Wendy Day of Rap Coalition explains how to pick a rap name that sticks. Make it memorable and easy to say, then check Google, Spotify, Instagram, and domain registries to confirm no one else owns it. Trademark costs $1,000 to $3,000 and protects you from legal trouble down the line.
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Hey guys, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition. I am here with the next installment of my 2020 vision, little snippets of information to give you guys to help you build your rap careers. Um, today I want to talk about your name, and this is such a touchy subject because most of you already have a rap name, but understand that this is your brand, and as you move forward, you're going to build your brand. So the name has has to be easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and it cannot be the same name of any other rapper out there that has come before you. So, um, rap has been around for 40 years. You're going to need to do some incredible research on your name. Not only can it not be the same as someone that's already been out before that owns a trademark or that has used it in commerce, but, um, it can't be similar. So for example, um, you can't be called Jay-Z and spell it J-Z-E-E because there's already a rapper called Jay-Z. Um, it's going to be even more difficult if you try to do a spin-off of somebody else's name. Like, I'm still dumbfounded that Lil Nas X can use the name Lil Nas X because at any given moment Nas the rapper could step in and sue because he owns the trademark, or Sony or Def Jam, um, whoever actually owns the trademark on his name. Let's hope it's Nas. Um, but the way that trademark law works is whoever used it first in commerce wins. So even if there's somebody who came before you and they didn't trademark it, provided they've been selling music commercially, they get to have ownership. And if they decide to sue, they can. So, um, it's really a idea to have a trademark. I don't usually trademark my clients' names unless the name is something very, um, similar to what's already out there. For example, when I was working with Trouble, the first thing I did was trademark his name to make sure that he had the rights to use Trouble. The last thing I wanted to do was see his investor spend a lot of money on building the brand of Trouble if, you know, half a year or a year down the road Trouble would get sued for using that name. So we just made sure that we could use the name before we trademarked it. With other artists, I don't necessarily do that. If their name is unique enough where they don't need to trademark it, um, we skip that expense because it roughly costs about anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 to trademark a name depending on who's doing it for you. I use a really inexpensive attorney out of Nashville, Tennessee to do the trademarking. I found him online by running a Google search to find an affordable attorney to do the trademarking. But remember, you're going to be using this name for the rest of your career, so you want the name to be unique enough that you can still get social media in that name, and in a perfect world, a website, right? Like we knew when we were working with Trouble that we would never be able to get trouble.com. It's just, it's not realistic. It's too common of a word. So we knew that we were going to have to do either IamTrouble.com or TroubleDTE.com or TroubleTrouble.com. You know, we were looking at different ways to, um, to utilize his name, but we also needed to take websites and social media into consideration. In a perfect world, you want all of your branding to be similar. You don't want to have I Am Trouble at Twitter, Trouble Trouble at Facebook, Trouble Is King at Instagram, and troubledte.com. You want everything to have the same name and be unique enough for people to remember it, but not so difficult that they, that they, that they, um, can't recall it, right? So like troubleisthegreatestrapperintheworld.com would not be a good website because first of all it's too damn long and it's also too difficult for people to remember. Although now that I've said that, you're probably going to remember it. So make sure that when you're choosing your name, even if it's a rap name that you've used for your entire career, just make sure that it's a name that sums up who you are and that it's available on as many platforms as possible so that you can utilize it and make sure that you're not using somebody else's name. And sometimes that's a little hard you know, here in 2020, you haven't been alive for, you know, the all 40 years or 50 years that rap's been around. So you don't necessarily know what has come before. You're gonna have to do a little bit of research. And thank God for Google, thank God for Spotify. So when you are choosing your name, definitely Google it, definitely go to Spotify, definitely go to Apple and research it. Go to Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, do searches of the name that you want to use and see if it's available. Available, or if somebody else is using it. And if there's another musician or artist using it, it's already taken. You can't use it. You're gonna have to figure something else out. And it's not quite as simple as just adding a second word to it. That could be seen as copyright infringement. Like, I can't rename myself Jay-Z Day and not get sued for it as a rapper, right? So that's my advice on picking a name. I know it's a touchy subject because you've had your names forever, but remember, this is your brand. And you're going to be using it most likely for the rest of your career, hopefully for the rest of your lives. Okay, thanks for tuning in. See you next time on Vision 2020. I'm dropping these every day on my Instagram TV, and then they go up on my, um, YouTube page, which is youtube.com/thisiswendyday, and there you can binge watch them all. Peace!
