LIVE with Wendy Day January 3, 2018 | Answering Your Questions Live

Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Wrap Coalition. Thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so happy that you're here. Okay guys, I'm almost there. I'm coming, I promise I'm coming. I've got a lot of great information for you today. I'm so glad you're here. Okay guys, there's a counter there. I'm trying to beat that counter. As soon as it gets down to zero, I'll be there. Right now I'm filling up my cup with unsweet tea and extra lemon. Guys, thanks for tuning in to my livestream. We're almost ready to go. I'm so glad you're here. I've got such amazing information to share with you tonight. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. Hi guys, this is Wendy Day from Wrap Coalition. Thanks for tuning in to my livestream. I'm so happy happy that you're here. Hi guys, how are you tonight? I feel like I was just here. Can you guys hear me okay? Yep, that's plugged in. Yay! Okay, I'm going to start with some, um, emails that you guys sent to me because I don't usually do that. So let me do that. Um, let me start with Jordan Kelly. My name is Jordan. I have a question for Wendy Day Live. My question pertains to producers' ownership and percentages. I've learned from multiple sources that it's common for producers to receive about a 4% royalty from masters. Is their percentage so low because record companies do not share in the publishing income? Also, do producers commonly share in ownership of the masters, or is this usually exclusive to the record label? Um, the record label or whoever puts up the money almost always owns the masters, 99.9% of the time. Um, they're the ones that make the investment into the marketing and promotion and blowing the song up, so they are the ones who usually have ownership of the masters. Um, very experienced producers get 4 points, um, some get 3. Newer producers don't get a share in the master royalty, um, but the producer always owns 100% of their publishing, so they share in publishing royalties. Um, you really get what you negotiate in the music industry. You don't get what's fair, you don't get what's owed to you, you get what you negotiate. So the key is to negotiate a deal that's beneficial to yourself. Um, certainly if you've got the opportunity to get on a Jay-Z album, for example, you're gonna be more tolerant about what you accept than if you're on a brand new artist's album and they're asking you to not get paid in advance and they're asking you to give up a percentage of your publishing. You might tell them, fuck you. It really just depends on what you feel, um, you're willing to give up and your leverage. You know, the more success you have And the more willing you, you are to walk away, the more leverage you have in any situation. Let me just make sure I answered all your questions here. Um, a lot of record companies do share in the publishing income. A lot of them will take a percentage or buy a percentage of ownership in an artist's publishing in order to recoup their money faster. Christopher Patton has asked me, um, what can a producer or artist do if they haven't done any of the 10 things an artist must do before they release music into the marketplace and their music is already out there in the marketplace? For example, they produce beats for artists that are on YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Pandora, Spotify, etc. Can they copy the beats after they've been released? Absolutely you can. It's never too late to copyright. Can they register the beats with their performing rights organization and SoundExchange after they've been released? Absolutely. And, um, it happens a lot. Like, Christopher, that's, that's not a new phenomenon where somebody didn't have the opportunity to set up their business properly because a lot of artists don't know how to do that. Um, so they'll— their interest is really just making music and they'll put their music out there and they won't have a chance to, um, register it properly. So I suggest you do as— you do it as soon as you're able to register it. Um, the performing rights organizations, they hold on to money for a couple of years, um, so you can go and get back money. I believe SoundExchange does the same, just not as long. As the PROs do. I think the PROs do it for 3 years. I think SoundExchange is a year or 18 months. You would have to call them though to be sure. I don't, I don't work for a PRO or SoundExchange, so you should give them a call to find out exactly how long they hold money if you're interested. But yes, it's better to do it late than never. Better late than never. The last email I got was from Consigliere Music. Hello Wendy, I have another question for you. There are a few people I've come across on Twitter with the title producer manager. There's others who just claim to have contacts and can get major placements. What types of information should they be able to provide to show that they're legit? And generally speaking, how does the process work when dealing with a middleman to get placements? Um, and kudos, you said, um, middle person. I said middleman, but you said middle person. Thank you. To get placements. I ask because one of them appears legit but doesn't have a website and hasn't provided anything detailing the placement process in regards to their service. I'm assuming that they get a finder's fee, but I'm not sure if there's contracts involved with the producer, manager, or what. Um, yes, there's almost always contracts involved. There should be a contract involved. Um, certainly there's going to be a contract between you and the artist that you're producing for, or for you, between you and the record label that is paying for the production. Um, and a producer's manager is going to get paid 20% of whatever fee they negotiate for you. So there should be a contract between you and that middle person, or that producer-manager, however you want to call them. Um, my best suggestion would be to have an entertainment attorney structure that agreement for you because you want to be sure that you're protected. And if you're signing to somebody to be a manager, you don't want to sign to somebody that hasn't proven themselves to you, um, and then you're signing for like 5 years. That could be your whole career. So I would suggest having some stopgaps in your contract where maybe they had to— they have to bring in a certain amount of money for you as your manager annually or semi-annually you know, whatever you feel is a fair amount, whether it's, you know, $50,000, $100,000, a quarter million, a million, whatever you feel is realistic for where you are, the level you are in your career. Um, and you may want to keep as short a term as possible. Maybe you want to test them out for 6 months or a year and see what they can do for you. Maybe you renew it every year and you get the opportunity to leave if you don't like what they're doing for you. That way you're never, um, tied to somebody you don't want to be tied to for longer than a year. I've seen a lot of guys lose their career because they're signed to somebody that cannot help them for 5 years or more. You know, I've seen a lot of artists signed 7 years, 5 years, 10 years, and they're not able to move on and do what they want to do in order to, um, create success for themselves. And that's a problem. So you want to get as, um, small of a term as possible. Remember, their goal is to get you for as long as possible, because if they're going to build you up to be the next Swizz Beatz or the next Mike Will Made It or the next Dr. Dre, they want to profit in your income as long as possible if they're going to do that, right? So it really becomes almost a tug