 Jaquory, do you think country artists are smarter than rappers? I'm pleased to feel that way. I am just saying because this person just broke down basically talking about how rappers aren't moving smart these days. This is inside from an exec and we're talking about what if you were doing five million streams in less than a month? That's what this country artist was doing and in this clip he's about to break down exactly how the country artists deal with structure and there's gonna be some things to take from it. So if you want to hear the inside of a real artist deal doing real numbers and want to kind of think about what you might need to ask for or not this is the clip to watch that and more on this episode of No Labels Necessary. Y'all check this shit out. This is country artist that I was in the middle of a conversation with in terms of a deal. He and I want you to tell me what you think. He did probably about five million streams in less than a month on this one song. He had two songs out right and it was going probably like 400,000 a week probably now three months out I think almost at 17-18 million. 400,000 a week. That's crazy. Nice little bit of momentum. I love that and he's at 17 million about right now. Go ahead and say about how much money was that probably 17 million. 17 million probably somewhere between like 50 and 80k depending on where it's coming from. All right. So this is where he is. All right. About 50 to 80k in terms of amount of money and now let's go further. How much do you think that deal was? 7-18 million. In three months. No, no, no. Total right now. Somebody had 17 million streams they doing by half a million. Is the song good? Are you signing more than one song? It was for a project. It was for that song and another song that he had out. It was just him. So just one project and those two songs are on it? Yeah. That question was a good. It's very important. Yeah. Y'all think people don't be caring about good music. Now these execs know the difference between good. I got to do this deal to flip this song that's popping because it's doing numbers. But I'm going to look at a song that I know is good differently than I look at a song that's doing numbers that ain't good. 100%. How much is it going to own? 70%. They own the whole thing but it was a license for 70-30. Actually, it was like 80, 25, 25 or whatever, three years, four years. Is the song good? I would say anywhere between 300 to 400k based on you saying the song is good. Because that means that I can go get, I can push this song or put it in certain places and get my money back. Because the song is good. Good music still wins in the end, y'all. All right, there's more to this clip, y'all. But we want to stop for a second and just argue the deal part because he's going to get into some things with the rappers. Some small things on some deals that he personally passed on because with some notable names because of what they were asking for. People who are considered successful. But let's do this. Just a little thought experiment for the exercise. Corey's going to argue why, yo, that's 75k. He should have taken a bigger deal. Ray Daniels basically projected, you know, roughly speaking, he could have taken 300 to 400k. And we've seen, we know people who have been in a position where they could take a 300, 400k and they'll take that or they'll be arguing for more. I'm going to argue for the country artist. Just for the sake of exercise and hopefully we get something out of it. You ready? Let's do it. All right. So why was his decision busted to go with the 75k? Well, I want to start with, you know, I did the projections. We can guesstimate somewhere between 50 to 80k already made based on where in the world, those streams are coming from, what platforms or streams are on. He never said which one. So you've already made the deal amount in three months. It's a new song, right? So we can assume that it's probably going to keep roughly that same momentum for at least two or three months. So we're talking about possibly another 50 to 80k. Damn near guaranteed. You know what I'm saying? In the next two or three months. And now you had double the deal in what a sixth of the time of the amount of the contract. It won't be because I remember you said three to four year license. So we're talking about six months. You've made, you know, you've made just way more in less time than whatever it's going to be. So there's the argument of like, hey, like you could just not sign a deal and keep all of this money and be in the same position you're about to be in. You know, mine is, you know, you could argue the resources, which I feel like the look is on your face. Like you better argue resources. Resources are nice. Resources are nice. You know what I'm saying? But resources also. Well, hold on. Don't multiple point me. You're right. You're right. Don't multiple point me. I'm bad. I'm bad. I'm bad. Let's stop here. Because just based off of what you said, if I made 50 to 80k within three months, right? I've already made this $75,000 that I'm about to get from somebody else, right? And let's be clear. This is a loan, right? They're not giving me this money. Yeah. All right? Oh, you said a loan. A loan. Yeah. So I got to respect the fact that this is a loan. Let's clarify that when they give you this 75k, they give me this 75k. This is a loan. This isn't just my money free. I got to pay them back. Yeah. In the following three months, you said I probably make in this guesstimation 50 to 60, 70, right? In the following three months. So basically I pay that loan back in three months, right? But your argument is I could have just kept that money. I would have had 140k in my pockets, right? But I chose why to go ahead and do this deal. A couple reasons. One, resources are nice, but it's my entry point also into building a bigger and better deal situation. All right? A lot of you, you know, you hippity hoppy artists, you know what I'm saying? Y'all take these big numbers and put yourself in a ditch that you can't ever pay back. Yeah. Instead, I prefer to pay the money back. And then when I pay that