LIVE with Wendy Day #026 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Wrap Kolish and thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so happy that you're here. Okay guys, I'm almost there. I'm coming, I promise I'm coming. I've got a lot of great information for you today. I'm so So glad you're here. Okay guys, there's a counter there. I'm trying to beat that counter. As soon as it gets down to zero, I'll be there. Right now I'm filling up my cup with unsweet tea and extra lemon. Guys, thanks for tuning in to my livestream. We're almost ready to go. I'm so glad you're here. I've got such amazing information to share with you tonight. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. Hi guys, how are you? Drink some OJ. Yeah, I've been drinking a lot of water and sleeping a lot. I've been fighting a stomach virus, but that's okay. I put some makeup on so that you couldn't tell because I'm really pale right now. Um, hi guys, how are you? Can you hear me okay? I didn't test my, um, microphone. Hector, how are you? Coucou, Architect Music. Hey, can you guys hear me? Amy Bugatti, how are you? The storm is, um, the storm's been since 8 o'clock this morning. It's, um, sunny out right now. I don't know if you can see behind me, um, but it's kind of sunny out right now, but I can hear thunder in the distance, so I know that at some point it's gonna pop up on us. Yay, Eddie Brock, how are you? Bomb Productions, um, it's about 70 degrees today and it rained all day. Toshim TV, how are you? Rapper Geek. Bomb Productions is saying it's crazy in Alabama. Yeah, the weather must be really bad. We've got a, um, hey DJ Nope, we've got a tornado warning through 10 o'clock tonight. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happened. SEO GZ, how are you? Is it Gezi or Jeezy? Prince Radio Raw, DJ G. Green Hits charged me 10 grand to get my music to you. Did you like it? You know, that wouldn't surprise me. It would surprise me if Green Hits did that, but it wouldn't surprise me if somebody charged you to get me to listen to music because I don't listen to music. You know, there are so many scams in this industry, it's just crazy. Um, I was in New York— oh God— a couple weeks ago, and I was just listening to these artists talk about how bad it is. Like, they're right there by all of the labels and they're talking about paying people, you know, people that make it, that are making a quarter million dollars a year, they're talking about paying them $10,000 and $8,000 and $6,000 to get a meeting with them. And they don't even realize that meeting with somebody doesn't help you. It doesn't get you a record deal. If you don't have a wicked buzz and they're coming to you, you're not gonna get a deal. It's just crazy to me. Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's guys brokering deals for artists that are like blown up in the South that the major labels haven't found out about yet, and they're charging a percentage of the ownership of the artist, um, in order to introduce them to a major label to get them a deal. It's crazy. Like, it just— it's beyond me what goes on in this music industry, and people still think that they need record deals today. And it's just, it's just so crazy to me. Okay, so the last time, um, last Wednesday when I did this, I was running like crazy, so I didn't get to print. Well, that's not true. I printed out everybody's questions. I just left them in the printer, and I can't do this and be downstairs at the printer to get the, um, the questions. So, um, I really screwed that up. I was running late. So, um, I promised you guys that I would do your questions this week, so I'm going to do them first. There's only 4 of them, um, and I hope that's correct. I hope there's not going to be a bunch of you that are pissed off at me because I missed your question. And if I did, please just email me again. I, I promise you it's not on purpose. Um, so this is Young God Vice saying, thank you for everything you do, Wendy Day. You've stopped me from making so many mistakes and wasting so much money. That's my goal. Yay! Um, I have two questions. For a new artist, if you have the budget for it, would paying for Instagram and Facebook ads be a good idea? Yes. And what about paying advertising on music sites and music social media pages such as Thizzler, Say Cheese TV, Hollywood Unlocked, and various social media star pages? Um, I know that I've answered both of these questions in some of the videos that I've made Um, but I'll answer them quickly here, but definitely go through and watch the videos that I, that I made. Um, there's one interviewing Tony about social media where we talked about, um, ads. And, um, I think last week he popped on to, uh, my live to talk about Spotify, getting Spotify placements, which is important too. So go back and check out last week's, um, live. He was in the very beginning. So, um, yes, Instagram and Facebook ads, they work really well for me and the artists that I work with, so I recommend them highly. Um, paying for advertising on music and social media sites, I've never done that. I'm not a big fan of banner ads because if somebody doesn't know who you are, getting them to click on that is very difficult. But if you've— if you're unknown and you've got some ad, you know, an ad running down the page, or you're inserted into somebody's feed, there's more of a chance for them to click on it. Even if it is a sponsored ad, there's just more chance of them to click on it than if it looks like advertising. Um, so I can't speak on Thizzler, Say Cheese TV. Um, we are about to start doing influencer ads over here to see if they work, meaning getting— and again, I don't think this will work for somebody that's completely unknown, but if you've got some renown and a little bit of buzz, I think if you get someone who's bigger than you that's well known to co-sign you, at least people will look in at you. Um, you know, I noticed something very interesting and also a little depressing. Um, Trouble shot a video with Drake out in LA like around the second week or third week of January, and Drake put Trouble on his Instagram page 3 times, and we didn't really see a large uptick in Trouble's Instagram following. And I gotta tell you, it surprised me a little bit because it wasn't just a cosign, it was, um, one of the shots was behind the scenes at a video shoot that they did. One was them riding in a drop top, and Drake was actually sitting like on the back of the vehicle with his feet like inside the car. And it was like, it was a really nice cosign, and I was really surprised. I think his uptick was somewhere around 1,000 or 2,000 new followers. He's got a quarter million followers, so that wasn't really a lot, you know, for as many fans as Drake had. We just thought that we'd get more followers and more clicks on that than we did. So I gotta tell you, I'm a little bit nervous about the influencer advertising, but we are trying that. And then the last question that Young God Vice asked was, how could I go about getting on blogs? He was kind enough to buy my contact list, and he wants to know how to best utilize that list and begin building relationships. And Um, I did a video on this as well, but it's so important that I'm going to go over it again. When you've got access to bloggers or radio DJs or people in the industry that you don't know, the best thing you can do is Google them, you know, find out, are they, um, what are they doing? Are they speaking at any events that you might be able to attend and meet them face to face? Or are they, um Are they more frequent on Instagram or Snapchat? Do they prefer Facebook? Like, figure out where they're more often, and you can tell by the post. Like, if somebody's posting just on Instagram once every 3 days, that's not their platform. But if they're on Facebook and they're posting 4 and 5 times a day, that's their platform. So reach out to them on that platform, introduce yourself, let them know what you do But remember, like, you're the new person. You need something from them. So don't expect them to bow down and think that you're the next coming of whatever, you know. Just understand that you need something from them, so you're going to have to make a little bit of effort. You're going to have to interact with them. It may be difficult to get, you know, comments back. I know that when I follow people on Instagram and I go through and I like some of their pictures and I post different comments under their photos that sometimes I'll post 10 and 12 times before they'll