of war between you and them. How can you tell if they're legit? It's very hard to tell who's legit and who's not in the music industry, I suggest you do your research. And if you're not in the inner circle where you can ask others, you know, hey, do you know so-and-so and what do you think, I suggest you find people that may know them and ask for feedback. Certainly Google, find out who their former clients were, are, reach out to those people, ask them what they think. The best way you can find of what someone will do for you is to ask somebody that they've already worked with because they can give you insight not only to what they can do, but what they're not able to do, like what, what their weaknesses are. Yatim Rodriguez, how are you? Coop de Trill, hey! Crazy Cage King, happy New Year, guys. Um, wow, you're in Miami, I'm jealous. It is 31 degrees here, and that's really cold for Atlanta. It is brick. Mike Woods is having a great day. And I get to be the cherry on top. Yay! Mike A, welcome. Oh, it's Micah. Welcome, it's so nice to have you here. That's okay, I just screwed up your name, so that's fucked up. I'm sorry about that, sweetheart. I'm a little blind, you know, so I'm reading this really tiny print, and, um, I wish, I wish my, uh, I wish my computer could talk to me. Actually, it can. I just haven't figured out how to make it do it. Odd Man Out, how are you? Tony is downstairs, I can hear him on the phone. Kevin Freestyle, how are you? Nature Boy, how are you? Happy 2018 to you as well. Crew, hello. Henry Tussauds, how are you? Is it to all or is it to so? It's that little blind thing again going on. And I'm good. I stayed home for New Year's. I always stay home for New Year's though. JC Kush, um, for me, I think it's amateur night New Year's Eve, and I feel like when I go out, everybody is drunk and steering right for me. Um, I don't know how many of you were on Tony's live right before New Year's. I think it was a couple days before New Year's, and he got rear-ended in Decatur. Um, he was in his pickup truck, so he wasn't hurt too badly. It, um, it hurt his neck and his back, um, and he didn't know for a couple days. Like, it's one of those things that like sneaks up on you, and he got real stiff and a little bit sore. We had to go to the emergency room, but he's fine. I mean, he's not crippled or anything, but some guy hit him in a Toyota Corolla and completely totaled their car. How do you ram into a pickup truck? And he was doing a Facebook Live. He was on Facebook Live. He was stopped at a light He was looking at traffic and all of a sudden you hear bam! Like, you don't hear the squeal of brakes, you don't— like, dude didn't even try to stop. He just like, at whatever, whatever the speed limit on that, on that street was, he just like went right into Tony and his car kind of went under the back of the pickup truck, so it wrinkled the top. And the— they had to, um, they had to like cut the guy out of his car, like do the jaws of life type thing to get the guy. It was just terrible. Okay, Juan McClendon, how are you? Kevin Owensby, how are you? Happy New Year. Dark Brothers Entertainment, hey! Oh my gosh, Kevin Freestyle says it's 9 degrees in Ohio and I'm complaining about 31 in Atlanta. It's going to go down to 16 tonight here. And our houses aren't insulated, like it's not built for that. It doesn't get that cold here, so, um, that's like, that's like really, really, really, really, really cold, like unbearably cold. We Hip Hop 2, how are you? Small Time Ballers. Coop the Trill is asking, what would be the biggest challenge in creating your own digital distribution platform and creating your own music streaming service like a Spotify or Apple Music? Um, getting getting the rights from the major labels to use the music, and the— meaning the product, it would be hard to get the product. And then the second hardest thing would be negotiating a deal directly with Spotify or Apple, you know, the platforms, because you need to be able to get your music onto the platforms to be a distributor, and they don't negotiate with but a handful of people. So you'd probably have to go through Merlin like most of the distributors. Hi Apollo Heights, how are you? Happy New Year to you as well. AKW Beats, do I have any suggestion for freebies I can use to get people to sign up to my email list? Um, you are a producer, um, and let me guess, you don't really want to give away beats, right? Because to me that would be the obvious way is to offer, um, Maybe a discount on your beats, or to offer a beat. You couldn't offer a beat for everybody to sign up, you'd give away all your beats, that would be crazy. Maybe a discount on your beats, um, freebies for a producer, um, maybe some how-to information like how to be a better rapper, how to set up your own home studio, um because I'm assuming that you're trying to reach artists like rappers and singers. Um, so I would figure out what they are looking for and deliver it to them. So any information on the music business, um, any how-to guide for an artist— how to get paid is always a great how-to guide. If you want to put something together that lists all the different ways rappers can get paid, I bet they'd happily sign up to your site. Um, the number one question people ask me is how to build a buzz. So maybe if you put together an ebook on how to build a buzz, maybe opinions from different people like myself, you could collect them and put it together and give that out in exchange for an email address. You know, maybe just a couple pages. It doesn't have to be like a book book, right? It could just be, you know, um, maybe 5 different people give you their opinion on how to build a buzz and you put it together into a handout of some sort. Todd Schlott, how are you? Christmas was good. Crazy Cage King is saying, let's say you're independent in the Latin music scene, good talent and people responding. Would you recommend to contact someone who could sit you down with various labels? Absolutely not. To show your music or try? I would keep, um, I would keep building my fan base because getting in front of labels doesn't help you. It's not that they don't know who you are, it's that they don't give a fuck. And the reality is, until you're making money and you're in a position where you can make them money, they have zero interest in you. So when you get to a point where you're making money, or even you're about to make money, they will swoop in and they will make an offer. So just keep doing what you're doing. If, if people are responding and you're building your fan base and you're getting great feedback, just keep doing it. It just means you're not ready yet, you know. Um, but no, sitting down with the label is never to your benefit, because once they know that you want to be signed, you lose all of your leverage. You can't tell them you're not interested because they know you're interested. You came to them. Mochis Films, how are you? Juan McClendon Forte, how are you? Journal Wright Supreme General Man, I just accidentally bumped this and it made it go, um, further up than it was supposed to be. Crazy Cage King is asking, oh, this is the second part, or try to find a manager and let him reach his contacts. Um, I already answered that. A manager doesn't— you don't want a manager to shop you a deal. You want a deal when they want to sign you, not when you want them to sign you. When you want them to sign you, you're not valuable enough. When they come to you, that's when you want them to sign you, because now you're valuable. And by the way, they're going to pretend like you're not. And the first time they come, they're not necessarily signing you. They're going to come to learn who you are, get