money back, now I'm scot-free. We're good. I'm not stuck in a deal. I can go somewhere else. I can navigate. I'm nimble. And the people that I broke bread with came out happy to I delivered. And now they're going to have confidence for me to go up. No different than me performing in a small venue. And then the booking agent says, hey, you know what? I'll approve you to be in a 200 cap. And you go up the letter. I'm just creating proofs of concept in a low risk way to keep myself to use the label system without ever being trapped by the label system. Come on, bro. I can't. Can I jump ship and then come back to my ship? I just want to leave life for a second and then come right back. All right, bro. Come over here, bro. It's nice over here. We got. No, I do get that. Right. I could. I could see an artist in that. Like he said, but he only had two songs out. So this sounds like a fairly new artist. You know what I'm saying? So we also have to account for just general new artist skepticism, which is very fair and very valid. All of you should have new artists. Right. So I could see him saying like, hey, maybe the label did offer 340 K. He's like, man, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to be at. It's only my second song. The shit probably feel lucky. Let me take a small amount to your point that I know I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. I can take a small amount to your point that I know I can. Cause now if I take a 75 K deal, I'm recouped in two, three months. And no matter what happens after that, yeah, exactly. I'm good. I agree with that. I see that. Now if I come back to my ship with the resources and building the career, he is an artist with two songs that did 17 million streams in three months. There's not an industry professional in the world right now. Not only he couldn't, I don't think to get access to. He also will have the funds to be able to hire them. And he is currently hot. We all know how much industry professionals love a hot artist to be able to attach themselves to. So it's not too many resources that if he swung his momentum now, he could get access to him. And we could argue, I feel like you're going artist education. Does he know the things that he needs to get access to, to push the ball forward? I want to give this guy a bend for the doubt and say, he probably watched his platform for hours and has a massive certain level of music industry knowledge. So maybe at least know I need to hit the base. Let me get a lawyer. Let me get a publicist. Let me get a marketer. Let me get an e-commerce funnel building nigga. Go ahead and set my infrastructure up. Let me get a booking agent. And a lot of those doors are going to open for him because like I said, he's hot. He did five million streams a month. That is a hot artist. And the music industry loves two things. They love profitable artists and they love hot artists. He is both of those things currently. Yo artist, there's a lot of distributors out there. But if you want a distributor that will take you seriously, not just look at you as a number, then to loss is the platform from you. I'm talking about helping you beyond just putting your music on all the DSPs. That's what y'all are supposed to do. To loss actually helps you with your money. I'm talking about whoever's a part of the song, dealing out the splits easily. Or more importantly, helping giving you an advance so you can actually create what you need to, whether that's studio time, whether that's your music video, but helping you get money to help fund your career. And most importantly, a lot of these distributors don't really help with the play listing and things like that unless you are a signed artist. You have some kind of serious deal, but to loss has that ability as well. And some of our clients, when they switched over to to loss, they've given us shining reviews. So check out to loss to loss.com and make sure you put in the code. No label. Again, that is no label. And let them know that y'all came from us. It's completely free. Make sure y'all let them know where y'all came from. No label. Let's get back to the episode. Resources do matter. Education does matter. We can assume that he has the baseline. Yeah. We can assume he has the baseline and is going to try to hire some people. But I disagree with the accessibility because you can't put with so many people into the situation where it's fruitful for everybody to be able to work. Everybody can't eat off of the same plate. All right. So he has to select the right people, maybe, but this might be a way of bringing in because they never mentioned the distributor, right? Yeah, they didn't. But this is the way of getting into a situation, but then using it off of one song, I'm using these, well, or two songs, whichever one it is. I'm using these couple of songs as a learning situation. I make the money back so the risk is very low. I pay them back. It is only for a three-year period. I'm making 75 to their 25 off of the profit split. So I'm really just paying them 25%, right? Because I just paid them back money I made. I kind of delayed the money. I forgot it ahead of time, right? I just got the money ahead of time. So if we think about the present value of money, it is worth more today, sir, than tomorrow. Me right? I'm just saying. So I got it pushed. I've got the future to date. You know what I'm saying? Got that money payback easy. 25% got split. And now I have whatever those resources are and I can continue to leverage it for that song while I still own the rest of my catalog. And Lord have mercy. It's trickling down to the rest of it. It's what Russ talks about all the time. And that man looks like he's living pretty wealthy, man. Wealthy and healthy. Wait, you talking about Russ or them? Well, I can say all they all look pretty. They all look pretty wealthy and healthy. I'm talking about Russ, the artist as an example of this young country artist situation. He is, Russ has done the get distribution instead of a whole label. He's done things with parts of catalog to my knowledge. And then it trickles down to the rest of his catalog in