really work with established artists. I like building artists from scratch. Once they start to really bubble and become famous, it's not fun for me anymore. So I usually, um, let them move on and, and do what they do. Um, it's, it's a sad parting, but, um, there's a point where they just don't need me anymore. Like, Trouble's at a point where, you know, like, he doesn't need me anymore. He's doing fine on his own. So it gets to a point where You know, I, I want to work with new artists and build them up. So yes, all of my clients are new. J-Boy's asking, what is the best way to get on playlists on streaming sites? Um, you can build relationships with the curators, like whoever is putting the list together. And get on the list that way, or you can hire a middleman. Um, there are streaming site promotion companies. Um, Streaming Promotions based in Nashville is a company that I've used before. Um, Dig Streaming— DIG— is it called DIG Streaming? DIG Streaming, Dig Streaming. Um, they're also in Nashville. They're owned by Universal Records. Um, they're a company that can get you onto playlists. You know, it's weird though, the playlist companies are still very new. You know, they've only been around like a year or less than a year, and you can't even like call them or be introduced to them. Like, you've got to go to their websites and contact them through their websites, and I, I just don't like that. I'd rather either be introduced by somebody, or I'd rather just pick up the phone and call them. Rico on the Track, how are you? Never Yield Biz is saying, what's the best way to promote websites or direct more traffic to website? SEO. Um, SEO is important, yes. Um, I don't, I don't ever really focus on our SEO, and that might be a mistake. You should definitely do the research because maybe that's wrong. Um, I just focus on building the artist buzz, and somehow that increases the SEO. Um, we do a lot of Google Ads, we do a lot of Facebook ads that drive people to the websites. Um, if I'm working with an artist who's a little bit more mainstream hip-hop, then I will advertise to the J. Cole fans the Kendrick Lamar fans. If I'm working an artist that's a little more street, I will, um, place Facebook ads that target the Yo Gotti fans, the Kevin Gates fans, um, 21 Savage, etc., etc. So, um, when you place the ads, it's up to you what you advertise, it's up to you what you boost, whether you drive them to your SoundCloud page or your YouTube or your website We do a variety, um, whatever our focus is for that period of time, whether it's for a week, you know, if we've got something dropping, we might drive traffic to DatPiff or Live Mixtapes or Spinrilla. Um, if we've got a video dropping, we'll drive traffic to our YouTube page, or maybe we'll drive it to the website which embeds the YouTube page. So it really just depends on what our focus is our ads change regularly. Hula is asking, is it better to have a Vevo channel or a YouTube channel? I like YouTube better. Um, the way I look at it, Vevo is owned by the major labels, um, and Vevo is a channel on YouTube but YouTube is not a channel on Vevo. So that tells you that YouTube is bigger than Vevo. Um, I tend to avoid setting up, um, Vevo channels because it's expensive. There's a price to set them up, and I just don't see the benefit of splitting my viewership. Um, at some point the artist becomes big enough where you need both, but like I said, I work with the artist to break them and get them to a point where they're making about a million dollars and then they go off and do their own thing, either get a deal or, you know, um, continue running their label. There's usually somebody that, um— thank you, Julio— there's usually somebody who is on the team that can take over where I leave off because I kind of train them as I go along. Like, they, they're kind of right with me. Raymond, we are personally going through DistroKid. I, I highly recommend it, Derek. Um, I highly recommend it. Derek, who created CD Baby, offered it for $22 million and donated the whole check, partnered with a few individuals and created DistroKid. Yeah, I've heard great things about DistroKid. In fact, I thought that Jeff Price was one of the owners the guy who originally did TuneCore. I don't know how accurate that is, um, but here's what I did. You guys actually first taught me about DistroKid, um, when I first started these videos. I didn't know, um, who they were. So here's what I did. I went to DistroKid and I set up a Wendy Day account, even though I'm not an artist, and I pretended to have trouble uploading my music. So I emailed them and asked them if they could help me. They did. Um, and then after they uploaded music that was