Wendy DayCEO/Coach, PowerPlays Coaching, LLC · Helping rappers make money with their music. Building millionaires in the urban music industry since 1992.

LIVE with Wendy Day November 1, 2017 | Answering Your Questions Live

2 Nov 2017 · 63 min

Watch on YouTube

1:02:30

Wendy Day answers rapid-fire questions from managers and artists on invoicing, regional promo tours, copyright, publishing, investor deals, major label vs. independent, beat-leasing, sample clearance, and playlist promotion. She stresses hiring experienced accountants, keeping detailed records, and staying realistic about budgets.

Chapters

Guys, thanks for tuning in to my livestream. We're almost ready to go. I'm so glad you're here. I've got such amazing information to share with you tonight. I'm so excited. I'm so happy. Hi guys, how are you? I am an hour late tonight. Did you notice on my Instagram page? I tried to let you guys know, um, on Instagram that I was running late tonight. I just flew in from Fort Lauderdale and the flight was late, something I can't control, but that's okay. Hi guys, so let me start. Um, I got 3 emails over the past month asking me questions. So let me start with those since they took the time to email me. Okay, this is from Hard Knock Life Entertainment. And as a new manager, how can we account, example, reports for the revenue an artist is bringing in to ensure we collect our commission if they are registered with the PRO, SoundExchange, distribution, etc.? Respectfully, Ayanna. Ayanna, great question. Um, usually what you do as a manager is you hire an entertainment accountant who keeps track of all the financial stuff. They keep track of the contracts. So let's say you're a manager and you've got a contract with your artist where you collect 15% of their income or 20% of their income. Normally the money comes into the accountant and the accountant cuts you a check right off the top for, um, 15 or 20%, whatever you're contractually obligated to receive. And then the rest of the money goes into the artist bank account. Can you guys hear me? Do I have sound? I'm guessing you would have told me by now if I didn't, right? Okay, so, um The accountant makes sure that everybody gets paid. Now, what if you're relatively new and you don't really have the money yet to hire an accountant? Then you're going to go into, um, for distribution, you're going to go into the distributor's dashboard and you're going to be able to see exactly what was paid, and you're going to make sure that you send an invoice to the artist to receive your percentage. For the PROs, you can— if they have BMI or ASCAP or SESAC, you can access their account and see exactly what they were paid. Um, and then the artist will— you invoice the artist for the percentage of whatever they received. Most artists are pretty good about paying their managers because they realize how hard you work and they know that they need you. If you were to just disappear tomorrow, their world would not be a wonderful place. So it's, it's not as difficult to get paid as you think that it's going to be. In terms of shows, the artist will let you know, or you're the one booking the shows, so you'll know what they're being paid for each show, and you will commission that show. And again, I would send an invoice just so that the artist has a record of how much they paid out to you. It just makes it a little bit easier. You can do that in any word program, or if you have QuickBooks— a lot of new managers use QuickBooks— there's an invoice system inside of QuickBooks so that you can just invoice the artist for whatever it is that they owe you, and then the artist will pay you either by wire transfer or by check. Um, so Ayanna, I hope that answers your question. Trayvon Woods, congratulations, you're managing a rapper because of what you learned here. That's awesome. Damian Raymond, how are you? Frederick Ellis, how are you? Bomb Productions, Benny, are you good? It's good to see you. Well, you know, see you. And Tampa Mystic, I love you, how are you? Yay! Mike Woods, what do you mean it's offline for you? Um, Black TMZ, I don't know if TuneCore publishing is a good idea. I've never utilized them at all. Um, I am Drex Music 444. Is it Drex or D-Rex? Um, you're from Tampa, awesome. Tony was just in Tampa this weekend. Um, DJ Salt, yes, I'm still in the music industry. Um, I've been helping people set up labels for 25 years now. I'm not going anywhere. Okay, so, um, I'm gonna come back in a second, The Real See-Through TV, and answer your question. Um, I have one other— I actually have two other questions that came in in the past couple of weeks by email, so I just want to address them first because they took the time to email ahead. Um, and I cut off the top of this one, so I don't remember who asked it. Um, but you're asking in terms of going out on a promo tour, and in terms of building a buzz, if you're going to go outside of Atlanta, am I talking about hitting towns that are mid-sized like Macon, Augusta, Columbus, or am I talking about hitting tiny towns like Valdosta, Rome, um, you know, the smaller towns? And you need to hit wherever you're from. So if you're from a smaller town you absolutely need to hit where you're from. When I'm talking about promoting in different areas, it really depends on the opportunities there. Like, Orangeburg is a really good market for rap even though it's a very small town. They book a lot of rap shows. There is a community of people in the area that come to shows and support, um, independent artists and unsigned artists when they're performing. So even though Orangeburg is not a large city or a middle-sized medium-sized city. It's a city that we always hit when we're promoting. But when you hear me talking about, um, promoting outside of larger cities like Atlanta, I'm really talking about Macon, Augusta, Columbus, Greenville, Columbia, um, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville, Knoxville, Memphis, uh, Jackson, Mississippi, um, Biloxi, which is a smaller area, um, that whole Gulf area actually. It's a smaller area but there's still some clubs there and there's still some, um, fans that are in that area that, you know, it's a great market. Tallahassee— almost every area that has a college or a university seems to be a great opportunity for us to promote for rap. So you may want to take that into consideration. As you start to move around, you're going to see which cities or towns are better for you than others. And you can focus on exactly where it's a little bit easier for you and where there's the opportunity to get more stuff done than in other cities. Um, Norfolk has always been a great city for my clients. Um, Raleigh-Durham has been a little bit