 Here is a post from United Masters, all right? They said a look into how major label deals are negotiated when you check it out during a conversation that Robert F. Smith had at his alma mater, businessman Robert Smith detailed how private equity firms function. His outline had similarities to how major label deals are constructed in order to most benefit the label monetarily without actually investing time and energy into a lot of the artists they sign. Check this out. Let me tell you what private equity is. Okay, it is typically eight white males sitting around a table arguing about which of their deals is better than the others. They have 15 or 18 deals in their mind and 25 relationships they think that if they bring it together they can make money and then they sit at the table and argue about, well, my deal is better than yours and I'm gonna shoot your idea. It's a very bespoke process. And most people think, oh, by that the cream will rise to the top, the best returns will manifest out of that process. But go look at the facts. The facts show high volatility, okay? Some cases do great, some cases lose everything, right? And you know, look, I don't call that investing. That's placing bets. That alone, when we look at it, if you've paid attention to label infrastructure additionally enough, you know that artists are looking for one big win, not labels are looking for one big win to take care of all their losses, right? So yeah, y'all 500 artists might fail, but man, this one hit and man, they covered everything and more, that's where we're getting our profit from. Why are labels so tight with that money, right? That's a part of why. Cause we don't know how we're gonna make this work, right? And we know that we don't know how to systematically make something pop. So we have to do our best guess, provide our system of resources to increase the odds, but then at the end of the day, we just gotta see what happens. Gambler. Gambler. Gambler. It's gambler. It's a more strategic gamble, but not so strategic. I don't even want to call it in most cases. No, I don't even want to call it. What's a better way? It's a system built to gamble and lessen the odds of major losses, right? So I've talked to people, actually Wendy Day shout out to her. She was one of the people the first kind of told me that, look, they have numbers when it comes to these deals that artists make, right? So the accounting department has it cleared. I can do this number, I can do this number cause I have to make a certain amount of money on an investment. They are looking at the odds of this. They're working all the numbers. So when you're thinking that you're in this process of a bidding war, you will have people drop out. Yeah. Because they have numbers that are worked based on their system and their infrastructure that they can make an investment in. So a lot of times I think from an ego standpoint we think we're bidding and getting a maximum value but really what we're getting is getting the maximum value that they can give us, not what we're worth. And in some cases, probably many cases your worth is beyond their maximum but you're happy that you negotiated to a higher point. Even though that higher point is not your true worth is just the maximum worth that they can view you as and provide for you, which kind of sucks. You know what I mean? But you're like, oh yeah, I made these folks fight and then they offered me this number and I went with them, you know? So all of this is an illusion in some ways, right? And being aware of that, we kind of have to work to navigate that and just understand the game for what it is and how we want to flip it for ourselves and know that this might be the most value I might get this time but then you have to have a long-term vision which is another discussion but staying with his example of private equity, you know? On one end, look, you understand the idea of a company trying to leverage is resources to minimize the work. That's what everybody's trying to do, right? So can't feel bad about it or be mad at somebody for doing this shit. That's what everybody's trying to do in their life in one way or another, right? But of course you have to be aware that when you're doing that with somebody that might work against you. So I get how if I'm the artist and I hear this, okay, that might be a little bit upsetting. Now how do you navigate this? Other than negotiating, trying to get your maximum value, there are some labels that might be more akin to understanding who you are, believing in your vision. You have to start to look for some of those other things, right? So, like, look, business is business. You know, I hate that term maybe in general and just applying to everything but like in general, business is this, trying to leverage your resources to get a maximum output, right? So we can't be mad at that and act like that shit's evil, right? But he said bespoke, it's a bespoke process and I'm not gonna lie. I couldn't remember what that shit meant so I looked it up. So bespoke means made for a particular customer, right? So what he's saying is that process might work for some but it don't work for others either. Don't work for most. That's what he's really saying. So you have to figure out if the label or people that you're going to business with for whatever type of deal doesn't make sense for your system, because what we experience all the time is people saying, I mean, yeah man, that other artist, I hear them complaining but they ain't ever said nothing crazy to me or all my money coming, like I'm good, right? And that is the reality of it as well. Business models fit some people just like different artists fit some consumers. Let me take a quick second to say if you're an artist trying to blow your music up or if you're a manager, a music professional in general trying to help an artist blow their music up, I have something that's a game changer for you and it's completely free. As you may know, we've helped multiple artists go from zero to hundreds of thousands of streams. We've helped multiple artists go from hundreds of thousands to millions of streams, chart on Billboard, GoViral, all of that stuff. And we've now made the way we've branded multiple artists and helped them go viral completely free step-by-step in Brandman Network. All you have to do is check out