not mine, I reached out to them and said, hey, I made a mistake, I don't think I should be here, will you refund me my $39.99? And they did so without even asking me why I didn't want to be there, and the money was back on my credit card the next day. So I have nothing bad to say about DistroKid. Boy Paradise, I love your advice and I'm gonna be big soon, and your videos and blog have been so helpful toward my career. Thank you. Yes, I love your attitude. That's awesome. I know you're gonna be big too because you're gonna go for it. Rico on the Track, what about the beat makers? Um, what way would you go about getting placements? Now Rico, the thing that's kind of heartbreaking about your question is, um, just this morning I posted a video for, um, almost an hour where Rico Brooks talked about how you get placements. So I'm going to direct you there. It was just posted at 11 o'clock this morning. Um, I forget the name of it, but it's somewhere on my page. I haven't uploaded it to Rap Jewels yet, but, um, as soon as I get off this live, I will upload— I will update my Rap Jewels So if you wait till tomorrow and you go to rapjewels.com, you'll be able to find that video very easily. Rico Brooks is the manager for, um, Sonny Digital, uh, Southside, um, Metro Boomin, and I can't remember who else, but he talks about it in the video. But I, because I don't place beats myself for producers, I asked him if he would come on and let me interview him and answer that question., and I asked him. Never Yield Biz: I was just about to ask how you feel about buying views and followers. Now you know. The problem with buying views and followers is that they're not really fans. And while it's great for your ego to have 100,000 followers, if you put out music and you push it to those 100,000 followers and none of them are going to give a shit. So you'll look like you have a lot of followers, but you won't have any success. Your buzz won't grow. You won't make money doing what you're doing. It kind of defeats the purpose. So I just, I never, I never understood that whole ego thing about buying views. I'd rather have 1,000 people who support me and believe in me than 100,000 people where they don't. Where only 1,000 of them give a fuck about me. Just my own personal opinion. Also, when, um, when you have fake views and fake followers, it's obvious. You know, you might have 30,000 YouTube views but only 3 comments, or you might have 200,000 Instagram followers but you only get 60 comments on each photo. And then people that know that it was bullshit, when we look in at your social media, we think it's bullshit. And all of your social media might be real except for your Instagram, but because your Instagram looks bogus, then the industry assumes that all of your shit is bogus. Thank you, NYB. That is easier. I'll still call you Never Yield Biz though, because I just— I don't, I don't think to translate names. I just read them off the top of the gate. Records, I'm good, thank you. How are you? Raymond is saying the journey is the fuel. My God, that's true. Julio, you can't send me tracks. Um, I don't have time to listen to music Honestly, also I get so much music that, um, I just don't— I just, I can't, I can't listen to it all. So I'd rather listen to none of it than play favorites and listen to some and not others because that would just piss people off. But what I think doesn't matter anyway. What matters is DJs and fans. That's really who needs to give you feedback. What I think doesn't matter. Rico saying the Mike Will and Trouble album is going to be fire. It's, it's, it's like that. It's a lot more street than you're thinking that it is, because when you hear Mike Will Made It, you think like Ray Schremer, right? And this is not Ray Schremer. It's very much Trouble. Um, Lyric, you can go to helpfulangel.com to see exactly what it is that I do. King James remembers talking to me in Washington, D.C. for a huge event for Rap Sheet magazine. Um, you're the best. Thank you. I'll always be reaching out to you and always listening. Thank you, King James. Um, that was a long time ago. I did a battle. It's the only time that I did something. Um, we did it at BET Studios. And, um, was it Rap Sheet? Was it Rap Sheet or BET? Maybe it was Rap Sheet. I don't remember. But it was a battle, and I just remember I had Grandmaster Kaz with me. I had, um, Thurston Howell III, and I think Quest the Mad Lad. I can't remember who was with me, but yes, um, I, I organized it and it was incredible. I love rap battles. I used to do them all the time, but the problem with rap battles is that You can be the best battle rapper in the world and it doesn't translate into making money. And for some