Mike Whelan [00:10:12] Hey, everybody, Im Mike Whelen. This is what were going after. Music. We have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Hit-Boy and all the concerned parties to address his concerns and will continue to do so until a reasonable solution is achieved.). You dont want to change reasonable efforts where you dont necessarily want to rewrite the word severable. Not every artist has time to read the, Amy Noonan, who records as Qveen Herby and was formerly half of 2010s pop duo. Dependents. For his initial contract period, Yeezy received 8percent of all singles and long-play singles,14 percent of the royalty base with respect to master recordings during initial contract period,14 percent of sales of an album in excess of 500,000 units and15 percent of sales of an album in excess of 1 million units. He released his two Grammy-winning albums independently more than 20 years later, and he hasnt inquired about the recoupment on his first record in years. ET . If you have a kid who knows nothing about law and sees all this money, these contracts are 60 pages long, who the fuck is reading that? Anokute says. Im seeing a lot of these highlights. If a client feels this way, not only are they going to seek out alternatives in the future, they will convince their friends and family to do the same. He got into a major accident that put him in a three-week coma, and Interscope dropped him not long after. Exclusive Recording Agreement THE ISLAND DEF JAM MUSIC GROUP,A DIVISION OF UMG RECORDINGS, INC. 1755 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019 Dated as of March 10, 2013 Kanye West c/o Carroll, Guido & Groffman, LLP 1790 Broadway, 20 th Floor Suite 800 New York, NY 10019 Attention: Michael Guido, Esq. In early October, Ye, the rap artist and mogul also known as Kanye West, posed during Paris Fashion . These are the documents that were talking about. I PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS THAT IT DONT LOOK LIKE THIS TOMORROW," Ye wrote in a tweet with the five accompanying images. Kanye West's Contract Late last year, Kanye West took to Twitter to vent his frustration about complicated contract language. Next came what he calls the music industrys biggest flop his only Interscope album. Ye says he wants his four children to own them. And, to an extent, they're not wrong. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. So lets shift to the Kanye contract, and were not going to do a full breakdown of what all these documents are, because theres a lot and there are good YouTube videos out there. Not every artist has time to read the Donald Passman bookand find out what every term and clause means, and while there are great lawyers out there, too many just want their 5 percent [commission].. "UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD TO BUY THEM," Kanye tweeted on Wednesday (Sept. 16). It is a family. Kanye West, seen in 2019, has lost business deals in light of his recent antisemitic remarks. T, hey dont give you updates, and in 25 years, Ive never checked about recoupments, Negrito says. Mike Whelan [00:03:02] Thats right. Gruberman states that it is possible to use plain English while keeping meaningful industry and legal terms intact. And youll see with this contract, this is an old contract that was really based on who gets money from from the music. The deal. Again back to dependents. Right. Kanye Wests Record Deal Is Standard. this summer, doesnt point the finger at any one entity or group for the nature of these deals. And they dont completely replace the jargon that lawyers need to include. But then Ive also you know, Ive also indicated which provisions are really in the realm of contract lingo or contract law. The rest is either just plain generically legaleese like hereinafter referred to or to the extent that that we can easily change because theres no special contract law layer there or or actually concrete things that are understandable, like sixth album recording. Thats not the game here, Noonan recalls as the mindset when negotiating contracts. So, you know, theres a lot in contract language thats really just generic legaleese the same kinds of things you see in other documents. Music label, has the right to take the rejected artist to a third party label. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Found online, don't shoot the messenger. So the tool, the tool were looking at brief catch, you know, there you go. Ross Guberman [00:20:11] Yeah, I think part of that is really bracketing off, just as you are saying, words and phrases that a lawyer knows have substantive value. We didnt spend our advance on cars or jewelry, we bought a house. (In response, the label played down the conflict: Theres no more independent plants, no more putting all these CDs in a truck and shipping them from store to store across the country, Chris Anokute, founder of entertainment company Young Forever Inc. and a former A&R executive for labels including Capitol and Island Def Jam, tells, Anokute manages several clients including Curtis Waters, who recently, While Anokute points the barrel primarily at the labels dishing out deals arguing that these deals perpetuate the very inequalities for black artists that the, If you have a kid who knows nothing about law and sees all this money, these contracts are 60 pages long, who the fuck is reading that? Anokute says. . August 6, 2021 3:35 PM EDT. "Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. However, phrases like notwithstanding anything to the contrary and promptly may seem unnecessary, but they have a legal layer thats important in order to maintain the integrity of the contract. Clearing up some of these issues can prevent