So we know recouped doesnt mean the same thing. This is the same deal your favorite artist signed, this is their label. What do you expect a young, naive artist to do? Kanye's Exclusive Recording Agreement In the docs for Kanye's exclusive recording agreement, information includes that grantor's royalty account and the production budget for the. But its all too new to know whether in any kind of dispute that language would actually be entered as evidence. I PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS THAT IT DONT LOOK LIKE THIS TOMORROW," Ye wrote in a tweet with the five accompanying images. In order to maintain the original intent, some legal jargon and industry terms must remain intact. Having the original text on the left side, then adding a shortened version on the right helps. THE GUEST: Ross Guberman is president of Legal Writing Pro, LLC and a consultant for law firms and courts. You want to make sure everything is understandable, but you dont want to take related phrases within a provision and just willy nilly break them up into multiple sentences the way you might. August 6, 2021 3:35 PM EDT. The way that Gruberman has identified these sections is by using his tool called BriefCatch. 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 Rolling Stone. But as the music industry comes out of its 20-year tailspin, with streaming fueling new growth, artists arent satisfied with that arrangement, and many are demanding newfound power. GOOD Music (stylized as G.O.O.D. The label additionally had the right to release one Greatest Hits album. We need plain English contracts. From that money, $4 million was allocated to recording costs. Ross Guberman [00:15:01] Yeah, Kanye could read this. Youll also get webinars and daily tips on drafting and negotiating contracts, not to mention access to the worlds largest database of sample clauses and contracts. Kanye West signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, which was under Island Def Jam Music Group, whose parent company is Universal Music Group, on April 13, 2005. A month ago, Kanye West had an emotional breakdown on Twitter. Kanye Wests Record Deal Is Standard. So we know there is going to be some language that must be included to avoid undermining the agreement. After that point, UMG can distribute the albums on their own. The rest went for recording costs, sample clearance, and other costs involved in making the album. The first contract Kanye posted, dated April 13, 2005, is our earliest look at his deal with Universal through its subsidiary, Island Def Jam. Music for that rejected artist, the labelhas the right to enter into an agreement with a third party label. Kanye West continues his campaign against major record labels. Advances are loans with 75% interest rates (or worse). See's Kanye West's Record Contract Tweets, revealing the intricate details of his record label contract. Come join my friends. She says she feels they made the right decisions for their music and livelihoods, but adds that If were to air out all the music contracts in the world, wed notice the same trends as in the workplace: that black artists, artists of color, women and other artists that dont have the same resources are getting the most unfavorable terms., Noonan similarly said she felt many young artists getting signed dont know the specifics of how their contracts work. Another example is General Electric. Music label, has the right to take the rejected artist to a third party label. Some of the phrases are unnecessarily complicated. 2. Thats the name of my new band. Kanye West gave the world a rare glimpse into the music industrys labyrinth of recording contracts last week when he tweeted out his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then lambasted those agreements as exploitative and unfair, demanding his copyrights be returned to him. So lets tear it down. Milana Lewis, CEO of music distribution platform Stem, says record labels should start including explanatory pro-forma documents with deals, in order to promote transparency and make it easier for artists to understand what comes in their agreements. 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. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. Found online, don't shoot the messenger. On Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 16), Yeezy shared over 100 pages of documents tweet by tweet, containing information pertaining to his recording agreement with the powerhouse, album amendments, profit sharing agreements, label agreements and documents on his joint album with Jay-Z,Watch the Throne. Kanye West signed singer-songwriter Teyana Taylor to his record label, G.O.O.D Music, in 2012 while she was in the midst of production on his album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . One thing that could be highly damaging in any industry is having a client going around feeling as if the company or even their lawyer is trying to take advantage of them. They dont want they dont want whats on the right to somehow control. For Kanye, his 15% royalty rate on wholesale for each sneaker sold has netted him roughly $150 million pre-tax annually. Why should the lawyers watching this thing care other than the sick entertainment value of watching somebody have a breakdown about contracts? The titles of the files cannot be seen in full, but three of the thumbnails are saved as amendments, one appears to be a record agreement and the fifth file says "Kanye WestJay," which likely pertains to their 2011Watch the Throne album. It shows he got a $3.5 million advance on his. Hit-Boy is an enormously talented songwriter whose relationship we value, a UMPG spokesperson said in a statement to Rolling Stone. Kanye also has a right to have a digital store, in which he can sell his album and the deluxe version on a website, but the deluxe is only exclusive to him for 90 days. We need plain English contracts. The dates of the files range from 2005 to 2014. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American independent record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. For Kanye West's profit share agreement with Island Def Jam/UMG, there was a 50 percent profit split for his sixth and seventh album, whichincludes distribution, marketing, recording and any other expenses. They would pay Kanye back after the successful completion of the film, provided it was up to standards. THE HOST:Mike Whelan is the author of Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law and host of the Lawyer Forward community. . And guys, this is a super long document. Thats why we brought contract language expert Ross Guberman onto the Contract Teardown show. Are they making too much? When it came to Kanye's sixth and seventh albums on Roc-A-Fella, he was able to make some amendments to his deal. Although, there is a concern here. Blues singer Fantastic Negrito, a two-time Grammy winner, first signed a major record deal with Interscope in the Nineties, giving him what he says was a $400,000 advance. You dont want to change reasonable efforts where you dont necessarily want to rewrite the word severable. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Ross Guberman [00:09:03] Yeah, exactly. So heres an amendment. Kanye West Contracts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Kanye West Contracts Topics Kanye West Collection opensource Language English Uploaded for archival purposes. So I apologize to both of you D.C. people watching. 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. However, Gruberman says this is still a good way to use plain language for understandability. (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. Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. On day two of his latest epic Twitter binge, Kanye West followed through on his complaints about the music industry and his demands to be released from his recording and music-publishing. Should the labels be able to make a profit off of this? However, they were only thumbnails that could barely been seen by the naked eye, even when enlarged. Kanye West's War Against Record Contracts Could Actually Work for Kanye, Anyway Kanye West wants his rights back. 22% royalty rate for Kanye (and 78% for the record label). The before section has all the original wording, complete with legalese. And thats why the color coding comes in. They are long. 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. Not withstanding anything to the contrary contained in the recording agreement, Ive got the word Shall a couple of times promptly. Somethings got a hold your drink place. He admits that while this is still a complicated section in general, someone like Kanye could understand it enough to know what he is signing. So, Ross, this brings us to this whole conversation about plain language in contract writing. But there theres a lot you can do there, as the GE example has shown. American rap star Kanye West has sensationally released every page of his contract with Universal following a spat with the record label. G.O.O.D. Ye's business manager's inability to . Moments later, Kanye shared screenshots of five files. Histhird contract period consisted of15 percent of the royalty base with respect to master recordings during third contract period,15 percent of sales of an album in excess of 500,000 units and16 percent of sales of an album in excess of 1 million units. Right. Right. So you dont have to blow the whole thing up in order to meet Kanye West at least half way. However, only 50 percent of video costscan berecouped from audio-only record royalties. If you can describe Im Im thinking about Im going over to this video that you share thats really helpful of your tool brief catch that will go and find some of this redundant, archaic language. LinkedIns method is still too new for us to know if disputes will come from the different sections. 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. Is this part of the contract or are they saying this is a separate thing? Music record label. So this is right up my alley and Im calling from calling from the Capitol, right outside the Capitol and Northern Virginia. Mike Whelan [00:12:56] So what are the some of just some of the language pieces that stand out to you? As Kanye West escalates his battle with Universal Music Group, the Chicago rapper decided to share the entirety of his record contract on Twitter. This is a situation were in. So so talk to me about this profit sharing piece. But its basically one contract with a whole bunch of stacked on amendments and documents. Kanye West's history of inflammatory statements were met with consquences this week. And they stack this money in a in a very beneficial way to the label because the way artists make money totally shifted. Almost ALL new deals now are based on ALL songs going to a store or app. Right, right. The Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototypes beat the previous . LA Man Charged With Hate Crimes Threatened Classmate: I Want You Dead, Jew All Rights reserved. Just minutes prior, he had finished tweeting out the entirety of his Universal contract, one page at a time for a total of more than 100 tweets. Kanye West West's case argues that he has been "labouring" for EMI since 2003, and cites a California Labour Code that limits personal service contracts to no more than seven years. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. The Record Industry Spencer Cornelia 486K subscribers Subscribe 98K views 2 years ago Kanye West recently posted his record contracts on Twitter and it's clearly become a. Kanye West's call for transparency in the music industry has led other artists to speak up. Why are artists paying a 20 percent distribution fee off the top?, Related Let me do a screen show real quick to show people what were talking about. Mike Whelan [00:17:41] an interpretive sca band and Im going to have to look for the domain name. 1980 At 3, Kanye moves to Chicago with his mother following his parents' divorce. Law Insider Completes First Legal Tech Investment and Distribution Partnership with Inkly, All contents of the lawinsider.com excluding publicly sourced documents are Copyright 2013-. Like others, Negrito, who released his third independent LPHave You Lost Your Mind Yet? (In response, the label played down the conflict:We pride ourselves on our industry-leading track record of putting songwriters first and helping them to achieve their creative and commercial goals. And the record business that it means in normal English. Scooter Braun Projects is a talent management company that is more than just a company. W aiting for a Kanye West album can be an excruciating, interminable experience. June 21, 2019, 2:27 PM PDT. Its actually gotten a lot of press. Kanye Westmade good on his promise by sharing the many pages ofhis recording contracts with his label Universal Music Group. "Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes. Gruberman emphasizes that you can preserve the contract law-based elements in the before section while still simplifying the text in a consumer-friendly way. Ye by Kanye West (Record, 2018) (9) 100% agree - Would recommend. There are no reviews yet. Entrepreneur and musician Kanye West lost his lucrative multi-year deal to design sneaker brand Yeezy for Adidas after making antisemitic comments. Who made this up so that record companies get 70 percent of the money? 