LIVE with Wendy Day #025 | Answering Your Questions Live

Really?

Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Wrap Coolish, and thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so happy that you're here. It's a very nice thing to say, thank you. Okay guys, I'm almost there. I'm coming, 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 live stream. We're almost ready to go. I'm 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. Hi guys, how are you? It's Wednesday night. Hope you guys are doing well. Bye, Tony. Hope you guys are doing well. Tony just left. Money Baby, DJ Sincere, Polly Foster, how are you? Sister Whirlwind, hello. Your Vision, I'm good. Actually, I'm not good. One of my friends passed away and it's been hitting me hard. Um, Kane Carter, how are you? Yes, you're here, you're catching it live. That's a beautiful thing. Tony just left, so, um, gangster's going a little bit ham. So guys, I just got back from California. And I came home to find out that Garnett Reed passed away, and that's really sad. He's one of the people that, um, I was planning to interview in the next couple of weeks for this. JR Flores, how are you? Thank you, Sincere. It was a hard one. Pipeline TV, how are you, Piper? So, um, you guys did send me questions, and I don't have them in front of me, so, um, you're gonna have to ask them in the, uh, message box tonight, and then I will answer the ones that came in this week. Um, I will answer them next Wednesday, and I apologize greatly. Um, it's been a really rough day. Dark Brothers ENT, how are you? Thank you, money baby. Yeah, he was, um, he was an amazing mix show radio promoter. And the worst part is that nobody seems to know why he passed. So you've got half the internet speculating that he committed suicide, and then the other half saying he died of natural causes at 48, and he was very healthy. Um, and he hasn't been happy for a long time, so it's, you know, the speculation is just crazy. And he's an— he was an amazing, amazing human being. Okay, so 510 Gorilla Man. Okay, who's giving Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, and Migos these deals? These artists have no lyrics, no stage presence, no substance, and probably never graduated. Um, I feel your pain. Um, but as I say on here all the time, getting a deal has nothing to do with talent. When has it ever? Was Master P talented? Um, no, he was just a great marketer and a great promoter. So, um, you're asking if the rap game is dead? No, it's not. Um, understand that this is a totally new generation, and this generation loves Lil Yachty and they love Uzi Vert. Like It's their generation. And you know, you know, it's really cool for me because I started listening to rap in the 1980s, so 1980 to be exact, and many of you weren't even born yet. But I've gone through this so many times, like I've seen rap cycle through. So like in the golden era of rap, and I think you guys probably all came up in the era of like Biggie and Tupac and DMX and, you know, blah blah blah blah blah, um, the folks that came up in that era feel that that's the best era. And it's funny because during that era I was 30 to 35 years old, so my era is the era before that— the Public Enemy, Eric B. Rakim, um, Naughty by Nature. Like, that was more my era, and we thought that, um, the Biggie type rap, which really touted materialism. Jay-Z, Biggie, like, they really brought materialism into the fold, whereas the rap that I grew up on was more, um, Black power and talked about— I mean, there was still party rap, you know, like Run-DMC made party rap, but there was a lot of rap that was conscious. Then, you know, like X Clan and Public Enemy. So we thought, you know, what is this, this materialistic crap? Popping bottles, throwing money in nightclubs, what's this crap, you know? So I've already gotten to live through rap that had changed completely, and that's what you're going through now, only instead of it being Wu-Tang Clan, now it's The Migos, right? Um, I think that it's the energy and the excitement. Um, I don't think that the music industry has ever had much to do with talent. But here's the great thing, um, 510 Gorilla Man, because of the internet, you don't have to ever hear Lil Yachty or Uzi Vert if you don't like them. You don't ever have to listen to the Migos. Um, the only time I've ever heard the Migos is when they rapped on a song with Trouble, and that's only because I'm working with Trouble. So I haven't really had to listen to their music, right? In, in my world, I can go on the internet and find really great music to listen to. I can be on Spotify and listen to whatever I choose, unless I'm listening to the radio, because I live here in Atlanta, right? Unless I'm, I'm, I'm listening to the radio, I don't have to deal with anything that I don't like. So they're getting record deals has nothing to do with what you're listening to. For the most part, you don't have to listen to it. And, um, you know, when, when I was coming up in rap, we had to— all we had was the radio. And then before the radio, like, rap didn't hit radio until the early '90s. So before that, everything was mixtapes and what we would pass to each other, like, physically. Like, if you wanted to know what was going on New York, you needed to have a cousin or a family member or a friend mail you a cassette tape. This is how far back I go, right? A cassette tape of the newest shit if you wanted to hear what was new, you know. So, um, I just love— I just love the fact that there's all different kinds of music now, and I love that artists can make money. Chance the Rapper, um, Tech N9ne— artists can make money without a record label today. They can be their own record label. So, um, that's a plus. Um, High End Radio is asking how important is blog placement. It used to be really, really, really important. Um, I, I don't think it's as important as it once was. I think the blogs have kind of burned themselves out when they started doing pay-for-play. People stopped paying attention to blogs as an authority and realized what it was, that it was, um basically bloggers posting whatever they got paid to post, and it took away a lot of their power. So if you can get, um, if you can get placements on blogs, I think that you should. But if you've got a limited budget, I would rather see you get placed on playlists at Apple Music and at Spotify, where it's probably going to do you a little more good than on a blog. I think you're going to reach more people if you can get onto the bigger