to know you, figure you out, and then watch you if you're starting to be a little bit successful. So don't think just because a label calls you that they want to sign you. Some of them want to do a developmental deal. I saw a development deal a couple weeks ago for $50 grand, which sounds like a lot of money to you guys, but you can't break an artist on $50 grand. It signs the artist for 5 or 6 years, and if you fuck around and accidentally become successful, then they make 88% of the money after you pay them back. Supreme General's asking, are platforms like WorldStar still effective for video promo, or is it wise to look elsewhere? Um, yes, WorldStar is still effective, but it's not effective for unknown artists. If you and I make a video together and we are Unknown Rapper A and Unknown Singer B, um, and we spend money to put it on WorldStar, we just lost a whole bunch of money. But if we're building a buzz and people kind of know who we are, if we're Cardi B, if we're Wayne, if we're Drake, if we're Future, um, WorldStar is an amazing platform to break a new video. It's a great place to, um, announce, hey, we have something new out. Okay, Mike, I'm going to answer your question in a second. Micah A: I am new to the industry and currently managing my husband. He's been doing on— he's been doing his own thing for the longest and is very good. Do you think by me being his wife trying to manage him while learning the industry is a bad thing? Yes and no. Um, at this point, if he's relatively new, there isn't really much for him to manage. So if you can hang in there and really help him get to the next level where he could attract a very experienced manager that can really get him, like, catapult him to the next level, that would be super helpful. Um, if he's a newer artist, the level that he's at, it's going to be hard to attract a seasoned manager. So, um, I think it's, it's awesome that you're helping him. Um, I watched Slick Rick's wife Mandy, um, help him out, and then she just naturally learned the business and became his manager, and she does an amazing job managing Rick. So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing Um, but just remember, if you're both relatively new to the industry and you don't know anything, you're using his career as a guinea pig, and that makes me a little bit nervous. I would love to see you go work for a seasoned manager and gain some experience, like for 3 to 6 months, learn how the business works, even if you have to work for free. Learn how the business works and then come back and apply what you've learned, not only your experience but your connections to your husband. That would just be like Super bomb, that would be awesome. D'ware, University— is that Delaware? Journal writes asking, am I doing any more videos with Jordan Tower? Um, yes, I've just been busy. Um, I spoke to Jordan yesterday though. No, I spoke to Jordan on New Year's Day and he's doing well and I'm doing well. I miss him though, I haven't spoken to him like other than a couple days ago by text. We haven't spoken for a minute. I have to, um, go have lunch with him, see how he's doing. But, um, yeah, we do videos together like whenever, whenever we feel like it. It's not something that's set in stone, but yeah, we'll, we'll do more. Kevin Freestyle's asking, can artists negotiate a percentage to labels? Absolutely. Um, it, it all depends on what you're worth though. If you're an artist and you tell a label that you are worth 90% of the money, it's, um, their choice to not sign you, right? Kevin Owensby. Kevin Owensby. Kevin Owensby. Micah, I'm so glad that you've learned from my videos. I know it's overwhelming. A street team will help promote your husband if that's your goal. But remember, when you're building a career, it's not just one thing. Like, the area where I see most artists mess up is they'll say— I'm going to use you as an example, and please don't be offended, but I'm going to use your street team as an example. An artist will say, oh, I need to spread my music, let me hire a street team. And they'll go and they'll hire a street team and then they won't get like 100% of the results that they want. They'll get like a little bit of a buzz, but not the kind of buzz that they know that their music deserves. And they won't know what's wrong, so they'll ask around, they'll talk to their friends, and their friends will say, "Oh, you need to be on the radio." So then they do the research to find out how to get on the radio. They go and hire a radio promoter. They spend lots of money. They mortgage their house, and they get some radio play, and the, the artist is bubbling a little bit more, and then it kind of dies down after a couple weeks after the radio play stops. They're not getting paid shows, they don't understand why, so they start asking their, their friends in the industry again, you know, what do you think I should do? Oh, you should have videos. So then you go out and you start shooting videos and you start putting them up on YouTube, and you even put a little bit of a budget behind them and buy some Google Ads and Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads. And you start to bubble a little bit more, but then it goes away as soon as you stop doing that. And the problem isn't that you're not doing the right things, it's that you're doing them one at a time. When you work a project, you work every piece of the pie at the same time. So your internet ad should be hitting at the same time— the same time that your videos are hitting. Your video should be hitting at the same time that the radio is playing the song. The radio is playing the song at the same time that your video is hitting, um, Revolt and Fuse and the different, um, uh, video shows that still exist. Um, your promo tour is happening at the same time as your street team. It's all coming together so that it makes a big pie. All these different pieces of the pie are coming together to make the whole pie. You can't just take one piece of the pie and say, you know, take your slice and say, okay, here I have the whole pie. You don't. You've only got one piece of the pie. Does that help, Micah? I have some articles, um, at industryreport.com about how to build a buzz. If you go to industryreport.com and you search for marketing, promotion, or the word buzz, any one of those three terms should bring up a bunch of articles that I wrote about how to market and promote, um, rap music. And if your husband makes music other than rap, you can still follow what I'm talking about. Just know that you've got to go wherever your fan base hangs out. So if your husband makes music that's, um, like, let's say he's an R&B singer, you might not, um, focus on the hood in order to market and promote him. You might focus on beauty shops. Because you want to hit more women who appreciate R&B more so than like a 16-year-old male would, right? So you go where your market hangs out. Math the concept, King. As a producer, I've made a lot of instrumental EPs on Bandcamp where people can buy, and I leave the option for people to use them on their videos on YouTube and etc. Is this a good promoting method? I don't know, I've never tried that. I'm also not a fan of Bandcamp. To me, sites like Bandcamp and, um, what's the reverb one? To me, that shouts amateur. When you're doing this as a profession and you're doing this to make money, it just seems to me that you're going to house your music on your own website. Um, so I don't, I don't really pay much attention to, um, to those sites, so I don't know how effective that is. Try it out and put it up there, and if people are using your music in their videos on YouTube, then you'll find out because you'll get a check from YouTube. YouTube, you know, you, you get paid. You don't get paid well, but you get paid when your music plays on YouTube. Um, that reminds me, Consigliere Music asked me another question. Um, I had asked you a question I think 2 live streams ago, but you didn't seem familiar with what I was asking you. Here are the sites I asked you about that you may find useful for your business and for your artists. One is musicxray.com, the other is taxi.com. Um, it's not that I didn't understand what you were asking, it's that I didn't want to give any light to either of those sites because they're not effective for rap music. And this kind of comes back to, you know, Bandcamp and ReverbNation. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. They have their own economy and their own environment of artists. But I work with artists that are doing this for a living, not people that are hobbyists. So I want to work with people in the music industry not people that are doing this because they're not sure if they want to do this for a living. I take what, what I do and what my clients and my artists do very seriously, so I don't use the sites that cater to people that aren't as serious as the clients that I work with. Not again, not that there's anything wrong with those sites. Um, the reason I don't use Music X-Ray or Taxi is because I don't know of any rap artists who've ever gotten a record deal from either of those services. And I know that they're services that you pay in order to get a record deal, but again, that's not my experience of how to get a record deal. I've gotten about 13 or 14 deals for people in my career, but it's always from building up a fan base for them, always building a buzz for them, and getting them recognition from fans and income into their, into their career. And that's how we've been able to get them signed to a record label, if indeed that's their goal. So I can only talk about what I know. I don't know of any websites that you can pay. I don't know of any people that you can pay to get you a record deal. I know of a lot of people that say that that's how you get a record deal, but I don't know of one that's gotten a record deal that way. I know a lot of people that have lost money though. And ditto for the people that, um, ask you to pay them for feedback for your music. I think if you can't find people like fans that can give you some feedback on your music, um, you might need to just go get a job if you're gonna pay somebody to, um, give you feedback on your music. I think you should hang on to that money and put it into the promotion of your music. You're going to get the feedback from your fans. They're either going to stream it or come to your shows or not, you know. But to pay somebody like, like myself in the industry for feedback, the only person who's benefiting from that is me because I'm taking a chunk of money. I don't even do that. I think that's bullshit. I hate when people do that. And I know a lot of my friends are sitting there right now going, fuck you, Wendy Day, that's how I get paid. But I think it's some bullshit, and I have told you, most of you, to your faces. Exclusive Choppers is saying, I'd love to meet you for real. Um, you're gonna— to meet me, you're gonna need to come to a music industry event where I am. Um, I think the next one I'm going to is South by Southwest. My schedule's too busy. I don't take meetings, um, except with clients. Journal writes asking me, how can rappers from Baltimore get on? Build a buzz. Put some money into marketing and promoting yourself. People use the city for negative imagery. Yes, I'm sorry to say they do. However, the talent isn't being heard beyond the city. This doesn't happen with Chicago. It's because the artists in Chicago put money into building up their own careers. And if the artists from, um, Baltimore would invest in themselves and do some more marketing and promotion promotions, you would see them start to, um, get noticed by the industry, sort of the way Atlanta has, Miami, Los Angeles. Um, Boston's getting a little bit of shine right now. There's just certain areas where the artists seem more willing to spend money on their careers, or maybe it's that they have more money. When I hear Baltimore, I think of Young Moose. And he was doing a really great job marketing and promoting himself. Um, I understand that he recently signed to, to Boosie. Math the Concept King is saying, is release— releasing instrumental EPs on a frequent basis and sending them around via email and social media a good way of getting a placement deal? I don't know what a placement deal is. I've never heard of that. Um, and no, I don't think releasing instrumentals and sending them around will work. I think you should try it and see what happens. Um, but I've never— Divine Power, how are you? I've never heard of somebody releasing instrumental EPs and getting any kind of deal or any kind of shine or light. Um, that doesn't mean it won't happen. I just don't know of any examples. Um, and guys, you can play the lottery if you want. I just don't believe in it, you know. I I try to do things that have worked for others in the past, and I don't think that I'm so special that I can try something that nobody else has tried and win. And I know a lot of you do think that, and I think that's wonderful, but I'm a little bit more pragmatic. I'm a little bit more of a realist. I want to try what's been done and succeed. So that's how I built my career. I figured out what would work, saw it work for others, tried it myself, and it worked. And now I do what works, and I guess that's why I've had success. Um, The Process Nucleus is asking how a producer should build a buzz. I've got a bunch of videos on that, so I'm going to direct you to my YouTube page. Um, I've got videos strictly for producers. There's about 3 of them. And then I've got a couple of videos just in general about how to build a buzz. There's also an article at industryreport.com, I believe it's called How to Build a Buzz, but I've covered that so many times that I'm not going to take time here to talk about that. Exclusive Choppers is saying, I think you can help me, I have a deep story for a movie and books plus music, of course. I have no interest in film or books I stay in my lane. I've gotten really good at building success for rappers, so I tend to do what I'm good at. Um, it's a passion for me. I have no passion for film. I have no passion for books that I haven't written, so I just— I wouldn't be of much help to you. I'm sorry. Crazy Cage King, I think, is asking me if you have 5 to 6 songs and you're starting to make a bit of a buzz in your area, should you seek out features with other artists, like going out to get them? No, I think you should let them come to you. You're also saying, I heard it was bad to pay them since they won't take you seriously and won't promote it. I wouldn't take you seriously if you came to me and asked me to get on a record with you. I would assume— I'm not an artist, obviously, but if I were, I would assume that you were trying to use my buzz and my success to build your own buzz and success. So I would probably just take your money and do the verse and keep it moving. Um, I would suggest that you build your own buzz, and once you have a buzz, then you can start working with other artists that have the same label, level of buzz that you have. That kind of makes sense to me. Thank you, Dark Brothers Reverb Nation. That's what they're called, Reverb Nation. Um, it's also bad, Crazy Cage King, to pay an artist to feature if they're signed to a label, because if they're signed to a label, you need the label's permission. You can't just pay them to get on a song with you because they