Found online, don't shoot the messenger. One strange structure commonly found in the record industry is the way profits are divided. Mike Whelan [00:00:53] Hey, everybody. The artist owns the copyright in the recordings and songs and leases them to the record label/publisher for a limited term. And then what happens is, as you can see from his other related tweets, the sense is not just, well, I dont understand the contract. Theres this site, my my other company, legal writing pro. I want you to do me a quick favor. The papers indicate that he started on a royalty deal frequently afforded to upcoming artists, which later evolved into a more artist-friendly pressing and distribution deal that gave Kanye more of the profits and bigger budgets as he became a superstar. 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. But its basically one contract with a whole bunch of stacked on amendments and documents. Theres a lot we can do. So lets tear it down. But they were reluctant to strike a deal with the young producer/rapper. There was about 100 pages of documents that he probably should not have posted on Twitter, but he did anyway. Adidas said on Tuesday that it was cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and . Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. How can you rewrite a contract to be understandable without losing the original intent? And guys, this is a super long document. If we were to legit tear down, wed be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long. 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. And you guys, if you want to see this contract and want to get the show notes from this tear down where we can link you to these documents and to other resources that interpret the document, just go to lawinsider.com/resources. For years, the rapper has set release dates with his label, only to blow by them with . At no point was Kanye allowed to object to a track being on the record if it achievedTop 100 chart success on any national trade publication at any time prior to when the Greatest Hits album was released. 88-Keys . And they stack this money in a in a very beneficial way to the label because the way artists make money totally shifted. This past Wednesday, September 16, Kanye West, in an attempt to " change the music industry for good ," shared his recording contracts with Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam Recordings, and Universal. 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. Not withstanding anything to the contrary contained in the recording agreement, Ive got the word Shall a couple of times promptly. For Kanye, his 15% royalty rate on wholesale for each sneaker sold has netted him roughly $150 million pre-tax annually. Well see you guys next time. The defined terms, look, the defined terms are this is conventional, we dont want to completely revolutionize everything theyre necessary because of this intersecting set of agreements. 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. Cruel Summer/Hawaii costs shall befully cross-collateralized with Kanye's main royalties account. Right. Money and Music must stay together. Im Mike Whelen. Broadly, what Ill say is theres this really weird profit sharing structure with this with these deals, because what the the record label will do is say we get our money, then we take expenses out. Its actually gotten a lot of press. I need every lawyer in the world to look at these," he wrote. Music for that rejected artist, the labelhas the right to enter into an agreement with a third party label. 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. And the reason that it applies to us is this awesome tweet that all the lawyers got excited about, where he says the first thing that changes about record deals is actually lawyers. In in your estimation, does this thread the needle of checking the legal boxes, but also being plain enough? Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Kanye West Contracts : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Kanye West Contracts Topics Kanye West Collection opensource Language English Uploaded for archival purposes. Kanye West continues his campaign against major record labels. The equity is the Artists. The rapper has put out nine albums over 17 years through Roc-a-Fella Records. After that point, UMG can distribute the albums on their own. We want to hear it. We were broke college kids right after the recession. Maintaining the Integrity of the Contract, Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law, How to Choose Arbitration Language Consistent with the Relationship. Over the last few days, Kanye has been vocal about trying to obtain his music masters from Universal Music Group, the parent company of his own record label, G.O.O.D. The once hesitant label has now hit the. Ive got blues and Ive got reds. For that LP, there was a recording fund amounting to$2.5 million. Like youre youre still youve got a complicated sentence with clauses. Theyll follow their attorneys recommendation. If you are interested in being a guest on Contract Teardown, please email us at community@lawinsider.com. 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. A lawyers role is to improve deals, not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. We were broke college kids right after the recession. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. Mike Whelan [00:19:16] Well, and on that, I, I sort of want to get to principles, to things that lawyers can learn from this example, which is really the purpose of this show. on September 21, 2020. 