playlists. So if you're gonna spend money, if you have to decide between playlists or blogs— if you could do both, great, do both. But, um, I'd rather see you on playlists. I think it'll go a little further. Um, thank you, KB Williams. Um, KB says, um, love your show, your knowledge is worth millions. Thank you so much. Um, and guys, just make sure you know that, that my knowledge is my own experience. Like, it's my opinion, right? Just because something has worked for me doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. Like, for example, the last question about blogs. I'll bet there is a shit ton of artists out there that will say that has really benefited them. Um, they haven't benefited the artists that I've really worked with, you know, as a whole. Once, once the artist starts popping, like at the level where Trouble is now, the blogs are very helpful because whatever he puts out, they post, and that's very beneficial. But in the early stages of building him, we basically got tired of sending music and videos to blogs because they wouldn't post him. They didn't start posting him until we started getting radio play with Ready. Once he started getting radio play, um, with Ready, we came and followed that back up with, um, Thief in the Night with Young Thug, and then they started to take him seriously. Not because of Young Thug, but because Ready hit radio. It hit like number 50 on the charts, which is pretty amazing because we weren't doing national radio. We only pushed him in the Southeast. We're still only pushing him in the Southeast. Jesse Parker, you're Dirty Cash's uncle. I love Dirty Cash. You've been watching my live channel for a, for a month now. And I've given you a lot of knowledge. Yay, yay, yay! Um, I love Dirty Cash. I think he is an awesome human being. Your Vision, I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you guys, I really appreciate that. It's really hard to lose friends, and it's even harder to lose a friend that loves you. Like, it's hard to replace people that just genuinely love you, you know, people that that are there whether they're getting something from you or not. And that's what Garnett was for me. He was just, you know, he was somebody that I loved and who loved me dearly. Like, when my mom passed away, he was the first person to call me. Um, when Tony and I moved in together, he, he was the first person to call me and say, you know, hey, how's it going? Don't fuck this up. Like, he's a good dude, don't fuck this up. And I needed to hear that at the time. So, you know, he was just a good dude. Rest in peace, Garnett. Thank you, 510 Gorilla Man. You don't ever have to listen to rap you don't like again. I give you permission to never have to listen to it again. The Real See-Through TV, yep, you're right on time. Julian Murphy, do I think open mics are good for upcoming artists to start performing in? Yes, and here's why I think open mics— and I'll bet it's for a different reason than you think that I'm gonna say. Um, I like open mics for artists that haven't had a lot of experience in performing because it's a place where you can go to hone your skills and get your show tight, and it's affordable. Like, an open mic to perform is like $10 or $20. Um, some open mics will make you sell tickets in order to perform, and as long as you're not selling too many tickets I think that it's a great opportunity to get you on stage in front of a lot of people. Also, the bulk of people that go to an open mic are other artists, and other artists are less likely to boo you than, like, um, if your first show was opening for Juicy J, right? And that's a crowd of people that are there to see Juicy J, and they don't care about an opening act. So I think that open mics are great for practicing your show. They're also great to go to even if you don't perform. They're great to go to and see, okay, what are artists doing on their stage show? And it's inexpensive place for you to go to watch 12 different acts perform and see, you know, what worked for somebody else on stage and what didn't work. You know, how did they hold the crowd? If there was a problem with the mic, what did they do? If the sound dropped out, what did they do? If the sound was bunk, what did they do? It's just a great place when you're relatively new to hone your skills. Hi, End Radio, I answered that already. I'm sure you asked that after I talked about blog placement, and if not, you can go back and you can, um, you can replay this and watch this because I answered that. Coop the Trill: Outside of Atlanta, what are some other cities that have a strong music presence? I'm gonna answer that, but before I answer that, Coop, I want to preface it by saying that every city is good when you're promoting. It doesn't really matter what the city has going on because your goal isn't to reach the industry, your goal is to reach fans. So you could be in Des Moines, Iowa. And as long as you're reaching rap fans and you're in front of rap fans who might like your music, it's a good place to be. But to answer the question that you asked me directly, um, some of the other cities that have a strong music presence: Miami, um, Jacksonville, Houston, Dallas. Birmingham, kinda. Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, the Bay Area— hands down the Bay Area, they have a lot going on in music. New York, um, I said Chicago, right? Detroit. Detroit has, um, Detroit has a bit of a music scene going on. Um, what you're looking for in a city, I'm assuming, is a radio station that's going to play local music, a fan base that's going to support you, meaning they're going to either buy or stream your music and attend your shows. Um, and you don't need— for it used to be that you needed a source of distribution, but you don't anymore because distribution is mostly online. Um, and you can get that through any of the online distributors. Did I answer your question? I probably left out some cities that are popping for music. DC, um, is, is a decent, um, city for music. Vice Virtue, how about Instagram and Facebook ads? Um, I, I think they're great. I think Google Ads and Facebook Ads work really well. My problem with Instagram ads is that it's a little bit more difficult, um, because you're selling with a visual and just a visual. If you have a lot of type, um, it's, it's a little more difficult to place an Instagram ad. Um, it— the reach is a little bit less. They throttle you. But I think that Facebook, um, and Google Ads are great. Tony, do you place Twitter ads?