don't own the rights to their own voice. Crazy Cage King, I can understand you're saying this is for my wife. She's in the Latin scene, not many women very open for her. It's lots of men for features. Boy, do I understand that. When I started, there were very few women and very few successful white people in the music industry that weren't out here like just taking advantage of artists. So when I started, people told me I wouldn't last. That was 26 years ago. I guess I'm not lasting. Um, I think she'll stand out though. Like, the fact that she's in the Latin scene and there aren't many women, I think is a plus because I think, I think people will remember her. And I think it's okay that she is a little different, and I don't know that she needs features with men in order to be successful. You know, a lot of people say that about female rappers, but, um, Cardi B didn't start out with a guy on a song. Like, she wasn't co-signed by some guy. She has a boyfriend that is famous, but Not when she started. Like, her boyfriend when she started was in prison, if I remember correctly. Yes, Kevin Owensby, um, anytime you manage somebody's career— managing a career isn't something that you just wake up and do, you know. It would be like waking up and saying, oh, I'm gonna go open a pizza parlor. If you're gonna go open a pizza parlor, you kind of got to do some research on the neighborhood, of the facility, how to make good pizza, how to run a business, you know, what, what credit card service do you use to collect money, you know, what bank do you bank with. Like, there's so many different things that come into play when you start a pizza parlor. Well, it's the same as being a manager. Like, you've really got to understand how the music industry works. So it's, it's good to work underneath somebody, even if you have to work for free for a couple of months, to learn how the industry works. This is also an industry of relationships. Um, I can't tell you how many times I've had to reach out to people just in the past week. My God, I've reached out to so many people and said, hey, do you know so-and-so? Could you introduce me? It's, it's truly an industry of who you know. And if you don't have the necessary connections to help your son or your cousin or your friend or your wife or your husband, it's going to make it that much harder. But then, you know, on the flip side, if, if your family member is so new to this, they're not going to be able to attract a top-level manager anyway. So it may be better to have somebody like yourself helping them with the business until they can get to a point where they can attract somebody that does have the experience in the relationships. So it's all in what you want to do and what you're willing to tolerate for your loved one, you know, for your husband or your son or your mom or whoever, you know, whoever else. Kevin Freestyle, I've never heard of Ditto Music. No. Chili saying, hey Wendy, why doesn't TuneCore pay royalties from although they set it up? I don't know the answer to that. Um, I've never turned to TuneCore for publishing, um, and I wouldn't. So I— not that there's anything wrong with them, I think they're a distributor, I think they're good at that, and I think people should do what they're good at and stick to what they're good at. So I don't know why you're having trouble getting royalties from the publishing side, you may want to give a call to them and find out what the problem is. Um, Todd Schlott, it's industryreport.com. Todd's asking me, um, what site I said to go to read the article about building a buzz. It's industryreport.com. And what's funny is if you had Googled site build a buzz industry, it probably would have come up. The Bay's asking the best way a new artist can get in touch with me. Um, I guess either on Instagram or you can email me. My email address is right below this video. Well, it'll be below this video once it gets posted, but my email address is underneath every video on my YouTube page. There isn't much I can do to help a brand new artist though, honestly. This is a really expensive industry. Um, Maff, I don't know the answer to that. How do you build a buzz in a different country than your— than what you're in on the internet? I've never had to do that, so I can't speak on that. I've only ever worked in the US. And I've never built a buzz just on the internet. I don't think, I don't think there's a way to build a successful career just on the internet. I think you need to do it in person as well. Rohan Bird is saying, I'm flying to South by Southwest from New Zealand. I'm funding myself. What would I recommend to do to make the most out of South by? Um, it depends on what your goals are, Rohan. Um, the Panel discussions are amazing, but the panel discussions are based mostly for American artists and you're coming from New Zealand. Um, I'm not exactly sure what your goal is at South By. Are you trying to meet more artists to work with, like producers? Or are you a producer and you want to meet rappers? Um, I don't, I don't know how to advise you of that. Um, I know that there's a bunch of articles that are going to come out in the music publications right before South By, so maybe the last week of February you should start reading the articles. Um, also you can download the app, and inside of the app you can reach out to people because I know that people have reached out to me through the app when I have spoken in the past at South By. So if you need to set up a meeting with somebody prior to South By, you can reach out to them and see if they'll have coffee with you. But if South By, if it was my first time and I was spending the money and I was coming halfway around the world, my goal would be to meet as many people as I possibly could. So I would exchange my business card with them, find out what they do, um, try to figure out how that could benefit my career and build relationships with the ones that can help me and let the other ones kind of go that, that, that can't be of help to you. You know, like if you meet a recording engineer and you don't need that, then it's nice to meet them, but if you've already got recording engineers that you utilize, then it's silly to keep in touch with somebody that's a recording engineer unless you think you're going to need one, right? DJ Scooby's asking, how much should I save for a buzz? It depends on what kind of music you have. It depends on what your plans are. Um, my clients spend about $150,000 to build a buzz, so anywhere from zero to that would be the answer. Um, it costs more if you're more mainstream, like if you're more of a pop artist, it's a little bit more expensive. But I would make a list of all the things that you want to do to build your buzz and price them out, and that'll tell you exactly how much you need to save. Divine power. Todd Schlott gave a really good answer to Rohan. Um, Todd, I'm not speaking at South by this year. I'm gonna be there, but I'm not speaking on any of the panels. I'm a little burned out, I gotta tell you guys. I've been speaking on panels like so much. Boy bands, when starting a label, is it better to focus on one artist or a lot of artists until one of them blows up? One artist. It's so much easier to put all of your energy into one. If you put your energy into a lot of people, you're only going to get a little bit of traction on quite a few people. If you put all of your energy into one, you're more likely to succeed with that one. WeHipHop2 is saying, advice for someone who wants to take your path in the industry. Um, there's not a lot of money in what I do, I gotta tell you that. Um, I guess your best bet would be to reach out to me and find out exactly what I did to build my