brandmannetwork.com. You apply, it's completely free, but the thing is we're not gonna let everybody in forever. So the faster you apply, the better your chance of getting accepted. Brandmannetwork.com, check it out. Back to the video. Yeah, yeah. I can't remember who we were talking to recently that broke it down like sports terminology, right? It was like some players do better in the different team system than another team, right? The playstyle ends up kind of changing. The playstyle fits them as a player a lot better for whatever reason. But I think artists looking at it like the labels are gambling, I think that should make a lot of things that they typically, the spies about labels make a lot of sense, right? Yes. So, you know, big one is, man, why are labels no longer doing artist development? That's shit expensive. And then I've been developing you for four or five years just for you to quit, you know, worst case scenario, something bad happens to you. What we just learned the shit doesn't hit anymore because the whole music landscape changed. Nope, not doing that. And it's harder to make money. So I don't have that expense. Oh yeah, to give up. Yeah, yeah. It's like I'm investing in however many tens of carats and you're not making no money back until year four or five. I would have to catch you at year four or five. You know what I'm saying? Like it'd be real, right? 100%. So they get the gripe for like, you know, signing viral acts, but it's like the viral act while yes, there's still a risk they have a bit more approval concept than you that doesn't. So in their minds, it's a safer bet, right? Hey, he already got a million followers. You know what I'm saying? He already got a song with 10 million strings on it. He already got a currency infrastructure and a team. You know what I'm saying? Like, all right, this feels right. You know what I'm saying? I feel like we can kind of move your hand to our thing. So yeah, that's, it's just interesting because one of those things were like, if you pay enough attention to how labels move, you could kind of like guess it. You know what I'm saying? You could see it, but it is nice having somebody that is understanding that say that. But then the other thing too, I think what he mentioned on is like, the, what am I trying to say? I guess the like, the human aspect of it, right? The end of the day, these labels, these companies, these whatever people you look up to, they're just headed by a person. And sometimes people make bets, not off of like what they think is the best thing or what, you know what I'm saying? They think has the potential to do really well. Sometimes they invest in things because their friend told them about it and they really want to help their friend, right? How many times have you ever seen an artist that you be like, man, why is this motherfucking so much attention, man? I personally feel like he's trashed. And then you learn that him in the head of somebody or like childhood best friends or like grew up or something, right? They got like a pack through a bun that's deeper than just the business relationship, right? And so I think a lot of people tend to just look at these systems as just businesses, right? And so you kind of think like, oh, a business is going to do, should be doing like what is best for the business or best for the bottom line. But there's a human at the top of this, bro. And sometimes humans do things that are rational when you compare it to the system they typically hold themselves against. You know what I'm saying? Rational within that system might be rational within their life as a whole. Exactly, exactly right. Yo, I'm a label and we typically like to sign, you know, rappers that come from the streets but I'm about to take a risk and sign this rapper from the suburbs. It's like, oh my God, that's the whole groundbreaking. You know what I'm saying? Like that's so life-changing. But like that happens, you know what I'm saying? Like sometimes those decisions get made because of the perspective of the person at the top, you know what I'm saying? And then it trickles down to the rest of the organization. See, that's what I love about this conversation because when you pay attention, you study business and you study people, none of this should be surprising. And you would be messed up to try to assume otherwise. Yeah, you look weird for trying to go against it. You look weird for trying to go against it because you are the person that you're fighting in many ways, all right? Human, all right? People say stuff about like helping out friends, all right? Or giving some advantages to their kids. Wouldn't you do that shit? Yeah, or it's like, you think you the only one thinking that? Yeah, why in the fuck would I make all this money to not lessen some of the struggles of my family? We're not talking about like, spoiling or putting on and giving around, giving shit that maybe they straight up don't deserve. I mean, like you have zero talent and then I'm like, I wouldn't lie to my kid and be like, dang bro, you can sing and you can't sing, you know what I mean? If you don't have good music, you don't have good music, but at least maybe if he wanted to be in that category, I don't want my kids to be artists in that way. But like, all right, you might get a studio to record in that nobody else could typically afford or they would have to work to have that themselves. Like advantages come like, that's what we all do. We all want to create advantages for people that we care about in ourselves in some form of fashion, right? Now we're not talking about being unethical or any of that extreme stuff, but like it's just basic human nature and people tend to help the people they know more. I'm not even talking about best of friend, but like if I don't know who you are, right? This person found out some way to meet me, right? And now we're like in the same circle or we just happen to haphazardly be in the same circle and then we can spark it off, cool, right? And friends happen to meet friends of their friends. Like that's how all this stuff works. So that's why people try to work to get in circles, right? That's why it doesn't make sense to fight or spend too much time thinking and creating this myth of making it bigger than it is. Like there's this rage to get you or there's this underlying evil element