 What's up everybody, once again, it's Brandon Shawn and we got to talk about three truths that you need to know when getting signed to a label today. This is whether you're in a label deal already, whether you're going into a label deal or maybe you just want to know more about the situation to make the decision if you want to do it. And then we're going to talk about how you maximize that situation if you're in it. So let's truth number one, labels flip artist. And what do I mean by that? Well, in the past, you might see like a five, six year deal with an artist. But today what you're seeing a lot of times is six months to a year. Now this sounds great from an artist standpoint because it's like, hey, if I don't like my label, what's six months or what's a year? I might just use this label to get popping. And once I use them to get popping, I have all my rights again. Not so much. We're not going to get into the technical details, but a lot of times what they'll do is they're going to take your hot song because that looks attractive to you as well. There's probably some music that they see in the market, a song that's really moving well or maybe a couple of songs that they like that seem like they can be moving well or have the potential to and they'll invest in that. They don't necessarily need all of your songs, but they really want that at the time. Because the reality is when I say labels flip artist, a better way to say it is really this is a test drive. These six months to a year are not guaranteed from their perspective and it shouldn't be guaranteed from your perspective because number two, they are not invested in you. When we think about a test drive, whether it's a relationship, whether it's a car, whatever it is, you're just getting the feel of it. It's like a pilot TV show. We got three episodes, but we don't know if we're going to continue past that point. So they might have the rights to some of the songs that are popping of yours, but they're invested in your momentum, not your management. They don't want to manage you and they don't want to create something from ground up. So another part of these short deals is you'll see that artists are getting $30,000 to $50,000 if you're lucky. And I know that sounds good to a lot of artists who are like, man, if I had $50,000, I'd be popping right now. If I had $30,000, I'd be popping. Shoot, I only need 10. Most likely, particularly if you don't know what to do with that money, but even when you have a $30,000 budget or a $50,000 budget, realize that it is a budget. And if you really don't have a strong team or much leverage at all, your situation will likely end up like this. You have $30,000, but they'll give you three to $7,000 to spend however you want. But the rest of that money is going to be spent by their marketing team, their marketing director. They're going to be in control of that money. So you might say, oh man, I'm about to get $30,000. I'm about to get $50,000. No, you're probably about to get five to 10 max. They are going to be pulling the trigger on the rest of the money. You might be able to convince them how they spend the rest of the money if you're strong-minded enough and have a strategic enough plan, but the reality is they're in control of that money. And more interesting enough or more annoying enough for an artist is if you aren't building that momentum and continuing your momentum, they will shelf you. So you might spend your six months of your deal or your one year of a deal, only utilizing $10,000 of a $50,000 budget. So that might look like, hey, they give you this $10,000. You spend it however you want it. But then at the end of that year, if you never convince them to actually utilize the rest of the budget, they saw that you were popping, but after a few months or after a few weeks, they said, I don't know. It seems like he's slowing down so they never pulled the trigger on the rest of that money. All you did was sit in a deal, lose your buzz because you thought you were going to get pushed up to the next level and now they drop you off. They pick you up with a little momentum. They drop you off a year later, no momentum, no money really heavily invested outside of the little bit of money that you spent on yourself. And I kind of slipped right into number three just naturally, which is if you stop, you get dropped. And basically what do I mean is if you stop getting momentum and you stop moving, not only will they not really utilize the rest of your budget, you're also going to inevitably get dropped. Why? Because they are making small bets. Remember number two is they're not invested in you yet. They're making small bets. They're just trying things out, tasting things, different artists, and they're going to continue to invest in the thing that seems to be working and continuing to work. But if you stop working, which is what a lot of artists do, they say, hey, I got a deal. They're about to get me popping. No, you have to continue to get yourself popping because if you stop, they're going to stop too. When you go, they will go with you, which leaves me into two things you got to keep in mind when it comes to a record deal. Number one is you need to make sure you have your team together, your management together. Do not sign a label deal of any sorts if you do not have your team together. I know that's a generality, but typically that's going to hold true. If you don't have a sort of team, you're not going to be able to capitalize off of the money that gets given in that six months to 12 months. And you're also going to be locked up in a situation so you don't want to spend three months out of your six month deal or three months out of your year long deal trying to find a team and create a team because the clock is ticking. Once you get signed, the clock is ticking. You need some people with you to be able to execute the plan. Labels at this point in your career are essentially going to be a bank of sorts. They will have some connections and some marketing that they could offer you in certain ways. But at the end of the day, you need a team together, you use the money they give you and then have your own system to flip it and reach your own audience. That should be your specialty. So let's pretend you're in a label deal right now. You're signed and your label isn't really making the moves that you want them to make. There's one ultimate chess move that you can do. That is get popping. Get your buzz going. Get back on the ground and start moving. Get those fans talking about you. Get your following growing because when they see that happening, they will all of a sudden give you priority because they don't want somebody or something to be on their label and get popping without them. They're going to hop on that bandwagon, but they're going to give their priority, their attention to whatever they feel is about to pop next and give them the return they need. So whatever it looks like, it's most likely going to do something. They will get behind it. So your chess move is to not go beg them or bother them about getting some money or bother them about what moves they get. You shouldn't even be up in the label space if they're not asking you to come for a specific meeting. All your time should be out messing with fans and whatever else that you need to get going and continue to build your leverage. And let's bring that back into how do you get a record deal? You get popping. You start moving. You build a fan base. You do all of these things. So once you get signed, the key is to not stop doing it. Do it as if the label does not exist. Yeah, you might go to the ATM every once in a while, get your money. But after that, you still have to go back into the real world, go back to work. And every once in a while, of course, you might go put some deposits back in the bank and for a record label, what that looks like is just a return of investment that comes back to them from the work you're doing out in the market. Get popping, stay popping. Get popping, stay popping. Repeat repeating that cycle. Don't rely too heavily on the record labels because this is just a test drive for the label. So if you don't show improve, then you gots to go. And to end this video out, I would like to share a quote that I actually saw posted by at ginsdeguru on Instagram. It's by Chris Rock and it goes like this. I'd always end up broken down on the highway. When I stood there trying to flag someone down, nobody stopped. But when I pushed my own car, other drivers would get out and push with me. If you want help, help yourself. People like to see that. Chris Rock, one of the goats. So of course, to end it out, anybody who's had a label experience, I would love to know your thoughts. You can share those in the comments or actually just reach out to me because maybe we can share your story one of these days on the channel. Other than that, if you like this video, go ahead and hit that like button. If you like it, you might as well share it. And if you're not subscribed, you know what? To do hit that subscribe.