For reach, yes.

Tony places Twitter ads as well for reach, not for followers, but for reach, like to spread music. Yes, and it's not as expensive as it once was because there was a time where Twitter was really expensive. Tony's saying for followers it's too expensive, but for reach it's, um, it's a good move. Thank you, babe. Do you do anything on Snapchat?

Geofilters.

Tony does geofilters on Snapchat. And he especially does that for when an artist is performing in a certain city. He'll buy a radius around the club so that people inside of the club and in the parking lot and in the neighboring areas can, can Snapchat with the filter that has the artist's logo and name. I think you cannot put photographs in filters, so I've noticed that Tony does a lot of cartoon likenesses, um, of trouble. I've noticed that. Carolyn Angel, how are you? Nice to see you here. 2 Live is asking me, would I pay to perform at an A&R showcase? Um, no, I wouldn't. I would pay to build a buzz as an artist, um, but no, I wouldn't pay to perform at an A&R Showcase. Wow, my, um, computer's really running slow tonight. I apologize, there's a wicked lag, but at least you guys can hear me. Yes. JC Kush, when you sell a beat to an artist, do you give up your master share and keep the publishing? Yes. Um, or do you get to keep both 50/50?

You—

they need the master rights because without the master rights, they cannot market and promote, they cannot sell. The music. They have to have the master rights, but you're not going to give up your publishing, and you're only licensing to them your, your master share. Vice Virtues asking, how can I get my music on Spotify and iTunes playlists? Um, you reach out to the curators of the playlists and you build a relationship with them, and you can also hire companies to reach playlist curators as well. But you definitely want to have relationships because if you hire somebody to do it for you, you're always going to be hiring somebody to do it for you. And then you're also, um, you're at their mercy of how many clients they have. So are they going to pitch you to every playlist, or are they working 20 other artists and maybe there's 5 other artists that get pitched before you. I don't know. I think you should have your own relationships. You coming to say hi? Um, right now, 30.

Okay.

But there's probably— excuse me, but there's— I still haven't learned which way to move. Oh, look, Tony's here!

Uh, yeah, I'm about to walk out the door, but I just heard the question you had, which was Spotify and Apple Music and Apple Music playlists. And I'm going to give away a dynamic and amazing piece of information.

Please.

Community.spotify.com is a place where Spotify users can go to interact with each other and leave each other messages, ask to trade places on your playlist. So if you're an artist, let's say if you're a rapper that makes trap rap, you can go to community.spotify.com and make it your business, let's say, every day to find 5 other artists that make the same kind of music as you, and you create playlists and you swap it out so that the guy down the street who has his 10 people listening to him gives people access to what you're listening to, and then you can do the same for them. So, and the, the Spotify community is worldwide. Your reach is only limited to how much work you do with networking on the platform. So it's community.spotify.com. You can meet a lot of playlist curators there and actually become a playlist curator. If you're an artist, you should build up your Spotify platform big enough to where you have so many followers on your playlist that you can sell placements if need be. So. Cool.

And how do you get onto Spotify or Apple? How do you build relationships with curators? Look at all the love you're getting.

I can't see that, I don't got my glasses on.

Okay, you're getting crazy love.

