In this monologue, experienced music‑industry professional Wendy Day explains the process of "shopping" a record deal and warns independent rappers about common scams. She stresses that the primary goal is to generate regional buzz and revenue, which creates leverage for a label to invest heavily. Labels will contact artists directly once they see local momentum; artists should not pay upfront fees to middlemen or A&R scouts who promise meetings for a price. Day outlines how to verify legitimate label outreach, the importance of having an entertainment attorney ready when a label shows serious intent, and how to evaluate the credibility of intermediaries—Instagram photos with famous artists or wall plaques are not proof of connections. She advises artists to focus on building a genuine fan base, conduct due‑diligence on any contact, and only work with people who are paid on the back end and have real industry relationships. The overall message is to approach deals from a position of power, knowledge, and financial sense rather than chasing a signature for its own sake.
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Hey guys, okay, today we're gonna talk about shopping a record deal. And I know I covered how to get a record deal, but today I'm gonna specifically talk about shopping a record deal. And I'm doing this because there's so much bullshit out here, and this is an area where so many newer rappers are getting taken advantage of. So there are hundreds of people in the music industry saying that they are independent A&Rs, they can get you record deals, they don't necessarily work for a record label, but they've got Atlantic Records logo and Def Jam record label, um, their logo, and Epic and Interscope, um, on their websites or on their social media. And the thing about somebody getting you a deal is unless you've got a really good-sized fan base or you are exactly what an A&R is looking for at a record label, it's going to be very difficult to get a deal no matter who is shopping you, whether you're shopping yourself, whether a lawyer is shopping you, whether a middleman is shopping you. And I say this as somebody who's gotten a shit ton of record deals for artists. I've done many, many, many, many deals. Do not ask me to do a deal for you. That's not why I'm here. I am here to tell you that until you are really popping regionally and you're making money, you're making income in your market, it's going to be very difficult for you to get a leveraged deal, meaning a deal where the label is going to pull the trigger, pull out all the stops, dump as much money into you as they possibly can to get you to the next level. And that's what you want. The goal in this industry is success. It's not getting a deal. It's not getting Interscope to sign you. It's not getting Def Jam to sign you. It's not getting Atlantic or Columbia or BMG or Empire, whoever, to sign you. It is solely for you to make money and prosper in the music industry, and for you to be able to get a deal that makes sense for you financially, where you don't just come out, blow up, lose all your money, not make any money, or never be put into the marketplace, signed to a record label. That is not the goal. That is not what you're trying to do. So you need to have the leverage to be able to make this happen. Now I'm coming back to shopping a deal. When you start popping in your region, the labels are going to call you. You do not need to have middleman. The labels are going to call you directly. They're going to reach out. It's not going to be by email. They do not use Gmail accounts. It's not going to be Louie Lump Lump Universal at gmail.com saying, send me money and I'll get you in a meeting in front of somebody. It's going to be somebody from a legitimate record label that you can easily Google and find out who they are and who they've signed before reaching out to you. It may be somebody in the A&R research department because they see that you're just starting to pop. So just because somebody's reaching out out from a label does not mean you're automatically going to get a record deal. It means they're reaching out to see who you are, what you're doing, who's on your team, um, what other music you have that may not be in the marketplace yet. It's them doing their job, their due diligence to see who you are. It does not mean that they're going to fly you to New York or LA tomorrow and start a bidding war. Having said that, that is the ideal situation. You know that when they are flying you out to New York or LA at their expense— you should not be paying for this, they will pay to fly you out— that is when you need to have an entertainment attorney on board. Because if they feel that they're ready to sign you, their first question to you once they decide they want to sign you and do a deal is going to be, who is your attorney? Who represents you? And they're going to want to send the paperwork from their lawyers directly to your lawyer. So at that point, you need to have somebody on board, or at least be in talks with somebody, so that you know who is going to be your attorney within a certain, you know, short period of time. Do not spend money to meet with A&R people if they're not reaching out to you. Do not be proactive and reach out to them, because they'll take the meeting because there's probably somebody in between you and that A&R that's saying, hey, for $5,000, I can set up a meeting. For 'For $3 grand, I could set up a meeting. For $25 grand, I can set up a meeting.' So what that middleman is doing is they're getting that A&R person to sit down with you for a split of that money. It's a way that less savory people in this industry make a living. If you receive an email blindly from somebody in the music business and it's not coming from somebody you already know or somebody you respect, at least do the due diligence to find out if that person is real and they really reached out. Call the, the, um, phone number. Google the phone number for the record label. Call the, the, um, the receptionist at that company and say you received an email from such and such person and is that possible or is it a scam? Because there's so many scammers out here that are reaching out to you unsigned artists and saying, hey, we took a look at your music and we want to sign you, when in reality they don't. They're not working with a record company. They don't care. They're finding you on the internet. They see that you're spending a little bit of money to promote yourself, and they're trying to get some of your money from you. It's a scam. It's been a scam for a very long time. It existed before the internet, only then it wasn't email, it was direct mail. And you would receive a letter from Loud Records saying that they wanted to sign you, and Oh, by the way, if you send a fee for X amount of dollars, they'll send you some beats by whoever your favorite producer is, or whoever the producer is of the moment that they're scamming. And their goal is to get money from you. They don't care about your dream. They don't care about getting you a deal. You should never, ever, ever pay somebody up front to help you get a record deal. If they're going to get paid, and it's probably going to be a finder's fee, it's going to be on the back end. But most of the people in this industry know that they can sign you to their record label and then go do a deal for their label with that company if that company is truly interested in you, and they can keep the split. And I don't think you should do that either, but just know that there's a lot of scams out here for people that don't understand how this works. There are so many ways that you can protect yourself, and a little bit of knowledge goes a really long way. So if you're getting ready to shop a deal, I just ask that if you do so, you do it with somebody who's legitimate and somebody that's going to get paid on the back end, somebody that really has the connections and the relationships. And seeing pictures on their Instagram standing in front of a Def Jam logo on a wall is not really convincing. It's not really proof that they know anybody. Having a bunch of platinum plaques on their wall does not really mean that they've got the relationships to get you a deal. I've got a ton of platinum plaques. Yes, they're in my garage because I just don't feel like I need them on the wall to show who I am. If you want to find out who I am, you can Google me, you can watch interviews with me, you can talk to people that have worked with me. That is how you find out if somebody's legit or not. Don't get sucked into the person standing next to Drake at a basketball game. I promise you, if somebody that has a little bit of, of power in the music industry shows up somewhere and says, hey Wendy Day, take a picture with me, I'm gonna take a picture with them. I'm not gonna tell them no. Drake is gonna do the same thing. Future is gonna do the same thing. Most artists are gonna do the same thing. So to scroll through somebody's Instagram and see them standing next to a bunch of famous motherfuckers is not going to help your career. It does not mean they have a relationship. It does not mean they can get you a record deal. So come at this from a position of power and knowledge and understanding. Understand how this works. Understand how to get a deal. Once you understand how to get a deal, you will be able to recognize the scammers the way that I do when I see them, and it's really laughable. I've got a client right now out of Florida, and he jumps at the opportunity when anybody reaches out to him and says they're shopping him a deal. And as I go through and call the label and say, hey, do you know this person that's shopping a deal for my artist? They tell me no, they don't know this person, or it's somebody that is trying to use somebody that's got a little bit of clout on Instagram to go and get them a deal. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen, and you guys fall for it all the time. Don't fall for it. Don't be stupid. Don't be a mark. Understand how it works. It's really not hard to build a buzz. Go build a buzz. Do this the right way. If you want a record deal, one will come. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in. Pushing away my soapbox now.