reason, because I was setting up the rap battles after I had done like Eminem's deal and the Cash Money deal and Master P's deal, people thought that if they come and battle and win, that I could get them a Cash Money deal. And it's very hard to get somebody signed to a label that's a battle rapper. The labels all know that battle rappers don't, um, don't really, um, make great songs. They're just great battle rappers, except Eminem. Eminem can do them both. I'm sure there's other people out there. It's just very hard to break through that ceiling. Black Rich Gang Brooks is saying, I need a manager like me. Wendy Day, thank you so much. Thanks, thanks. I don't manage anymore. It's, it's not fun. It's, um, it's a lot of work, and, um, I found that often I worked harder than the artist. So I decided that I'd rather build their careers and set up labels for them, and if they have an investor, then I get paid to do that, and I don't need to make a percentage of what they make. I'd rather help them become successful and then move on. If I work with one artist, then I'm working with them for, you know, their entire career, or at the minimum 5 years. And right now I get to work with artists for like a year or two and get them popping, and they can move on and I can move on. And I like that. And I'm still cool with most of the people that I've worked with, so it seems to work for me. NYB is saying, I'm so happy it's officially spring break for me. Studio, studio, studio. Absolutely good for you for going to school. South by is coming up. Grind, grind, grind. Yes, South by is coming up. Um, it's actually going on right now for the, um, for the web part of it, which is kind of cool. I went to that the year before last and it was amazing. It was actually better for me than the music part. The music part was kind of a letdown. Top of the Gate Records said, I met Juicy J's manager and he asked me if I had a budget for a verse or a feature. Is it better to let him know I don't have a budget, or should I have asked him what is he charging for a feature? Um, I don't think a feature is going to help you until you start to get known. I've got a video that talks about that. Um, but yeah, I think when somebody asks you if you have a budget Um, they're afraid they're gonna either quote you a price that's too low and they could get more, or they're worried that you can't afford their artist. Um, I know that Tony does that with Trouble. When somebody calls and asks what Trouble charges for a verse, he charges, um, between $10,000 and $15,000. But a lot of people that call only have like $3,000 or $4,000, and if Trouble feels you as an artist, he might do a verse a little cheaper than he would if you just hit him up and say, let me pay you. And maybe that's what his manager was doing. I don't know his manager, so it's hard for me to say. But for the most part, um, I'm always nervous, um, when somebody right off the bat says, what's your budget? I feel like they really charge $3,000 and they want me to say that I'll pay $5,000. So that they can make more money. So it just makes me a little nervous. Um, Tito Tracks, um, how do I feel about leasing beats online? Um, the problem with leasing beats is that when you're a professional artist and you're going to market and promote the song, if the beat is leased, you cannot do that because you don't have any licensing rights or ownership rights to that beat. So for my artists, we don't lease beats ever. But for a newer artist that's up and coming and isn't quite there yet and doesn't quite have a budget but just needs music out, I understand why that type of artist would buy a leased beat. It's just the artists that I work with are a little bit more advanced than that. So you're asking me how I feel about leased beats. I don't I don't ever release beats for any of my artists, not ever. We buy beats and you still have ownership. I mean, you still own the publishing, but if we don't own the master on the beat, that means we can't put a budget. And the artists that I work with usually have budgets of, you know, like around $150,000. So we can't put money behind a beat that, that the artist doesn't own the master to. It doesn't make financial sense. Thank you, Hula. Hey, big up myself, Wendy Day. You motivate me. I'm so glad. That's my goal. Hey, Rockfather, how are you? Hey, Rico. I'll tell— Tony's not home right now, but when he gets home, I'll tell him that you said what's up. He goes— does he still do his live on Facebook? I hope he does. He's, he's so inspirational. I know sometimes he can be really hard on you guys, like he can be really harsh, especially if you ask him for advice and you don't listen. It really bothers him because he