respond to me or they'll acknowledge me. So, um, and, and that's with me being able to say I'm Wendy Day and I've been in this industry 25 years. So I can imagine how difficult it would be when you're brand new and when you're an artist because it's so oversaturated out here with artists. It's like the last thing somebody wants to do is interact with another artist that nobody's ever heard of. So the best thing you can do is build your buzz and then reach out to people. And that's what we did with Trouble. We didn't, we didn't go after blog placement for a year. Like, we built his buzz in the Southeast and we got him popping to the point where when we finally reached out to the blogs, they kind of sort of knew who he was and they were happy to post about him because they saw he had a movement. We didn't reach out to them, um, right up front. Okay, um, Jordan Kelly has said, um, hi, my name is Jordan and I have a question for Wendy Day. By studying your videos and articles, I've learned the importance of working the streets and the internet with respect to marketing. Is it better to work the streets first and then follow up with ads online, or vice versa, or should you do both simultaneously? Also, in your opinion, does it make sense to run ads in cities you have not physically worked? Um, Let me answer the first question first. Um, it's not just ads online when you're working the internet. You're also going to work your social media, right? You're going to go on and you're going to post different events. And by events, I don't mean like a, like a show. I mean, um, you know, one week you're gonna drop a, a song, the next week you're gonna drop a video, a viral video, or maybe a lyric video to that song. Um, and then the next week you might, you know, go out on the road and post some footage of you being out and about, and maybe it's called, you know, Jordan Kelly World Tour Number One, even though it's not a world tour. But you want to just post things that other people will find interesting about your life. You know, Tony and I post a lot of food on our Instagram, which is really cliché, and we both kind of backed off of it a little bit because it became a running joke about people that, you know, only use Instagram for food. But we've gotten so many comments from people both of us, like, saying, hey, I haven't seen you guys post food in a while, that we now started posting food again because people are thinking we're starving over here. So whatever you do, just kind of keep it up. And whatever you're known for, you know, keep being known for that. Like, talk about the things that you like. If you're a sports guy, talk about basketball, talk about football, talk about— if you're a sneakerhead, talk about the new Jordans that are dropping or the new whatever, you know, like Talk about things that matter to you. Did you see a movie that you like? Are you binge-watching something on TV that you want to talk about? I watched a show last night called Prison Break and I thought it was great. Um, it was on like 8 years ago. It's, it's, um, Brett Ratner's, uh, producer on it. Brett Ratner was a music video director, a rap music video director when I was coming up. So I know him and I've got like an affin— I don't know him know him, but I've got an affinity towards him. He's somebody that I used to spend time with 25 years ago. So when I'm watching something he does on TV, I— it makes me want to talk about it because I feel like I've got an attachment to him from the past, right? So, um, you want to do everything simultaneously. You want to make as big of an explosion around whatever you're working on as you can. And, um, your second question was, does it make sense to run ads in cities where you've not physically worked? Yes, if it's a city that you're going to be working. Um, I use the internet like it's a whole other market. So when I place ads on the internet, I place them either just in the US or I place them worldwide. It depends on what my goal is for the artist, whether I'm trying to build awareness, whether I'm trying to drive fans to watch the YouTube video, whether I'm trying to sell merchandise, like whatever our plan is for that period of time, you know, whether it's a month or a couple of weeks, um, I make sure that I use the resources to accomplish whatever event I am creating, right? So I hope that answered it. Um, when we go out on the road, we go out on the road in usually a 5 to 7 state area, and you guys are probably tired of hearing me say that wherever I am, I draw a 5-hour or 7-hour driving radius around where I am, and that becomes my target market. So, um, using Trouble as an example, um, his market is the Southeast. It's from Tallahassee and Jacksonville north, it's from Norfolk and Richmond south, and it is east of— I want to say east of the Mississippi, but that's not really true. We've been to Jackson, but we haven't really worked Jackson. Um, I'd like to say that it's from the Mississippi east, but it's not. We've really only worked from Alabama east. We still haven't worked Louisiana, um, although he was in Baton Rouge this weekend at Mr. Cain's release party because they're friends. We haven't really worked Baton Rouge or Lafayette or Shreveport or any of Louisiana. We haven't really worked Texas properly. We've been there, uh, twice. He's done Dallas, um, and he's done Houston for the Super Bowl, but he hasn't really worked those markets the way one would work a market when one's trying to conquer a market. Mandy Savage, when signing a distribution deal, what are some things I should look for? Um, you're changing the pronunciation from Mandy Savage to Mandy Savage. Savage. I hope I'm pronouncing that, um, correctly. It's gonna be really hard when people see your name to know that you're pronouncing it like that unless you write it like that, Savage. So, um What are you looking for in a distribution deal? Definitely check out the video, the interview that I did with Sonny, um, Bama, Sonny Findlay, um, because we covered a lot of what to look for in a distribution deal. But I would look for what rate they get from the streaming sites because that's where you're going to make the bulk of your money. I'd especially look for Spotify, YouTube, and Google Play, Amazon, and Apple Music. I'd want to know what my cut is going to because they have a deal that they've negotiated directly with the site, like with Spotify or with Apple Music. And I want— I would want to make sure that my 80% that I'm getting of what their deal is is the best deal possible based on all of the distributors out there. And the reason that I say that is a lot of distributors are sub-distributors. Like, for example, um, If you came to me and said, Wendy, I want a distribution deal through your distribution company, which I do not have one, um, I may have gone to Empire or to One RPM and gotten a Wendy Day distribution deal, and then I'm getting an 80/20 split with them, and then you're getting an 80/20 split with me, but it's not really an 80/20 split because there's a split above me. You know, so, and you just never know like how many times your money is being stepped on. So the most important thing, um, to find out from a distributor is what your— when they give you an 80/20 split, what does that 80% mean? What is the actual figure per stream that you're getting from, say, the top 5 streams that you're going to be paid for? And that's not weird for you to ask. Um, also I would make sure that they actually pay their artists I would expect to be paid monthly at the very least, and if you've got enough leverage, you can, you can often be paid out quicker than that so that you can then use that money for your own promotion. If you're not streaming, you know, like a million times in a month, you're probably not going to be able to be paid out weekly. But if you're an artist and you're streaming like a million times a week, you're easily going to be able to work out some sort of a deal where you get paid faster. Than monthly. Yay! So that's all the questions that were sent in to me that I missed last week. And now let me come through my stream and see what you guys are asking me this week. And guys, I think, um, this is my 26th, um, so I've done this for half a year now, the Weekly Wednesday Nights. I'm finding that in the past 2 months that I'm being asked the same questions over and over and over. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start doing these once a month. And I know that's going to make most of you really sad, but because most of you are here every week. But I'm going to start doing them on the first Wednesday of every month. And then I'm— if, as I find, like, if the, if the, if you're asking too many questions and it's going too long, then maybe I'll do every other week. But, um, it's just I've got too many clients right now, and it's just too time-consuming for me to come here and keep answering the same questions over and over and over. So tune in the first Wednesday of every month, and if you subscribe to my channel, you'll automatically get a notice that says, um, Wendy's going live, so you won't miss anything. Okay, weather, weather, weather, weather. You can hear me. Yay! You were charged $10,000. For real. Yes, Amy's saying I have to train Gangster to get things out of the printer and bring them to me. I need to train him to get me some like Diet Pepsi too, or some iced tea. Man, if only I could put Gangster to work. Gangster like runs this house, right? Like, we, we, we're lucky that he lets us live here. Eddie Brock: In an era where artists drop songs every day to maintain a buzz, how are artists such as Jay Electronica able to maintain a buzz dropping a song once every 4 years. I'm not sure. Um, I gotta tell you, I'm from the school of thought that I want artists to drop more frequently. Like, I look at Future and I think he gets it, you know. Future drops 3 times a year, twice a year, and I think that sometimes 4 times a year. And I admire that, you know. That's what we do with Trouble. We drop every, um, every 4 to 5 months, mostly 5 months because it takes him a minute to put stuff together. We haven't dropped in 10 months now, and that's really long. And I see it in his buzz, like his buzz is really down right now because he just hasn't dropped music. We dropped a single, um, last week called Brick, but other than that, he hasn't dropped music since last June, and it's just— it's been too long. Um, I think with Jay Electronica, he had a buzz. Um, and it's funny that you say Jay Electronica can maintain a buzz because I don't think he does. I don't think there is a buzz on Jay Electronica. I think when he drops, his fans embrace him, but I don't think the mainstream embraces him. I don't think like the new generation of fans really even know who he is because he hasn't dropped in like 4 years. That's just my opinion though, I might be wrong. But he seems to, he seems to not really care about dropping. Like, you know, last I heard he went to Europe and he was living in London and he was happily in love and, you know, doing the thing. Yoda, that's funny. Um, 8 Waves Music is asking me the difference between looking for an investor and looking for a record deal. And I say it all the time that it's easier to find an investor than it is to find a record deal. I don't know that it's better— for most artists it's better because you get control and you get to choose who to hire to work with you for your career. If you sign to a label, then, um, you still do the same amount of work, but you're beholden to work with whomever they hire to work for you. And you kind of hope that, you know, that they have the best players in mind to work with you. Um, but what an investor gets, what a label gets, is when you sign a deal, it's going to be somewhere between 12 and 18 points, which means you're going to get 12 to 18% of the income after you pay back everything that's spent out of your cut, out of your share. So it's very rare that an artist recoups unless they're a superstar. I'm guessing that Eminem recouped. I'm guessing that Drake recoups. I'm guessing that, you know, The Weeknd recoups. But some of the smaller artists don't ever recoup. And it's, it's very difficult in today's marketplace to make money with a record label. You make show money, but with 360 deals, you're also usually giving up anywhere from 30% to 50% of your income for your show. And my philosophy is that if you have an investor as a partner and they're willing to come in and put up the money that it takes for you to become successful, then it's worth giving them anywhere from 25% to 50% of the money that's coming in, right? But instead of you, um, having to owe the money to the investor, why can't the money just come off the top? So if the investor— let's say the investor puts in, um, $250,000, right, which I think is a good amount for an investor to put in to build your career. So they put in a quarter million dollars when the money comes back— money comes back in, let's say it come— half a million comes in, right, from that, from spending that quarter million, then why not take that quarter million off the top and split the remaining quarter million of profit? Like, why wouldn't you do that? And you're going to make money from streaming, you're going to make money from merchandise, you're going to make money from publishing, and you're going to make show money. And it just seems to be a better thing. Um, in the, in the artists that I've worked with, and they all have investors, um, the split is usually 30/70 on the shows and then 50/50 on everything else. And, you know, I've, I've watched all of my guys become millionaires, and if they had been signed to a major label, they may have grown faster and they may have gotten like on television, like on, you know, Jimmy Fallon or whatever, but they're not going to get half the money. They're only going to get 12 to 18% of the money after they pay back everything that was spent from that 12 to 18%. It's not like the money comes off the top in a label, right? So if the label spends a million dollars on marketing and promoting you, you've got to pay back that million dollars out of your 12 to 18% split, you know. And, and the thing about record deals today is the labels only sign you when you start to pop. Well, once you start popping, you're already making money, so why would you want to sign to somebody and give up what you're already able to do for yourself? It might take a little bit longer, but you're still gonna get to that same spot, and nobody's ever going to become more of a priority for you than you, whereas a major label you're not the only artist, you know. They're balancing sometimes 20, 30, 40 artists. So, um, that's really what I said. I just kind of elaborated on what I said. But I've also found that it's easier to find an investor than it is to find a label to sign you. So they get anywhere— to answer your question exactly, you're asking me what does an investor get? An investor gets um, either 25% ownership or 50% ownership, unless you do a deal where they lend you the money and then you pay them back in 18 to 24 months at maybe, you know, somewhere anywhere from 8% return on their money to 20% return on their money. Jay Harrell is saying that, um, Cash Doll didn't get much attention after she opened a show for Drake in Detroit. No, opening for artists is not I don't know why it's so important to so many artists to do that, because until you're, until you're known and you've got a little bit of a buzz and you can pull your own crowd, opening for an artist is not a way to get discovered. I promise you that Drake's, Drake's fans were not there to see Cash Doll. If anything, they were like, oh my God, would Drake come out already? Like, what the fuck? Because you know how they put like, um, 50 50 opening acts. Indie Creatrepreneur, I can't answer that. Um, you're gonna have to do the research on digital distribution companies because depending on your budget and your knowledge of how to market and promote, there are different companies that would be better or worse for you. That's why Snap— 2 weeks ago somebody was on here like promoting a distribution company and saying how great they were, and that's wonderful. Like, I love that they're great for you, but just because they're great for you doesn't mean they're going to be great for me. I'm at a different level, you know, we're all at different levels. Rapper Geek Media, you're right, um, it was very shocking to us. Um, I really expected such an uptick that I screenshot Trouble's, um, Instagram numbers right before Drake posted it, and then I snapped it like a day later, a week later, and a month later just to see like what the difference was. And his, his social media normally climbs, and the uptick was much more slight than you would have thought. And that could be, you know, it could be, it could be Drake. It's not necessarily Trouble. Like maybe in Drake's feed, because I don't, I don't watch Drake's feed. Maybe Drake often talks about new artists, like maybe that's not rare. So when his followers saw a new artist, maybe