So Hector Polly Foster with Spotify, Sincere DJ, Sincere, what's up Sincere, with Spotify and with Apple Music, you go in and you see the playlist. Now be realistic with yourself, I work with Trouble, of course I want to see Trouble on the Rap Caviar playlist at Spotify. It's got over 5 million subscribers. Trouble isn't big enough to be on the Rap Caviar playlist, but I want him on there, but he's not big enough. So I had to climb on down from the 5 million subscriber playlist mountain to the 5,000 subscriber playlist. And I went in and I searched people who like trap, who like street rap, who like gangsta rap, who had Future playlists, who had Young Thug, Migos playlists.

Oh, so you look for similar artists?

Yeah.

Okay.

And you go in, you find a playlist. You see the person who's the curator and you Google them and you find them on social media and then you reach out to them.

Yay! And then you build a relationship.

Build a relationship with them and ask them to ultimately ask them to check out your music.

You rock for that. Thank you.

No problem at all.

Have a good night, honey. Be safe out there. Okay, guys. Coop the Trill says what's up. Mandy Savage says what's up.

Savage!

Siobhan says what's up. Siobhan! Yeah, that was great, right? They're all saying thank you. No problem. Kane Carter says what's up. Cash Bank says onk. Julio R Entertainment, how are you? Bubbles on deck.

Bubble is always on deck.

Bubble's always on deck. She called us the dynamic duo and she hashtagged it.

Tell them I might go live when you're done.

Oh cool, Tony's about to go live when—

oh, when you're done.

Okay, go. You could go live in like 30 minutes. Okay, want me to call you and tell you? Okay, yeah, okay, okay, cool. Tony's gonna— Tony's driving downtown, so he's gonna go live when I finish up here. Julio R says, what's up, my man? Coop the Trill says, I am the connect, what up? Yeah, that was really helpful, right? So yeah, I would, I would put my energy into playlists right now. I think that they have a lot of value. Tony's is @iamthekonnect. He goes live on Facebook, Coop. Yes, Hector, Tony's gonna go live on Facebook after this. I'm gonna, as soon as I go offline, I I'm going to either text him or call him, and he'll probably go live on Facebook. He's driving downtown, and, um, he likes to go live while he's sitting in traffic. So Pipeline TV just said, now that I put my pen down, that was off— awesome information. Thanks, Tony. And you know what's weird? It says that I have 30 people watching, but as soon as this posts, it's going to say that I had like over 100 people that viewed it. And I know that they had to be live.

Watching isn't a YouTube subscriber.

Oh, you've got to be a YouTube subscriber to be counted. Oh, I see. I've always wondered about that. Oh, now that I know there's more of you, I'm nervous. Just kidding. Um, Marta Chic is asking, do we need an agreement for artwork? Technically yes. When, um, when you start a label and you're investing in artwork, you're going to want to have a release from the artist who does the design and the logos and the photographers who take the pictures. But at the level that we are here um, it's not something that you absolutely need to have unless you've got an unlimited budget. And, um, I didn't post a video this morning because I was a little preoccupied, um, but I have a video that, um, is almost done about budgets that I'm gonna go back in and finish and post at some point tonight, maybe first thing tomorrow morning. But we're gonna talk about budgets. Coop, I don't know what the Spotify site was because Tony just walked out the door. Can somebody, can somebody put in the feed what the Spotify site was where all of the users can talk to each other? Was it download.spotify.com? Support.spotify? Whoever was paying attention and took notes, if you could put that in the feed, that would be awesome. It's community.spotify.com. Thank you, Polly Foster, you rock for that. Good thing one of us was paying attention. Thank you, Julio R. Um, Julio says, I have the world watching. Thank you, Sincere, for being a subscriber. I, I love that you guys are subscribers because once I get 10,000 subscribers, I can go live from my phone instead of having to be here at my desk with my, like, house in the background. I can actually be in New York or in Cali. I can be on the road and I can go live, and that would be awesome because if I'm out with a client, I can schedule my schedule on a Wednesday so that you can actually see what we're doing. I think that would be really cool. So push that subscribe button. Polly, I'm not surprised that I, that I don't have that money. I don't really advertise my, um, live feed the way that I should. And the reason that I don't do it is because if I start advertising my live feed, I'm gonna get a shit ton of haters in here that are just gonna be here to like cause me drama, and they're gonna come on and start like promoting their own shit, and it's gonna be horrendous. So, um, I just haven't like run ads for it. Um, yeah, I have, I have like, I have like 4,000. Thank you, Hector. Um, I think I have like 4,000, um, subscribers in general. Um, yeah, I guess I could, I guess I could run Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Yeah, I could do that. Fuck it, I'll do it. Um, and thank you, Polly. Polly saying I'm the best kept secret. Seriously, my videos are. Thank you so much. Um, you know, I gotta tell you, Hector, I had one subscriber when I started. I never really paid attention to my YouTube feed, and when I started in October, Jordan Tower was my first subscriber, my first follower on YouTube, my first subscriber. So I'm pretty thankful. Yeah, it got up to 4,000 pretty quick and it was all organic. I think I've talked about it, um, I've never talked about it in an interview that I can remember. Um, I think I've talked about it on Instagram and Twitter, uh, maybe once a week, twice a week. I know when the videos post, it automatically sends out the links. 2 Live says, I've been watching your video since December.