career. Um, I would read as many articles because I speak about this a lot, like how I got started in the music industry. But I, if I had to narrow it down to one thing, I would say learn as much as you can about the industry. Because I, when I started, I learned who everybody was and what their job was, and then I learned how each of those jobs intertwined with the other jobs so that I could figure out how success happened. And I learned that it wasn't just from an artist, you know, going on to a video show or doing Jimmy Kimmel or, you know, whatever. I learned that it was all of the aspects of what they did that led to their success. It wasn't just attributable to one thing or one person.. And that, once I learned that, that was the most eye-opening experience that I had. And that's what enabled me to be able to build success for artists, like to actually make money doing it. Jonah Wright is asking, are open mics and talent shows helpful today? They're very helpful at honing your craft. If your goal is to use an open mic or talent show to get a record deal, no, they are not helpful at all. But if you're trying to practice your stage show in front of an audience, they're super helpful for that. AKW Beats is asking, which distributor should I go with, Disco Kid or TuneCore? I can't answer that. I use them both and they're both pretty good at what they do. Um, Ronnie Rowan is saying, how would you recommend a 17-year-old hip-hop artist like myself start off his music career? I have good music, I just don't know how to market it. Um, someone asked me earlier about how to build a buzz. That's basically what you're asking, Ronnie. Um, there are a slew of videos on my YouTube channel about how to build a buzz. There's also, um, articles at industryreport.com. That talk about how to build a buzz, how to market and promote. But once you have good music, then you just need to learn basic marketing skills and promotion skills, and you need to build your fan base, and you need to build a buzz for yourself. And you build the buzz by bringing awareness to your music and building your fans one by one. And I've got a lot of videos and a lot of articles that discuss that. It's also, if I start teaching that here, we're going to be here for hours. Um, Mike, I think reaching out to people on LinkedIn would be of, of help to get advice. I think that's smart. Um, I think also attending industry functions where managers hang out is a great way to interact with them. Also, to tell your entire network that you're looking to meet managers and letting friends of friends of friends introduce you to people that they think are legitimate managers is a great way. You might, you might go through a bunch of mediocre managers first, but you can learn a lot from somebody that's not great at what they do because when you get to know them and you see what their shortcomings are, then you know to overcompensate for those traits that you may possess, right? Chilly Jango, how does a female rapper build a buzz without being overly sexual? Um, don't be overly sexual. I think that if you're a female rapper, it's up to you to set the tone on what you stand for, who you are, and what you believe. So I think you build a buzz just by being you. I don't think Young M.A. is overly sexual at all. She's probably the other extreme of what you're asking me. But you control what your music's about. You control how you dress and how you look and how you come to people. So I think you just build it on talent. I think you build a career the same way a guy does, and that's you learn who your market is and you reach them through the music that they feel is valuable to them. The Wild Jones Report— I have not finished my, um, second book. I've been too busy for the past, um, 3 years actually. I've been so busy doing it, I haven't had a chance to write about it, and it also changes so quickly that as soon as I put it down, you know, in the computer, um, the way you break an artist changes. Maff is asking, is the— is performing in various cities outside of your own city a better way to build a buzz than solely performing and making music in your own city? Well, yeah, you definitely need to go larger. I mean, you've, you've gotta, you've gotta be able to, you've got to be able to own your own city., you know, at some point. But there's many artists that I couldn't break in their own city, so I took them outside of their city and broke them around and then came back into the center. Trouble, who, who's my most recent success, we broke him outside of Atlanta and then brought him back into Atlanta after we broke him in, um, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Outside of Atlanta, and then we brought him back in once he had a really decent buzz. Maff's asking me, do I think making a 5-year plan for music is a good idea, or is that too long? All of my plans are 5 years. They change by the time we get to year number 5, but yeah, I think it's a really good idea to look 5 years out. DJ, yes, eh. Oh, you're giving advice to somebody else. Okay, awesome. Um, Journal Write, you're asking about talent shows and open mics because you see a lot of them in Baltimore, but you wonder if it builds buzzes for indie artists in other markets. The only people that I know that go to talent shows and open mics are other artists that are honing their skills. So you might get known by other artists, but I don't know that you're building a fan base per se. I mean, other artists can be your fan, but they're probably not paying to get into your shows or wearing your shirts, you know, paying for your merchandise or streaming your music. I mean, artists are fans too, But, um, I would probably go to colleges and high schools before I would go to, um, talent shows if I was trying to build a fan base. Does that make sense? Um, Dead Young is, South By a good place for a rapper to build fans or a buzz? Um, I think that, um, hey Mandy Savage, I think that if you're somewhat known, you can attract people to your shows. But understand that there are a lot of artists at South by Southwest, and the ones that attract the fans are the ones that have recognition, the ones whose names are recognized. Um, when I go to South by, I don't go to showcases of artists whose name I don't— whose names I don't know. I go there to see the artists that I can't see here in Atlanta, you know, the artists that, you know, like Kanye or whoever. Um, I don't know that I would compete with all that talent in order to find fans and build a buzz. I think I would stay in my own region and maybe Again, it comes back to go to colleges and high schools and, you know, build my fans on the streets. I don't think I would go to an industry event trying to build fans. Jamar Turner's asking me, is it okay for you and an artist to write up your own contract, or should you always consult with an attorney? I always consult with an attorney, Jamar, because I don't ever want to be in a position where I get burned because I didn't put something in a contract that needed to be there. Um, it's better to do it yourself than not at all, but I think you should consult with an attorney. Um, usually if you're in a situation where you need a contract, it's how you get paid, and I would hate to see you have an agreement with somebody and they're able to break the agreement because you didn't spend the money for an attorney I would like to think that, that what you do, you're taking it a little bit more seriously and you want to invest in an attorney so that you don't lose money. I've seen a lot of folks get jerked because they didn't have contracts, myself included. I was very trusting at the beginning of my career and thought that when people told me that that we had a