it wasn't like, oh shit, what's this? You know, I know that we got a really big uptick, um, when Trouble was relatively new. Meek Mill posted an Instagram video of him singing along to one of Trouble's songs in the car. Fat Troll did the same thing, and Young Thug did the same thing, and we saw upticks after each of those. Not big upticks, but we saw upticks after each of those. So I know that influencer marketing works. It just surprised me that it didn't work better with Drake. Mr. Evergreen, I'm not here for that. I'm here for the music industry. Like, if you have a business question I'm happy to answer it. I can't answer like some hype about Suge Knight and Tupac. I don't give a fuck, I'm sorry. I care about them making money. I don't care about the drama. That's what WorldStar is for. Go check out WorldStar. Thank you, DJG. Hector's saying, I live in a small town and all the surrounding towns around my radius are 40,000 population. Am I able to get a buzz, or is it better to focus on one big city that holds half a million? Um, it's easier to build a buzz in a smaller area than a bigger area. So for example, um, when I start working with artists here in Atlanta, I start in Macon, I start in Columbus, Georgia, I start in Augusta, I start in Columbia, um, South Carolina, I start in Greenville, South Carolina, um, and then I go up to the bigger cities like the Birmingham, Alabamas um, I, I go all the way around Atlanta and then I come back in. I very rarely start in a major city because it's just, it's more, it's more populated, there's more competition amongst artists, and usually the attitude in a bigger city is if you're not popping, they don't care about you. So I try to get the artist popping all around, and then the buzz kind of filters in a little bit to that city., and then once it's filtering in, that's when I come in and pounce and just blow it up. Thank you, Rapper Geek. Yes, for, um, brand new artists, um, I've used TuneCore and recently DistroKid. King Peavy's asking, how should I keep track of my merch sales, like t-shirts, if you sell them on the streets and it shows? Um, You should know how many you're taking with you, and then at the end of the night you will be able to count how many you have left and you'll know what you sold. And I would absolutely, um, I would absolutely, um, use a spreadsheet like Excel, or I think on, uh, Mac it's called Numbers. But I would keep track of it pretty carefully. Emily Gerard, hey! Doc Holla, how can an independent artist get featured on the front page of iTunes and Spotify? By having a very strong buzz and a great relationship with the curator of the front page of Spotify and the front page of Apple Music, um, and your distributor should be able to help you with that. But just know that if you, if you put out music and you're only getting like 100 streams in the first day, it's going to be really hard for your distributor to convince Apple Music or Spotify to put you on the front page. You also need to give them a lead time. Um, I think, I think our distributor wants like a 6-week or 8-week lead time before we drop. In order to secure that kind of stuff. Brian Pumper's Dog, thank you so much. You appreciate me. Your name's a riot. Rob Green, what are some good marketing techniques for brand new artists? I have a video called Marketing Techniques for Brand New Artists that you'll probably find really helpful. Um, you can find it at rapjewels.com. Um, I've also got 10 Things You Need to Do Before You Put Out a Record. And then in the past The past week I haven't actually dropped a video because I've been sick, but prior to that, maybe 2 weeks ago, I dropped a video about 3 things, 3 promotional ideas that should help you to stand out, and that's a really good way to market new artists. But I'm not gonna answer that here because I have uploaded a over 100 videos now that talk about all different aspects of the music industry, and building a buzz is the primary topic that we talk about, from booking your own shows to social media. Like, every marketing and promotion technique you need to know, I've got a video for it. Yeah, Infamous. Yeah, I'm right with you. Um, Rob Green is asking, will a down month for Trouble affect the residual income from sales and streaming significantly? Absolutely. His streaming, um, revenue can drop from $20,000 a month to $8,000 a month by just having a slow month. Yes, Dark Brothers Entertainment, um, I'm going to go to the first Wednesday in every month So the next one will be— you're saying May 3rd. I'm hoping that's a Wednesday. I don't have a calendar right here in front of me, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna chance the fact that that's what it is. So put it on your calendar so that you don't miss this. Will Hustle saying, do you think the industry has found a new way to pimp artists through streams? I mean, artists get pimped regardless whether it's through streaming or sales or shows, or, you know, the artist is always the last to get paid. I had this argument with my lawyer about a month ago, and I love my lawyer, like, he's super powerful and he's really a great guy. But he was telling me that he was fighting a major label to do a deal. There's an artist here in Atlanta who I had referred to him who got a deal through Atlantic, and he was fighting to get a 20% royalty off of streaming. And I'm thinking to myself, oh my god, like like, we get 80% of the, of the income off streaming, and I'm thinking it's a little bit low, right? I can't imagine having to give up 75% of that income to a label. I just, like, I can't imagine. So is streaming a way to pimp artists? Yes, everything is a way to pimp artists. You know, the label— when you're signed to a label, they make the money. And they're in it to make money. Prince Radio Raw saying, should I submit music to labels? Um, yes, if you want to sign to a label, I would not stop you. I don't see the value in it anymore, but if you, you know, um, the person under you here in the stream made a really great point, great point, saying banks only lend money to those who don't need it, and labels only give deals to those who, who don't need it. And that's true. Like, you've got to go out and build your buzz pretty large in order to attract a major label to you. And once you've attracted the major label, like, you're already— by the time they're noticing you, you're already making like a quarter million dollars. So what can they give you? Because if you're going to start making a quarter million dollars and you can make half, you can make a whole million, a little more than a million, like, your career is going to grow if you put that money that you're making back into your career. You know, if, if you're already making a quarter million dollars and, and a label comes along, obviously they're going to have to give you a million or more in order to make it worth your while. But, but why? You know, why not? If you're, if you're winning, why not keep winning? You know what you're doing is working. Unless you hate it. If you hate being an entrepreneur, then you absolutely should sign to a label. But you got to build a buzz. You can, you can reach out to labels all day, every day, build relationships, um, but those relationships are only going to become valuable once you have a buzz. And that's just my opinion. Yeah, DJ Infamous is making a great point here. He's saying, I wouldn't say fuck a major label, but you have to have your T's crossed and your I's dotted in order to have the leverage on earning from a major label. Absolutely. Like, Nicki Minaj did great on a major label. Drake is doing great on a major label. Like, there are artists that do really well on major labels, but they make really pop mainstream music. So if you make pop mainstream music, I absolutely understand why you would sign to a major label. But if you're a rapper like a 21 Savage or Kevin Gates, I just don't understand why you would sign to a major label. You know, they're happy that they did. That's not— no disrespect to them. You know, it's just that I don't see why somebody would do it. I, you know, I don't know why my clients would sign to a major label. Some do. Amy Bugatti just made a great point. She said, you already know this story, but I got a free Rick Ross verse for one of my artists and it did nothing. Absolutely. Until your artist has a little bit of a buzz and people know who it is, they're not checking for an unknown with a famous person. They're just going to figure that you've got a budget to buy a verse. And Amy, I'm