terms of ownership and deals and however he's played that system. I don't know the ins and outs of every single detail of his business, but he's leveraged that. And we know artists who have leveraged that. And the risk, if you're going to do something, we know artists who have done a single deal or a two song deal and it didn't turn all that great either. It did not. It did. And you would think that's an argument against me, but when we're talking about the very beginning and the value of that learning to actually see behind the doors and I paid, I didn't really pay my tuition. I got fronted some money to go through these doors and then just paid it right back. The education and shortening that timeline to me is what a lot of this game is worth because most of it is knowledge based. This is an industry where it's built on hustle and knowledge. And that's why it can get so gritty and political because it's not based on like a like hardcore on true skill and meritocracy. There's so many ways to get in knowledge and hustle, right? So if I can shorten the time span in which I can learn, like borrow resources, borrow knowledge any way I can. And I could do it for a low risk like that. Then. Amen. Bravo. Bravo. No, I do agree with that. I didn't think about that perspective to come back. I'm not all the way back on the ship. I'm like on the bridge to foray back over there. That's a good point. Right. Like I get to basically learn how the major label system works for free. And like I said, he's two songs in. So this is very clearly a fairly new artist. You know what I'm saying? So his mind is his or her mind is going to be blown when they get over there. You know what I'm saying? It's going to be shit that I didn't even think about. You know what I'm saying? There are certain label resources that the more I've learned about labels, I've learned a harder to get access to. Right. Like you talk about like, you know, certain things like, I don't want to say like it's hard to get into. Let's say like the world is sinking. Labels got a strong grip on that shit. Yes. Now I'm saying you can't do it. You know, knowing label artists. But if I had to argue between who going to get that for commercial faster, probably going to be the artist at Universal Sony or Warner. You know what I'm saying? Before it report. Before the any artist. You know what I'm saying? So there are some of these things where, you know, I think it would be easier to get access to. And the beauty of a label in a lot of scenarios is they are, they know and are thinking about things that you wouldn't have ever even thought to think about. Because sometimes they're having conversations. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah, exactly. Like sometimes they're, sometimes they're moving on deals. Yeah. Sometimes they're moving on deals and making partnerships with certain companies that are about to just completely change the way shit happened. You don't, you don't even know it's happening. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I can't, I can't say that. But it's like, hold on. I get what you're saying. Yeah. I'll say it this way. I got you. I got you. If I know, hmm, NFTs are about to change the game. Mm-hmm. Unless pretend they actually did change the game in the timeline people pretended. And this is six months before NFTs come in and change the game. And I'm doing a partnership with the biggest NFT company in the world. They got three billion dollars. They're about to put behind it. You random indie artists have no idea. Mm-hmm. But I have all the inside information because I'm doing a direct partnership. They're reaching out to me because I got all the assets. I have all the IP. They're going to need to do their thing. So now I can position it to be in the best position for when that industry change occurs. Yeah. Exactly. And you know for a bag that you didn't even know existed. You didn't know it was available. And there's many versions of that. The NFT thing, you know, y'all are aware of that and that didn't happen that way. But just pretend like there are companies, because this happens at plenty of times, the companies are always going to come to the place with the leverage, all right? Especially when we're talking about unlocking in the music industry, usually they want to do deals with the IP. There's one partner who's going to unlock a huge network that instantly makes my platform valuable. Yep. Right? So that's why I hope where Apple goes, not Apple, Spotify, go to three people and then bam, things unlock. And that's most of the music in the world. Right? Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. Now, first of all, you like the air condition over here on this boat, don't you? The air condition? Yeah. You got air condition down low. Y'all don't got it inside of your boat, huh? Stop, bro. Stop, bro. Because on my boat, my boat of independence, what we have is grit. What we have is determination. What we have is a sparkling zest for life that's going to drive us and fuel us forward into areas unknown. You know what drives and fuels us forward? Fuel. Oil. Well, that's nice. That's nice. I think this independent artist, this country artist made a great decision for him. And I think that is the point that they're making. Let's play this last bit of the clip, too, so we don't get too far off it so y'all can kind of hear what he's referring to in these deals and how execs are thinking as well. Young man from Austin, Texas was asking for $75,000. That's good. That's amazing. That's amazing. Amazing. My point is, if it was a rapper. A million. And again, that's why when I say I passed an ice spice and I passed on this and I passed on that is because couldn't justify the numbers. Unfortunately, what our community does is we try to take advantage. We think that this is the I'm going to get rich. No, this is the first or second or third step to get there, right? Let me help you. Oh, I'm glad he said that. The short term mentality and we train, especially the hip hop drama to think that this is programmed to think this way. It's to hit a lick mentality. I'm hitting a lick