LIVE with Wendy Day June 7, 2017 | 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. Hey, I've got a lot of great information for you today. I'm so glad you're here. Okay guys, there's a counter there. I'm trying to beat that counter. As soon as it gets down to zero, I'll be there. Right now I'm filling up my cup with unsweet tea and extra lemon. Guys, thanks for tuning in to my live stream. We're almost ready to go. I'm 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, I couldn't keep up with all my, um, hellos. Max, how are you? Year 85, Bolo Jean-Luc, comment ça va? Dark Brothers Entertainment, Siobhan Andrews, hello! Marcus Banks, how are you? So guys, how are you? It's been a month since we've chatted and so much has happened. I can't believe how busy I am. It's not funny. And I know you guys go through this all the time, so I'm not going to complain to you. But, um, I've been good. I've been traveling a lot, which is wonderful. Um, Trouble got signed to a major label. I won't, I won't tell you which one. I'll let him announce it through his publicist. But he's very excited. I'm sad. I think that, um, we were doing very well financially independently. But it's what he wanted and he's happy, so I'm happy for him. And I've got 2 new clients coming and I will tell you about them probably next month. I don't want to put too much pressure on them. King Peavy, how are you? So, um, let's get right to it. Artis Online is asking me, why is hip-hop the only genre that has an age limit in the industry? Like some say Hubs too old to rap, but with rock they can do music till their 50s, actually sometimes 70s. Look at the Rolling Stones without critics, and that's very true. Look at Aerosmith. And, and you know, the, the thing about— it's not just rap, it's pop too. Like, think about pop, you know, um, as some pop artists like Britney Spears have tried to make a comeback, it's been really hard for them. I, I think what happens is the sound is the sound of the youth. And I noticed, you know, I've been listening to hip-hop since 1980. I'm old. And I've seen so many changes that it doesn't faze me anymore. Like, I watched it go from club rap to rapping over breakbeats to political rap, like, you know, um, Public Enemy and X-Clan, um, to Black nationalism rap to, um, popping bottles rap, like materialism type rap, you know, gangster rap with NWA. So I've seen, I've seen it go through so many growths and transitions, and I know that it's really hard as older statesmen to have a career. But I'll say this, Public Enemy is doing a great job, you know. Um, they've reinvented themselves, and I think that, um, Killer Mike has reinvented himself. Not that he's old, because he's not, but he's not 18 is my point. And I think that to be successful in rap, you just have to keep reinventing yourself and staying young because pop music is for the youth. And think about how much you changed as a person from 13 to 25 as compared to like 25 to 37, which is exactly the same amount of years, right? You changed a lot more in your teens than you did like in your 20s. You know. And for those of you that are younger than that, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But, um, bubble on deck! But I think that rap has just always been, or hip-hop has always been, a young art form. It's the youth. Most older people are listening to the rap that they grew up with and that means something to them, you know. Hence all of the old school rap stations that are springing up. We've got 3 old school stations here in Atlanta. It might just be 2 now, but we have a plethora of 1990s rap here on the radio in Atlanta, and they're doing well, they're succeeding, and this is happening all over the country. So, um, that's my take on it. Now, I am old, but thank you, um, Bolo Jean-Luc, I appreciate you. But I like, um, I wouldn't go back. Like, I love the age that I am, and I love that I'm still relevant. I love that my artists are still making money. Wow, William Fisher is asking me what's the age limit to not even attempt to be successful in rap. And you know, I, I don't, I don't know that I can put an age limit on it because, you know, there's, there's one or two, like, like 2 Chainz, right? He's, he, he was rapping for like 10 years, and here in Atlanta we knew who he was, but he didn't really break through into the national arena until he was 37 or 38. So if I tell you that you should be under 25, I might be wrong. So I, you know, I don't know that there is a set age limit. I can tell you that the artists that I work with are all between 17 or 18 and 25, 26, 27. Um, I was very nervous to work with Trouble. He was 27. When we started, or 26 when we started, because he's 29 now. He's going to be 30 in November. And I was a little bit worried that high school kids wouldn't relate to him because that's our main market. Our main market is 13 to 26-year-olds. They're the people that stream and buy the most amount of music. What do I think about Katy Perry's new album? I actually haven't, um, I haven't listened to it, so I, I can't answer that. Um, Max Maffin, um, I'm guessing that they're not working it as hard as they need to. I, I do know that with pop, and pretty soon this is going to happen with hip-hop too, the labels look at their streaming numbers and that kind of tells them how the fans are reacting because they say that 60% of rap and pop music is listened to on a streaming site like a Spotify or an Apple Music or Tidal or Google Play or Amazon. Um, it could be that the fans just weren't reacting so they decided to stop spending money on it. I don't know. I haven't really paid attention to her. You know, my, my world is so rap, um, my, my world is so rap-centric that I don't really pay attention to what a lot of the pop and the R&B guys do, so I can't answer those questions. I should really interview people that, that work in pop and with R&B so that you guys would have answers to questions. Great Brilliance is asking me, what do I recommend for a brand new artist with quality music? What are the best ways to gain fans and start getting traction? Um, the best way to start building a fan base is twofold. One, on the internet, engaging with people, not just like spamming your music at them, but like engaging in conversation with them. And then, um, also go out into your area wherever you're based and start interacting with people wherever your fan base hangs out. And I guess, you know, figure out what your fan base is first, right? Um, I've got a couple videos that explain how to build a buzz, and there are some articles at industryreport.com that explain how to build a buzz. Bolo Jean-Luc, I lived in Montreal for 3 years, so I speak Québécois. Not as well as I should, because that was what feels like 100 years ago. Year 85 is asking, is a publishing company needed for an indie artist? You own a publishing company the second you write a song. You're actually your own publisher. You need a publisher when there's money to collect, and I am a big fan of administration deals instead of co-publishing deals. I just don't think you should sell somebody, you know, half or 25% of your music. I'm not, I'm not with that. William Fisher, everybody does have a story to tell, and I think that it's really important to have skill as a rapper. And I think that there may be a, um, there may be a lot of artists right now that are more image than substance, but I'm looking at the sales and I'm looking at the streams, and it seems like the folks that have the talent along with the image are doing better than the artists that just have like the cool weirdo image. Just my opinion. Hi Raymond and Kim! Yay, you're on an island! How's the weather? I'll bet it's beautiful. Emily, are you here? Yes, you are! Sac passé! Track House Music Group is asking, what's the hands-down number one thing artists or labels most focused on to be successful in hip-hop? Their fan base. The number one thing that you need is a fan base. If you have no one that's willing to spend money for your music or come see you perform or buy your merchandise, you're fucked. So I would say building a fan base is the number one thing. Year 85 retracted a message. William Fisher saying the older someone is, the more relevant they would be, right? As As said, everybody has a story to tell. Um, you would think that, but not necessarily, because you— when you tell a