lighter. It's been a little bit harder to promote there, so I don't— I, I still hit them, but I don't hit them as hard as I hit Charlotte. Asheville is another city that's a little more challenging for rap, so I don't spend a lot of promotional dollars in Asheville if I hit it at all. I'd rather spend that same money in Chattanooga or in Knoxville, which isn't too far from there but has a little bit better reception to independent rap artists. And that's really— that's experience. That tells me that more so than, you know, you being able to research that anywhere. But I think it's a great idea for you guys to go into different markets and build the relationships and learn which is better for you than others. You can also go into the data in, um, SoundCloud, in your Instagram, Twitter, your Facebook, your Spotify. You can go in your dashboard at Pandora and you can see what areas most of your online followers are from. And as long as it's within driving radius of where you live, it would make sense to hit those areas. That doesn't mean if you live in New York and the bulk of your audience is in Houston that you're going to want to drive from New York to Houston to promote. But it does tell you if you're from Jackson, Mississippi, and Houston is a big market for you, it does tell you that you may want to hit that marketplace. Okay, The Real See-Through TV, let me get to your question. And I just lost my place. Okay, you're asking about promo tours. I'm in Dallas, Texas. Question: when doing the 3-hour distance rule, should I start 3 hours out of Dallas and then head out? Um, here, let me move this over a little so that I could see what it says. Um, yes. It should be a 3-hour driving radius. So you're going to use Dallas as your center point, and then you're going to figure out where it takes you, um, say north, to drive like 3 hours. Um, for my clients, I use a 5 to 7 hour driving radius, but if your budget's a little bit less, you might want to do a 3-hour driving radius and then figure out what that 3-hour point is and draw a circle all the way around Dallas so that it's 3 hours in every direction, right? So now your, your circle is 6 hours wide. It's from your outer left edge, it is 3 hours to drive to Dallas, and then from Dallas to your outer right edge is 3 hours of a drive. And that's the same, you know, for any direction you're going outside of Dallas. And that becomes your target market. Damien Raymond, does each artist need to fill out a copyright form, SR, before releasing a song? Really, one form will do it. I got to tell you though, I fill out copyright songs for all— for the artists that I'm working with, I make sure that I fill it out for everybody, but I focus on my— whoever I'm working with. So even though the song may be Rapper A that's rhyming and Producer B that's on the beat, my focus is Rapper A if that's who I'm representing. So I think each person should fill out their own copyright form. Just make sure that you agree on the splits before you fill out that copyright form, or it's going to get bounced back to both of you. Mike Woods: I have a new artist that wants me to manage and consult him. Thanks to your knowledge, I'm awesome. Thank you so much, I, I appreciate that. I am D Rex is living in Florence, South Carolina. Another great market. Orangeburg, Florence is really a great market. I was just there 3 weeks ago to see Obilla. I love me some Obilla. Thank you, DJ Reality 213, for sending the love. Right back at you. J-Sar, copywriting. When you have your LLC established, does it make more sense to assign ownership of the copyright to yourself or to your company? That's a question for a lawyer. I can't really ask that, J-Sar, answer that, J-Sar. Um, For what I do, I don't assign it to the companies. I always assign it to the artist directly. Even with Trouble, there is Trouble the rapper, the human being, Mariel Orr, and there is Trouble LLC. And we assigned all of the copyrights to Mariel Orr directly. We didn't assign them to his corporation. We could have, but we chose not to. And you should ask your attorney what's best for your situation. Um, Young Diddy is asking me how I feel about the selling off of Young Money. You'd like to hear my opinion. I have no opinion. I don't know enough about that. I didn't even know Young Money sold off. So I can't even— I can't weigh in because I have no information. That's like asking me my, you know, my opinion on Pluto. I, I've never studied it. I don't know. I have no idea what Young Money is doing. DJ Salt, what is the best route? Starting a label, then shopping your compilations, your artists, to a bigger label? Example, Diddy, OutKast started in the basement, then got a deal or a loan from a bigger label. OutKast was also 30 years ago, right? 25 years ago, something like that. Um, I don't— I don't— I'm very biased here, Salt. Um, I don't believe in major labels anymore unless you're a pop star or you're trying to be like an international superstar. And not everybody is cut out for that, and not everybody has the music or the, um, drive to do that or the charisma to go that far, right? So if I were building a Rihanna today, or this generation's OutKast, or a pop star of any sort, I probably would want to sign eventually to a major label, but I damn well do it independently until I couldn't do it anymore. You know, the great thing is about independence today is there's so many people that have experience on how to make money with music that you don't need to sign to a label anymore. You can just get an investor, and I think it's easier to find an investor than it is to find a record deal. Um, but the reality is, like, as you're moving forward, that's a personal decision. Like, I worked with Trouble for 3 years, and he wanted to be signed to a major label. He felt that he could go all the way with his career, and he wanted to be bigger than what he felt independence could do for his career, you know. And then Interscope made him an offer that was just insane, like he couldn't say no to it. And I was in full agreement that he should sign to Interscope. I thought it was a great deal. I thought that they could take him to the next level. I'm kind of waiting to see what they do with him. You know, it's been almost a year, it's been a little over a year since anybody's put music out on him. Um, he's been signed less than a year though, but I'm just anxious to see where he goes and what he does. Although he did put out the EP 16, so he has put music into the marketplace. That wasn't fair of me to say he has put music out, he just hasn't dropped like you know, like a 12-song project. And I miss that. I'm a fan of rap music, as you guys know, or maybe you don't know, but I came to this as a fan. I'm still a fan. I know a lot of you guys don't like the new music. I've heard them called mumble rappers. I think it's really more opioid rappers, but I like the new music. You know, I'm not a fan of some of the newer stuff that's out here, like the Lil Pumps of the world, but I'm really happy he exists because he has a lot of fans. And you might not like it, and I might not like it, I don't know, I, I don't really spend a lot of time listening to it, but you know, there are a lot of people out here that embrace it and really like it, so I'm just glad. Mike Woods is moving up in the world. I now have haters. How should I approach my haters online and face to face while still keeping it professional? 