knows what he's telling you is, is the truth and is right. Whereas me, like, you ask me for advice, I tell you what I think. If you don't follow it, fuck it, it's your life. Um, but he gets really upset, so— oh, okay, Raymond is saying that Philip J. Kaplan owns, um, DistroKid. I don't, I don't even know who that is, but what's funny is that there's all this speculation. Like, I've heard the same rumors you've had— you've heard that it's, um, Derek Sivers from, um, formerly of CD Baby. And then I heard it was Jeff Price, so who knew? Who was asking me, do you think flyers with the download link is really effective? Because I'm going to shell my city down with that. Um, it works for us, but understand that the artists that I work with have a little bit of a buzz, um, and we built that buzz because we're in the Southeast and were able to use CDs. And I know for a fact that people pop the CDs because when I give them to them in their cars, they pop it in right then and there. Top of the Gate, can you, um, can you still hear me? You're saying what happened? I went offline. I hope you could still hear me. Oh, Raymond's saying that Derek Sivers is it Sivers or Cybers, whatever, isn't, um, an advisor because he's got a non-compete agreement after selling CD Baby. Actually, that non-compete should be up by now. Usually non-competes are like 5 years, and I think he sold CD Baby like a decade ago, didn't he? Maybe not, maybe it only has been 5 years. King James is asking how expensive sample clearance is. Um, I've got a video about sample clearance. I interviewed Deborah Manus Gardner And that's definitely been uploaded to rapjewels.com, so go check out Rap Jewels. Um, but there's no set price. The price is whatever the owner of the publishing charges you and whatever the owner of the master charges you. So it can be a dollar, it can be $5 million. They get to set the price. Um, the last time I cleared a sample, it was 5 grand. For a certain amount of sales, and then if we sold more, it was a little bit more. Um, the artist ended up going to jail, so it didn't really sell anything. It was just kind of given away for free. Um, so it was only the $5,000 that his investor laid out. Yes, Rico, Trouble Still Rocks with Alley Boy. They're both in Duct Tape, and Duct Tape is a family Who is saying, when I type in Trouble on YouTube, I see different artists? No doubt. Um, when I type Trouble in on YouTube, up pops, um, T.I., Troubleman. That's actually the number one thing that pops up when I type in Trouble DTE or Trouble Duct Tape. He pops up immediately. King James. Not easy loops or detectable samples, samples but bits. That's a Deborah Manus Gardner question. I can't, I can't answer that. Um, there is a program that every publisher has. They run songs through to see if there's any samples of their music. Um, so it just depends on whether it is detected by that or not. King James is saying it was BET Studios. DJ Craze won the DJ battle and killed it. Oh, I remember that. That was actually, um, we were at BET Studios, but it was, um, one of Rap Sheets music conventions, their East Coast convention. I think at that point in time they did one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. Everyone was there, including Jay-Z, Irv Gotti, Organized Confusion, Chuck D, Nonchalant, and so many others. Yes, that was a rap sheet, um, music conference. I forget what they called it. King Peavy is saying, how long do you push a project? Um, until it starts to fizzle out or until it doesn't catch on. I can't give you an answer, like, it's not— the answer is not 6 months, 8 months, 10 months. Um, but you can tell when you're pushing the project if it's just not catching on. Like, if you've been out there for 8 or 9 months pushing it and you're not growing, there's a problem. If you're out there pushing it for, um, 6 or 8 months and it's just starting to catch on, you're going to feel that too. So you push it until it peaks out and it starts coming back down, and you'll feel it. It's, it's not something that I can tell you or teach you. All I can say is that you'll feel it. And you'll remember that I said this when it happens. You're welcome, Black Rich Gang. King James is saying, look out for my artist Joe Flow, an incredible lyricist, impact with thought, something to hear. Um, for me, I look for the buzz. Talented artists are so easy to find. I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings, King James. I didn't mean to. Um, Top of the Gate Records, um, you can go back and watch this. And, um, what you're asking about— I went offline. Oh, you mean I went offline. Can you answer the question about budget again? I don't remember a question about budget for the