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. All Rights reserved. Coming from the tech space, when we raise money and talk with investors to get capital into our business, were armed with a pro-forma that lets us understand how much were taking on and see exactly how the numbers work out. This is a tool that is available to anyone looking to implement plain language into their contracts. I AM ON MY KNEES THIS MORNING," he tweeted before dropping the proof. However, the film has not yet been released. Mike Whelan [00:24:07] That is perfect. Mike Whelan [00:16:08] in a brief. Now we know where the funds will come from, so its its. Im seeing a lot of these highlights. But we at Law Insider put them all together in PDF, will make sure that you have a link to it. Kanye West's Contract Late last year, Kanye West took to Twitter to vent his frustration about complicated contract language. The documents contain information about royalties, distribution fees and more. A lot of people say they sign a million-dollar deal, but you dont get a check for $1 million, Noonan adds. September 18, 2020. So as you can see, this is quite different from what LinkedIn is going to do. NO other business in the world takes a look at the business, buys shares, starts to profit when it profits. Artists like Kanye feel that they are being cheated. June 21, 2019, 2:27 PM PDT. He tweeted them so I made PDFs. 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. Be the first one to, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, 2005.04.13-Recording Agreement between Roc-A-Fella Records and Rock the World, LLC_abbyy.gz, 2011.01.11-Kanye WestJay Z Duet Album Agreement_abbyy.gz, 2012.05.04-Amendment recording agreement_abbyy.gz, 2012.05.07-Amendment, including original recording agreement_abbyy.gz, 2012.05.07-Profit Share Agreement_abbyy.gz, 2012.05.17-Amendment to Recording Agreement and Film Agreement_abbyy.gz, 2013.03.10-Amendment recording agreement_abbyy.gz, 2014.08.11-Amendment recording agreement_abbyy.gz, 2019.01.09--Summary of Kanye West's Label Agreements_abbyy.gz, 2005.04.13-Recording Agreement between Roc-A-Fella Records and Rock the World, LLC_daisy.zip, 2011.01.11-Kanye WestJay Z Duet Album Agreement_daisy.zip, 2012.05.04-Amendment recording agreement_daisy.zip, 2012.05.07-Amendment, including original recording agreement_daisy.zip, 2012.05.07-Profit Share Agreement_daisy.zip, 2012.05.17-Amendment to Recording Agreement and Film 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(last updated 12/31/2014). Kanye Wests Record Deal Is Standard. Youre going to sign the amendment. See BBC report here. Kanye West Posts Over 100 Pages of His Record Label Contracts, Tweet by Tweet Tyler Sharp Published: September 16, 2020 David Crotty / Patrick McMullan, Getty Images Kanye West made. So get rid of it. LinkedIns method is still too new for us to know if disputes will come from the different sections. This is the same deal your favorite artist signed, this is their label. What do you expect a young, naive artist to do? Absolutely not. 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. 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. And they dont completely replace the jargon that lawyers need to include. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. A pair of Kanye West's Nike Air Yeezy 1 sneakers for sale for $2 million at the Sotheby's show in Hong Kong on April 16, 2021. If youre with a major you have invested your songs as shares in their power to get equity and deals. Search the history of over 797 billion Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. And of course, this became a big story, in part because he totally undermined Taylor Swift some number of years ago about get wanting to get her masters back and saying, look, you just got to play the deal in this case. Clearing up some of these issues can prevent situations in which law specialists wind up arguing over different interpretations of the text. Musicto other labels within the UMG group of labels, if no other UMG group of labels wants to enter into an agreement through G.O.O.D. Earlier this week, he denounced the contracts being provided by Sony and Universal . Kanye West Tweets About His '10' Recording Contracts: 'I Need Every Lawyer in the World to Look at These' In his latest string of tweets about his recording deals Wednesday (Sept. 16),. Mike Whelan [00:04:08] wearing the shirt. He is no longer signed to Def Jam, his longtime record company; his contract expired with his 2021 album, "Donda." And Ye . Kanye Omari West (born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer. Kenny Beats tweeted that something needs to change in the structure of the music industry to protect artists and specifically Black artists. And in a lengthy post on Instagram, Hit-Boy, whos produced platinum songs including Sicko Mode and N-s in Paris, said that multiple attorneys who have seen the deal he signed as a 19-year-old with Universal Music Publishing Group in the mid-2000s called it the worst publishing contract theyd ever seen. Mike Whelan [00:12:56] So what are the some of just some of the language pieces that stand out to you? How are businesses shifting to using plain language? Ross and I dig into Kanyes request for plain language drafting and whether its even realistic. Ye also had to seek written approval from the labelat least 14 days before the first recording session. So, you know, the fine print, so to speak, does exclude the rewrites on the right. Welcome to Law Insiders Contract Teardown Show, where we bring smart friends like Ross Guberman over here to break down some contracts. Tell me what people are talking about. Kanye West's history of inflammatory statements were met with consquences this week. West's contracts laid it all out. They dont give you updates, and in 25 years, Ive never checked about recoupments, Negrito says. Ross Guberman [00:18:04] So one, you know, one one thing going on here is trying to track chronology in the real world. And then if theres some kind of a difference between that amount and the recording costs. But