3 will be at my show tomorrow. Um, the way that I handle haters is, um, and, and not everybody can do this, but I kill them with kindness. You know, I, I'm very professional and respectful with people that don't like me because honestly, if somebody doesn't like me, that's not my problem, it's their problem. It's how they're reacting to me. And the truth is, I don't really care if they like me or not. I don't care if they hate on me. Um, I ignore them online because when you give energy to them and people see that you're giving energy to people that are negative, they learn that negativity gets your attention. And if they want your attention, they will be negative too. And the next thing you know, you've got like a million haters tripping on you. So I kind of ignore them, and then face to face, I'm just, you know, I'm nice to them. If somebody, you know, acts out of line, I'm not gonna tolerate that. I'm not gonna accept that, and I'm gonna meet that with aggression. But for the most part, you know, haters are people that want to be you. That's how I see it. They're people that are jealous of what you're accomplishing, and they really wish they could be you. You know, one of my biggest haters when I was coming up turned out to, you know, try to be my friend, and she couldn't because she had done too much damage. There was no way I was going to befriend her. But, you know, after about 3 or 4 years of just being a real douchebag, she really tried to embrace me and become friendly with me because she saw that what I was doing was genuine and real. And, you know, she met a lot of resistance from people as she went around the industry saying, "Oh, I hate that white bitch." You know, she hit a ton of resistance. So as she tried to embrace me, I was still respectful, but there was no way I could invite her into my circle or, you know, be kind to her. You know, I just was respectful. And I don't know where she is right now. I don't know what happened to her. I know that she's not in the music industry anymore and I still am, so whatever that's worth. Black TMZ, the whole North Carolina sucks when it comes to supporting their own. North Carolina rappers got to move out of state to build a buzz. That's true in a lot of places. You know, the funny thing is though, Black, once you, once you build a buzz, they're going to embrace you and they're going to swear that they supported you always. You know, I went through that with David Banner in the early 2000s. He had to leave Jackson, Mississippi and come to Atlanta in order to prosper. And then once he blew up, people in Jackson, Mississippi swore that they supported him and Crooked Lettuce since day one, and they didn't. I was there. I know they didn't, you know, but it's something that you just kind of suck it up and, you know, you build your buzz and you— if you have to go outside of your own city, you do. And as you blow up, your own city will will embrace you. Um, Houston's like that. Um, Detroit's like that. St. Louis is like that. Atlanta, to some extent, is like that. You know, when we worked Trouble, we worked him outside of Atlanta and then came back into Atlanta, even though he's from here, and even though he had had like a little buzz in 2010, 2011 in Atlanta. Um, there was also a lot of damage done here. So we went outside of Atlanta to blow him up and then came back into the city once he was popping, and it worked. Hector, once an investor is interested in funding the artist's career, what's the next step? Contracts. After the artist shows the investor his or her business plan, you discuss what you think a fair, um, and equitable split is between you and the investor, and you get a lawyer to draw up a contract, or they get a lawyer, the investor gets a lawyer to draw up a contract, and then you get an entertainment attorney, and your entertainment attorney negotiates with their entertainment attorney as to what is a fair and equitable split. You know, is it— are they going to own part of the company, or is it just a loan that's going to be paid back in 18 months or 2 years? You know, you certainly want You don't want to pay it back within the first year because it's probably going to take you about a year and a half to start making money, sometimes 2 years. Just depends on the music and how the fans embrace it. Okay, The Real See-Through TV is asking, should I start 3 hours outside or here in Dallas? Start in Dallas. Start central where you're located and go outwards. In all directions, okay? It's— you're gonna, um, it's like a spark. You're gonna set a spark, and as you start to blow up, it's gonna— it's gonna be like a little bit of a fire that's burning. You know, your, your buzz is like a little fire, and it's going to just naturally spread, and it's going to spread out from the center. You're just going to kind of help it by working those areas to get it started. Thank you, Young Diddy. I wish I knew more. I wish I could have answered your question, but I don't pay a lot of attention to the gossip stuff. Like, if I don't read it in Billboard or hear it from a lawyer, I just— I don't pay it any mind because there's just a lot of fake news out here in the music industry. People just want attention and they act like they know something when they don't. Not you, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about, you know, people talk about you know, the, the beef between Yo Gotti and Dolph. And the truth is nobody really knows except Gotti and Dolph, right? So I try not to speak on shit that I don't know anything about. Um, I am D Rex is asking, what's the best way to get a music investment? I'm, I'm guessing you mean an investor. I have a video that talks about that. So if you go to my YouTube page, or you're there now, or if you go to rapjewels.com and, um, search investor, you should see, um, one or two videos that talk about how to find an investor. One of them, um, talks about putting together a business plan, which is pretty important if you're going to get an investor. Um, Dark