Yay!

Yeah, I started in October, and Jordan Tower, um, huge thanks to him because he's the one that helped me set this up. He invited me to his crib and, um, I spent a day with him, and he did like the, the entry music. He did the thing that you see while you're waiting. He did the entry to my video. Like he did all of this. He showed me how to do this. He showed me how to do interviews. I'm really thankful for that because I really love doing the interviews. Um, when you guys, um, watch Tony's Facebook feed, I understand that he deletes them like a day or two after he does them. Um, you should hammer him to post them to his blog, to his I Am The Connect blog. And I just thought of that because Martyr Sheck said, thank, thank goodness Tony's up. I'm going right to see if Tony updated his I Am The Connect blog. And he doesn't update it as much as he should, but there's no reason he can't post copies of his Facebook Live right on his blog. So, um, thank you, Pipeline TV. Yes, Jordan hooked up all the graphics. Like, he really— like, he really did great. I'm so thankful. You know, Jordan has really reinvented himself from being the video guy to being the YouTube, um, news analyst. Oh, Hector, great question. Speaking of interviews, how should an artist act in an interview? Like, what are some artist development tips, how to stand out in a good way? Um, I think that when you first start out, and this is what I did, um, I have a sales background, and one of the things that they do when they're training you to be a salesperson is they videotape you, and they videotape you doing your sales pitch. So I got really comfortable, although I don't like being in front of a camera. I got comfortable with it pretty quickly, and I started taping my interviews, videotaping my interviews. And here's what's funny: when I first started doing, um, interviews, I used to do this. Isn't that a riot? Like, I would rock because I was nervous, or I would go side to side, but I would rock. And when I— I didn't realize I was doing it. And when I played it back— this goes back like 20 years ago, right, when I did my first interview, um, I realized, oh my God, I'm rocking. Like, people are gonna get seasick watching me. They're gonna be like, you know, like this watching me. And I realized that I also said um a lot, and I might still do that, but it was a lot. It was like, um, so I've been in the music industry, um, for 20 years, um, and I do this, um, and I've worked with that, um. And I realized how annoying that was too. So when you record yourself doing a mock interview, and you could do it alone or one of your friends can help you, um, there's the um. When you do the mock interview and you videotape it and you watch it back, you can really critique yourself and you can really see stuff that you're doing that you didn't realize that you were doing that are just like your nerves. Um, a big thing that folks did— and I said um again— a big thing that folks did when I was coming up is they'd say, you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying, you know what I'm saying. So like, I'm a rapper, know what I'm saying, and I started in Brooklyn, know what I'm saying. And it was to the point where it was really annoying. And I remember Ed Lover on his radio show used to ring a bell every time a rapper said, "Know what I'm saying?" So it was like, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, and it was so annoying. And if you would just record yourself before you do an interview, you would catch the annoying shit and stop doing it. Um, you also asked, um, how to stand out in a good way. Hey, Father Jah. Um, you asked how to stand out in a good way, and I think that one of the best ways to stand out is to know what point you want to make. Like, whenever you're being interviewed, you're being interviewed for a reason, right? So maybe you're dropping a new album, or maybe you're dropping a video. I would have 3 talking points, and if I were you, I'd always bring it back to those 3 talking points. One of the reasons you do that is because stops you from rambling about shit that doesn't matter. Um, but the most important thing is it gives the viewer a call to action and it lets them know what you've got going on. So if you're doing an interview because you've got an album dropping, and let's say the album is called, um, I don't know, The Barge— I don't know why you'd call it that, but let's just say you call it The Barge— you might want— if somebody says, you know, who are your inspirations, you might say, oh, you know, I'm inspired by Biggie. I'm inspired by Jay-Z. I'm inspired by Lil Yachty. I'm inspired— that was for you, 510 Gorilla. Um, I'm inspired by Uzi Vert, and I'm really excited because that inspiration has led me to put out my own album, which is called The Barge, and it's dropping Friday. So when you have those talking points, what's going to happen is anything that they're asking you, you're going to bring back to what's important for you to get out. And the thing about interviews is they go really fast. They go like that. So you may only be getting a 3-minute interview or a 5-minute interview, and you may have 3 things that you want to talk about. So by the time they've asked you who you are, where you're from, who inspires you, um, why did you get into rapping, all of a sudden your interview is over and you didn't get to mention your new album or your video or the show that you're doing or whatever reason you're in town. So it's just a really great idea to have those 3 talking points in your head and