to everything. You know how y'all get with music? Now let's get back to the business. It's the same shit, right? We look so much about, we look at so many things as artists are raging against the machine, overcoming labels and labels are now giving these better deals because they demand it. It's all just basic business. You alluded to it. Well, look, I'm not making the same amount of money from music, so I'm also not gonna give you a deal for as much, right? Or I'm not going to invest in you until you get to a later point down the road. Back in the day, right? There were labels that had like legitimate artists development labels, you know, that had like Motown. They had like coaches for editor kit coaches, right? They'll put you with some songwriters. They had this entire assembly line, literally of people to run you through, but that means I had to pay all of these different coaches to coach you, right? And the rest of my artists and have them on my payroll to build this system out. Now I can't afford to do all that because the risk is higher and I have to cut expenses, right? Because it's hard to make money in music, but what I can do is give you a better deal, but I'm also gonna take less risk, right? So why aren't labels doing X, Y, and Z? Well, I didn't invest in doing X, Y, and Z. You are basing what I should be doing on a perception from yesteryear. The old business model. The old business model, we ain't in that today. That's why I ain't doing shit for you because it don't make sense based on how I run shit before. At one time, to be real, labels did do shit. Yeah, a lot of shit. A lot of shit, for real, for real. So when you just pay attention to the business model, it's not like, we're not here to argue on the behalf of labels. It's arguing on the behalf of basic logic because when you face it that way, it's going to make all of your deals better. It's gonna help you be less surprised. So it's gonna create your planning a lot better, right? It's gonna inspire you to plan better and help you make strategic decisions better because your expectations won't be put in the wrong places. It literally doesn't make sense for this person to do this if you understand what that person does. It literally does make sense for that person to do that because it's like, hey, based on your percentage and how things are bused down and the way your business model works, you should be going hard for me right now. And if you're not going hard for me, we're not gonna be set up, right? All of those things become a lot easier to see when you literally pay attention to the business model at hand and every label don't have the same business model, right? There's some generalities, but in periods of time, people will be invested in one category more than another because they're trying to find their space in the market and they'll build infrastructure. So you look at some labels like Atlantic for a period of time was going hard on influencer types, right? They were probably building more infrastructure and learning around that specifically, right? So all of this is something to pay attention to, not just the general label idea of what were labels yesterday, what are labels today in terms of general business, but what is this specific label seem to be invested in and how do they go about it, right? What is this distribution company seem to be invested in how do they go about it? Why are they able to only take 15% or why do they let me put their shit on the platform for free? Oh, cause they're charging me $20 a month or whatever, right? Cool. But what does that mean too? Oh yeah, there's probably less investment and if my music goes anywhere cause they're not getting the percentage, they're cool as long as I'm putting my shit on their platform, right? All of that makes a difference. And once you understand what those differences come with, then you can make an educated decision and build your systems around your choices as well. Have your own business model. Yeah, exactly. Or at least look for the business model that makes sense for you. That's what it all boils down to, man, cause you'll see artists argue against the system and it's like, bro, the system just is not for you. Coastal Wells. That's it, that's it. Get out of my yard complaining. I'm gonna throw a rock out the window, go down the street cause the way this party running, everybody else happy in this bitch. Talk about change the music. Go down the street, right? That's all it is. Don't be that one person, right? But no, like seriously, you save yourself a lot of struggle and it's gonna help you move a lot smarter because what I hate is the polarization of everything, not just in music, but to media in general today. And when people are going so hard around these topics and making them so emotional, they're actually causing people not to think, like emotions like when the number one way to distract people from basic logic. So like always demonizing labels and these infrastructures, these pages that have all these thumbnails and shit and videos about labels being evil when they're doing this, that and the third, I guarantee. Look, all they're doing is monetizing your attention. You're like, oh, those people are screwing me over and they're the person who's educating me on all these people who are scamming me. No, they're playing in to the people's predisposition to react to negativity and they're screwing you over in a way by taking your mind down a rabbit hole where you can no longer be truly productive in the marketplace. Yeah, but then I set the flash bomb off over there so they could ride the bank over here. That's exactly what's going down. Like that's exactly what's going down. So like stop watching all that shit too and taking that in like, all right, let me stop hearing how shit evil. So now I'm gonna be so scared that I can't make a move. Let's just find out how the thing actually works because fear comes from the unknown. When you know that, hey, this man wasn't floating because it was some special effects going on. Oh, it's not as wild. Well, it's not that cool anymore, right? It's like learning the tricks to the magic, right? When you understand how things are done, it just becomes a matter of fact thing. So work on that, not this propaganda of fear and demonization that people push all the time. Now, with that being said,