Brothers is saying, do you think Toledo, Joliet, and Lexington would be good markets since I'm from Detroit? Yeah, if you're from Detroit, I would hit Pittsburgh, Cleveland, I would hit all of Ohio, every, every bigger city like Akron, Cincinnati. I would hit Lexington, I'd hit Louisville, I'd hit Indianapolis, I'd hit Fort Wayne. I know this is a little further than 3 hours, but the thing about Detroit is because it sits on the Canadian border, you can really only go like south, east, and west. You can't really go north. I mean, you could go north, but if you go north, you'll be in Canada. So I would suggest that you go a little bit further further south, southeast, and west. I probably wouldn't go as far as Philadelphia, but I would certainly hit Pittsburgh, and then I would go west all the way over to, um, let's see, Chicago is about 5 hours. I probably wouldn't hit Chicago because it's an expensive market to hit, but I'd probably hit Gary, Indiana, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Um, I would go down into Kentucky. I would make sure that I hit Louisville. Um, I would hit Lexington and I'd hit Frankfurt because Frankfurt has a university. There's a University of Kentucky. It has a university in Frankfurt. So I would hit Frankfurt, which is halfway in between Lexington and Louisville. And of course, all the markets in Ohio, which I mentioned. Um, no, Trouble was not signed to Duck Tape. He's part of Duck Tape. But he's not signed to Duct Tape, he signed to Interscope. What are royalties? Um, Little Louder is asking me, what are royalties in comparison to publishing? Publishing is the ownership of the words or the music in a song, and the royalties are what you are paid from sales or from licensing or from sync fees. There's a really good book that you should read that will explain this to you. Donald Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business. It might be called Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business, but it's one or the other. It's either Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business or All You Need to Know About the Music Business. But they've got great chapters in there on royalties and publishing, and it's, it's a little bit more um, in depth than I have time to share tonight. Like, I could do probably 4 videos to explain publishing, probably even 6 videos. Aside from a split sheet, what else is there? Um, this is Roa J. Crand— Roa J. Crand. Okay, I'm butchering your name now. I'll just stop. Um, aside from a split sheet, what else is there to leasing beats to artists? You need an agreement from the producer, um, that allows the artist to use the beat in commerce. So there is the agreement, the producer— we call them producer decks. It's, um, short for the, um, I think it's producer declaration. It's a contract that an entertainment attorney can put together for you so that you can, um, sell beats to artists. And as you guys know who watch my videos and my lives, I never lease beats from producers because I can't put money— I can't invest money into a leased beat. I need to have exclusivity for the artist if I'm going to spend upwards of $80,000 marketing and promoting a song. Avdashki. I'm really butchering your names today, guys. I'm sorry. I'm doing marketing and promo for a rapper named C100. He lives part-time in Atlanta and part-time in Chicago. Oh, my two favorite cities. He has a song and video with Gucci Mane. Should we put the song out first or just drop the video? You should always put out a song first and then follow with the video. You're going to get more engagement and attention on a video than you would on a song. But you want to put the song out because you want the DJs and people to put them on, on playlists, right? You want to be on playlists at Spotify and Apple, and you want to be on Pandora. You want to be everywhere. And there's a lot of places where videos can't achieve that, but you will get more looks on a video just because it's visual. Also, you need to clear Gucci Mane. He is signed to Warner Brothers, so you need to get permission from his label to feature him, um, in the song and the video. And congrats on having your first song, that's awesome. Yes, part of the West Coast does rock with, um, Detroit. I, I tend to stay on the East Coast only because I'm based in Atlanta and it gets a little bit expensive to go back and forth to the West Coast. It's a very long drive. And flying can be expensive. Mike Woods is saying that I've read about artists using a 30, 60, and 90-day plan. Have you ever used that? And if so, what kind of goals or plans do you set for that sort of time period? Um, I use marketing plans, and marketing plans account for pretty much every day. So although I don't call them 30, 60, 90-day plans Um, the marketing plan is the plan of what I'm going to do when for different artists. So, um, it depends on the artist what, what goals I set for those time periods. It depends on what we're trying to achieve. In a 30-day period, I'm dropping 2 songs and 2 videos. So I want to make sure that the artist's social media is growing, the views are growing legitimately on YouTube. And Vevo if we're using Vevo. Um, I want to make sure that the song is expanding to DJs, college radio, internet radio. When I drop a single within that time period, I want to make sure that in that 30-day period it's always growing, it's getting more and more spins, more in the day parts than in overnight spins. But every artist is different, so it really depends on who I'm working with what the plan is. Every plan is different for every artist. Never Yield Biz is saying, how do you find the best time to post to social media? You go into the analytics in whatever social media you're asking me about. Um, I've never gone into the analytics on Snapchat, so I can't speak from experience there, but if I go into the analytics on Twitter or Facebook or, um, Instagram, it will show me the times of day when most people are viewing my posts. For me, it's later in the day. Like, my busiest times are after 11 o'clock at night, and then my second busiest times are like around 7 PM. So although I don't— I'm not an artist, I'm not trying to promote myself, so I don't post when it's best for me. I post when I feel like it. But that's not what you should be doing. Um, you should find out your best times to post by going into your dashboard And if you don't know how to get into your analytics, Google Instagram analytics, Google Twitter analytics, Google Facebook analytics, and read how to go into the dashboard to learn, um, what times are best for you to post to whatever social media accounts you're posting to. And I'm guessing you could probably do the same with Snapchat. I've