story, you're relating to people that can relate to you, right? So, um, I'm in a relationship with Tony, and we've been together for 5 years, so I don't really relate to stories of, um, Tinder romances or side chicks, or, um, you know, like hitting the strip club. Like, I don't relate to that anymore because I'm not in that realm. Um, I don't relate to going to school and the struggle with classes. I don't relate to parents being a pain in my ass. You know, I relate because I'm older. I relate to parents aging out and us as older adults having to take care of them before they pass away. You know, I relate to whether, um, to bury or cremate my parent when they pass away, you know, or a do not resuscitate order when they go to the hospital. You know, that's, that's the kind of stuff that I relate to. So I don't know that I'd want to hear that stuff in a rap though, you know. I, I think you have to talk about what's relevant to you, and if you're not living my lifestyle, I might not be able to relate to you. Now there are general topics I can relate to. I can relate to struggle, I can relate to love, I can relate to not having enough money to pay bills, right? I can relate to all that kind of stuff. So I guess maybe if you want to reach a larger audience, you need to be more general in your topics. Matthew Floleon is saying Do you have any advice on transforming people who pay attention to your Snapchat or Instagram story into being fans of your music? I'm hoping that they will want to get to know more about you when they see your personality and your style and image on Instagram and Snapchat. Um, obviously you want to have whatever your newest music is in your bio, or you'd want to drive them to wherever you want them to hear your music— SoundCloud or wherever, um, so that they can figure out who you are musically. Um, maybe you could play it in the background if you're live, or maybe you could film, um, somebody dancing to your music, or you could have a funny meme with your music in the background. I mean, there's a, there's a lot of ways to introduce your music into what you're doing without being spammy or annoying, you know. Um, we put music behind a lot of stuff for the artists that we work with, you know, just so that they— people can hear it without, like you said, without being salesy or, or advertising it. Um, and by the way, we do a lot of advertising on Instagram and Facebook. Um, with Snapchat, Tony builds a lot of, um, the geofilters for artists so that when they're performing live and somebody's Snapchatting at their show, their frame will be around it, which is a nice way of getting somebody who doesn't know who you are familiar. Because if it's a cool frame, they'll look at it and be like, oh, who's this? You can't use photos in a frame, but you can use like cartoon characters or drawings. Below, Jean-Luc Um, is asking what advice to place your song. Tell me where you're trying to place it. I'm looking back in case I missed that. Oh, I missed one. Clout Gods: Is platforms like SoundCloud the most effective way, or should there be more of a push? The most effective platform is wherever you choose to drive people. So, um, I use SoundCloud a lot because SoundCloud is a discovery um, tool. So people will go on SoundCloud to find new music. Also YouTube— make sure all of your music is on YouTube, even if you don't have a video. Um, make sure you upload everything that you have there because you want people to discover, and both of those places are places to discover music. Um, Spotify and Apple Music are also places to discover music, but only for people that subscribe, and I think there's 30 million people I read this morning on Apple Music, and I think there's 80 million at, um, at Spotify. And don't quote me on those numbers, it's, um, um, trying to remember and I don't remember it exactly. RSG the Bar Music: I represent a teen group that dropped a video that hit 80,000 views organically. They're well known locally. What would you recommend for a next step? Um, I would probably— if they're, if they're known locally, I I would probably spread out a little bit. I would want to see them go to the next town over. So I'm here in Atlanta, so for Atlanta I would then take them to Macon, I would take them north to Greenville, South Carolina, I would take them west to Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, um, I would hit Columbus and Albany, Georgia, and I would probably go to Athens, and I would work my artist in a larger area around my city. So, um, if it's hitting organically, it's like a spark and you want it to grow into a fire, right? And Clout Gods, um, you should promote, um, online and on the internet— I mean, excuse me, online and in person, right? Not just the internet. Is it dark in here? I hope you guys can see me okay, because you know I like to make faces. I like SoundCloud, Tony West. We use SoundCloud a lot. I embed SoundCloud into my artists' websites so that when people listen on their website, it counts as a play on SoundCloud. And then we do the same thing with, with YouTube. For the videos. We embed the video player in websites so that when people go to the artist's website directly, they can— it counts as a view on YouTube. Track House Music Group, I work with both because when the labels make money, the artists make money. RTS Online is saying, I tried to make a Spotify to post my music for streaming, but it didn't work well. It was weird. Hmm. Um, do you guys all have playlists on Spotify? Like, have you built your own playlists and then shared them with all of your friends? Please make sure that you do that because you can, especially you guys that all come here because you kind of sort of know each other after all these lives that I've been doing. So you can feature each other's music, each other's music on each other's playlists. Okay, I said that right. And, um, you can spread it. So not only are you spreading your own music, but somebody else here in the chat room is spreading your music while you spread their music. It's sort of like an exchange. And you can do that on SoundCloud too. I'm not sure, um, RTS Online, I'm not I'm not sure what you're saying. You tried to make Spotify to post your music. Try SoundCloud and see how that works. The thing about Spotify is somebody has to be— they have to— if you're using Spotify, they have to be a customer of Spotify. They either have to have a free account or a paid account to be able to see your music, and that might be why it's frustrating you. William Fisher is asking, how can an unsigned artist get on Apple Music or SoundCloud? Um, you get on Apple Music and Spotify through, um, a distributor using like a TuneCore or DistroKid or a bigger distributor like Empire or 1RPM. Um, that's how you get on to like Apple Music and Spotify. But the way you get on SoundCloud is you go to SoundCloud and you set up an account like you do with YouTube, and you get on that way. And then you have to promote it. Like, you can get there, but you need to bring people to your music, right? Oh, Great Brilliance is asking a great question. What are the best methods for artists to handle taxes, and what other business stuff do you recommend to focus on that musicians often ignore? I have a really cool article that I wrote, Great Brilliance. It's at industry report.com, and it's the 10 things you should do before you put out your music. And it covers a lot of what you're asking here. But let me address taxes because most of you don't, and I, I understand why. Like, when you have music, when you have money coming in, you want to use it to promote and market your music. You don't necessarily want to pay a third of it to the income tax folks. And the wonderful thing about the IRS is they will always come looking for theirs. They're the biggest gangsters in the country, so they will come and get their money. Um, I suggest that once you start to really make like solid income with your music, that you set up a tax account. And as soon as money comes in, just put a third into that tax account and don't touch it, because you actually have to pay your taxes. As somebody who's self-employed and making income, you've got to pay your taxes quarterly. So you're going to want to send in the money every 3 months. They hang on to it till the end of the year when you file your tax return, and then they send you the