situations in which law specialists wind up arguing over different interpretations of the text. Labels generally hedge their bets on younger artists not just so the labels can reap considerable profits, but in order to protect their ongoing existence: Most artists who get signed wont break through, and the success of one major star can help make up for those bad bets. XXL has taken a deep dive into Kanye's record contracts. When youre awake to this, you cant be the perpetrator anymore.. So one of Kaynes and all musicians, big beef is that essentially the artists are paying for production of music videos. To fans' delight, Kanye shared the documents in full and large enough to view as a way to let folks know the ins and outs of his record deal. Soundtrack: The Great Gatsby. And according to the general counsel, its worked wonders. So, Ross, this document, why does it matter? What contract language is unnecessarily archaic and what isnt? After that point, UMG can distribute the albums on their own. Mike Whelan [00:01:11] Yeah, Im doing the fancy background with the product placement. So those are those are the impediments. I AM ON MY KNEES THIS MORNING," he tweeted before dropping the proof. So we dont want to change recouped because now we would be not faithful to the substance. Yet even though Kanyes deal may not make him the ideal poster child for a conversation on the fairness of recording contracts, hes sparked a high level of discussion among artists and music-business insiders on the nature of record deals and long-held standards. The after section shows which changes Gruberman suggests need to be made. He dumped them all on Twitter. I will not share the image of Kanye West urinating on his Grammy, though. I want you to do me a quick favor. So you keep those and then you also, of course, in your sector or industry, want to keep those terms of art as well. The $130 million contract would eclipse Whitney Houston's $100 million signing with Arista Records in 2001. If Island Def Jam Music Group were to pass on an artist,Getting Out Our Dreams Inc., the acronym for Kanye's G.O.O.D. Lets rewrite the deals to be understandable from first rate. So lets take another example from the Kanye contract. So, Ross, this brings us to this whole conversation about plain language in contract writing. Theyre there of the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, if any. Join me and my friends. Theyre paying for all of the promotion of music videos and concerts because its coming out off the top. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. Kanye West leaked his recording contracts on Twitter. You take expenses out and then people are sharing whats left. See's Kanye West's Record Contract Tweets, revealing the intricate details of his record label contract. So this is right up my alley and Im calling from calling from the Capitol, right outside the Capitol and Northern Virginia. Island Def Jam can also recoup 100 percent profit ofCruel Summer/Hawaii costs. Ye by Kanye West (Record, 2018) (9) 100% agree - Would recommend. As usual, West's behavior has spurred an onslaught of speculation regarding a possible return to a business relationship with Nike. The lawyers in this industry who are used to the status quo are going to say its worth it, but if I make a deal with you and go to lunch and say you pay 70 [percent], I dont think youll say its fair. Report: Kanyes Anti-Semitic Rhetoric Led to Assaults, Vandalism, If you have a kid who knows nothing about law and sees all this money, these contracts are 60 pages long, who the fuck is reading that? longtime A&R exec Chris Anokute, Anokute manages several clients including Curtis Waters, who recently went viral through his TikTok hit Stunnin. While Waters was courted by many major labels,at Anokutes counsel, he signed a shorter-term 60-40 profit-split deal with BMG. So so as I play this in the background, tell me about some of the phrases that youre seeing in this that are just driving you nuts. Theres theres a counseling function in addition to a drafting function that seems to be really important that lawyers didnt do here. Uploaded for archival purposes. The artist owns the copyright in the recordings and songs and leases them to the record label/publisher for a limited term. However, the film has not yet been released. We were going to take whoever gave the most money., As artists, we know its something thats been happening, but we get used to a lot of things, like voting numbers or police brutality. So you pay to see your money!!! The equity is the Artists. Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. Now we know where the funds will come from, so its its. Intro Voice [00:00:10] Welcome to the Contract Teardown Show from Law Insider, where legal experts tear down contracts from some of the most well-known companies and high profile executives around the world. Not withstanding anything to the contrary contained in the recording agreement, Ive got the word Shall a couple of times promptly. He's also called for Drake, Bono, Paul McCartney,. They dont want they dont want whats on the right to somehow control. As far as the actual deal goes, Kanyes isnt particularly bad: Music lawyerswho spoke with Rolling Stone call Wests deal standard for an artist at his level. I do a lot of these kind of microlevel edits that people seem to like. One seems to be this issue of Ive got to check some legal boxes. Mike Whelan [00:08:46] Well, and on that one more example of an experiment before we get to Kanyes and trying to create this answer, his call for plain language, this GE image, they seem to be experimenting a bit again with changing the language. 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