sample clearance. No, you wouldn't have asked about sample clearance. Will you, um, will you retype the question for me? Well, it depends, um, what I buy beats for. First of all, I don't buy the beats, the artist does or the investor, um, but it could be anywhere for— from $100 to $5,000. It depends on who the producer is. Is it Mike Will Made It? Is it Sunny Digital? Is it— it just really depends on the producer. It depends on how badly the artist wants the song. Um, I know for Trouble, we don't buy beats because the producers just give them to him. I know that's not the answer you're looking for. You want me to say we, we buy beats for 5 grand, but it just— it really depends. Most of the, um, fare is what you negotiate. Most of the beats that you're gonna sell, I would suggest that you in your paperwork say that if the artist secures a record deal and wants to use your beat, then you get this amount. But if— and whatever that is, you know, $5,000, $3,000, $3,500, $1,500, whatever you normally get— you're obviously very new to this because you're asking me what to charge. I would ask around and see what other people are selling their beats for and figure out where you fit in. Um, really, you're gonna get paid what somebody is willing to pay, and if they only have a certain budget for a beat, then you've got to figure out, is it worth it to let them have it for that beat? And again, I would put some sort of clause that says if they get a major label deal, they have to pay full price for your beat, but you're gonna have to stipulate what that full price is. To put it in the contract, because if you just say full price, it's too ambiguous and it could get thrown out of court if they sue you. Black Voice, love you back. Killafuse is saying, please like the video, it means a lot. Thanks. Um, yes, if you guys like this video, it'll get it, um, it'll get it put into the main area on YouTube. Once I get up to 10,000 subscribers, then I can use the Facebook Studios to film for free. Tamara Bubble, how are you? Tony still does the live videos on Facebook? Yes, he just deletes it right after because he's usually dropping too many gems. That's funny. Boy Paradise is saying, for an R&B or pop artist, is street promotion effective? It absolutely is, provided you are promoting where your fans are. You know, if you're promoting to people that aren't R&B or pop fans, no, it's not going to be effective. You're going to have to hit like high schools, malls, you know, any place where your market hangs out. Siobhan is saying, great interview with Lester Pace. How can I contact his company for radio promotion? Um, hit me privately. Would you email me? Um, this is wendyday@gmail, and I will be happy to, um, put you in touch with him. Um, Never Yield Biz, ditto for you. You're asking me how to contact Kingpin. If you don't want to reach out to him on Instagram, he lives on Instagram. He's @rapjuggernaut, but if you don't want to reach out to him, email me and I will put you in contact with him. Thank you, King James. Thank you, Hola. I'm here for you when you're ready. Tim, I don't know when Trouble's coming out. Um, I've been asking him to deliver music so that we could drop since October. So he had an October deadline, he missed December 2nd, he missed January, he missed February, um, and now he is shooting the videos for the Mike Will Made It album. So my best guess is that it will come out— he says the end of this month. I believe it won't come out until April. Let's see who's right. King James is saying, we're setting up the buzz, preparing properly before coming out the gate. I've learned throughout the years from you and others, so no worries, you'll hear about them. Yay, beautiful! Killafuse is saying, support for support on SoundCloud. That's a beautiful thing, Killafuse. Um, hashtag your SoundCloud name. Hula, yes. Any producers in the room, talk to Hula. Hula's looking for beats. Tito Tracks, yes, I did put up the artist split sheet and What video did I put that under? It was the one— it was one of the ones with Deborah Manus Gardner. It was a Bitly link, and, um, I think Tamara Bubble was kind enough to go in and correct it, and then I went back in and correct the original link. Um, Bubble, do you remember what video that was? It, it, I think it's the How Producers Make Money video. I know it wasn't the sample clearance video. I don't think it was— it had to be the producer video. It was the producer video. And if you email me, I'll send you the link rather than make you dig for it. Raymond, this is wendyday@gmail.com. And I love you for that. Raymond just offered to help me get my, um, YouTube to 10,000 because then I can use the studios and the equipment for free