Thread for Musicians and Artists: How to Run Sh*t

[LUCIEN]

I'm just dipping my own head under the water here and am really going to depend on OG's like @konceptjones to help me with this, but this thread NEEDS to be made.

My argument is simple:

1. Minorities can't keep on top of their finances until we keep on top of what we create
2. Naomi Klein and others have big books and documents about how the "cool" marketing angle used by big companies like Nike is basically just exploitation of Black style...when did y'all get paid though?
3. If we can monitor, regulate, and police Black artistry, we can keep money in Black hands.


What I want this thread to do:

1. Discuss copyright and distribution
2. Discuss marketing and advertising
3. Most importantly, I wanna talk about how we can get black posters here to exploit this clout chasing from companies like Nike and we can make Black Style a real commodity to put money in y'all pockets.

Let's market ABW to get this money.

 

[LUCIEN]

First Post based on what I am currently doing:

What you need to do, if you wanna get your art to make you money, is simple: KEEP RECEIPTS

It's different for everyone where you are, but if you're just starting out, like me, you should be able to freely open a sole-proprietor business with your tax-c0llecting government. Once you reg10ister yourself as a small, owner-run business, any expenses, like brushes or paint or transportation, becomes a tax write off.

These write offs and rebates will save you cake at the end of the year. I made 50k in 2017 and only paid 2g's in taxes because of my gas, car, and school write offs.

 

[5 Grand]

1. A college degree is necessary. I tried to skip college and couldn't get anywhere. I finally went in my 30s and realized what I had missed out on.

2. They teach Finance in college, and you can even get an MBA, but they don't teach how the stock market works. That's something you have to figure out for yourself. You can go to seminars and crash courses where they will explain it to you, but there's no actual college course called "the stock market and how it works". There's also Youtube videos that explain it.

Once you know how the stock market works, when you get a check for $1,000,000 you'll know exactly what to do with it without relying on a stockbroker. A stockbroker's job is to rip people off; suckers that fall for the slick talk over the phone. Once you wire the stockbroker your money you'll never see it again and you don't have a leg to stand on in court because wiring money to somebody you don't know is stupid.

Without naming names, there's a lot of artists, musicians and MCs that were very popular 10, 20 and even 30 years ago that have to tour to eat. If they stop touring their money dries up and they have to go on tour again. They don't tour because they love touring, they tour because it's the only way they know how to make a living.

Remember back in the late 90s/early 00s when everybody was getting million dollar deals and going platinum? How many of those people are still around? How many videos did you see of an artist with a tricked out car, a ton of jewelry and half naked chicks shaking their asses? Then ask yourself, how many of these artists ever mentioned investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or talking about the Dow Jones Average or the S&P 500? or day trading?

What I'm saying is that it's not uncommon for a rapper to get a million dollar check. But it's not how much you make, but what you do with what you make. You have to know how to log onto your computer and go to a website like TD Ameritrade or wherever and invest the money yourself without using a financial planner or stockbroker because they'll just rip you off.

And then after you make the investment, put it in escrow. Escrow means that you've made the investment and you can't get it back until the terms of the escrow have passed (5 years, 10 years, etc.).

This is what I would recommend for an artist/musician/ rapper that gets a million dollar check: Invest that million dollars YOURSELF into something that yields, say, 7%. If you use TD Ameritrade the fee for making a trade is $7. If you give your money to a stockbroker he'll charge you $2,000 to make the exact same trade. This is why it's important to log on the website yourself and make the trade yourself. So anyway, 7% of a million dollars is $70,000. That means you'll get $70,000 semimonthly (twice a month) which is approximately $2,916 every two weeks. If you put it in escrow you can't get the principle (the million dollars) out until the end of the term because it's impossible. But you'll get that $2,916 every two weeks until the escrow term is over (and you decide the length of the escrow term).

Or you can buy a truck and put rims on it and a stereo system with 15 inch sub woofers. Then you can buy a fat gold chain and a $50,000 Rolex. Go to Footlocker.com and buy a pair of Jordans in every color in your size. Then take your whole crew on tour with you and buy cases of champagne and smoke the best weed money can buy!

 

[LUCIEN]

I like your advice 5, but one thing in music remains true back then as it does now: Popularity and status help you sell your message and your image

Whether it's big rope chains or big diamond pendants, the jewellery you criticize helps those same artists maintain an image and relevance. There are more layers to the game that you can probably dissect for us.