deal, that we had a deal. So we shook hands and, um, bad idea. Yes, Wild Jones, things change so much and so quickly. That's cool, Chili Jungle, good luck. Crazy Cage Can is asking, should you do as many free shows and opening up concerts for established artists as for free as much as possible. I don't, I don't think you should pay to open up for an established artist if you can get on the show for free. I think that's wonderful. Um, I don't know a lot of people that discover new artists at shows. Like, I don't think people actually go to a Yo Gotti concert so that they can discover who the artists are opening up for him. Honestly, I think it's more of an annoyance than anything. I know the promoters do it because they get paid. Um, an artist might pay $1,000 to open up for Yo Gotti, and it's a way for the promoter to offset a potential loss in case the amount of fans don't turn out. But for most people in the audience, they're there to see Yo Gotti. They don't want to see a bunch of unknown artists opening for Gotti. Math says, I'm based in the UK. As of recent— recently, Ebro said on Hot 97 in an interview with the UK artist that no one, a rapper from the UK, has really broken the US market. What do you think it would take? I think it would take a fan base in the US marketplace, and in order to build fans, you need to talk about things that people can relate to. Um, I think that especially with rap where it's somebody's story about their life, I think they would have to have a story that resonates with the US marketplace. And I think that it's a little bit different, um, someone— the way someone grows up in the UK and the way somebody grows up in the US. Although that could be very interesting too, like I follow Lady LaShur. I think she's awesome, and she's from the UK, and I think she should have been broke here in the US. And I think she very easily could if she had people working her in the US and she actually put more effort into breaking into the US. So I do think it's possible, but I think definitely the fans would have to relate to the artist. Math is asking, what are some of the key things I should consider in a 5-year music plan? Um, Math, I can't answer that. Um, you're asking me to plan your life for you. It's, it's got to come from you. It's got to be based on your dreams and your desires and your goals. I I can't— I guess that is what you could consider. Like, what is your goal? Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Where do you want to be both musically and where do you want to be, um, career-wise? You know, there's two different— there's two different things to consider. Like, what kind of music do you want to make? And then how do you want to profit from that music? Like, are you willing to do whatever it'll take and you're gonna do um, you're going to become more of a commercialized artist and you're going to take endorsements and sponsorships? Or do you want a record deal? Or do you want to find an investor? Um, these are hard questions that you have to ask yourself and figure out where do you want to be 5 years from now, and that's your plan. Once you figure out where you want to be, it's like a road map. Then you figure out how to get there and you put on paper. Um, there's a video and an article that I have on how to write a business plan, and it seems to me that that would be really helpful for you because that's kind of what a business plan does. It forces you to think about the who, what, why, when, where, and hows of your career so that you can plan on paper how you're going to get from point A to point B, and then it's just a matter of enacting that and moving forward. And then of course you tweak it along the way. The Bay saying, would you say the internet with social media is the best way nowadays to create a buzz? It's one of the ways, absolutely, and it's a great way. Um, have you worked with a new artist in the past that has contacted you before you heard of them? Yes, um, almost everybody that I have worked with reached out to me before I ever heard of them. 99.9%. Um, MAF, she's amazing. Lamont, thank you. Happy New Year's to you too. Oops, I just scrolled up way faster than I meant to. Um, The Wild Jones Report, have you ever written or spoken about how formerly independent artists like Chance the Rapper and/or Joyner Lucas broke themselves for the most part? Um, I haven't. Joyner Lucas was actually a client of in 2014. I worked with him for about 11 months. No, I've never written about it. Chance, you can Google— there's a ton of information about how Chance built his success. There's not as much out there about Joyner because he's not successful yet, but on Chance, there's a ton of stuff out there. There's a really great interview um, that Noah did with, um, I think it's on Complex. I think it's called The Blueprint, and it's an interview that Noah did with Chance's manager, and he just asked him like, how did you get started? Like, what did you guys do? How did you progress? You know, how did you make this decision? How did you get the deal at Apple? And it talks about everything, so I don't need to write or speak about it because there's you know, better people than me out there that have done that. Thank you, Juan. Um, Boy Bands is asking, what's the best way to use Facebook ads to promote a new artist? You're gonna have to study Facebook ads. Um, I hire people to do that, so I don't do it myself, so I can't give you advice on how to do that. But I would suggest that before you spend any money you do as much research you can about how Facebook ads work, how to do A/B testing so that you can test the ads before you put a lot of money into them. And there's a ton of free advice out there from people about Facebook ads, and I know that because I've researched it myself. Jamar Turner saying, how do I go about getting local radio play in a small town or a college? Talk to the radio programmer. Yes, um, the best way to get radio play is to build a buzz and build it so that they can't possibly ignore you. And then you hire an independent radio promoter. This is for terrestrial radio like FM. You hire— or internet radio— you hire an independent radio promotion person. They take you to radio and they work the project, um for you. Basically, you pay them to do that. But you could hit the local radio in your area, like the college radio, um, just by going to the programmer. But you need to have a buzz. You can't just come in on off the street and say, hi, I'm a rapper, here's my song, isn't it great? People don't play your music because it's good. They play your music because it's got a movement behind it. And usually music that has a movement has some value. Whether it's good or popular is up for debate. There's good music and there's popular music. Sometimes we have good popular music, but for the most part, there's good music and there's popular music. Just my opinion. Yeah, Todd, I'm not a big fan of promoters who make you pay to perform, and if you have to sell tickets, that's just a way of making you pay. If you have to sell 10 tickets for $10 each, then you're paying $100 to perform. You're just hitting up your friends for it. I don't do that. Thank you, Wild Jones. Yeah, there's a ton of articles if you do the research. There's articles about how many people have blown up Math, that's awesome. That, um, I'm assuming that you can rap in both English and Arabic, and I think that's amazing. I love bilingual rappers. That's super awesome. Hey Lamar Riddick, how are you? We just emailed today. Ah, Money Razor, thank you. Math, I think that's great that you, um, rap mainly in English because I think there are more English-speaking rap fans than in any other language. And don't quote me on