willing to bet when, when the industry saw you had a Rick Ross verse, I imagine people came out of the woodwork trying to sell you shit because they figured, oh, she's got $30 grand to spend on a Rick Ross verse, then she can spend $10 grand on my DJ crew. Or she can buy my email blast, or she can do this, she can do that. And I'll bet they just came at you like crazy. Prince Radio Raw, um, I'm big on Google AdWords and I'm big on, um, Facebook ads to build social media, um, traffic. Absolutely. Rob Green is asking, how long do you think it'll take SaBaby's pull up with a stick to hit nationwide. Um, he just signed to Atlantic Records. Hmm, I mean, he just signed to 300, excuse me. So, um, I'm guessing once they put a budget behind him that you're gonna hear it like crazy. Oscar is asking, where and how can I find an investor for my artist? I made a video about how to find investors. Um, it's pretty far back though, Oscar. Um, so it's going to be easier to find if you go to wrapjewels.com and just scroll all the way to the bottom and then start scrolling up to look for it. Um, I started doing videos in October, and I'll bet it was either October or November. It was one of the first videos that I did. So, um, go to wrapjewels.com, go all the way down to like the early videos, and then start scrolling up and you'll find it. I also have an article at industryreport.com. Um, when you get to industryreport.com, there's a search box. I think it's at the top right-hand side. Just put in investor, and, um, the article I wrote about how to find an investor will come up too. I think it's also posted under the video on WrapJewels, so you might only have to go to one place to find it. I can't quite remember. And Oscar's asking, when am I bringing Tony back for another interview? Um, I will bring Tony back as soon as he comes up for air. He's a great interviewer, isn't he? He does, um, Facebook Live. Did you guys go last week to see him do Facebook Live? I hope it was, um, I hope it was pretty cool. Joseph Ringleader, you are such an asset for all of us startups and restarts. Thank you for all the value you provide to us smart people on YouTube watching. Thank you. Um, Jurassic on Demand is asking, um, you're welcome first of all, and you're asking what do I think about paying DJs for slots on the mixtapes. I don't do that. Um, I have given DJs, like once I've blown the artist up, I have given DJs that are really supportive songs like their own, their own personal releases that they can feature on a mixtape if they want to. Um, I think that it's a very important way for DJs to get paid. Um, DJs really matter and they've got to make a living, so a lot of guys will charge for slots on their mixtapes. And I think if the DJ is well known and there are a lot of people listening then it doesn't hurt you to do that. But you got to figure out like what the right price is, you know. Would I pay $20,000 to get on a Funkmaster Flex mixtape? No, I wouldn't. Not that he charges that, I'm just— I pulled that number out of the air. Would I pay that? No. Would I pay a local DJ that showed love, you know, like $100 to get on a mixtape for an artist that I'm trying to break? Yeah, I might do that. You got to figure out what makes sense for you and who that DJ is reaching. You know, like Infamous is on here. Infamous has, has put Trouble songs on so many mixtapes, it's not funny. And then, um, at one point I know that Tony worked something out with him where, um, he put out a Trouble mixtape because he's been so supportive since day one and he's never faltered. Like, he's never asked for shit. So, you know, there are times where we do stuff for DJs that show us love. You know, we've got another DJ friend who does nothing for any of our artists, and then he started asking, like, once Trouble blew up, he started asking for exclusives. And in, in my mind, I'm thinking, wait a minute, the last time I tried to give you a song for an artist that I was working, you wanted to charge me 5 grand. To spin it or to work it in your area. And I'm like, oh hell no, you know. So he gets the record last. You, you learn who works with you and who doesn't, you know. And just because somebody has a name that's out there doesn't mean that they're a value to you, you know. There's a lot of DJs in Atlanta that have no interest in Trouble whatsoever, and that's cool. We have no issue with that, but when he starts to blow up, I'm not going to go and do favors for somebody that didn't support him on his come up, you know, no matter how much it, it, it benefits him. There's just no point in that. I want to help the people that showed love when we were nobody, you know. Just my opinion, you guys might think differently about it. Amy Bugatti saying, Wendy, can you talk about the impact of Apple discontinuing iTunes eventually and only having Apple Music? I added eventually because I don't want anybody to think like tomorrow iTunes is shutting down. Um, do I think artists will lose the ability to sell music? Yeah, it's definitely going towards streaming, you know, it has been for 4 years now, and at some point people will no longer need to own music. Like, if you've— if for $10 a month you have access to every song you could possibly want, why would you need to own it and take up room on a hard drive or on your phone, you know, or even in the cloud? The great thing about Apple Music or Tidal or Spotify or whoever you subscribe to— Pandora, I know there's a whole bunch of them now— um, is that you can listen to whatever you want wherever you want, whenever you want, and you pay one price. You know, you pay $120 a year for all the music you could possibly want. For me, that's a great deal. I'm somebody that used to spend $300 a week on music, you know. Now I don't have to, so for me I'm saving money. But there are fans out there that may have only ever bought, you know, one or two albums in a year, so it seems more expensive to them to pay $120. But that's the way that it's going. So in a minute, artists will lose the ability to sell music because everything is going to stream. Um, I think in hip-hop now, 66%, um, if you go to my Instagram, I have a chart on there. It's back within the past 2 months, 3 months. Um, but I think it's 66% of hip-hop fans now get their music through streaming. So, um, and then for the general, I think for music in general, I think it's 54%. Percent. But for hip-hop, it's really high. And for pop music, it's probably like 80-some-odd percent, right? Because people stream pop music more than, more than anything. Um, I think hip-hop is the second genre, and then rock being the third. But all that to say that in a minute, you won't be selling music at all. You know, you won't be getting 80% of 99 cents, or 80% of 70 cents, or whatever the split is. With iTunes. It's gonna all be, you know, streaming. Never Yield Biz is saying, should a new artist try to land acting gigs as well? I guess if that's your goal, I could see you doing that, but don't do it thinking that by being an actor your sales are gonna go up because I can give you Many, many, many examples of how that has not happened. You know, Three 6 Mafia had their own reality TV show and, um, their sales went down, not up. Rob Green is saying, should a new artist release singles or an entire album? Um, I'm still big on albums. We drop, um, in a perfect world, we drop a song a week or a song every other week., and then we drop the album every— the album that that music is on, we drop, you know, as a body of work with maybe an extra 3 or 4 songs on it that haven't been dropped throughout, um, the 3-month period or the 4-month period. And, um, that works really well, you know. We try to drop song, video, song, video, song, video in a perfect world so that every week there's something for the fans. I've worked with artists where I've dropped a song a week because their music just wasn't really resonating, it wasn't catching. So I put a lot of music into the marketplace, and the thinking behind that is that when somebody really becomes familiar with your music, then they start looking for it. You know, when you start doing something every week like these videos, you know, I've been doing live every week, you guys start looking for it, you know., and, and it works great for music, you know. It just— it, it's, it's a great way to keep your name and image in front of people. And the great thing about it is you can go into your dashboard and you can find out which songs are most popular. You're not going to be able to find out why, but you'll start