 

[ChicagoFigure]

First Post based on what I am currently doing:

What you need to do, if you wanna get your art to make you money, is simple: KEEP RECEIPTS

It's different for everyone where you are, but if you're just starting out, like me, you should be able to freely open a sole-proprietor business with your tax-c0llecting government. Once you reg10ister yourself as a small, owner-run business, any expenses, like brushes or paint or transportation, becomes a tax write off.

These write offs and rebates will save you cake at the end of the year. I made 50k in 2017 and only paid 2g's in taxes because of my gas, car, and school write offs.

Without naming names, there's a lot of artists, musicians and MCs that were very popular 10, 20 and even 30 years ago that have to tour to eat. If they stop touring their money dries up and they have to go on tour again. They don't tour because they love touring, they tour because it's the only way they know how to make a living.

Remember back in the late 90s/early 00s when everybody was getting million dollar deals and going platinum? How many of those people are still around? How many videos did you see of an artist with a tricked out car, a ton of jewelry and half naked chicks shaking their asses? Then ask yourself, how many of these artists ever mentioned investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or talking about the Dow Jones Average or the S&P 500? or day trading?

What I'm saying is that it's not uncommon for a rapper to get a million dollar check. But it's not how much you make, but what you do with what you make. You have to know how to log onto your computer and go to a website like TD Ameritrade or wherever and invest the money yourself without using a financial planner or stockbroker because they'll just rip you off.

And then after you make the investment, put it in escrow. Escrow means that you've made the investment and you can't get it back until the terms of the escrow have passed (5 years, 10 years, etc.).

This is what I would recommend for an artist/musician/ rapper that gets a million dollar check: Invest that million dollars YOURSELF into something that yields, say, 7%. If you use TD Ameritrade the fee for making a trade is $7. If you give your money to a stockbroker he'll charge you $2,000 to make the exact same trade. This is why it's important to log on the website yourself and make the trade yourself. So anyway, 7% of a million dollars is $70,000. That means you'll get $70,000 semimonthly (twice a month) which is approximately $2,916 every two weeks. If you put it in escrow you can't get the principle (the million dollars) out until the end of the term because it's impossible. But you'll get that $2,916 every two weeks until the escrow term is over (and you decide the length of the escrow term).

Or you can buy a truck and put rims on it and a stereo system with 15 inch sub woofers. Then you can buy a fat gold chain and a $50,000 Rolex. Go to Footlocker.com and buy a pair of Jordans in every color in your size. Then take your whole crew on tour with you and buy cases of champagne and smoke the best weed money can buy!

always good to see people dropping a lil knowledge

 

[5 Grand]

I like your advice 5, but one thing in music remains true back then as it does now: Popularity and status help you sell your message and your image

Whether it's big rope chains or big diamond pendants, the jewellery you criticize helps those same artists maintain an image and relevance. There are more layers to the game that you can probably dissect for us.

You can rent jewelry for your video.

Or just wear fake jewelry, nobody would know the difference.

Which one of these rappers has more money? The guy on the left or the guy on the right?

 

[konceptjones]

The one thing I wish more cats would do is stay on top of their publishing and, more importantly, KEEP their publishing.

I know the labels like to dangle a check in front of you talmbout "sign over your pubs for x number of years and we'll cut you a check for $xxxxxx". If the label or whomever is willing to give you money for your pubs, then you need to realize that it's worth far more than that and they're going to leverage your music to make back the money they gave you several times over.

The catch to this is that in order to make long money on your pubs, you have to go after it. With a small catalog this probably won't be too time consuming, but as your catalog gets larger you might consider hiring a company to administer your pubs. You pay them a fee and they'll handle the paperwork and keep track of usage and spins and collect money on your behalf.

I posted this up but Sir Mix A Lot spoke on it best:





And, because we're in the day and age where information is freely available on the internet, there's a lot of cats talking about this:

 

[LUCIEN]

You can rent jewelry for your video.

Or just wear fake jewelry, nobody would know the difference.

Which one of these rappers has more money? The guy on the left or the guy on the right?

That's a fair take. I appreciate you directly responding.


Not to be unfair to you, but do we have any interviews or anything where HOV admits to renting?

 

[konceptjones]

That's a fair take. I appreciate you directly responding.


Not to be unfair to you, but do we have any interviews or anything where HOV admits to renting?

TBH, most rap chaps back then were actually buying their chains. If they owned anything, they owned their chains.