surplus, the overflow. Um, for the artists that I work with, we have a business manager that handles all of that because it gets to the point where you've got so much going on and so much coming in that it's really hard to keep track of it. So we hire professionals to actually keep track of it and pay your taxes and make sure that, um, everything is handled correctly and properly. And make sure you hire a qualified entertainment accountant if you're going to do that. I've heard horror stories out there, and they usually get paid 5% of your income. And then as you make a lot of money, like Drake is not paying his accountant 5%, he's paying a much smaller percentage, or he might be paying by the hour at this point. But when you're new, you usually pay about 5% of your income. Thank you, um, Julio R. Okay, RTS Online went through CD Baby to get, um, music on Spotify. Yes. Um, Tamar, I think that, um, Tamar's asking me what are my thoughts on Songtrust for, um, an admin deal for publishing. They charge 15% to collect mechanical and performance royalties internationally. Um, it's only beneficial if you have um, and this is exactly what you're asking me, an overseas fan base. Um, ASCAP and BMI only collect in the US, and I see that you're saying that, and I'm just repeating because that's accurate. Um, SoundExchange, ditto, they only collect in the US. Um, but then Songtrust is, they go and they collect your money overseas. And I think that if you've got a decent-sized fan base, I mean, they're taking 15%, so even if you've got a small fan base it's not really costing you anything to have them chase your money if there's not a lot of money. If you have a dollar, they get 15 cents, right? So I don't see a problem with that. Some of the admin, the publishing admin people that I deal with, though, charge 10%. So 15 sounds a little high to me, but I've heard of them and they're, they're legitimate and they have a good reputation. William Fisher, how can I begin to keep a better record of units I sell out of my trunk? I've sold over 10,000 in Nashville at $5 per unit. Good for you, that's awesome. Um, I love hearing that. Um, the way that I do it is I carry an iPad and I just keep track of stuff on a spreadsheet. Um, I don't— like, every time I sell one, I don't sit there and and write, you know, tick marks like, oh, I just sold 1, I just sold 2, I just sold 3. But at the end of the night, I have a pretty good idea of how many I've sold. I certainly know how many I've brought out with me. So maybe I'll start with 100, or if you've got a better buzz, you might start with 500. And then at the end of the night, you count up and you've only got 20 left, then you know that you sold 480, right, if you started with 500. So it's really just simple math. Um, but wouldn't it be cool, um, William, if you got an email address on everyone that you sold a CD to? And then at the end of the night, you could just count up your email addresses and you could start a newsletter. And every month, like, keep those people updated. And if they don't want to be on your list, they'll just, you know, they'll just, um, opt out, which is fine too. But don't feel some kind of way if they opt out. They might just not like email. But that would be a really cool way if you collected one email address for every CD you sold. Then you just count your email addresses. It's a win-win. William Fisher saying, I want to start doing shows. Should I promote and pay for my own venue, or should I try to feature on a show with other artists? Um, it's hard for me to answer that because I don't know how strong your buzz is, but I will tell you that there are two videos that I made with Tony um, probably back around December, November, December. Um, and if you guys go to rapjewels.com, I've got all of the videos in chronological order. Um, but the titles have something to do with getting paid for shows, and we cover that topic in depth. Like, we're talking about it for like an hour and a half. You'll probably get bored with the video before, um before it finishes because we went in like we really discussed that into the ground. So definitely check that out. Great Brilliance. I don't know, um, what Wix Music is. Oh, Tamara, you're asking me, do they get a US cut too? If you do a US deal with them, yes. If you just do an international deal, no. And I don't know if they'll do an international deal with you if you don't have a lot of money to be collected. That's, that's a question you're gonna have to ask them. Um, Great Brilliance, I don't know what Wix Music is. I do know what Wix websites are. They're, um, they're free websites, um, and I know a lot of people like them. I don't personally, only because it looks to me like you can't even invest in your own website. And as an artist, I just feel like— I feel you want to do everything as cheaply as possible, but I don't think you ever want to be cheesy with it. And I know I just offended a shit ton of you that have Wix websites, but my problem with Wix is when you scroll down to the bottom, it says powered by Wix. And to me, it just means it's a free website, like you couldn't even spend, you know, $100. At, you know, at HostGator or Bluehost or GoDaddy to put up a website. It just, it just seems like you're not taking it seriously. Like, instead of looking at it like a business, you might be looking at it as a hobby. And if you have no money, um, a Wix website is better than no website. So definitely have a free one before not having one at all. But I just think free is cheesy sometimes. That's just my opinion though, you know, ask other people what they think. Bolo Jean-Luc is saying, I have an acoustic ballad to suggest you, Wendy Day. Where can I submit? I don't listen to music, so you'd be wasting your time to send it to me. I really won't listen to it. What I think doesn't matter. Like, I, I'm not a record label. I'm not— I don't place music in movies. I'm not your market. For my clients, I actually send the music out to DJs to get feedback. I don't even give feedback to my clients. Raised by Wolves: Is beat leasing a viable source of income as a producer in this current climate? It, it, it is. I hate beat leasing. I don't buy leased beats. Because as a serious person who puts money behind, um, an artist, um, I can't put money behind an artist if the beat is not owned, right? So if, if my artist is recording and they buy a beat that could show up on a Yo Gotti CD or, you know, a Russ CD then I'm screwed because I just put money behind it. So I'm not a fan of leased beats, but I know a lot of producers that make a great living on leased beats. Zaytoven, for example. Gina Love, you cannot put a cover song out for distribution unless you have gone through all of the rights to clear it. And if you cover a song, you have to go through the Harry Fox Agency to pay for the rights to cover the song. Once you pay for it and you have the paperwork, you can take it through any distributor. I also hear that Empire doesn't necessarily require people to have clearances before they put music out. I don't know that that's true or not. I've just heard it. So I'm repeating what I've heard. So William Fisher says, I have 4 different CDs that have 100,000 CDs printed over, 20,000 of each. I've sold 10,000 of Volume 1. Should I stick to the plan and wait until all Volume 1 is sold before moving on to Volume 2, 3, and 4? No. Um, I think years ago the answer to that would have been yes, but in today's marketplace Music, um, music is a little bit quicker in terms of its turnover, so I would put out music a little quicker today. Um, we drop CDs over here every 4 months, every 4 to 6 months. I think that's a nice schedule, and I think it would also be nice to have 2 or 3 CDs to sell, maybe even 4, because if you're selling them for $5 apiece you might sell 3 for $10 or 3 for $12, like sort of give them a little bit of a break, but you've sold 3 instead of 1. I'm just saying. William saying, as an unsigned artist, should I charge for features to other unsigned artists? It depends on how big your buzz is. If you've got a pretty big buzz, absolutely. Um, when Trouble was unsigned, we absolutely charged for features. The only people who got free features were people that were in his immediate circle or his family. Um, when no one knew who he was, we did not charge, just so you know. Track House, I'm trying to