that because I don't know that for a fact. It just seems to me that the largest um, fan base for rap music today is the US, probably because rap kind of started here and there's so many, um, English-speaking fans. But I'll bet, I'll bet there's just as many Spanish-speaking fans, aren't there, now that I'm thinking about it? Journal Wright, thank you so much. DJ Yesi, can you give any advice about music placement, um, next to something that's about to explode? If there's a popping club and I don't have the buzz to get in and play. I'll take a pay cut, find the shitty bar people have to pass in order, and consistently play my ass off until there's a noticeable dip in people going to the VIP spot. Um, I don't know that that would be the most effective way. Um, maybe try it and see if it works, and then come back here and let us know. Um, I think I would go where I have the most potential fans. I don't think I would work music at a club, um, initially. I think I'd work it on the streets. Um, Jewel Rule says his balls itch. Um, you should scratch them, but very lightly. Harry O, how are you? Happy New Year, thank you so much. But yeah, I think I would figure out where my fan base is, and I would market and promote directly to my fan base, and I would build it that way. Awesome, you're so welcome, Wild Jones. Wild Jones just found the interview with Chance's manager Noah on Complex. I think it's called The Blueprint, so if you Google Noah, Complex, and Blueprint, it should come right up. Maff is saying, is making weekly instrumental— making videos on YouTube still a good way to promote your music in 2018? Um, I can't answer that. I've never done that, so I don't— that's not a way that I've ever promoted music, so I can't speak on that. I'm sorry, Maff, I'm not being very helpful to you, and it's not that I'm not trying. Jonah Wright, I do not work with R&B artists, only rappers. Um, Lamar is planning a concert, any advice on marketing? Um, my husband Tony was a promoter, he has written an article exactly about this. Um, it's at iamtheconnect.com, and the spelled T-H-A. But he's written an article about how to market a concert, and he's done so very successfully. So, um, you should read his advice, not listen to mine, because I've never promoted a concert. Guys, while Jones has just listed the title, if you want to go and watch that interview with, um, Chance's, um, manager. Thank you, Journal Write. Thank you, Math. You are a rapper. Cool. I love when you guys talk to each other. Money Razor's asking, what are the best giveaway items like keyrings to do promotions and marketing? I like MP3 sticks because it's still a very effective way to get music to DJs, and I feel like if DJs like my music and feel my movement, my buzz, that they will actually play and share my music. So I'm a big fan of that. I use coasters and bar napkins a lot at the clubs once an art— once an artist is popping. I try I try to use items to promote that relate back to the artist and their imaging. So it's kind of hard for me to just sit here and talk about giveaway items. For some artists, t-shirts, you know, their t-shirt designs are incredible. You know, there was a group out of Chicago called Quailahine that had like the coolest logo ever, and they were giving away t-shirts to build their career because their logo was so amazing and so different. Journal Wright, I don't know how essential DJs are in hip-hop. I mean, for me, they, they still matter, you know, but so many DJs don't break music anymore. So many DJs have their hand out and they're like, yeah, give me $500 and I'll spin your record every night in the club. And if I gotta pay you to spin my record, then I'm not doing my job. I really like the newer DJs that aren't quite so bitter, you know. And Boy Bands, I'm going to answer your question and then we're going to go. So why is it that I hear about new artists in the blogs before I hear any of their music? Um, probably because you're reading the blogs. Example, I was hearing about Blac Youngsta at least a year before I heard any of his music. That's funny because I heard his music for about a year before I saw the, um, Wells Fargo stunt where he took money out of the bank. Um, I think that the reason you're hearing about new music on blogs is because you're spending more time on blogs than you are looking for new music. Um, I spend a lot of time on SoundCloud listening to new music. I spend a lot of time on Spotify and YouTube listening to new music. And I ask a lot of my industry friends, like, you know, who's hot in your area, who's popping in your area, and I hear about a lot of artists that way. So, um, how essential is satellite radio with breaking music? Again, it's one piece of the pie. I kind of addressed that earlier. Just doing one thing to promote yourself isn't enough. You've gotta do everything you can to promote, and satellite radio is just one piece of the pie. Is it better to go to a studio as customers or, or have your own engineer or part of your team and build with that individual? Um, I tend to go to the studio where the producers I want to work with are. So if I want to work with Zaytoven, I know that he prefers Patchwork So I'm gonna book Patchwork because I want to work with Zaytoven. So it just really depends. That, that's how I choose studios. Jamar Turner saying, do you think 33 years old is too old to make money off of hip-hop music as a rapper? Do I think that? Absolutely. I think it's very difficult when the bulk of fans are 13 to 26. I think it's very hard as a 33-year-old rapper to break in to the music industry. That doesn't mean it's impossible. That doesn't mean you won't make money. For every example I can give you of someone who didn't, you can probably give me an example of somebody who did. Um, do I work with people that are 33 years old? I absolutely do not. It's too difficult. DJ Yaseh is not bitter and loves breaking and remixing records. You rock! I love that. Oh, Touchman saying that TJ from TJ's DJs has a listening session going on and everyone gives feedback in the chat room. I love his listening sessions. I think that's awesome. Jewel Rule says, what should I do when the haters dab back? Can't answer that. That's an individual thing. Um, I tend to ignore them because if you give them attention, it makes it worse. Money Razor, um, I don't have a favorite hip-hop year. Every year is my, is my favorite. Um, remember, I'm not a fan. I work in the music industry. I mean, I'm a fan because I love what I do, but I have a different view of the music industry and the music that comes out than most people. I don't have a favorite year. No, I think 26 or 27 is, is, is cool. Um, just remember that the fans are 13 to 26, the ones that spend the most amount of money on hip-hop. They're the ones, you know, the, the ones that are in college and up to about 26 are going to the clubs. You know, the, the fans kind of thin out from there a little bit. So if you're older than them, if you're like sort of in their age range they're going to be more accepting than if they're looking at you going, damn, he looks like my dad. You know, it just— it makes it harder if you're already on. Like, if you're already on and you're Jay-Z, it's cool that you're in your 40s. Thank you, Jewel Rule. You're pretty cool too. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. I appreciate you. Next month we're not going to do the first Wednesday because I'm going to be in Colombia, um, so we're going to do January 31st. We're going to do the week before. So, um, make sure you follow me and hit that little bell. That way you will get an email, um, when I go live, and you can ask all the questions you want. Thank you guys, take care, Happy New Year!