Wendy Day has negotiated hip hop deals for over twenty years. She’s been a champion and advocate for the fair treatment of hip hop artists during her career and has been responsible for some of the biggest deals in hip hop history. Before she stepped on the landscape, no artist in the genre had ever walked away from closing a label deal with the amount of payment, rights, and ownership that she was able to secure for her artists. One of the most monumental deals was the 30 million dollar label agreement she got for Cash Money Records. A deal that also awarded them ownership of their master recordings, which was close to unheard of in hip hop at the time. Here are just a few of Wendy’s former clients: Cash Money Records (Juvenile, BG, Lil Wayne, Hot Boyz, Big Tymers, Baby aka Birdman), Read the rest of this entry »
This past weekend, I was presented with the great opportunity and honor to sit down with a charismatic business man-with-a-plan, co-CEO of the independent hip hop label, Ever Ready Records, Alex “Apex” Stewart. Also founder and at the head of the label is Corey “Afinnity” Finn. These ambitious young indie hip hop execs have a well-established office in downtown Los Angeles, where I was able to chat with Apex and pick his brain about the label’s intelligent successes and how it all came to be…. Read the rest of this entry »
In this video sited at Hypebot, Lupe Fiasco reveals some of the absurdities he’s had to endure while trying to get his music released under his label, Atlantic.
Meanwhile, in this post sited at Fakeshore Drive, the Cool Kids are just recovering from a nasty court battle with their label, Chocolate Industries.
Peep the tweets from Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks
Last but certainly not least, Nas wrote a searing letter to his label Def Jam, telling them in essence, to stop fucking with his creativity and “Put [his] Shit Out!”
Fist off let me me say that if you’re a hip hop artist, you should be following Chamillionaire’s Twitter feed. Why? Because his internet grind is the bizness, and you can learn a lot from observing how he uses social networking tools to connect with his fans.
This commentary from Chamillionaire is loaded with a lot good shit that you should pay attention to. Primarily, the info on the importance of handling your paperwork before the release of your project is priceless. Chamillionaire paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to be an artist on a major label and shares some of the battles he has to fight in order stay true to himself and his fans.
I posted of video earlier of Chamillionaire explaining how he stays on top of his business to make sure he’ll always have a financially secured future. You can watch it here.
In a recent article on Tunecore’s blog, founder Jeff Price made the point that you could not trust Neilsen Soundscan reports on the number of independent releases and how successful they were. The major and most obvious reason for this is because a huge percentage of independent releases are not registered with Soundscan, making them impossible to track. The article was a direct response to Tommy Boy Records CEO, Tommy Silverman’s, recent statement that breaking music from do-it-yourself artists required luck and/or the kind of money a label could provide to be successful. I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Read the rest of this entry »
Running a successful independent record label takes lots of hard work. A good business plan, good talent and proper management are essential to making this possible. Here are 7 things to you should avoid when running your independent hip hop label.
1. Choosing a name for your record label before you check to see if it’s already been trademarked: Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this happen. Someone chooses a label name, puts out CDs under it, and then carpets the office with the logo and name dead in the center, only to find out that someone else legally owns the name. I’ve even seen loyal artists get the label name tattooed on their bodies and cut in their hair. Damn! Oh well, at least the hair grows back.
2. No paperwork on your artists: This is a big-time FAIL. I don’t care how cool you think that artist is, things usually get crazy once the potential for making money comes into play. Paperwork not only protects the label, but it protects the rights of the artist as well. Nothing is worse then spending a shit-load of money and time on an artist, only to have them bounce out on on you when they get upset or see a better opportunity available. “I thought we was homies“, doesn’t fly too well in a courtroom. Read the rest of this entry »
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