just never done it, so I can't speak, um, for what I don't know. Mike Woods, that's not true. Um, you heard that, um, in Canada they only play Canadian music. That's not true. In fact, they passed a law in Canada, God, like 3 decades ago, that a certain percentage of music has to be Canadian because the, um, the country, the, the radio stations were playing so much American music. So, um, I would suggest that if you are going to work in Canada, that you find somebody that's very experienced in that marketplace. I have zero experience in working the Canadian marketplace, so I would be very hesitant to go into that market without having somebody consult me that's done it successfully many, many, many times with the type of music that I work. Never Yield Biz said, I talked to Tony on Facebook Live about deleting old posts when doing rollouts for new projects. Um, we never, we never delete. For, for my clients, we don't delete posts. I believe that fans should be able to go back and check out the artists that they like as far back as they want to go. The only time I, I suggest you delete posts is if you're changing your name or the type of music is different. Like if you go from being a rapper to an EDM artist, or if you go from being a street rapper to a pop rapper, I don't think that I would leave my old music up. Um, Flo Rida and, um, I'm drawing a blank now on other artists that started out really street, but there's a lot of artists that started out street and then turned pop. Black Eyed Peas started out as lyrical rappers. They were backpack rappers, and they became, you know, pop stars. So if I were taking that route, I would probably delete all of my old music that didn't sound like the sound that I was trying to work today. That's just my opinion though. I'm not sure what Tony told you, but that's just my opinion, what I do for my artists. K Dizzle Dizzle. Wendy, you saved me— saw me, I bet you meant saw me in 2010 with Michael London. I love Michael London, he's such a good dude. He is probably the person I have known the longest in the music industry. I think I've known him since around '92 or '93. Tyrique Bay, does an artist give part of their publishing to investors to get the deal done? In some cases, yes. Um, most of the investors, the artists that I work with that have investors, their investors own a percentage of their publishing. Yes, not all, but most. Giovanni Diamond, I want to become a songwriter, producer. What's the best way to get signed and what type of deal should I do to make sure I don't get a bad deal? I haven't done any songwriting deals or producer deals, and I don't want to speak about something that I don't know. But I will say this to you, I have interviewed, um, for songwriting, I interviewed Ray Daniels. So if you'll go and watch that interview, um, he talks about how to get work as a songwriter. And then I've got a bunch of content for producers, not a lot, but I interviewed Deborah Manus Gardner, um, I interviewed Rico Brooks who manages producers. I'm setting up an interview now with Drumma Boy so that we can talk at length about, you know, how he gets work as a producer. In terms of getting signed as a songwriter or producer, I can't answer that at all. I've never done a deal with a label to sign a producer, and I've never done a songwriter deal. I work mostly with rappers. Um, the second part of your question is, how do I make sure I don't get a bad deal? You have an entertainment attorney that has a lot of experience, um, negotiate for you. It's going to cost you some money to do that, but you can often get whoever's giving you the deal, you can get them to pay for your lawyer, and it's recoupable. 38 Hot says, are DJ crews still important for breaking a single, or should the artist focus on finding fans in the street, online? Find fans. It's not that the DJ crews aren't important, um, because any DJ who supports your music is important to you, right? But I believe that you should go directly to the fans, because if the fans ask their favorite DJs to play your record and enough of them are asking, the DJ is going to play your record. Mike Woods is saying, do you think it's cost-effective as a new artist to bring your own DJ? Absolutely not for your 3-hour radius tour. No, it— the less people you can bring with you, the, the further you can go on your money, right? So if it's costing you $200 a day to go out on the road in order to eat, get a hotel room, um, gas, sometimes tolls depending on where you what part of the country you're, you're working. Like, Florida has tolls, right? Um, Georgia does not. But if you've only got, you know, $600 to spend, then you want to do it as cheaply as possible and cram as many people into a room as possible and have as little mouths to feed as you can. So I would not bring a DJ for a promo tour, but I would bring somebody who could film everything for me. And if, oh, by the way, they could DJ, wouldn't that be a plus? But you absolutely want to bring somebody to document. That content is so important. You've got to have content to release. Giovanni Diamond is asking, are all the Atlanta producers signed under the same labels? No. I'm curious because I hear about Metro, 808 Mafia, but I'm wondering if they're all signed under the same people. No. They're not. Um, Southside and Metro Boomin are completely separate. Um, Metro, I think, is signed to— I think Metro is signed to Future as a rapper, but he does what he wants as a producer. Same with 808. They have managers, and they have different managers, but they're not signed to the same people. No. Um, do I have my eye on any up-and-coming artists that are going to blow? Not really, because that's not what I do. I'm a hired gun. People come to me when they have investors and they hire me to help them make money with their music. So I don't really look at artists that are about to blow because it's not what I do. Um, I mean, there's people that I listen to that are up and coming that I like a lot. Um, but no, there's not really— like, I don't really look to see who's gonna blow. DJ Salt, do you use your own money to promote and market your artists or private investors? I would, I would use private investors if I were you. Um, there are some people out here that do use their own money. Um, I have a new client who is funding his own career but he can afford to do that. But most people use investors. Um, Killer Virus Records is asking me what playlist promotion companies can I refer. I can't anymore. I used to— there were two in Nashville that I used to, that I used to refer, but they're not effective anymore. What are some good taxi and music X-ray type sites for rap? I don't know of any. I don't know anybody that's ever