just always bring it back to that. Don't be too, too obvious about it. Like, if they ask you where you're from, don't be like, I'm from Brooklyn and I've got an album dropping, you know. You don't want to be too in your face with it. You want to sort of bring it around to what you're trying to say Um, and if somebody asked me where I was from, you know, I'm from Atlanta, and you know, in Atlanta there's just so many rappers, it's so overcrowded right now that it's almost like there's an album dropping every day, which is why I chose to drop my album on a Thursday because it's an off day. So you see how I kind of brought it around without being like promotey and in your face? It's just, you know, make sure you tell the truth as you're doing that. Like, if you're dropping on a Friday, it'll So you're dropping on an off day. And have a lot of charisma when you're doing an interview. Um, and I kind of talked about this in one of my videos where if you're sitting here like this and, you know, if I'm answering your questions like this, it's not going to be as interesting as if I'm up here in your face and I've got energy and I'm talking about real shit and Here's why you should buy my album, because I've been doing this for 5 years and I've got 200,000 followers on Instagram. You know, whatever, whatever you're going to talk about, just have a little bit of energy. Sir Big Head, welcome. Losses are just a transition. Absolutely. Um, he was in a lot of pain. He was very unhappy. So, um, I'm just really glad that he's at peace. Really glad that he's at peace. Hector R: Is it easier to promote a pop rapper than a street rapper? Meaning, will the pop rapper build a buzz faster than the street rapper even if they have the same budget? Yes. Okay, there's a little bit bigger of an answer to that than what you're asking. Um, there are more potential fans for a pop rapper because there are more mainstream fans than fans of street rap. But if you're really good at reaching fans of street rap— like, I'm really good at marketing to street fans because many of the artists that I've worked in my career just happen to be street rappers. So I've gotten pretty good at finding those fans. Can I work a pop rapper as well? Absolutely. It's easier for me because there's more fans and I can do more mainstream stuff when I'm marketing a pop rapper. I can go to high schools with a pop rapper. I can't take Trouble to a high school to, to promote him. Um, he'll end up saying something that will make the principal and the teachers' heads spin around. You know, you can't really go to a high school and talk about Percocet and handlebars and, you know, I carry a strap. It's just not It's just not a good idea, you know, to do that. You don't want that kind of publicity. Um, with a pop rapper, you can pretty much take them anywhere. You can go to malls, you can go to movie theaters and promote, you know, their, their music has a wider appeal, so it's a little bit easier to find fans. So it's not that one is easier than the other, it's that you need to know who the audience is and target the given audience, and that's what makes it easier. Did that make sense? And yes, they could have the same budget. You know what's really hard to work? An artist where you can't use radio. Um, with Trouble, it's a little bit hard to buy radio. Um, only a few of his songs can go to radio, whereas some of the more mainstream artists that I get to work with, like, almost any song can go to radio. And the thing about radio, it is a dying It is a dying form format, but it's not dying anytime soon. It's still a great way to reach millions of people if you've got a budget to do radio. Sir Big Head is saying, bots, what do you know about bots and the overinflated sales numbers that major, major artists have invested in? Allegedly. Um, no, a lot of major artists do buy bullshit followers because they've already got a fan base. So if you've already got a fan base of a million people, it doesn't hurt you to have 2 million people following you, even if it's on some bullshit, right? I, I don't use bots for the level that you guys are at. Um, I just don't see the value in bots because when you, when you are reaching people on social media, you want them to be— you want them to be real. You want to sell them music, you want them to stream your music, you want them to buy your merchandise, you want them to come see you live. And if you have a million followers but they're, you know, 999,000 of them are bots, then as you're being throttled by Instagram posts or Twitter posts or Facebook posts then only a percentage of real people are seeing what you offer, it's gonna be really hard to build your buzz. So don't use bots. Coup de Trill is saying, should I release a 3 or 4 song EP just so that people can want more from you? Absolutely. There are artists who do that. For, for me, I, I don't release EPs. I And the reason that I don't is because the artists that I work with all have pretty big budgets, and it costs the same to work 4 songs as it costs to work 10 or 20. So we tend to work a larger amount of songs than just an EP, but a lot of indie artists are finding success. You saw me do an interview with Sonny Bama from One RPM, and Sonny is also an artist and he releases only EPs. He'll put out like 5 songs at a time and that works really well for him because he can put out more music more frequently because of his budget. LOL LOL is asking me what artists have I worked with. Um, if you go to wendyday.com, it lists pretty much everybody. My bio is on there somewhere. Um, I've