and you guys won't have to look at this anymore. Manager Onk, how are you? Yes, you can watch this full video once it gets posted if you were, um late, and that's not a problem. And, um, whoever wanted the question for the budget, please ask it again so that I can answer it because I'm sad that it cut out. But the full video will get posted. I think it posts within an hour after I leave here. I've never timed it. Rico's asking me what I think about sites like BeatStars for producers. Um, I know SoundClick used to be really popular, and I have bought beats— well, I haven't, my clients have bought beats off of SoundClick before. If BeatStars is like SoundClick, um, I think it's a great place for you to be. I think relationships matter more though. I think if you could pop up in the studio, um, when artists were there and get them to listen to your beats, that's probably a better way to build a career. Yeah, I don't remember either, Bubble, but thank you. Money, baby! I love that you guys are interacting with each other. This is Awesome, awesome, awesome. Hula is a dancehall reggae artist. That's interesting. Where are you located? Are you in the Northeast? That's awesome. My life is, um, so rap-oriented that I get really excited when I see pop artists here and reggae artists and, you know, pretty much anybody that's not rap. I mean, I'm excited about you rappers too, but, you know, um, it's just so exciting when other artists— okay, Manager Ank is offering some great advice. Be careful when purchasing the beats offline for $35 or in that area because a lot of them put a cap on how many times you can use them. Oh, who was in Amsterdam originally from Jamaica? From Yard. Soon come to the USA. Yeah, it's a good market here. It's mostly the Northeast, like the New York area has a really good reggae market. Miami has a great reggae market. Chicago, LA, San Diego. The South, not so much. Oh, okay, Top of the Gates was asking about Juicy J's manager asking about a budget or from— or for promo for Juicy J or Project Pat. And you should definitely go back and, and re-listen to it because it was pretty long. But what I was saying was that I don't like when people ask you what your budget is. My concern is that, um, and this is, this is not specific to Project Pat or Juicy J, right? My concern is that somebody will charge $3 normally for a verse, right? And I know it's more than $3, but let's say they charge $3 for a verse. They ask you what your budget is. You say, oh, I've only got $5. They go, oh goody, because they just made an extra $2. That's my concern. Um, but I don't know him. He might be somebody that is offering you a deal. Like, if, if they normally— if Juicy J normally gets $30,000 a verse and you can't afford that, you've only got $10,000 a verse, then maybe he's asking you what your budget is to know that if you're somebody he wants to work with or not. Um, and, and the first thing I said, and the most important thing that I said, is Unless you are known in your area, a feature is not going to help you. So it's better to spend that budget on marketing and promoting yourself than it is a feature, unless you're bubbling a little bit and people really know who you are, not just in your own area but like in that, you know, 5 to 7 state area or 3 to 5 state area that I said you should market and promote in. If people don't already know who you are, you are wasting money on a feature. It does not put you on. Not saying that that's why you're asking, I'm just saying for all of you that are listening. Top of the Gate, did I answer your question? Now I think I did. Desiria said, this is like Wendy Day hip-hop church night where we fellowship. I love that, except I don't make you pass the— I don't make you pass the, uh, the plate. Speaking of plate, I haven't eaten yet and I'm hungry. So Manager Onk is also saying you'll blow the song up and then you'll have no more rights unless you renew the contract, and they'll eat you alive on the new contract. Absolutely. You'd never want to negotiate something after it's starting to become successful, or the perception of it becoming successful. So like, you may have a song that's kind of popping in your own area and it looks like it's big, and people might think that you're making a million dollars, so they're going to charge you 50 grand for something that you haven't made even near that from having. So just be a little careful. Dark Brothers Entertainment is saying, I bought an exclusive beat and the way the producer has it I am the full owner of the beat. Do I still send the split sheet to him when I'm done with the song? Yes, because he's going to own the publishing. The split sheet is for the publishing. That has