gotten signed from a, um, that got signed from an app or an internet service. You got to really go out and do the work. Thank you, Mike Woods. I actually, um, I actually have rainbow hair. It's not just a red streak. Um, oh, the color's fading, you can't really see it anymore, but I unicorned my hair, so it's like got blue and green and red. If you go on my Instagram page, you can actually see all of the different colors from when I first had it done. I had so much fun doing this. I didn't do it myself, I had it done, but I just, I love the rainbow colors, and it was just It's so much fun to have them in my hair. I've done it twice now. Jay Jones, yay! Reach out to me whenever you can. That's good news. Black TMZ said, I once saw or heard some old music by Desiigner. I knew everything he was doing today was a gimmick. People just change. Um, no, you can't submit actual lyrics to BMI or any of the other PROs. They, they don't care about lyrics. Genius would care about lyrics, but a performing rights organization pays you based on radio play, so they don't really care about lyrics. Hector's asking, is it bad to give part of your publishing to investors? I heard never give your publishing ownership. Um, I don't know that I would give it, I would sell it. Um, Many artists will sell a piece of their publishing to an investor so that the investor can make their money back faster, and they're not really being paid in money. It's not like you're selling a percentage like 25% or 50% of your publishing for $100,000 or $300,000. You're selling it for the opportunity. So if somebody is willing to invest, um, a quarter million dollars into your career and I think if you're doing a deal with an investor, it should be at least a quarter million dollars, if not more. Um, now my hair's all messed up. Um, then you would be selling them a percentage of what you have. Obviously, if you don't have to, you shouldn't. If you can get an investor to work with you and not take— again, there's that word take— and not sell a part of your publishing to them That's the optimum situation, right? You don't ever want to be without your publishing because that has a lot of value. But for somebody to put a quarter million dollars or half a million dollars and invest that into your career, they're going to want to make their money back as quickly as possible. They're more than likely going to want to recoup from your publishing, from your merchandising, from your ancillary income, from your show money. They're going to want to get their money back as quickly as possible. And I guess, you know, the question is like, I can sit here all day and tell you, you know, don't, don't do that deal or do this deal or don't do that deal. But I would rather have 50% of $1 million than 100% of nothing. So you need to weigh what's a good opportunity and what's not. You just have to be careful because 95% of the opportunities out here are scams. They're bullshit. So you got to be a little bit careful. Salt, I can't answer this because I've never built a producer or a DJ. Um, what's the best route to build your buzz as a DJ or producer? I want to do big festivals and produce big artists like DJ Mustard, Khaled, Snake, etc. Um, I know that they built their careers from the bottom up, but my best suggestion would be to research Mustard, Khaled, and Snake and see how they did it. Um, understand that they did it some years ago and it was a different music industry when all three of them started. It's a little bit different than it is today, but I would do as much research on them as possible. And if I could get near any one of those three or their managers so that I could ask them, I would do that. Never Yield Biz, um, you're about to meet with a brand about a joint venture. He wants to know your plan. Any advice before meeting? Yes, um, make sure that your plan is realistic, and when you meet with them, be honest. Tell them exactly what you're hoping to achieve, and understand that anybody that's talking to you that wants to invest in you wants to know how you're going to make money and how they're going to get their money back. So make sure that you have answers for those questions because they're going to want to know those two things. How are you going to make money and how are they going to get their money back? Papa Duck, I love you like cooked food, man. I love you. I was just talking about you too with somebody. We were talking about like, your grind is amazing. Kingpin, it was Kingpin. We had lunch this week and we were talking about how we love us some Papa Duck. Wow, Media Kings is a hard question to answer. Um, Media Kings is asking, some say that a rapper should have a tight niche, others say not to limit yourself and be diverse. Is it better to focus on a clear brand or just be a normal person? Um, I, I can't answer that because every situation is different. Um, the great thing about having a tight niche is that you know exactly where to market and promote yourself. For example, you know, I have a book that I wrote about how to get a record deal. So my niche market is rappers that want to get signed to a major label or an independent label, right? So it's easy for me to market it because I just have to go to that marketplace where they hang out, you know, showcases, conventions, conferences. And I'm able to find my target market, right? If you have music that reaches a bigger crowd, somehow it seems a little easier. Like, if you've got really pop-driven rap music, you're able to reach more people by reaching the general public than if your music is like super scary devil-worshipping street music that's lyrical, right? Now, your market in that case would be very, very limited, and it's a little bit harder to find fans. So I can't really answer that. It depends on your music. It depends— it depends on so much. But let me say this, like, be true to yourself. Don't make music that you think your fans are gonna like and not be who you really are. Make music that is inside of you that you're letting out, but that you know people will embrace. Like, don't make music that's so niche that you can't work it. You know, you don't want an audience this big. You want an audience that's a good size so that you can make money doing what you're doing, right? But you got to be true to you. You know, you can't be fake. I think one of the biggest disservices people do in this marketplace is they try to be like somebody else. You know, they see Drake is successful, so they try to be like Drake. Or Lil Uzi Vert is successful, so they try to be like Lil Uzi Vert. There's already a Drake, there's already an Uzi Vert. You know, you got to be who you are and let that out. That's just my opinion though. If a producer