to see a pattern. If you're dropping a song a week, that means you're dropping 52 songs in a year. When you've got that much work, you're going to be able to see which the most are the most popular songs, and you're going to be able to figure out as the artist of those songs, okay, is it my mainstream stuff that's more popular? Is the club stuff? Is it the ballads? Is it the stuff that I'm passionate about? Is it the stuff with the catchy hook? Is it the shorter songs, the longer songs? You're going to be able to derive some sort of data from that um, body of work and figure out what it is that your fans like best that you do, and then you can choose to give them more of what they want, which is going to help build your career. But definitely, um, release singles and albums, both. You're going to drop an album if you want to do it the old school way. You're going to drop an album and work one single. So you may have one single that appears on this album release, but you're still working it, because remember I said you're going to drop like every, every 5 months or so. You might still be working it for the next release. You're going to put it on that release too. We put Trouble's Ready on 2 releases. Um, Infamous is saying, I know the question is for Wendy Day, but he's saying it's a hit or miss with paying for a slot. It is. It depends on what else is on the album. It depends on the DJ. It depends, it depends on so much. Um, don't look at it as trying to blow yourself up if you're paying for a slot. Look at it as you're trying to build a relationship with that DJ, you're trying to support him. Hector's asking me, will I do a video of the different types of scammers out there? Um, a scammer manager, a scammer promoter, a scammer publicist. You know, it's funny, Hector, when I started doing the videos, that was my intention. You'll notice that I have a section for my videos. You know how like my videos are broken into section like how-to tips, you know, music industry tips, interviews, like I break them down into different categories. And I have a category for scammers and fuckboys, but I only have a couple videos in there. And I did that because they weren't as popular as the more positive videos like the, you know, how to be a manager. I talk about being a good manager and that seemed to be more popular than me kind of shitting on people. So I just chose to keep it positive. That's why I haven't done more of the fuckboy videos. Dressik On Demand, it's really hard to find out if it's a smart investment beforehand because you don't know how fans are going to react to that mixtape until it's already in the marketplace. Um, Infamous is saying, uh, Saw Baby's record is already earning some mix show spins, so it won't take long for it to reach the top 50. I'll give it another week or two. Absolutely. Okay, you guys are having a conversation. I don't want to— I don't want to blow it up. Never Yield Biz, I don't know the answer to that. Um, Never Yield Biz is asking me, since playlists are becoming oversaturated and now that is what most are going for, what would be the next wave after streaming? I don't know. Um, I can answer that like once we've burned out streaming completely, and in hip-hop we burn everything out. Remember when like we all jumped on the blogs because the bloggers were breaking records? You know, before that it was the, it was the mix show DJs that were breaking records and we all jumped on that. Then it was mixtapes, you know, like we all jump on whatever the hot thing is. I don't know what the next hot thing is. I see influencer marketing coming up pretty strong. Maybe that's the next hot thing, don't know. Doc Hollis says Infamous is the shit. He's the first DJ to put me in rotation and I'm forever grateful. He is a good, good, good human being, and I'm not gonna like— I'm not gonna go too far with that because I don't want to embarrass you, um, Infamous, because I know that you're kind of like me, like you want to be appreciated but you don't want it like to be embarrassed about it. Um, but I really love you and I really appreciate you, and it seems that there are other people in in the room here who also love and appreciate you, and that's awesome. You deserve all the love you get, and I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. That's cool. Infamous is talking about how he charges $20 a slot, so it'll make sense financially. There's a lot of DJs out here who are a little bit bitter, and you know, the DJ is always the last to get paid, and it's such a— it's such an important job, and they're always the first to get shitted on. Like, if an artist is going out on tour and the label cuts the budget, the first thing that gets cut is the DJ, you know? Like, they'll keep their light show, but they'll get rid of the DJ. And it's just, you know, a DJ makes money by spinning, and if he's got— if he's sick, or if his kids are sick, or, you know, he has no choice, he has to go to work. It's how he makes money. And it's just such a thankless job. There's usually no health insurance involved. If they're DJing at a radio station, they're not paid well. The only way they get paid well is when they go out and do like live events, you know, for one of the, one of the, um, advertisers, you know. So DJs aren't paid very well. And there's a lot of guys from my generation who feel like they broke Jeezy or they broke DMX or they broke, you know, this artist or that artist and they didn't get paid well. And the thing is that they weren't supposed to. You know, you're a DJ, you get paid to DJ, and that's your job. And if you're going to transition into another position, that's awesome. You know, you could become a producer or an A&R person. You know, DJs kind of run the world in terms of choosing music and knowing what's hot and what's not. You know, they're the first line of defense. You know, I send out my music to DJs for feedback back before we start working records. And I think that all of you guys need to develop relationships with your DJs, but you can't pimp them either, you know. You've got to give back to them. As they're helping you, you need to help them, whatever that means. And I don't know what that means. I don't know if that means that you hire them to go on tour, you know, with you as an artist, or if you— I don't know what that means. I don't know how you give back, but you've got to figure out a way to give back, because as these guys get into the industry for a decade or two decades when they're not making money and everybody else around them is becoming a millionaire and they're not, you know, they get a little bitter. And then new artists come to them and say, hey, I want to be on your mixtape, and they're, you know, they look at the new artist like, 5 grand, you know, and they're bitter, they're angry. So we've got to figure out a way to get DJs paid. We got to get past this. It's a problem. And Infamous, maybe you and I should talk about this at some point and figure out like how the best way for newer artists to support DJs because they don't have money. But then the last thing you want is somebody to blow up and you did your job but you don't get anything for it. It's, it's sort of a, a catch-22, you know. J1025 is saying I work my artists at 10, 25 music, like we're major in cities that we hit, although it's a struggle. Yeah, it's a lot of work. It's very much a lot of work. And Rob Green, it's so hard to predict, um, how well a song is going to do because I've seen songs get 500 spins and fade away, and I've seen songs get 500 spins that turn into 1,000 that turn into 5,000 that turn into, you know, like that take a song to number 1. It just really depends. There's no way to predict how fans are going to embrace music. And Infamous is saying— Rob Green, he's kind of answering the same question— it all depends on how you market and promote your record and get it to the DJs. It's not a timetable. And I absolutely agree, you know, it's, it's— if, if we could predict how the fans will react to a record, there would be no guessing in the music industry because the ones who could pick the hits would be superstars. And I've picked hits and I've picked songs that I thought I would— there was— that I thought was a hit and it wasn't. Um, you can take a lot of the mystery out of it by having DJs and tastemakers, um, as part of your circle of influence and getting their feedback. Tony must be home, the dog's going nuts. Dark Brothers Entertainment is saying when you stream once, you stop paying for the service, you can't listen to the