convince my team that we need someone like you to grow our label. What's the process with interviewing and contracting for services? How do you choose who you work with? Um, all of those questions are answered at helpfulangel .com. I don't want to turn this— I don't want to turn you down, but I don't want to turn this into a commercial for myself. Um, my goal here is to really help artists for free, and I feel like if, if I pitch myself, then like it, it's an ulterior motive. But if you go to helpfulangel.com, it, it explains that. Or email me. I think my email address is somewhere down here, like under, under the videos. Um, so you can email me and ask me that. I'm happy to have that conversation with you. King PB, split sheets. Um, you do not send them to your PRO. Your PRO has, um, you have an account online at either ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, and you fill— you take the information in your split sheet and you fill it out, um, at your, um, PRO. You use PRO. I'm so proud of you. Yay! That's awesome. That's performance rights organization. Proud. Here's a big hug. Raised by Wolves, I'm happy to do this, and thank you. Thank you, Great Brilliance. I'm so happy to do this because you guys don't have any place where you can go. Like, people for some reason don't want to give information, and that's just I think that's so messed up. Like, how are you going to succeed if you don't know what you're doing? You know what I mean? Like, you need people that are doing this successfully to tell you how they're doing it, and then it's up to you to follow their advice or not. Like, you can sit here and listen to me and then go do your own thing, or you can sit here and listen to me and try what I do and see if it works for you. I just— I feel like it puts you a little closer to success, and it's the right thing to do. Matthew is asking me, do you— Matthew Flo Leon— do I think artists should avoid doing interviews if they're not the best or most comfortable speakers? How should we develop more charisma and come out of our shells? Man, that's hard. I gotta tell you, I used to be really shy. I still am. Like, if you, if you drop me in a party or at a nightclub and just leave me there alone, I am so unhappy. Like I'm very uncomfortable. Um, so I, I, I feel you, I really do. Um, I think that you have to do interviews because it's a great way to reach a lot of people. And the way that I got good at doing interviews is I filmed myself. And the great thing is today you can do that with a friggin phone. You don't need a whole setup. You know, when, when I was coming up, you had to have a video camera and lights and all this other crap. And it became a big production to, you know, to record yourself on a camera that was like this big. Um, but I think what you should do is have a friend like fake interview you. Like, have your friend ask you some questions and film it and watch it, and then critique yourself and see where you're uncomfortable. Um, I remember the first time I filmed myself, and I'm not exaggerating, I was doing this. Yeah, I run Rap Coalition and I'm the founder, or it was Side to Side, and I really love what I do. And, and with the first time I watched myself, I'm like, oh my God, I'm getting seasick watching myself! And that was the last time I ever did this. And it was just nerves. I was nervous, so I was rocking. I had no idea, you know. And, and the great thing about recording yourself is is you see what you do when you're uncomfortable. Like, some people twirl their hair, some people say, 'No, I'm saying, I'm saying though, you know what I'm saying, I'm saying.' Um, you can— and you don't realize you're doing it until you watch yourself on video. And you can curtail— like, once you know that you don't want to do something, you can stop it. Like, when I started these videos I used to say all the time, so what you want to do, so now what you want to do. And when I watched the first couple of videos that I did, I'm like, oh my God, I keep saying the same thing like over and over, and it's just annoying. So I, I, I— it's not that I stopped completely, but now when I say it, like inside I go, uh, and I catch myself. Or when I'm about to say it, I catch myself and then I don't say it. So have a friend help you Um, how you come out of your shell is you just get comfortable with it. The more you do it, the easier it gets. The first time I stood on a panel and had to speak in front of 150,000 people, it was very hard for me. Today I can stand up in front of 1,000 people by myself, no problem, and just talk about the music industry. Crack House Music Group. That was nice of you. For a pop rapper, do you do more online promotion than street promotion? Um, Hector, I would do both. I think that, you know, not all of your fans are going to be online, and not all of your fans are going to be where you are online. For example, online you're really only in front of your followers. So if somebody's not following you, you're not reaching them. I think for a pop rapper, the greatest place to, to reach an audience— actually, there's two. Um, one is high schools and the other is colleges. And you got to be really careful with high schools because you don't want to piss off the principals or anyone who might question why you're at a high school. What most artists do is they ask if they can come and perform at an assembly or sometimes at a pep rally they'll let you come in and perform and offer to come for free. Make sure you do clean versions of the songs. What we do is we pull up across the street, usually in a wrapped vehicle— my hair is tickling my back— um, usually in a wrapped vehicle, and we'll throw the doors open and the music will be playing. And we don't go on, on the high school grounds, their campus, we're like across the street and we know what time they're gonna let out. So like maybe they let out at 2:33, right, in the afternoon. And this only works when— in places where kids are still in school, right? Here in Atlanta, they're not in school right now. They're not in school again till August. So I wouldn't do this right now here in Atlanta is what I'm saying. But, um, we would pull up across the street, throw the doors open, and start giving out music. Um, if we've got a healthy budget, we might give out t-shirts. We'll have the artist there signing posters, and those kids will run across the street and just swarm us to see who's there and, you know, what they've got. And, you know, give me music, give me an autograph, give me this. William Fisher saying, never been to an Atlanta strip club. How can I get a song or two in rotation in one? Just call. Unfortunately, no. Um, the strip clubs here, you're gonna have to build a relationship with the DJs. It's not easy. Understand that people have been breaking records in the strip clubs here for over 20 years, so it's— there's a system in play. Either you need to hire somebody that's got a relationship with those DJs, or you're going to have to spend time here and build up relationships with those DJs and get your record played. But no, you can't just call because you need to reach out to the DJ, not necessarily the strip club. And a lot of breaking records in the strip club is how the dancers react to your song when it's playing. Wildchild Darren, if you— you know, I'm asked this question so much— if you disguise a sample good enough, do you have to pay for sample clearance? It's, it's so hard for me to answer that because if I tell you no, you hide it really well, and then you think you've hidden it well and they step up and sue you, you're going to be pissed off. Um, I just find when I'm putting time, energy, and money into something, I try to do it right. That doesn't mean I've cleared every sample. Um, I've got, I've got an artist right now who's got what I think is an interpolation in a song, and, um, it's at radio and we haven't cleared it. And it's not because I didn't want to, it's that radio started playing it before we were ready, so we just didn't have— now we're playing catch-up. We didn't have everything ready. Um, the way the law is, is if the average listener can tell that that that part of the song belongs to somebody else when they play them side by side, then it's a sample or an interpolation and you have to clear it. And, um, I use DMGClearances.com to clear music. Emily, if that was for me, thank