 What's up everybody once again, it's Brandon man Sean and today we're going to talk about some shady music industry Practices because artists need to be aware of this stuff and what inspired this video was actually when YB in the mirror Basically set it on Instagram that a label tried to eff him out of his hit single rubbing off the paint because his manager Actually sold the beat of the song to the label the label bought that and they basically tried to strong hold him into Signing a deal with them just because they like hey, we got the rights We own the song technically cuz we own the beat and if you don't come with us Then we're gonna try to put it a stop to it But I've already touched on some of these topics in some of my videos So I wanted to get the homie sir love just to get his perspective on All of these shady practices and inform you guys on a lot of things that that are very real to happen Let's hop into it. Yeah I think it's definitely important for artists to keep their paperwork together a lot of things that artists don't understand in Today's they don't understand the value of what they have and what it can turn into long term You know, you have the long-term check You got the short-term check and the short-term check is always going to be appealing Exactly getting right understand that people in the business is making money So if anyone's ever going to offer you a price for something best be rest assured that they're going to flip it for something That's higher. So if you don't know your value, it's just a jug You know someone come up to you and they got something they're trying to sell it to you for five But you know it's worth five hundred Five sell it for five hundred when really they probably could have sold it to you for three hundred And you still would have bought it and it would have been a more of a fair trade for both parties involved The tricky thing about this scenario is that the the label was or you know The parties involved that had control over the record was then kind of holding the scenario For ransom because at that time period they wanted to do future business with a particular Artist and because they want to do future business with a particular artist They were able to hold the record over his head and say yeah, but we own all of your assets We own everything that makes you hot right now Yeah, unless he goes out and creates other records that are popping or just as hot Which means that he has some type of system or some type of strong fan base where he can replicate the success of that first record Then he's really in a position of weakness in the negotiation Exactly and I mean so one thing That's it could sound kind of scary and crazy to a lot of you guys, but so basically you have a song Let's just say this situation if they might not be buying to beat, but there's a lot of other scenarios where Hey, you might be talking to somebody and they say hey, let's let's let's get this deal going you talk to the label Nothing you say know what now we're not good on that deal. We don't want to sign with you guys And then at that point some people might come up back and say Well, if you don't want to sign how about this because we got this on you We got this on you. We got this on you. We done trademark your name. We got all kind of things where Matter of fact, how well what are some scenarios that you know about specifically? Scenarios that I've seen I can't speak on any one situation Okay, what I can do is say the trademark name thing is definitely real Pretty much it's not hard ball that labels are not out here to get you You know, that's kind of the thought process But all of them are not evil, but you do have different people that have their own incentives A lot of times the person that's going to take advantage of you is the person that's trying to close the deal with the label So a lot of times you go to a particular label and that a and r that works at that label has his own label And he wants to sign you under his label before signing you to the major scenario and in those situations is where The situation can get desperate cassette a and r is already kind of hyped you to the building or he's already kind of presented The project or he's been tasked with bringing the project in he's on a sharp He or she is on a sharp deadline and so they might apply pressure to you and you know, it could be the label No, give me wrong labels labels can fucking right but you know a situation that I've seen is you know You're doing a negotiation with a particular particular company. You're trying to Figure out the best way to bring your project into their building for whatever reason you're not with it And so they turn around and they can do things to take control of the scenario They can trademark your name like you mentioned before you buy an own ownership of your name So that you can no longer use your name unless you come through them You can no longer sign using that name and go anywhere else and anywhere that name is represented They can make you take it down. So if you have mergers, you have something out there things of that nature they can also Go in and buy out your contract if you sign to your manager Like it's not a manager agreement and it's actually a label agreement that you're signed to they can buy Out your contract to your manager and still own rights to you If you've given over your legal rights to your manager or to your production company to anybody like the right to sign for you Then they can buy that person out and that person can sign and put you in a crazier situation Slow that down and break that down because you got a little fast I want to make sure they caught and understand what you're talking about because I know what you're talking about Okay, so you can it's common practice as artists you to give the right To sign for you over to someone else because say you're performing in another country And you have a check that's waiting for you right now in Atlanta You need that check to do whatever you're doing in said country because you're running out of cash And you're not there and the bank is not going to clear those funds unless there's a signature on it So you've given another person the authority granted them the right to sign on your behalf that individual then can sign that check And then clear your funds to allow you to continue doing what you're doing in said country It can get real tricky if that individual signs and commits you to something that you didn't want to commit to Which a lot of times can happen if