and getting over on them. Not realizing I'm digging a hole for myself. I hit a lick, got this quick 300,000, got this quick million. The guy in the background, I think he said a hip hop artist would ask for four to five million. That's what I think he said. Ray Daniels just doing some quick calculations. Fair enough deal, three or four hundred thousand. All right. But this got passed on deals with artists. Why? Because what I've told artists before, you can do deals and negotiate however much you think you can, right? But what you're negotiating to, it's not charming charisma that's being used to get more money than you're worth and get over on somebody. You know what's happening? What you're negotiating for is to get everything that you can get. And I know it sounds like a new one. It's like, yeah, of course that's what you're getting. No, what I mean by that is the accounting has a number that they can go up to. This is hard numbers that they're looking at. The person you're talking to, right? Doing a deal with they get told, hey, you know, you can do a deal somewhere in this range. They, if they really like you, they're willing to go up and up and up as high as they can. They really like you or they really feel like you're negotiating hard and we're willing to figure it out. But when they report back to accounting, accounting's black and white. They don't even know who you are. They don't even understand who your music, the person you're talking to might actually really rock with you and want you there, but they cannot go over the number. The number is the number. There's more artists out there, man. Statistically, like that's our accounting thing. And like, yeah, what's the big deal? Like, okay, this guy, whoever insert great artist's name that you think is great. Oh, no, that number doesn't make sense. So you're negotiating to get the max worth there and you're just fighting to figure out what that number is. That's what I look at it as, right? So even when you think you're getting over and a savant negotiating this great deal, in a lot of these cases is not, right? You're just unearthing your worth in that label's eyes. And on the other side, at the same time, you're putting yourself in a worse position or a harder position to get out of that seems great in the short term, but it fucks up your flexibility. Nah, you just dropped the gym too, man, because that is the silent enemy that a lot of artists don't even think about or know exists. It's the finance department at the label. So many times they think it's the label owner or the A&R's or the head of whatever department. Nah, it's the finance team, bro. The finance team does not give a fuck about none of that shit, bro. They don't care. Their job is to make sure the label is profitable at the end of the year and they're going to step on next if they need to. They're going to kill dreams if they need to to make sure that goes in because that's how their job gets secured. Make sure the books are good and we are at the end of the year. So yeah, nah, that's something. Yeah, bro, that was a bar, bro. And look, you know, we're imagining this huge person whose puppeteer over everything and trying to push and pull has this agenda. Nah, finance department, not that. I'm not saying those people don't exist. Department department, it's just a regular person working there nine to five. I'm looking at numbers. Do they check out or not? It's not malicious. It's business. Business. It's so simple in that way. It's so simple in this way. This math does not work out and that's zero emotion attached. Yeah, and the finance team has been burning me. A lot of these like finance people at labels have been there for a long time. That's probably one of the more secure jobs in places like this, right? And they've seen people like you come and go. They've seen overzealous A&Rs that really believe in somebody and fought for them and that shit didn't work out. So they're burned and they're a silent voice. You know what I'm saying? Tell me one person that cares about what the finance person in the label has to say, other than the execs of the label. The only time you're coming to me is when the deal gets made or new money, but I don't have any say on what to do after that. So this is my only time. The stakes are high. And I get the brunt of the blame in the end of the year if that shit don't work out. Like now it's like, damn, you let the A&R make that deal? That's crazy. It's like, no, that nigga really believe, right? He had this twinkle in his eye. He just knew this guy girl was going to be Drake and it's like, but you approve that deal? It's crazy. You're getting persuaded by twinkles now? Exactly. Oh, man. So we want to know what y'all are thinking about this episode. Hopefully that was helpful in terms of explaining some of the sci-fi deal structures and why people go one way or another and why taking most money that you can get is not the best way to go many times over. In my opinion, we had our positions that we had to take for the exercise, but I truly do believe that the best way is to, over time, if you have confidence, it takes confidence that you're actually going to have a career and you're not just here for the moment. If you have confidence you're building a career, take those small steps again and again and again and just get new deals and never have to stress out about paying somebody back and leave it at that. I wanted to be very clear this wasn't exercise before people started calling me stupid in the comments or crucifying me for not having a long term mentality, but I do agree with that position. I think it was smart that he asked for a lower amount. Like I said, he best he made sure the hole that he's in is one that he can just step out of very quickly. Like I said, you get all the benefits to get the learning experience. It really can't be more than that, no matter how it goes. Can't be exactly. Low risk, high reward, and this occasion in my opinion, I'm down. On this occasion in my opinion, this is yet another episode of No Labels Necessary. I'm Brandon Mann, Sean. I'm Cory. I'll see you in the next video.