music, um, so he prefers buying it so he owns it. Yes, exactly. Then you could just buy it once instead of spending $10 a month for the rest of your life, and that $10 a month could go up in price, you know, it could go to $14.99 at some point, you don't know. Rob Green is saying, does performing at any of the various events like A3C and South by Southwest help at all? It does if you're known. Um, I stopped doing showcases for new artists, um, ages ago. Tony, hey, come say hi! Guess who's home? Infamous says, hey, I guess you saw that. Hi, do you want to sit down? Okay, I'm gonna go downstairs and decompress. Decompress? How was your day? It was good. Good. All right, y'all, uh, Infamous is saying I can embarrass him. Don't we love Infamous? Yeah, yeah, I just went on— I just— yeah, he all right, right? He's all right, he's all right, he's all right. You were watching, huh? Oh, he's spying on me, huh? Thanks, my man. I love you, baby. I'll talk to you in a minute. Did you eat? Yes. Good. Okay. Infamous is saying, that's okay, you can embarrass me, Wendy. I get frustrated when talking to Jen about non-appreciation from artists, yet the dramas and holidays get the love after other DJs are ahead. You know, and it's funny because, um, they all have their timeline. You know, I remember when Funkmaster Flex was the most important DJ in the music industry, and you know, he's not anymore at all. New York is just not really as influential as it once was. So everybody kind of has their day. And you know, for DJs, when you're at the top, you've got to really bank the money because it's not going to last. It doesn't for anybody. You know, the, the music industry is like this. You know, all of our careers do that. Hey, Will Hustle, how do you stand out as a marketing company with so many people offering the same services? Um, you're gonna hate this answer. The way that you stand out is you have artists that succeed and blow up. You know, I'm guessing that whoever did the marketing for Future is gonna have an easier time finding clients than whoever did the marketing for, you know, I can't even think of an example. I'm trying to think of an example of an artist who hasn't really done a lot, and I hate to call anybody out because it's gonna frustrate them. So let me just say, like, you know, Boo Boo the Rapper. You know, if you did the marketing for Boo Boo the Rapper and people don't know who it is, it's going to be harder to get clients than if you did the marketing for Young Thug or Future. And it's very over— it's very oversaturated, you know, the folks that are in business to help artists. It's really relationships, you know, and, and what you've done. Um, I can tell you this a lot of the marketing people that I've hired started as street team people, and they were super duper hustlers, and I just really liked their grind. And I've hired a lot of marketing folks who started on the streets because they know what works and what doesn't. Um, and you're somebody who started on the streets too, so you know what works and what doesn't, and that makes you really valuable because you've tried You know, King Sesame, how are you? Yeah, Amy Bugatti made a great point. I think those of us who lead with our hearts and not lining our pockets never get that appreciation we deserve. And I think that it really depends on what you're in it for. You know, in the music business, I was never in the music business to get rich. I, I've always kind of known that I would never be very wealthy from music because I wasn't willing to do what it takes to get wealthy. And what it takes to get wealthy is to take ownership of an artist. You need to, um, you need to either be a label or you need to take a piece of their publishing, and I'm not willing to do that. I don't mind when other people do. It's not that I'm against it, it's that I'm against it for me. I don't ever want to take ownership of one of my clients' companies. Or one of my clients' publishing. I'm not willing to do that. So I learned at a very young age in the music industry that I was going to have to do other things to make money. So I make money in real estate. That's what I do to make money, because I'm just not going to be able to do it in, in music. But I think that because I wasn't driven by, by money, and because I realized early on that I wasn't going to become a millionaire doing this that I didn't chase the money. And what I mean by that is when I've worked projects, it wasn't because, you know, um, oh, I'm gonna go work this project with this guy who can barely rap because I can make a quick $80 grand. You know, I make decisions based on, okay, who's got marketable music. Doesn't mean I have to like it, it's just who's got marketable music and then who's got a grind that can add to that, and then who's got enough money to be able to market and promote properly. Because it takes a lot of money, and the truth is that most of you don't have enough money to market and promote properly, you know. And it's not— this is not an industry where people are going to come back to you and say, hey, you know what, you really helped me 20 years ago, you know, here's a car, or you helped me 10 years ago, thanks for everything, you know, here's a gift card or whatever. People aren't really very giving in this industry, and it's because as they go through this industry, so many people are taking from them, taking from them, taking from them, and they don't have very much left to give until they get to that superstar level. And then at that point, there's a whole new level of people helping them that they're thankful for. You know, if it only took one person for an artist to succeed, then they would give back. But when it takes 200 different people along their career, they can't possibly give back to all of those people, you know. That's just my opinion. Tidal. Rob Green, the answer is, what is the most paying streaming platform? It's Tidal. Um, they pay better than all of the other platforms. The problem is there's only somewhere between 2 and 3 million subscribers, so your music gets played less there. The worst paying streaming platform— you didn't ask this, but I'm going to answer it— is YouTube. How about that? I was really shocked at that when I found that out. And Rob Green, I wrote an article, um, back in September. It's on industryreport.com. It breaks down what each streaming platform pays, per spin, and then it, um, tells you how many spins you need to make $100 on each platform, and it's eye-opening. Never Yield Biz, um, also believes in influencer marketing. I'm gonna have a lot to talk about with influencer marketing because it's a direction that we're absolutely going. Will Hustle saying major festivals like A3C or South by, if you have Major or strategic marketing. Too many artists worry about performing but forget the marketing. Absolutely. Any place where you've got a large amount of people in one place is extremely beneficial. I will— I— we just have differing opinions on this. I stopped promoting at A3C and South By only because it's more industry people than fans. I would rather go and promote at at, um, like a Summer Jam by one of the radio stations where there's, you know, 25,000 or 30,000 people out there. I'd rather hit potential fans than industry because industry aren't going to support my artists. Will Hustle saying, pay the DJs before you blow. Support the DJs and they will support you. Absolutely. It's about building a relationship. I can't say that enough. Amy's making a great point. Influencers are falling off because fans can see the authenticity. I got a Pete Rock cosign, changed the game, but it was unpaid in 2012. Today, not so much. Yeah, I think it also depends on where it comes from, you know. I think that there are certain people out here, um, certain influencers that people can tell. Like when, um, one of the Kardashians cosigned you, you can tell who's a cosign because they got a check and who's a cosign because it's really somebody in their life. And I think that if you're, if you're going to benefit from influencer marketing, you've got to be strategic in your decisions. And I think that's kind of what we were talking about before when I, when I mentioned Drake. King PV saying, as I saturate the market with music, should I hit other towns and perform as well? Even if I don't have a specific single I'm pushing? Yes, I think that, um, first of all, I think you should always push a single, but if you don't, then yeah, you want to, you want to get as much reach as you can because you're trying to