you don't have to trust normally the people that have those rights or your attorney or your men Or your manager will have those type of Rights and I forgot what it's called The name slips me at this exact moment, but it's it's in a lot of contracts. Yeah It's pretty standard practice, but that can go twist it at any given time You can also see the crazier things like they can Trademark the the logo or the album cover or the artwork or things of that nature So you can't even post the artwork on your streaming platform. You can't make any money off the merch Yeah, you can't you can't do any of that. Um, they can Go back in and it can do all sorts of things. They can go down to the split sheet level It can go down to the record registration level It can go down to dirty ball where they're black balling your record on radio Yeah, it can go I mean there's so many different ways the game can be played to kind of force you to comply if They had, you know negative and malice intentions to you know to acquire you but That's not gonna be the usual practice like they may do one or two things But you're not gonna see a full boatload of bull ish coming your way because Then you're not gonna sign right no one no one wants they don't want to sign you if you bullied and they've like enslaved you They want to sign you and you feel like you're happy most scenarios when the artist gets screwed The artist has no idea they getting screwed, which is the best scenario because the artist is happy They perform their best work and they don't know they're losing the best scenario for the record The best scenario for the record level the best scenario for the artist is just to do your freaking paperwork You know make sure you split sheets are on point make sure you're you've done all your publishing paperwork your PROs Make sure you're registered. Make sure that you've registered your trademark make sure you register your name trademark your name All yours like the paperwork the stuff that people don't want to do that's the stuff that makes you money That's your check right so with that being said I want to just go ahead and get your opinion because I always talk about this from my standpoint But when do you decide that it's actually worth going ahead and doing that paperwork because you got some artists They go through these phases right they say hey, I got this name two years later. They have another name They still haven't blown up when do you decide when it comes to an artist that we need to go ahead and do all of our due diligence Well, if you have it depends so if you're in a scenario some companies have money some companies don't so it depends on for you guys It depends on Where you are financially if you have any type of bread then all this stuff should be done day one out the game if You don't have bread and you're probably Trying to hustle up bread and you're moving money around and you may not get to some of these things you may be trying to decide between the trademark and In marketing your project and you may be looking at a $1,500 tab and you're looking at well shit You know, I got to get this record out in those scenarios You're gambling your game and I've gambled so, you know, I get it, you know Sometimes you got a game. We got a royal dice. You got throw it at the records Just make sure you've done the back end at minimum if you lose your name You can change it like, you know, soldier boy. Look how he spells his name for example, perfect example bow Wow didn't own his name So he had to go from low bow. Wow to just bow. Wow, right? You can survive with you know, not paying for a trade market things of that nature But you can't survive when you lose ownership to your track when you lose rights to your record when you when you lose Things that are are so valuable that you can't get them back. Perfect. Those primary assets. So go ahead and in your opinion If you list obviously everybody knows music right the song What are the next few things that you would personally try to actually go ahead and say? Hey, I need to lock these down if I got the money for it. If I had the money things that I would do I make sure that I'm not sure how the artist is doing it But I would open up a company as artists go ahead and get and you get the EIN Yeah, get the company name all that stuff LLC or INC depending on if you got partnerships And how that structure and taxes and that gives real complicated depending on what route you want to go But either way you're gonna go LLC or you're gonna go EIN You want to make sure you're trademarking all your different names You want to make sure you're trademarking all of the different artwork and things that you're doing throughout You want to copyright everything that you're doing you also and I say everything I'm talking about even the text on the website You want to copy that you want to copyright? All of your records you want to make sure you register all of your records with the PRO You want to make sure you have split sheets on all your records and make sure all those records are signed You also want to make sure that you've done all of your Back-end publishing and things in that nature documents associated with that you probably want to sign with the publisher or a co-publisher or a Sub-publisher or yeah, I do all those pick make a choice in that area. I know what That's a real list so what I'm gonna do cuz I'm probably gonna have to cut you gonna fuck somebody so What name will just give me two things? Okay? Yeah, I got my track. I own my track Two other things where you would say these are the next two things We know it's a full list of things you on your track The very next thing you need to do is do your split sheets. That is very important You want split sheets is probably the most all the money starts with the split sheet I have your split sheets. I have it signed by everyone that's involved I'd have my IPI numbers on that have all the proper information on the split sheets done the right way And then at minimum I would register those records with the PRO and copyright them like You know split sheets copyright and PRO or something that goes together at minimum. I do those things, right? Okay, perfect, and I'll go ahead and cut the video off right there We did float into some other topics that I think are important and I'll put the videos up But I didn't want that in the same video So if you liked this video go ahead and hit that like button and if you like it You might as well share it other than that, you know what to do hit that subscribe button