you. King Peavy is asking, when you are pushing your music and a promoter calls you to perform while building a buzz, do you charge? Um, when, when I'm working a brand new artist, I'll usually ask them if, if there's a budget. If it's somebody I know, um, I'll try to get, you know, $100 out of them, or expenses. Or if it's a club, I might ask for free parking or entry for 5 people or 10 people, maybe a bottle. So sometimes I'll ask for stuff other than money, but normally when I'm building a buzz, there isn't money involved until the artist really starts getting hot. Promoters really won't start paying you until they know that when they put you on the show, additional people will come to see you perform. That's when you start getting paid. Legacy Mafia— oh, I hope I can answer this. This is gonna be a hard one. I plan on releasing my first album, which is all instrumentals. What steps should I take from start to finish before I release it through CD Baby? Definitely market and promote it. I, I don't think the way that you market it isn't that much different from a regular album, except that your target market is mostly artists, right? Like, if you've got instrumentals, I'm guessing that where you make your money is if an artist raps over your instrumental and pays you for it, or maybe if you get it into film or TV or a video game, um, you could make some money. So I think that you market it the same way that we market all music. It's just your target market is different. Like, I don't think you should pull up at a high school and play instrumentals. I don't think that's going to help you. But I would promote it at an MC battle or a beat battle because I think that that's your market. I think your market's right there. Is that right? Is that what you're doing with your instrumentals? Does that— am I answering the right question? It's a hard— it's, it's a hard question for me because I've never had to market instrumentals, but I hope I answered it. Great Bruins is asking the best way for artists to track write-offs. Do I cover that? No, I actually haven't covered that. Because if you Google tax write-offs, um, there's a ton of articles out there. Anything that you are doing that is an expense that helps you market or promote your music is a write-off. Um, that doesn't mean if you go and you buy a new outfit because you have to look cute while you go to the colleges to promote that you can write it off. It doesn't mean that at all. But it does mean that your gas, any posters that you press, any, um, memory sticks that you're handing out, CDs, download cards, um, your website— anything that you're doing to market or promote yourself is actually a write-off. Anything you spend in order to make money is a write-off. William Fisher's asking, same process with getting on a station? Actually, it's even harder to get on a radio station. Internet radio is a little bit easier than terrestrial radio like FM. I have a great article at Industry Report. You guys are probably sick as hell of me sending you to industryreport.com, but I've got an article about how to get radio spins on there. And I went in, like, I told the truth. I talked about how you, how you hire people, you pay to get onto radio, and you build your song on the streets and in the clubs first. You don't just go to radio off the bat. You really have to have a buzz. Tsunami Ville is saying, how do— oh, excuse me, Tsunami 8, I almost read that wrong. I need to have my eyes checked. How do I become a digital distributor? I want to do it myself. Going through these third-party distributors is frustrating. Emails can take over weeks sometimes, not to mention the thresholds to get paid. Um, yes, Um, the way you become a digital distributor is you go through, um, Merlin or, um, an aggregator. I think on Apple's website, if you search aggregator, it breaks down who the— I think it's 8, there's 7 or 8 of them. But you would have an account with an aggregator so that you could go direct, um, I don't think it's as easy as I'm making it sound. I think that they make you jump through some hoops in order to be a digital distributor, but once you are a digital distributor, you're going to be able to bring other people through your pipeline, and then you can do 80/20 splits with them, or 70/30, or, you know, whatever you deem fair, and you can actually make money as a distributor. Legacy Mafia, I think I missed the first part of your question. You're saying as far as registering with BMI, etc. Um, you know what, I remember the first part of your, um, yes, you absolutely need to register your songs. You need to copyright them, you need to register them with BMI and ASCAP. And, um, I'm sure that you asked this before I mentioned that there's an article that says like The top 10 things that you need to do before you put out your music, and it's at industryreport.com. Great Brilliance is asking, what is the process for sampling a line from a movie, or like the Cash Me Outside girl that went viral online from the remix song? Um, I don't think she cleared that, but the process for sampling a line from a movie is that you clear the sample. You reach out to whoever owns the rights to the words in the music, um, the words in the movie, which is just like publishing on a song. And then you reach out to the film company that actually owns the master copy of the, of the actual celluloid film, and you get their permission. Um, I use dmgsampleclearance.com. I don't reach out myself. I think, I think she charges somewhere around I want to say it's like around $500 to, um, to get the clearance. And then you— that's what she charges. And then you pay, um, whoever the rights holder is. They will tell you what the fee is to use their line or their music or whatever. William's asking me, is getting a billboard with the artist's image and directing fans to a specific platform to get music too cheesy like BMF had. I think it doesn't work. I think that a billboard works if people know who you are, but remember where billboards are. They're usually on the side of a highway and people are going by pretty quickly in their car. They have no place to really write something down, like if you want— if you're driving them to your website. When BMF bought that billboard, everybody knew who BMF— everybody that was their target market knew who BMF was, and it was really just a reminder of who they are. They did it because they were competing with Jermaine Dupri, who basically had a billboard, and then the BMF billboard was either right in front or right behind— I think it was right in front— that said, "The world is ours," right? And it was basically, you know, them just saying to Jermaine in a nice way— it wasn't beef or anything, it was just them being, you know, competitive the way we are in in rap. But I have friends that have bought billboards, and I've just never seen anybody really make money from their billboard. Thank you, Wendy Day. Um, Steven Laster is asking me, for an independent label, is a 50/50 deal better than a 360 deal? Um, it depends on what the 360 deal is, um, and it depends on, on what aspect of the deal. For example, a straight 50/50 deal across the board would not be better than a 360 deal because most 360 deals want to split the shows 70/30. So if you do a 50/50 split on your shows then the 360 deal is better. Um, a 360 deal means they're getting paid from every aspect. So, um, I'm not exactly sure what aspect is 50/50. If everything is 50/50, that is the 360 deal, and a pretty bad one at that. William Fisher, from the time that Trouble started working um, how long did it take him to get a deal? It took him longer than most artists because there was a lot of stuff that we do with artists to market and promote that he wasn't able to do. Um, I couldn't put him on the road without security just because of his background on the streets. Um, I guess it's no secret that he started as a Jackboy, so when we put him out on the road if he would see somebody that he robbed when he was younger, it would be a problem. So it was too expensive for me to put him out on the road. So it took us 2 and a half or 3 years, but it normally takes anywhere from a year to 2, roughly. RSG the Bar is asking me, what is the process of getting indie music charted on Billboard? Um, music charts on Billboard when it either sells, um, like a CD in a store, or when it's downloaded