owns a track with an artist's vocals on it, can he sell that track to another artist if he owns the track? I'm not sure, um, what you're asking, so let me answer what I think you're asking. If the producer has a track and the artist is rapping on it, he doesn't necessarily own the artist's vocals unless he has a contract from that artist saying that he does own it. If he does have a contract, there has to be a clause in it that says he can assign it or sell it to somebody else. If it's not in there that he can assign it, then no, he can't sell it to somebody else. Giovanni said Irv Gotti recently did an interview stating Cash Money has a 90/10 split. And they've had that deal since the '90s. Do you know of any other labels who have a deal set up like that in 2017? Um, it's funny that Irv said that because I'm actually the one who did the Cash Money deal in 1998, and it was not a 90/10 split, it was 80/20. So, um, that kind of comes back to what I was saying before about you need to really know what you're talking about to answer questions, right? Um, I don't know of anybody that has a 90/10 split. It doesn't mean they're not out there. My guess would be that Tech N9ne's split is as close to 90/10 as you could get, um, but no, I don't know of anybody else out there in 2017 that has a 90/10 split. Little Louder's asking, um, what's the process and how do you handle buying beats with samples in them from producers? I don't. I never buy beats that have samples in them. Because I work with newer and up-and-coming artists, and usually our budget is for marketing and promotion, not for clearing music, because you can spend anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 or more to clear a sample. So we actually don't. But having said that, um, whoever puts the song out is responsible for clearing the samples. So if you are a label and you buy a beat from a producer with a sample in it, you're responsible for clearing that beat before you put it out into the marketplace. If you don't know that it's there and you put it out and somebody hears it and sues you, um, not knowing is not a good excuse for why you put it out there. And I know that sucks. Infinite8 is asking, should an artist submit their entire catalog on Genius? I don't see why not. Um, I think it's a great idea to have your lyrics out there because I think a lot of your fans want to sing along to your music and they want to know exactly what you're saying if they can't understand you. So why not? Um, will Genius accept an entire catalog? Yeah, they probably would. Of course, the, the more well-known you are, the more beneficial it is to have your music on Genius, right? To have your lyrics on Genius. Mike Woods, when getting your music in a TV series, are you getting paid through the PROs for that? Nope. I have a track going on an episode of Power and I want to make sure I get paid properly. Congratulations. Um, you will get— you will receive a contractual agreement from the music supervisor of Power that's going to ask for your permission They're going to tell you exactly what you're going to get paid. Um, you get paid for the masters and the publishing, so whatever amount of money that they offer, you're going to have to in your head split it in half because half is going to go to the publisher, which is probably you in this case, and half is going to go to whomever owns the masters. Thank you, G. No days off. I loved you to death. Giovanni Diamond: Is it better to be independent or signed in 2017? Because a lot of artists like Russ say it's better to be indie, but you have other artists that say it's better to be on a major. What's the best way? It's, it's a personal choice, you know. Which is better, eating in a fast food restaurant or eating in a sit-down restaurant. It's preference, right? Well, there's preference that you have. Independent means you've got to have money, you've got to have drive. Um, and this is a topic that I handle a lot in my videos, so I would suggest that you take a look at those videos. I wrote a book about how to get a deal. That book covers a lot of what it means to be signed to an independent and what it means to be signed to a major label. They both have their ups and downs. They both have their pluses and minuses. Um, I think each person chooses what they want, you know, what they want to do. I can't say which is better. I think independent is better, but I know how to find money and I know how to monetize music and I know how to market and promote. So of course I'm going to say that. It's easy for me, you know, it's easy for me to be independent. Killer Virus. I know you say to have at least a quarter million. Can you make an impact by doing 3 to 4 smaller markets doing mix show promo, which is a lot cheaper? Um, yes. The reason I say a quarter million, that's what I work with. That doesn't mean that's what you work with, right? I have a different level of experience after doing this for 25 years, so I look for bigger artists and bigger projects to work. I don't look for smaller projects. It's just as much work to work a bigger project as it is to work a smaller project. So, um, it's actually a little more time intensive to work a smaller project than it is a bigger project because you usually don't have the money to do what you need to do, so you call in a lot of favors, right? But for you, yes, you can absolutely work smaller markets. In order to monetize your music though, I've never been able to do it for less than $150,000 myself, and that's just to get money coming back in. I can get the artist popping, I can get them known, but I can't seem to get them enough show money and enough streams in order to make back the money. And remember, the people I deal with have investors, so making the money back is important to them. Trayvon is saying, I'm a manager and I have a rapper producer that's one of the best lyricists of this generation coming up, getting looked at by independent labels in LA. How can I get him more attention by other labels? Keep doing what you're doing. Get as much exposure for your artist as possible, and the labels will come to you. If you build a fan base and a buzz for your artist, the labels will come running to you. Did you guys see the article on DJBooth.net? Um, was it Saunders' manager? Somebody's manager talks about, um, shopping a deal. For their art. I think it was an R&B artist, I can't remember, but it's definitely on djbooth.net. Um, you know what, if you go to Tony's Instagram, he posted not a link, but he posted the article so you can see what it's called, and then you can go to djbooth.net and search their site and find it. And Tony's Instagram is @iamthaconnect, um, and he spells it T-H-A, @iamthaconnect. Um, Giovanni, I