worked with everybody from Cash Money to Eminem, uh, David Banner. Twisted, Do or Die, Slick Rick, Razzkaz, Trouble, D-Day, CB Smooth, Flawless, Joyner Lucas. I'm drawing blanks. TMI Boyz, Blood Raw, Jeezy, Master P. I've worked with a lot of artists. I've been doing this 25 years though. Marty Sheck, I came across a track called Industry Shakedown by Bumpy Knuckles. Yes, um, I love Industry Shakedown. I think it's a great song. Um, Bumpy Knuckles used to be known as Freddie Fox back in the day, and Freddie is a very good friend. Um, he's just a really good dude. I love him to death. Emily Gerard, you're so welcome for my advice. Um, and for those of you that asked me questions this week, I got really tied up today and, um, I wasn't able to print out your questions. And like an idiot, I didn't save them all in one place. They're all mixed in with my email feed. So I will print them out and ask them next week. Emily, I think you're one of the people that had asked me a question, so I apologize. There are like 5 or 6 of you. Um, Sir Big Head is saying Google botnet for music streaming. Um, oh, that's what you're asking about, the bots for music streaming. I don't know enough about that to answer it. Um, I'll find somebody that does though, and I'll interview them so that, so that, um, I can answer that question. You're actually the second person that's asked me that. And it's to get your streaming numbers up. Um, Rapper Geek Media saying, what other types of content should artists be putting on social media other than just music and videos? Um, I, I think it's so important to have, um, content other than just music and videos. People want to know who you are, so they want to see like a day in the life. You know who's really good at that? Plies is really good at that, and, um, Rick Ross is really good at that, where they'll just shoot very quick videos, they'll put them up almost every day, and they'll talk about like whatever is important to them. I see Hurricane Chris has been doing it too. Um, if you're an artist who freestyles, why not freestyle? Just make sure that you're freestyling, um, over a beat that you own if you're trying to sell your music. I'm just a big fan of original beats. I know that you guys want to rock over whatever the hottest song out is. I get that, but the problem with that is that if somebody sees it 4 months from now, it looks like you're rapping over a played-out beat. It doesn't look current anymore, whereas if it's your own beat, it doesn't date it. It doesn't put like a timestamp on it. And you know, shit lives forever on the internet, so whenever somebody sees it, it's new to them, but it might sound old, you know? Just my opinion. Um, other content that I like is live shows. Um, any interview that you do, you should post on your social media. Um, you should go live on Instagram, you should go live on Facebook, your Snapchat, obviously. And a lot of that stuff, you can arrange it, you can hook it up to stream directly to your website. So somebody can go to your website and see all of your social media in one place. And that's really good for people that don't interact with you on social media. You can put your opinions on different stuff. Your— I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest being too political. Unless you're a political artist like Talib Kweli. If he wasn't political on social media, I would worry because that's kind of his thing. But if Trouble were to start talking about politics, it wouldn't fit his image. So do what fits your image. Um, if you go to the mall, shoot, you know, shoot a quick video, you know, what are you looking at? What are you into? Shoes? You know, if you go to the movies, what movie are you going to see? Are you buying popcorn? You know, any content that you can put up— did you just read a book? Did you just make a blog post? I, I posted on my blog today, um, my memories of Garnett Reed. And you know, it was a— and then I put it on my social media that I posted it there. And so many people went and, you know, either texted me or emailed me, like, privately. It was just a great way to interact with me because you were— even if you didn't know him, you got a feel for who he was. And it's at bit.ly/GarnettRead, um, if you want to read it. It's at industryreport.com, or you can go to bit.ly/GarnettRead. So the answer to that is everything. Put everything on social media. Just don't, you know, don't, don't blast it out too much. Hector's waiting for my second book. Hector said, I discovered Wendy on an interview she did for her book, How to Get a Record Deal. Thank you so much. Um, and he's still waiting for my second book. You know, I've rewritten it like 12 times, right? I've been writing a book about how to put out your own music, and every time I get it finished or almost finished, like, something else becomes important, and I have to put it into the book. It's crazy. So this is kind of like my, my second book, right? Only it's visual. Rapper Geek is saying, awesome advice. Artists usually don't take the time to let people get to know them. There's too much music out here to properly stand out if you're only posting music. Absolutely. If, if people don't get to know who you are, they're not going to embrace you. And you, you want to stand out from everybody else. This can also work, um, adversely, right? Like, I was a huge Joe Buttons fan until he started popping off on Twitter back in like 2008, and I'm like, whoa, like, I didn't realize he was that outspoken. And I ended up unfollowing him because it was