like through iTunes, or it's streamed like on Spotify. So the way that you get onto Billboard is you register your music at SoundScan and you go through a distributor and you boost your sales. Jersey Club, what are some suggested e-signature services for emailing contracts? Um, the one that I use is— is it called eSign? DocuSign, I think it's called. Wow, I totally spelled that wrong. DocuSign is actually the one that I use. Um, I know there's a lot of PDF apps out there now where you can actually sign on the PDF. I think with Adobe you can actually sign now, but, um, I use DocuSign and I sign all my contracts on my iPad or my phone. Millionaire Mogul TV, are radio campaigns effective? Yes, um, radio campaigns are very effective provided you've got a buzz. If I just— if, if you hand me a song right now and you give me 80 grand and you say go get me some radio play, we will have wasted 80 grand because the, the song doesn't have legs. Once the song— once you know that there's a buzz and the song is spreading naturally, then radio is a great way because you reach millions of people at one time. If your market is kids, like 13 to 18 year olds, no, um, radio wouldn't be as effective as, say, like Musical.ly, right? You want to go where your market is. Nes Crosby saying, should you reach out to us to specific agents at a booking agency or general staff that will redirect you? Um, I always reach out to specific people, but let me tell you how hard it is to get a booking agent to call you back. Um, it's really hard because until you're making money, there's no reason for them to work with you, right? They get paid 10% of shows. And if you're making $1,000 and they're going out of their way to book you and they're only making $100, that's not really attractive to them. Um, booking agents usually come into play when you're somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 a show. In fact, we had trouble at $12,500, and we had a hard time getting a booking agent for him. How important is an artist name for the purpose of branding? Very important. First of all, the name has to be unique, and it's got to have the feel of the artist. Um, for example, um, Trouble— I'm going to just keep using him as an example because we've been talking about him tonight— but, um, if he were, uh, like a super pop Will Smith, Justin Bieber type of artist, his name probably wouldn't be as effective as the fact that he's a street rapper and he is trouble. I think the name really needs to convey who the artist is or be completely benign, like a name where you can't tell what type of artist that is. Russ Rust is a great example of an artist where, you know, the name Rust doesn't really mean anything. So he could be an R&B singer, he could be a hardcore street rapper, he could be a rock star, he could be a metal artist. Like, you can't really tell. It's kind of innocuous. Farewell the Vet, you're asking me any idea how, but I don't remember what you asked. And I'm going backwards to see. Okay, I don't see where you asked me a question. I'm not sure what you're asking me how to, so can you go back in and ask me again? I'm sorry. Oh, now you're saying thank you. I may have already answered it. If I didn't, ask me again. Oh, here it is. Didn't I just waste all your time? Any advice on how you can lock an angel investor in? You've been unsuccessful 3 times, but you've gotten interest. Well, that's a good sign that you've gotten interest, right? That means that you're on the right track. Um, as far as I know, and I, I've never really secured an investor, um, so I only know like what my clients have done because when they come to me the investor is almost always in place. Um, they want to know how they're going to get paid, when they're going to get paid, and how sure of a thing it is. So they're going to want to look at your, um at the buzz that you have, like your following, your fan base, and they're going to want to know that you've got somebody on the team that has done this before so that they can get their money back. Their concern is getting their money back, and then after getting their money back, their concern is going to be making a return on their investment. So they're going to want to know how much they're going to make and when they're going to make it. Millionaire Mogul TV: How many hard copies of mixtapes should you give away for free in a major city? I'm asked that a lot, and it really depends, because if you've only got 5,000 potential fans and you give away 20,000 CDs, you've wasted 15,000 of them, right? So it really depends on where you are, how people are responding to your music. I can tell you that for Trouble, we started by giving out 20,000 or 30,000 mix CDs in Atlanta and the surrounding areas. Um, and we got that up to about anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 by the third or fourth mixtape. By the third mixtape, you trademark logos, Hector, and you copyright music. DJ Chemical Bass, how are you? Nez Crosby, you're welcome. William Fisher, um, how do you find a good manager? I would look at the careers of other artists that have careers that you admire and find out, you know, who managed them to get them there, or who manages them now if the career is going in the direction that you want it to go in. But, um, I agree with Matthew right below your question where he said I wouldn't worry about finding a manager until you need one. I wouldn't worry about finding a manager until some of the superstar managers were coming to you, because remember, managers get paid 15 to 20% of your income, and you know, 20% of nothing is nothing. So I'd be a little bit concerned if, um, if a manager stepped to me and I wasn't making a lot of money, because they can take you to the next level, but only if you've— only if you're growing naturally. Right? Hey, Ronnie Lee! Oh, Dark Brothers Entertainment just reminded me to tell you guys to look at the interview that I did with Lester Pace about radio promotion. Thank you, I forgot I did that. Lester Pace is the guy that I use for radio, and what I did was I interviewed him on Skype. So if you go to rapjewels.com, there's an interview with him on there. There's also an interview with Deborah Manus Gardner about sample clearance. Um, you guys should look at Rap Jewels. There's a lot of jewels there. Like, it's called Rap Jewels because it pretty much is, and it's free. William, I don't think you're ready for a manager. I, I know you think that you are because you're ready to start doing shows But you're ready for a manager when your buzz is pretty big and people know who you are in the city where you are. So you would be probably somewhere between $7,500 a show and $15,000 a show if you were ready for a manager, in my opinion, because you want to be able to— you want to be able to attract somebody that can really help you. You don't want to attract like a bottom feeder.. And when, when nobody knows who you are yet, sometimes you attract people that aren't great at what they do because they're, they're cutting their teeth and they're looking at you, they believe in you, but they don't have the experience or the connections to get you to the next level. And then you're kind of like, you're kind of stumbling and helping each other go. And that's great sometimes. Like when I started managing Twista in '96, I had never managed somebody before, and we kind of stumbled as we grew, and I grew and he grew. But I can give you a thousand examples of where that didn't happen like that. So I would be very careful about letting somebody cut their teeth on me. That's just my personal opinion. Nez Crosby is, how do you get verified? How important do you think it is for an artist to be verified? I'm probably not a good person to ask ask because I don't think it's important at all. And a lot of people argue that with me. I have friends that are artists that have gotten verified and they swear their numbers have increased, but for me it's not about verification, it's more about, um, your fan base and how people interact with you and how they engage with you. And I don't think that little blue check mark really is going to make somebody engage with you any better. What I can tell you is that you stand out. Like, when I look down my feed, I can see the, the little check marks next to somebody's name immediately. They stand out, but it doesn't make me