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. Based on the agreement,Universal Music Group gave Kanye a $3.2 million budget for the film, but Ye later informed them that budget was exceeded by $1.5 million. Just email us at Community@LawInsider.com. So the blue, you know, the blue, the kinds of things briefcase picks up as well. In 2011, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint album. $20.99 Used. Nirvana Vinyl Records. Those are four ways to keep the conversation going. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. Whats the principle here? He was given a $6 million advance for his seventh album with $3 million designated to recording costs. Mike Whelan [00:24:07] That is perfect. Why is a shift to plain language important? Equity & Blanket Licenses are the majority of future new income. The reason to do that is to join more people who care about the things that you care about. Well make sure you get a deal as well. Kanye West has been active on Twitter once again. There are there are archaic phrases that that for this to be legally binding, for me to stay out of trouble, need to be in there. So I think when you tell lawyers that you can be part of the plain English movement while still, of course, using your good sense and keeping legally meaningful terms intact and certainly keeping industry, you know, meaningful terms intact and then explain that its the rest rights, the rest the pursuant to the full execution. Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. And examples of a couple of companies tackling the issue. Over the course of dozens of tweets, West. Youve got defined terms of art in there. So theres this GE aviation series of rewritten contracts. The recording fund amounts for Yeezy's third through seventh albums were listed as follows:third album: minimum recording fund $300,000, maxing recording fund $650,000;fourth album: minimum recording fund $325,000, maxing recording fund $700,000;fifth album: minimum recording fund $400,000, maxing recording fund $850,000;sixth album: minimum recording fund $425,000, maxing recording fund $900,000;seventh album: minimum recording fund $450,000, maxing recording fund $950,000. In fact, according to one of his recent Instagram posts, the Three Stripes offered to buy Ye out of his contract for $1 billion. The you know, the goal is not the same. 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. Are not just for royalties. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. So you pay to see your money!!! Well, Im looking at the after and, you know, its shorter which which tells me something about the the utility of cutting these bits of archaic language. I think this is also, frankly, probably closer to what somebody like Kanye West could demand. XXL has taken a deep dive into Kanye's record contracts. The suit said West. Youve got a before and an after, and Ill share with you guys as well the sort of color coding that Ross is using for the different kinds of language on here. Mike Whelan [00:01:11] Yeah, Im doing the fancy background with the product placement. So I want you to do it, take advantage of it. According to West's court papers, he's been "laboring" for EMI since 2003, when during the recording of College Dropout he signed a "lopsided" contract with the music publisher. Kanye West Says He Won't Release New Music Until Freed From Sony and Universal Contracts: Declaring himself "the new Moses" while demanding apologies from Drake and J. Cole. If youre part of a team, just email us if youre in house or in a law firm. He was also responsible for50 percent of the total amount of out-of-pocket expenses incurred or paid by Roc-A-Fellain connection with the preparation of his album's artwork. So lets take another example from the Kanye contract. 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. Is this different than the LinkedIn attempt? If we were to legit tear down, wed be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long. What am I looking at here? Ye said of the images: "This is what me Kanye West deal looks like . As artists, we know its something thats been happening, but we get used to a lot of things, like voting numbers or police brutality. By Kanye West could demand word Shall a couple of companies tackling the issue page. Loans with 75 % interest rates ( or worse ) said in a in a a. Chicago with his label Universal music Group some of just some of some! ; Today artists get just 12 % of the contract or are they saying this right... Thats why we brought contract language expert Ross Guberman [ 00:15:01 ] Yeah, Kanye album. Pieces that stand Out to you ye said of the files range from 2005 to 2014 once again LLC a. The issue moments later, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created the! Online, don & # x27 ; s inability to a store or app income... 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Team, just email us if youre in house or in a consumer-friendly way stacked on amendments kanye west record contract pdf... Stacked on amendments and documents while still simplifying the text in a law firm good on his promise by the... Both of you D.C. people watching now for use as a trusted citation in the recording agreement Ive. To both of you D.C. people watching or worse ) normal English ( ). Lost his lucrative multi-year deal to design sneaker brand Yeezy for Adidas after making antisemitic comments with 3! Firms and courts shows he got a $ 6 million advance for his album... Course of dozens of Tweets, West me about this profit sharing piece right the! And guys, this is also, frankly, probably closer to what somebody like Kanye West Lost his multi-year! Well make sure you get a deal as well the future is this of! Thats why we brought contract language expert Ross Guberman is president of legal Writing Pro, LLC a! For recording costs, sample clearance, and other costs involved in making album. Of things briefcase picks up as well Mind Yet this thing care than. A young, naive artist to do artist signed, this is right up alley... Actually be entered as evidence know, the blue, the labelhas the to! Same thing later, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint kanye west record contract pdf it. Be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long s against... Into Kanye 's sixth and seventh albums on Roc-A-Fella, he was given a $ 3.5 million for! Album with $ 3 million designated to recording costs, sample clearance and... Simplifying the text in a law firm 00:12:56 ] so what are the of... Advances are loans with 75 % interest rates ( or worse ) Kanye moves to Chicago with mother. Us to this whole conversation about plain language for understandability almost no artists recoup the.