build fans. So the more people you touch, the more chance you have of gaining fans. Hey Al Green, how are you? Doc Hollis saying Chance the Rapper said recently that 1,700 streams is 1 unit sold. Is that accurate? Um, I believe it's 1,500. I think it's 1,500 streams equals an album. I think that's what you might be talking about. If you go check out that article that I wrote, um, in September, it's at industryreport.com. It lists, um, what each streaming site pays, and then it lists the Billboard breakdown of what qualifies for gold, silver, all that stuff. Amy, that's funny as fuck. I gotta tell you, I only asked him if he ate because you guys are here. I'm kidding. Tony, Tony's like me. He gets so busy that he forgets to eat. So, um, I actually— I wasn't gonna feed him. Don't— let's not get it twisted. Um, but if he hadn't eaten, I was going to arrange to have food brought to the house. It's not like I was gonna feed him. Let's, let's really get this real, right? Let's get this right. Thank you, Shay. We have our— we have our problems. See, you guys aren't here when Tony and I are arguing. Actually, we don't argue much. It's kind of scary because every relationship I've ever had has been built on arguments, right? Like, I just thought that was part of a relationship. I think Tony and I have probably argued 5 times in 5 years. I don't know if that's good or bad though. Maybe we hold shit in. I don't know. Maybe both of our heads will explode. I don't know, but we don't really argue. I'm also really easy to get along with, and he's real easy to get along with. Maybe that's part of it. Like, I'm not, I'm not one of the— I don't go through your phone, I don't trip when you're out with other women. I'm just not that chick. Like, I don't want drama, you know? And Tony doesn't bring drama, and I don't bring drama to him. So, um, Rob Green is saying, does anyone still use CDs? Are they a waste of budget? Um, yes, in the Southeast we still give out CDs, especially in smaller towns. It's getting less, but, um, yes. I also use download cards, which are just like business cards that have different, um, different links on there for people to go and check out music. And hopefully, like, as I give it to them, they pull out their phone and they go, you know, oh, SoundCloud, let me go check it out. Amy Bugatti says, I own a label, we had over 50,000 streams and I only made $200 one month, but if you monetize YouTube, it bumps up. Yeah, YouTube pays the worst. Thank you, Infamous. Infamous is saying to, um, share, um, my YouTube videos on your social media because he's tired of seeing a lot of people speak on knowledge yet can't go into detail to help others effectively learn from their experience. Guys, remember, with streaming numbers though, for superstars, if they're signed to a label they're only getting somewhere between 12 and 18% of the income after they pay everything back. With an artist that has an investor, they're getting somewhere between 50% and 100% of the streaming income. Like, Trouble does really well on streaming income. We're pretty excited. Rob Green, you're welcome. So Amy's saying, what's strange about YouTube is how they track streams. It's horrible. But I had a Swiffer commercial on a track and it got $200 off 36 plays. It was crazy. I'm not sure how that happened. I don't know how that happens either. I can't speak to that, um, but I do know that YouTube needs to like step it up, and there's a lot of people out here that are saying that they're really kind of taking in the shorts right now. Teddy Styles is saying, is there a market for finding producers for labels? I'm interested in starting a beat agency, and if so, how would you recommend I reach out to get clients. I think that if you have relationships with artists and A&R people that buy beats, finding the producers will be really easy. It's not finding the producers to be part of your agency, it's the ability to sell tracks that's hard. I have a video, Teddy Styles, it's an interview I did with Rico Brooks. Rico Brooks is a manager for producers um, you should go check that out because he talks a lot about building those relationships. He manages, um, Metro Boomin, Sonny Digital, uh, Southside, and Rich the Kid. I forget. He manages a bunch of producers that are popping right now in Atlanta. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, Doc Holly, you would think that YouTube paid more seeing that they're pioneers of this and seeing that they're the number one way that people listen music. Like, that's how people get most of their music, is through YouTube. So you would think, um, Will Hustle, who controls how they set their breakdowns on streaming sites? The streaming sites negotiate with, um, the labels, the major labels, and then they negotiate with a consortium of independent labels, and that's who sets the prices. They, they negotiate they agree on a price, and then that contract is in play probably 3 years, I'm guessing, 2-3 years. Thank you, J1025. I've been doing this 25 years, um, and I'm really happy to share knowledge. Rob Green, you're welcome. And guys, this is all my, um this is all my opinion, so you should really go and do the research yourselves, right? Like, don't just take what I'm saying as fact. Go and do the research, you know, go and read, go, go Google stuff online. And there's a lot of false information online, but just see what other people are saying too. Like, don't, don't take what I say— like, there are 100 different ways to get on in the music industry. I know of one way because it's the way that I've been doing for my clients for 25 years, and it works. So I do what I know. Does that make sense? There's other ways to do shit. Just do what works. Don't do what doesn't work. Don't just send music to A&R people and hope that the, the skies open up and bring you into a record label. It doesn't work that way. But there are other ways to get, um deals. I, I just tell you what I've done and what has worked for me. Uh-oh, Rob Green, did I read your question wrong? Teddy Styles, you're welcome. Yes, Will Hustle, um, it's— he's saying it's like we're letting NASA decide who pays us. You know what it reminds me of? Um, and I've got a degree in African American Studies. It reminds me of sharecropping. And I'm sure you've seen or read about how someone would work the fields and they would go to the store that was owned by the farm and they would rent the utensils that they needed or the tools that they needed to do their jobs. So they would go out in the fields and they would work for a week, and let's say they made $300 in a week. They would be told at the little store that they had to pay $250 of that $300 for their rent, for wherever they stayed, for the tools that they used. And that, that person on that, on that farm was who set the prices. So they kept it so that you couldn't win. So if you made $400, maybe your rent was now $350. They were the ones who, who would set those prices and control the market, right? And it's very hard to get ahead when you don't have control. On the flip side, in the music business, if everything's going towards streaming, if 66% of hip-hop fans are getting their music on streaming, how do you balk at streaming? You know, the best way to overcome that is to get your music hotter. And instead of a million streams a month, get 5 million streams a month. And instead of 5 million streams a month, get 10 million streams a month. And build your artist to have a career where they can make money doing endorsements or get paid doing a Samsung ad or they can sell $20,000 worth of t-shirts in a week on their website. You know, there's other ways to make money. Streaming is not the only way, but streaming is a very important way. And even though it does fucking suck, I agree, it doesn't suck as much when you're independent and you're collecting 80% of the money from your distributor as opposed to 12% of the money or 15% of the money from Universal. Or from Sony. Just my opinion. So guys, I've gotten through all the questions. We've been here for an hour and 20 minutes. Um, instead of doing these every Wednesday night, I'm going to do them once a month. It's going to be the first Wednesday of every month. If you have questions, you can email them to me, or you can ask me in the feed. Um, if you're going to get here late, I suggest you email your question ahead so that it doesn't take an hour and 20 minutes for me to get to your question. But thank you so much for attending, and I will see you all in 30 days. Okay, bye guys, thanks for coming.