just like too much and he was too in my face. And so I don't even know when he has music coming out anymore. So it can, it can it can work in the reverse of what you're trying to do as well. Cash Banks is saying engaging and allowing the fans or followers to feel like they're more a part of you. Absolutely, you want to bring them into your movement. Kane Carter saying, should all of my artists have their own websites when first starting out? Absolutely. Or is it okay to have their own page on my label website? As long as it's their own space, I think it's fine. Um, and I know every time I say this I get blowback from people saying that websites are old school, but they're not. You know, like CNN still has a website. Um, the great thing about websites is it's one central place where you can post all of your music, all of your videos, all of your social media can stream there, all of your articles. Like, it is your central clearinghouse. Like, if you go to wendyday.com Everything links there. My blog's there, my podcast is there, a link to these videos is there at Rap Jewels. Like, everything that you would possibly want to know about me is there. So you might follow me on Twitter, but you only get the Twitter version of Wendy Day. You might follow me on Instagram, but you only get the, the photographic view of Wendy Day, like whatever I'm looking at or doing. You're seeing on my Instagram. I never go to Facebook, so my Facebook feed is my Twitter feed posting there, my Instagram feed posting there. And if you went to my website, you would know that, because on my website it says, hey, I never go to my Facebook feed. But you could, you could allow them to have a page on your website. Here's what I don't like about that. Let's say your label's called ABC Records and somebody wants to see your artist that's called XYZ. They have to go to abcrecords.com/xyz when in reality they should be going to xyz.com. Like, your, um, your brand should be consistent as an artist through all platforms. Um, and I'm going to give you an example that's different from what I do, but Um, if you go to rapcoalition.org, that is the website for Rap Coalition, for my not-for-profit company. If you go to Instagram, I'm @rapcoalition. If you go to Twitter, I'm @rapcoalition. Snapchat, @rapcoalition. Um, my Facebook page is facebook.com/rapcoalition. So my brand is unified. Where it gets a little bit different is when you're dealing with me personally. Then I become Wendy Day. So I've got wendyday.com, but I don't have any social media that's @wendyday because my social media is to build my brand, not to build me personally. Does that make sense? As an artist though, you are the brand. So if you're, um, let's say you're Young Thug, you want to be @youngthug, you want to be youngthug.com. Like, you want to choose a name early on where you can own all of the branding opportunities for yourself as an artist. Yeah, Rapper Geek, that's a great point. Rapper Geek saying that's, that's why, um, you hate Azealia Banks. Yeah, because you get to know people and you don't like that facet of their personality, and sometimes it affects the music and what you like to listen to. If you hear a great song and you really love the artist, you're going to support that artist. Absolutely. So the goal is to be yourself without being an asshole, basically. Yeah, you guys are agreeing with me. You're saying your website's your own online real estate. Websites are still very relevant. Sir Big Head is asking, does anyone in the chat need anything written? Songs versus hooks, blah blah blah. And definitely interact with each other because you're in, you're in an area where there are artists and producers, so you guys should really be interacting with each other. I know last week you were a little bit more interactive than you are this week. Todd Schlott is saying, hi Wendy, it's miracle, sorry I've been wanting to email you, a lot's been going on lately, all positive. Hey, yeah, good, congratulations. That's, that's exciting. So, and again, for those of you that asked me questions, um, I was dealing with Garnet Reed's death all day, so I didn't print out the questions. And all of a sudden it was 5 of 7 and I had to go live. I don't even have pants on, I'm sitting here in shorts. So, um, I apologize. I will answer all of your questions next week though. I will go through my email, I will pull them out tonight and I will answer them all first next week. So guys, here's what I'm gonna do. Um, we're at the hour mark. I'm going to come off of YouTube Live. I'm gonna call Tony. Tony's gonna go live on Facebook and, um, he'll give you some jewels as well. He was here at the very beginning of this, so if you haven't been able to watch this whole broadcast, I would suggest that when it posts— and it takes maybe an hour or so— But when it does post, I suggest you go and watch it because he dropped some jewels about Spotify and Apple Music and how to get on playlists, and they're really important right now. So guys, thanks for everything. Thanks for all the well wishes. I appreciate you so much. Um, Siobhan is looking for Sir Big Head's contact info, so, um, Big Head, please go in there and put your contact info quickly. Because I'm about to sign off and I think this is going to run for like another maybe 30 seconds before it kicks off. So, um, there it is, there it is, the legendary 1MG. Okay guys, Amy Bugatti, thanks for tuning in. I'm just about to sign off, but it was great seeing you. Thank you guys, much love to all of you. Be safe out there, take care, bye.