read them first. It doesn't make me pay any more attention to them. It just makes me see them, right? Actually, it reminds me that I hadn't responded. That's really what it does. Um, I was verified by the distributor that I use, which is OneRPM. I didn't ask to be distributed— I mean, to be verified. It just showed up one day. And, and as you can tell from talking, it really had very little value to me. Tamara, the interview is up with Ray Daniels, isn't it? Yeah, it is. The interview is up with Ray Daniels. I'll go in, um, as soon as I get off of this and make sure that it actually posted. But it was one of the last videos that I posted. Um, you know what, I might not have put it on Rap Jewels. I'll go in tonight and make sure I did that, and if I didn't, I'll add it. But it is definitely on my YouTube channel. Ronnie Lee saying, any thoughts on artists blowing up solely from the internet? Also, any ideas how? I'm guessing that artists that blow up just from the internet do it from buying ads like on Facebook and Instagram and by never leaving their house. Um, I don't recommend it because, you know, the problem with the internet is it's very misleading. Like, you might have 100,000 fans on your Instagram, but if you post, you know, I'm doing a show tonight at 7 PM, come through, you could show up and there'd be 30 people there. The problem with followers is it doesn't mean they're fans, it just means they're following. It's very easy and it's free to go following, but to actually come to a show or pay money to listen to somebody's music takes a little bit more than a like. Um, another way just to blow up on the internet is to do really um, cool-ass videos so that they go viral. I know a lot of people have blown up virally. Um, what's the kid's name who did Panda? Uh, Desiigner. He blew up from the internet, but he blew up because he sounded like Future, I think. William Fisher is asking, how can I reach out to DJs like Drama, Esco, etc. to collar on projects with my own without someone like a manager to represent me? You build relationships. Everything that you do in this industry is about relationships. Um, you don't just pop up one day and say, hi Drama, I think you should be on my CD. He's going to play you to the left because nobody knows who you are yet. And Drama works with people that have a buzz and people that are already stars, right? So that the way you would approach somebody like him is you would find out who he looks to that's like a smaller DJ coming up. Like, who does he look to to find out what's hot on the streets and then get in with that person? All big DJs have smaller DJs that are in their crew that they pay attention to to find out what's really popping. And that's the same with, um, Esco, with Holiday, with Greg Street, with Funkmaster Flex. Like you don't just start making music and go to Flex to play your music. It doesn't work that way. You build up to somebody like a Flex. Flex, Flex wants to see that you've got a buzz, not just that you make great music, right? I don't think DJs break artists today, honestly. I think they play what the consumers want to hear.. And if a consumer doesn't know who you are, they'll either— they'll either— thank you, Tamara, been waiting months— you either leave the dance floor if a new record comes on. Like if the DJ has everybody dancing and then he puts something on that nobody can sing along to and they don't recognize, they'll leave the dance floor. And then it's really hard to get people back on the dance floor again. They don't want to fuck up their vibe. So, um, you're gonna have to build a really strong buzz before you are taken seriously in this music business. And I know that sucks. I know, I know. So King Peavy is saying, I know artists with a lot of followers that can't bring out 50 people. Absolutely not. I've got 11,000 followers on my Instagram and I probably bring out 50 people to tune into my, to my YouTube Live from my followers, right? It's just, it's just not— they're followers, they're not fans. They're not, you know, some of them are, like you guys that follow me. You, you're definitely— you give a shit about me. But most people don't. They just follow me because they want to know, you know, what's she up to, what deal has she done. They want to see me talk shit about somebody, you know, whatever. Farewell the vet. A Billboard magazine article recently talked about EPs being better than LPs because of the average person's attention span and the success of the single. I prefer LPs. Any thoughts? You know, it's funny, um, my distributor is constantly telling me that we should release EPs, but I release, I release full-length projects and I do it, um, 3 or 4 times a year. And I work the music like a different song every week or every other week. So like, I might drop a song week number 1 and then the video to that song week number 2, and then song number 2 week 3, and then the video to song number 2 week 4. So in a month, I'm dropping 2 different, um, a video and a song, a video and a song, right? So what I'm doing is I'm tracking the reaction to that music because that's where I'm gonna find my second single. The first single, I'm gonna work whatever the DJs that I sent the music to gave me feedback on and said, Wendy Day, that's your first single. So I'm working the single as I'm dropping the music, and then the music that I'm dropping in that 4-month period, right, which is 16 weeks, which might be 8 songs or 10 songs, that's the album. That's how I, that's how I do it. Um, everybody's different. Um, I know a lot of people that drop EPs, but you know, like, it's Spotify. People don't listen to EPs or albums. They listen to singles and they add you to playlists, or they're listening to playlists. So for streaming, which is like 60% of hip-hop, it's not even just 60% of this, of the folks streaming or listening to hip-hop it's not, it's not, it doesn't make sense to, to have an album, right? Because they're just not paying attention to it. I think it's semantics. William Fisher, yes, just keep hustling. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you will get a break if you put in the work. It will happen. I mean, provided you're not whack, and I'm assuming that you're not because you know that and you would have stopped by now. But, um, yeah, you're gonna be okay. Just keep, keep going. Like, you're doing the right— you're doing the right thing. You're asking all the right questions, so just stay at it. I'm proud of you. You're doing your thing. You don't— you don't have to— you don't need a record deal today. Record deals to me are a joke. I don't understand why the mindset is for people to still want a record deal. I guess it's sort of like it's some sort of, um acceptance, right, from the music industry. I don't get it. I really don't get it. You know, I work with independent artists that make more money than the signed artists do because the signed artists don't start to get paid until they've recouped. And then some of them are in groups, so they have to split the money by 2 or 3 or 4 people. And it's just, you know, I, I really don't understand today why people want to be signed. I get it if you're a pop star, like, I get why Miley Cyrus and, and Taylor Swift are signed to labels because it costs millions of dollars to market and promote them. But other than that, I just, I don't get it. Because for $150,000, you can market and promote yourself successfully to the point where you're making income, you're monetizing your music, provided you have good music provided your music is better than most of the people out here, and provided you've got a really strong work ethic. You know, you can actually make money doing this. I, I see people doing it all day, every day. William Fisher, you only barcode your music to keep track on, on SoundScan sales? Um, I don't barcode my artist music anymore. I don't see the point of it. We're not trying to get on the charts, we're trying to make money. So I care more about the streaming and the sales than I do the barcodes. That's just me. Yes, LOL LOL, you are a pop artist but you would like to be signed, but you've seen more artists start by being indie. Yes, because if you're indie and you're making money when someone signs you, then they have to offer you more money than you're already making. For example, if you're an artist and you're, and you're