A music industry veteran argues work-for-hire deals exploit producers and songwriters who should earn royalties, not flat fees. Producers typically get 3-5 points per song. He warns that underpaying talent damages your reputation and backfires when those creators become powerful.
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Hey everybody, thank you so much for tuning in. Today I'm going to talk about work for hire and doing what's right in the music business. And this is not an industry that has built a foundation on doing what's right. It's an industry that's full of sharks and snakes, and it's built on ripping people off and not paying people when you're supposed to pay them. And I can't imagine doing anything else with my career, even though I'm extremely transparent parent, and I pay everybody. Um, it's just one of those industries where people don't pay people. So having said that, I'm gonna tell you that you can build a career doing what's right, and I think that I am a beacon of success in doing that. I've never ripped anybody off. I've never taken advantage of people. You can't even really find interns that say that I didn't pay them. Anybody that has worked with me has gotten remunerated somehow or other. Um, usually by a paycheck. I don't believe in free labor. I realize that a lot of interns are willing to work for free in order to gain knowledge. Um, I'm just not somebody who's comfortable with that, so I don't do that. I don't really believe in interns, and that's why so many of you have reached out to me and asked me, could you intern with me, and I've turned you down because I don't believe in free labor. To me, I just— I'm not comfortable with that. So In the music business, there is something called work for hire. And what work for hire means is— I'm going to use it in the context of a producer, but it transcends more than production. Like, you can do work for hire for songs, for lyrics, for photography, for any creative medium that exists. Um, work for hire is where you pay somebody a flat rate and you buy it outright so that you don't have to pay them a percentage or royalty going forward. And I just think that's really shitty because the whole point of being in the music industry is for creatives to make money with their talent, whether it is producing or writing lyrics or whatever. Um, I, I get with photography and graphic design why people pay a flat rate. And I get that because it's not necessarily the artwork or the photograph that is moving somebody's career forward. It's the actual music itself that is moving a career forward. The artwork and the graphic design are extremely valuable, but they're ancillary to the success. They're not— it's not like somebody says, oh my God, that artwork is so amazing, I have to listen to this song 50 more times because the artwork is so, so incredible. It's the music that's making somebody, or the lyrics that's making somebody put that shit on repeat and listen to it over and over and over and over. So they are the people that I'm especially talking about when it comes to work for hire. And there are many labels and production companies that do work for hire agreements, and I say don't do that. Pay people what they're supposed to be paid, because if the song blows up and you have paid a flat fee so that somebody has made maybe $1,000 or $500 for their track, but you have turned around and made millions and millions and millions of dollars and not paid them what you were supposed to pay them because you knew about work for hire and they didn't. That's just really shitty. And aside from being really bad karma— and I do believe in karma, and I've seen it enact itself and rear its ugly head many, many, many times in my career There's just no reason to do somebody like that. It's not like you're paying them pennies on a dollar every time you make a dollar. So for you to be ripping them off of pennies when you're making dollars is just— it doesn't make sense. Like, pay people what they're worth so that they will want to work with you again. Because when they find out that you have fucked them, and they will, your name is going to be garbage, and it's going to be really hard for you to move forward successfully in this business. I genuinely believe that that's what has damaged so many of the indie labels and the talented production companies that have come before you. You know, I went to a, um, I went to a brunch that, um, Stem was putting on during Grammy week, and I sat at a table with a bunch of people that I don't know, and I was listening to all of them talk about this one independent label that I respect so much out of LA. They're very well known. They have a distribution deal through Interscope. They have put out star after star after star. You know who I'm talking about. And this table of people that represents producers and rappers were just dogging them out, talking about how difficult it is to get paid by this label. And the downside is that this label isn't going to last very long if they don't pay people properly. They're just going to go away. Nobody's going to want to do business with them. I was sitting at a table of people that represent Superstar Producers that sat there talking about how they are never going to do business with this label again because they can't get paid properly. And that's just really sad because They have some incredibly amazing artists that are no longer going to get production from some of the top producers in this business because they have a reputation of not paying people. And people talk, like, we all know who's fucking people out here and who's not. So start from the very beginning when you come into this industry and you're, you're supposed to pay somebody a small percentage and producers get anywhere from 3 points to 5 points, which is such a small percentage of the money that you're making, there is no reason for you to do a work-for-hire agreement. If you're paying somebody to write for your artist, you chose that artist that can't write for themselves. Pay what you're supposed to pay. Pay the people that are helping to blow your artist up and get your artist to the next level, because those people are talented. They're doing a service for you. They deserve to get paid for what they're doing. And you never know who's going to be in a position down the road where they may be bigger than you. They may have the opportunity to crush you, and they will. We all know who doesn't pay and who pays in this industry. We all talk about it. We all block those people. We don't do business with those people. Don't be one of those people. Pay people what they're— what they're worth. Pay people what they're supposed to be paid. That's why I don't like work-for-hire agreements. There's no reason for you to short somebody on their publishing so that you can make a larger share of the money. It's going to come back and bite you in the ass. I've seen that happen so many times. Don't be a douchebag. There's just no reason to be one. Everybody can make money in this industry. Okay, I'm gonna get off my soapbox. I'm gonna put that away. Enough about work for hire. Don't do it. Pay people what they're worth. It's that simple. Bye, guys!