don't think Gotti lied. It might be a 90/20 split now, but it wasn't when I did the deal. It was an 80/20. I think that, um, he didn't negotiate the deal, so he wouldn't know that. Tariq Bey, I have a private equity company looking to break into the music business. Is it possible to get a distribution deal, then find artists and have the private equity pay the marketing promotions? Absolutely. That's what a lot of my clients do. Um, I don't think I would get the distribution first because the distributor is going to be excited by your music and what you have popping. I think I would go find the artist first and then I would start meeting with the distributors once you've got your artists. Um, you know, once you know who you're going to put out, I don't think I would sign them yet. I would wait until I had the distribution in play to sign them. But I think I would find the artist first and bring them to the distributor and say, these are the folks that we have letter— letters of intention with. These are the guys that we're looking to sign. And then that's a letter of intention, talks about that they, they have the right to, um, you have the right to sign them within the next 3 months or 6 months or whatever term of time you think is fair. It shouldn't take you longer than 6 months to find distribution. And make sure you have somebody on your team that knows what they're doing. It's a— this is an industry where you can lose a hell of a lot of money. Media Kings, how much is the age of a rap artist a factor? Too young, too old? Does the industry care? Do fans care? I believe that they do. Tony and I argue about this all the time. It's really hard to work an older rap artist because the bulk of the fans, the people that spend the most money to attend shows, that spend the most money on music, um, are usually between 13 years old and 26 years old. So if you've got a rapper who's 35, somebody who's 13 is looking at that person like, man, you look like my dad, like, you look old to me, you know. It's a little bit harder to work an older rapper. Can you make money as an older rapper? Absolutely. Can you become a superstar pop artist? At 35 or 40? No, not unless you started in your 20s and you're grown. Like Jay-Z is in his 40s and he still sells music. Um, 2 Chainz is the artist that most people use as their example when they tell me that you can be 38 and be a rap star. And yes, that's great, that's one artist, but most artists are younger. They're between like 18 and 21, 22, 23. I find it hard to work artists that are a little bit older. And Hub City Rhymes— and this is the last question I'm going to answer tonight because we've been doing this an hour and I'm tired. Um, I just got back from Fort Lauderdale, as you guys know. I was a little late tonight starting. Um, what are some effective ways to promote and increase streaming my music on streaming platforms? Get on playlists. I can't tell you how important playlists are. In today's marketplace. You want to get on as many playlists as possible. That doesn't mean you have to go for Rap Caviar or one of the Discovery, um, uh, playlists from Spotify. I mean, it would be great if you could do that, but those playlists are really reserved for the artists that already have a movement and are already blowing up and have a large fan base, you know. So, um, I would suggest that you get on as many non-Spotify playlists as you can. That means the playlists that aren't owned by Spotify but are still, um, prevalent and have millions of followers. I would get on as many playlists as possible. Dark Brothers, thank you. That's exactly the artist I'm talking about, Brent Faiyaz. Yes, exactly, Faiyaz. He is on the Platinum Single Crew. Yes. Um, so if you guys go to Tony's Instagram, you can find— it's not the link, but because you can't link on Instagram, but he posted the, um, artwork from the article and the headline so that you can go and search. It's a really interesting article. He's talking about how he met with major labels and how they were so excited about his artist, but they were offering deals that he just didn't think were fair. They were 11% to 15% of, you know, the music, and they wanted to own the masters. It was just a really, really, really good, um, article. I suggest you guys— djbooth.net. Apollo Heights: I just started a label. Two artists have agreed to sign. My finance and colleague— you might be saying fiancé, I'm not sure— I'm also managing them. Do I need a record contract as well as a management contract? What's a fair split in regards to indie deals? Um, you cannot manage and be the record label. I mean, you can. Cash Money has done that. There's a lot of labels that have. But if you take money from both sides, it's called double dipping. So as the record label, you're probably going to make anywhere from 50% of the income to 85%, depending on the recording agreement that they sign. Um, a management company would be another 15 to 20%, so you'd actually be making more money than the artist. And guess how they're going to feel about that? If that is your fiancé, it won't be your fiancé for long. So I suggest that you either be the record label or you be the manager, one or the other. And make sure you're qualified. Make sure you've got experience being a record label or being a manager. This is not an industry where you just wake up one day and say, oh, I'm a manager, or oh, I'm a record label. You need experience, you need money, you need funding. It is a business, guys. Um, it would be as ludicrous as waking up tomorrow and saying, oh, I'm a cardiologist. You should really have experience before you start businesses in the music industry. You've got people's lives depending on you. Yes, there are people that come into this cold and become successful over time, and that's a wonderful thing, but I can— for every one that's successful, I can tell you thousands that aren't, and they kind of like crush people's dreams. So I'm not telling you not to, I'm just telling you please get experience. Go work with a record label, go work with a management company, get the experience, get the relationships that you need to succeed, or get somebody on your team that has done it before and that can help you. Um, just a thought. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. I apologize for being a little bit late. My flight was late coming home from Fort Lauderdale. It's the first time I have been late for one of these in 13 months, and I felt like shit about it because I'm always on time. I preach that you guys should all be on time, so I apologize for that. And I will see you the first Wednesday, 7 PM, December, whatever that first Wednesday is, I will see you right here. Thanks, guys!