making $10,000 a show and you're doing 10 shows a month, that's $100,000. So that's $1.2 million a year. So if a label comes to sign you, you're going to need to make way more than $1.2 million in a year, or you're cutting them in for nothing, right? So you have to make at least $2 million in order to do a deal that would make sense for you. That's the great thing about being independent if you want a deal, is it gives you leverage. Is SoundCloud or ReverbNation necessary for up-and-coming artists? Um, I don't use ReverbNation, Brandon. Um, I don't use ReverbNation for my artists because I feel like it makes them not look professional. I feel like it makes them look like they're a struggling new artist. And I don't want the fans to think that somebody that does this professionally is, um, an amateur. I want them to think that they've kind of been doing this for a while. Um, SoundCloud, I think— yes, I think you should use SoundCloud. It's a discovery platform. There's a lot of fans that go to SoundCloud to find music. I'm sure there are fans that go to ReverbNation, so don't take what I'm saying to heart, but I don't know anybody that goes to ReverbNation. For me, it makes my artist look amateur. King Peevee, I recently got an ISRC code, but when do I embed it? During the mastering of the record? Absolutely. On SoundCloud? You master, um, you embed it when your engineer is mixing it down and when you're mastering it. Jersey Club, what are the pros and cons of self-management? The pros are your career will build bigger and bigger and bigger as you work harder and harder and harder. So by the time you choose a manager, you'll be able to choose one that's very well connected and qualified and has the necessary skills to help you get ahead. The cons are you do everything yourself. If you have a manager very early on, you may be able to attract a manager who can help you do most of the work. LOL LOL saying, well, I have most of my work cut out for me. Well, I have my work cut out for me. Yes, you do. We all do. But you know what, it's fun. Like, you know, what else are you gonna do, right? It's— at least we have jobs that we like, you know. We're in the music business and we're working with people and we're working with emotion, and it's really kind of fun, you know. We're not sitting at a cubicle, you know, counting numbers or making spreadsheets, or, you know, out in the hot sun digging graves. Like, I think we have cool jobs. So DJ Chemical Bass is saying, is it better to have your own independent label or just sell out of your trunk in Houston? Are you still able to sell out of your trunk? If you are, that's what I would do. I would, I would make money anywhere that I could, whether it's out of my trunk or if I went to a retailer and gave them some CDs on consignment and came back and collected the money later. Ronnie Lee is asking me about 1RPM, what's the pros and cons. There's a video where I interviewed Sonny Findlay from 1RPM and we talk about the pros and cons in using them. William Fisher, I have a group that I'm working with also currently in the recording phase. How can I manage them at the same time to make sure my work is getting the attention it needs? They are however, seeking a deal. They're still gonna have to do the same thing even if they're seeking a deal. You're gonna have to have some sort of a buzz to attract, um, a label. You know, I wrote a book about how to get a record deal, and you've really gotta— you, you do the exact same thing. It's just your goal is to get a deal as opposed to staying independent. So instead of trying to make money, you're going to try to become as popular as you can. You want a bigger buzz if your goal is to get a deal, right? And William, I don't, I don't know that it's good to do two things at once. Like, who do you put the time into, the group or yourself? I think you should pick one and focus and build it and then do the other. Like, maybe start as a group and then going, you know, go solo. Or, and you're working with them, it doesn't say you're in the group. I don't, I don't, I don't know that it's good to do two things at once. I have a shit ton of experience and it's even hard for me to work two clients at one time. That's funny, whenever somebody, um, sees somebody's from Houston, they say, are you from the north side or the south side? Chicago, it's, are you from the west side or the south side? Detroit, it's from the east side or the west side. Atlanta, it's from the west side, the south side, or the east side. That's very funny. New— um, Philly, where I grew up, are you from the west side? Are you from the north side? It's funny, we all have like sides, right? That's so funny. Matthew's saying, if you have local people pressing you to collab or work with you but they're unprofessional, they suck, or they're not working hard enough, how do you tell them you don't want to work with them without starting beef? That's a tough one. Maybe what you tell them is when their buzz is a little bit stronger that you'd be happy to do something with them. Or you tell them, you know, I'm a big fan of honesty, and but the problem with honesty is it sometimes starts beef. But I'd rather be honest with somebody and tell them what it is, because here's my concern: if you give them a bullshit excuse excuse and then you go and do a song with somebody else, you're gonna have beef anyway because they saw you do a song with somebody that, that they think they're better than and you didn't do a song with them. So now they feel slighted. I just, I, I would just be honest. I don't think I'd say you're unprofessional, but I would say, you know what, you don't, you don't grind the way I grind, and I feel some sort of way about doing a song with you until you're really out there grinding, like, come on, come with me, I'll help you grind, I'll show you what I do. It's not like you're trying to shit on them, it's just that you don't want to give away something that has value to you that they're just gonna, you know, leave out there, right? Hector, um, being an artist is an entrepreneur. You're absolutely right. Keep your keep your job as long as you can so that you've got that income. LOL is asking, do you think contest shows like X Factor, American Idol, or The Voice are a good outlet to get in the music world? No, I don't. I think what happens is you become a TV, um, star as opposed to a, a musical artist. You give up a lot. Like American Idol, you only get 3 points out of their deals instead of the 12 to 18 that you would get if you didn't come through American Idol. So the price is very high, and you become more of a television phenomenon than a singer, you know what I mean? Like, if you look at the artists that have come through American Idol, what are they, like, in their 15th season, right? And there's only maybe 3 of them that are like super duper— I think A mosquito bit me on my back. Um, I think there's only like 3 or 4 of them that I can even name that are successful. I just don't think that it's a great way to come out as an artist. I think it's a gimmick. And King Peavy, I've spent time on the West Side and the South Side in Chicago. Steven is telling me, um, that— oh, he's not telling me, he's telling Chemical Base that he salutes him because it's time for Houston to shine and be the capital of the South. It was the capital of the South for a very long time. Okay, you guys are having a conversation. Good. I don't want to, I don't want to blow you up then. Thank you, William Fisher. Um, first Wednesday of next month I'll be here. Cool. Well guys, we're at almost an hour and a half and the questions have slowed down, so I'm happy to be here. Make sure you exchange information so that you guys can talk to each other offline. Um, again, make playlists for your Spotify and your Apple Music accounts, um, and even your SoundCloud, and post each other's music. Like, help each other out, right? Let's, let's all utilize this opportunity to to help ourselves, right? It doesn't cost you anything. Why not? Even if you get 1 or 2 fans, like, woohoo, right? So thank you guys. Thank you, Farewell the Vet, Ronnie Lee. Look at you guys, like, exchanging information. Yes, yes, yes! I love it. Okay guys, thank you for everything, and I will see you next month. If you have questions outside of this, just email me. Okay y'all, take care. Have a good night.