theres also the issue of this is supposed to represent a meeting of the minds. Mike Whelan [00:03:02] Thats right. While recording Donda, Kanye West paid $1 million per day to live in the belly of . The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor. Theres a lot going on here. Its an interesting thing. And, you know, this sort of juncture between functional language and legal language languages is my sweet spot. The first thing that changes about Record Deals is actually lawyers. Entrepreneur and musician Kanye West lost his lucrative multi-year deal to design sneaker brand Yeezy for Adidas after making antisemitic comments. Just email us at Community@LawInsider.com. Logic tweeted that Def Jam refused to pay for a remix of his recent song Perfect that would feature Lil Wayne. $26.59 New. So we know there is going to be some language that must be included to avoid undermining the agreement. Of that, two-thirds ($8 million) was an advance for him to keep. In fact, according to one of his recent Instagram posts, the Three Stripes offered to buy Ye out of his contract for $1 billion. Whats your background? Obviously, we cant share the whole thing, but well make sure that you have a link to the whole thing in the show notes over at LawInsider.com/Resources. And we want you to know, even if the recording agreement to you indicate something else, this is whats going to happen. If West went over the $4-million budget in making the album, he would have to pay . You meme creators, but you, Ross Guberman [00:04:05] look a little to hip to be from D.C., though, and. This is subject to G.O.O.D. So lets talk a little bit. Mike Whelan [00:11:02] Hmm. As for Kanye's royalties, the percentages varied for his first, second and third contract periods. So we dont want to change recouped because now we would be not faithful to the substance. Were lucky we were told the truth in so many ways.. So what I what I what I did here is just pull pull one of the key provisions on the substantive side from this profit sharing agreement so we could try to figure out again whats possible for for the Kanye West of the world. GOOD Music (stylized as G.O.O.D. So also, you know, go like Legal Writing Pro plus I have a book I coauthored with a retired corporate partner called Deal Struck. Thats probably more than enough. And clearly there are artists signing these things that dont dont know what theyre doing. THE GUEST: Ross Guberman is president of Legal Writing Pro, LLC and a consultant for law firms and courts. Learn more about his work for attorneys at www.lawyerforward.com. Most comprehensive library of legal defined terms on your mobile device. Right. Ross Guberman [00:12:19] Yeah, I mean, as you said, Mike, theres theres a really, really complicated series of documents styled loosely as amendments, modifications, addendums. Ross Guberman [00:16:40] Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. So I have to keep it versus this is archaic and useless. I AM ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE ON THE PLANET AND UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD THEM BLACK MASTERS MATTER.". Prince Vinyl Records. 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. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. It seems that the artists themselves are paying for the production and promotion of their work since their cut goes towards expenses, but the labels cut does not. The rest went for recording costs, sample clearance, and other costs involved in making the album. It is not uncommon for a label to take their cut, then take out expenses, and then pay the artist. The partnership was a nightmare for both Negrito and the label, he says. 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. In this episode of the Contract Teardown, Foster Sayers joins Mike live at ContractsCon to beat up the ChatGPT Terms of Service. To be a little bit difficult to argue that. The deal was huge, man, they give you money to live off of. Kanye Omari West is born in Douglasville, Georgia by the proud parents Donda Williams and Ray West. These are the documents that were talking about. I do a lot of these kind of microlevel edits that people seem to like. Donda 2, due for release on Tuesday (February 22), is the follow-up to Ye's Grammy-nominated Donda, which achieved one of the biggest ever first weeks for an album on both Spotify and Apple Music when it was released in August last year.. 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. Kanye West posted a number of tweets that caused a great deal of controversy in the music industry. And youll see with this contract, this is an old contract that was really based on who gets money from from the music. Pearl Jam Vinyl Records. Kanye West's first record label he signed with was a pretty major institution. Using plain language isnt just a benefit to clients. Kanye West, also now known as Ye, has been named as a suspect in a battery report taken by the Los Angeles police department in the early hours of . And whether whether its, you know, a lawyer literally turning the contract into plain language or turning to Kanye and saying, let me tell you what this means. So theres this GE aviation series of rewritten contracts. 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. I will never work for a major record label again, Anokute says. Then you, Kanye, get your money. Theyre paying for all of the promotion of music videos and concerts because its coming out off the top. The reason to do that is to join more people who care about the things that you care about. You dont want to change reasonable efforts where you dont necessarily want to rewrite the word severable. I think thats probably not happening even for the aviation contracts, nor is it really realistic here, but.
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