nothing to do with the master. Okay, so Siobhan is saying that my videos post on YouTube in less than 5 minutes. How cool is that? Good job, Hoola! Hoola's got music dropping. Yay! Bye, Never Yield Biz! Sorry for these, um, dead— these dead spaces, guys. Um, I'm trying not to like read your conversations out loud. Let me, let me go to a letter. So Tony Gray is saying, hey Wendy, I saw the YouTube interview you did about distribution. Can you do something explaining to artists the differences between mixtapes and albums? Yes. Okay, this is where This is where names kind of get fucked up a little bit, because a mixtape is technically a group of songs that you do to beats that may not be your own, or a mixtape is your own original music but that you have a DJ hosting, so there's a DJ talking over it. That's the traditional definition of mixtape. The definition of an album is a group of songs that have original lyrics and original production. When you have a mixtape, you cannot distribute it because you can't sell it if it's somebody else's beats. But if it's all original music and you have no features that you have to get cleared, then you can distribute it through a distributor. And what I mean by that, like, um, I'm going to use the example of Juicy J, where, um, if you have Juicy J on a song and you go to upload it to TuneCore or DistroKid, they might reject it and say, um, you have an artist on here that is signed to another label, you don't own the rights to it. And you might have to send them a copy of a contract that allows you to use Juicy J on your song before they'll upload it. If you have an album of all original music and all original lyrics, you can upload it very easily to the distributor for distribution amongst Spotify, Apple Music, you know, wherever they're going to distribute. And most distributors send it everywhere. Yeah, Desario, Tony's not home, so no such luck. I'm gonna have to cook my own food tonight. Secretly, he's an amazing cook. Tony's an amazing cook, but that was funny. Top of the Gate Records, you're welcome, and that was funny too. Raymond is saluting me on International Women's Day. Thank you, by the way. Yeah, I am about as independent as they come. Like, I just really, you know, I've signed people to deals and I have, I have helped people stay independent, and independent is just always so much better. Um, I just, I have found in my career that it's easier for artists to find investors to give them a budget than it is to find a record deal. And you make better money when you're in control of your own career. You can hire all the same people that the major labels do to move you forward, as long as you have a budget. Thank you, Desario. Relationship goals. Um, who is saying, if $1,000 is my budget, what advice would you give me for releasing my new video? Um, $1,000 is not a lot of money to to release a video. So my best suggestion would be to put that into Facebook ads, um, Google ads, and drive people to your, um, YouTube page. The problem is that just doing one thing for your career is not enough. It's like, it's like a pie. You need to have all of the slices in that pie to make a pie. And if you just have one slice, it's not a pie, it's just one piece of the pie. And marketing and promoting a video is just one piece of the pie. You really kind of need to do everything. Um, Tom Black, if you go to helpfulangel.com, it, it, it explains exactly, um, what I do and how I do it. King Peavy, I did videos where I rapped a cappella over beats on Facebook and I targeted New York. They gave me great feedback and engagement. Should I push in New York as well when I drop my project? Um, yes. Um, are you based in New York? Like, you should work where you're based, not where you got great feedback, right? Um, New York is a very expensive market to work. You're based in Chicago. Okay, I would do— I would do Chicago, I would do Gary, Indiana, I would go down to St. Louis, and I would hit everywhere in between, like Peoria, Springfield. I would hit all of those markets as opposed to New York, especially if you're from Chicago. Chicago is an expensive market to work too, but not like New York. New York is gonna— you can work a whole 5-hour driving radius around Chicago for the price you're going to pay to work New York. So guys, we're at the hour mark. I'm going to go eat dinner, um, which is also my lunch. I was a little busy today. So I will see you guys all next week, and tune into the videos. They drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:00 AM. Thanks guys, thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to like this video, and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. Thanks guys, love y'all, bye.