 

[5 Grand]

I don't know if Jay rents his jewelry or owns it but my point is that if you get a check for $1 million you can be a baller and spend it on frivolous things like cars, jewelry, champagne, or a big fancy house, or you can invest it in something that yields 7% which equals about $2,916 every two weeks (the 1st and 15th of the month). Furthermore, you keep the million dollars (the principle) so 10 or 15 years from now you can get whole the million dollars back.


Here's a Youtube clip about how 2Pac owned $2,000,000 in cars but died broke.





What's better, to have 10 cars that are each worth $200k or to invest your money so that it yields $2,916 every two weeks...and drive a $50,000 Toyota Camry?

 

[konceptjones]

I don't know if Jay rents his jewelry or owns it but my point is that if you get a check for $1 million you can be a baller and spend it on frivolous things like cars, jewelry, champagne, or a big fancy house, or you can invest it in something that yields 7% which equals about $2,916 every two weeks (the 1st and 15th of the month). Furthermore, you keep the million dollars (the principle) so 10 or 15 years from now you can get whole the million dollars back.


Here's a Youtube clip about how 2Pac owned $2,000,000 in cars but died broke.





What's better, to have 10 cars that are each worth $200k or to invest your money so that it yields $2,916 every two weeks...and drive a $50,000 Toyota Camry?

The problem is that the $1m that you get is an advance to get the album and everything done. Technically that's not for your pocket. The label gives you an advance to record the album, pay for producers, shoot the videos, marketing, etc and all of that has to be recouped before you see a single royalty check. Anything you spend on yourself out of that money just adds to the debt you owe to the label which is why a lot of these dudes never get a second major label release; they get dropped and written off by the label because they never recouped.

It was a common theme in the early 00's to now that rappers would rent everything from the clothes on their backs to the cars, jewels, and everything for their video shoots, then leave the shoot in the beat up 15 year old Civic they been rollin in for the last few years with their Old Navy/Gap clothes and gold-on-a-roll chains they got from the swap meet/flea market. MTV Cribs exemplifies this since only a tiny handful of rappers and producers interviewed actually owned the house and cars they were seen in on the show. Everything was rented. That's why you would go into these houses and the shit would barely have anything in 'em and the fridge would be bare as fuck except for a few bottles of champagne, a couple of tv dinners, and a coupla frosted honeybuns.

 

[5 Grand]

The problem is that the $1m that you get is an advance to get the album and everything done. Technically that's not for your pocket. The label gives you an advance to record the album, pay for producers, shoot the videos, marketing, etc and all of that has to be recouped before you see a single royalty check. Anything you spend on yourself out of that money just adds to the debt you owe to the label which is why a lot of these dudes never get a second major label release; they get dropped and written off by the label because they never recouped.

It was a common theme in the early 00's to now that rappers would rent everything from the clothes on their backs to the cars, jewels, and everything for their video shoots, then leave the shoot in the beat up 15 year old Civic they been rollin in for the last few years with their Old Navy/Gap clothes and gold-on-a-roll chains they got from the swap meet/flea market. MTV Cribs exemplifies this since only a tiny handful of rappers and producers interviewed actually owned the house and cars they were seen in on the show. Everything was rented. That's why you would go into these houses and the shit would barely have anything in 'em and the fridge would be bare as fuck except for a few bottles of champagne, a couple of tv dinners, and a coupla frosted honeybuns.

Well according to that Tupac Youtube clip I posted, Pac had a lot of fancy cars but zero money in his bank account. I've heard that that's how Suge paid people, by giving them the keys to a Rolls Royce. But you have to take a stand and say, "I don't want a Rolls Royce, I want the money".

 

[konceptjones]

Well according to that Tupac Youtube clip I posted, Pac had a lot of fancy cars but zero money in his bank account. I've heard that that's how Suge paid people, by giving them the keys to a Rolls Royce. But you have to take a stand and say, "I don't want a Rolls Royce, I want the money".

There was an article in, I believe The Source, that spoke to that. Pac would often go to Suge complaining about how he wasn't seeing his money and Suge would throw him a few grand, a chain or something, and a new Rolls and send him on his way. It was one of the things that got Pac looking for the door to start his own shit so he had control of his music and, more importantly, his money.

 

[ChicagoFigure]

Reminds me of when there were first rumblings of wayne not satisfied financially.

Then a vid came out of birdman buying him an expensive ass car.

Didnt have to pay wayne. Probably didnt pay the dealership.

Cold blooded.