Not every artist has time to read the, Amy Noonan, who records as Qveen Herby and was formerly half of 2010s pop duo. If Im the lawyer there, there are terms of art. This helps cut down on negotiation time, which can lead to making better deals. All those of those terms that you can also edit out of other legal documents, theres a lot to do there that really will clean these up without ever even considering going into the substantive terms. Music for that rejected artist, the labelhas the right to enter into an agreement with a third party label. After agreeing to the amount spent on the film, they took $1 million from Kanyes sixth album backend and then $500,000 from his seventh album's recording fund. Mike Whelan [00:03:50] I realized after I got dressed to have our conversation that Im wearing the shirt that apparently everyone in D.C. wears. 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. And according to the general counsel, its worked wonders. Right. Theres a lot going on here. Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Kanye West has been sued for breach of contract in Florida for allegedly failing to pay for a rental space he wanted to use as a recording studio. And guys, this is a super long document. So come join us right now. I have a lot of free articles and a lot of these before and after is also on Twitter. The equity is the Artists. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. West made about a 100 posts and shared screenshots of pages from his recording contract. Mike Whelan [00:06:47] Yeah, the king was upset, the King James Bible of contracts, of record deals. This is subject to G.O.O.D. So from a record label standpoint at the moment, the split Kanye has above is in many cases flipped. It would also give Adele the largest record deal for a British musician by surpassing . He's also called for Drake, Bono, Paul McCartney,. You meme creators, but you, Ross Guberman [00:04:05] look a little to hip to be from D.C., though, and. Ye. Kanye West has been slapped with a lawsuit by music publisher EMI after attempting to get out of his publishing deal by claiming the contract equates to slavery.. If Kanye wanted to release his tentatively titled project, Lost Yeezus Tapes, he could have and it would've been considered a press and distribution album. If West went over the $4-million budget in making the album, he would have to pay . 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. Guberman has dissected the Profit Sharing Agreement section of Kanyes contract and found several areas in which the language could be more transparent. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call.. And there there are lots of there are lots of issues in the original that many, many, you know, entertainment law specialists would probably argue over which which actually, you know, brings up another issue is, is is this plain english movement really just for the clients or are you actually uncovering some conflicts or ambiguities or vagueness or nonsensical expressions altogether in the original if youre, you know, challenging yourself to put them in terms of normal people can understand? It shows he got a $3.5 million advance on his. In the weeks following its release, Donda surpassed a billion streams on Spotify globally. 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. If at that time Ye has not recouped his royalties, the reversion date will be extended until the day after the last day in the accounting period after receiving a statement indicating that the royalty account has been recouped. Kanye West has been active on Twitter once again. I wrote a book. Major record labels will typically receive 75%-95% and the artists 5%-25% of 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. The documents . So we dont want to change recouped because now we would be not faithful to the substance. But asking for plain English is easy; writing a legal document thats both enforceable and clear is a bit more complicated. Mike Whelan [00:16:08] in a brief. Its an exclusion, a liability. See everything we've learned from his record label deals below. The record label / publisher is a service provider that receives a share of the income for a limited term. Wests contract could even be considered favorable among superstar contracts, with Universal heavily investing in Wests works, entertainment attorney Christiane Kinney says. 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.). Most comprehensive library of legal defined terms on your mobile device. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. If you are interested in being a guest on Contract Teardown, please email us at community@lawinsider.com. G.O.O.D. 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. Over the course of dozens of tweets, West. Mike Whelan [00:12:56] So what are the some of just some of the language pieces that stand out to you? So youre seeing some attempt by LinkedIn. Tell me how this is more understandable again for someone, not a 12 year old, but someone like Kanye in the decision making phase. Some are asking what took so long. 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 . Looking back, I've thought many times about what makes Kanye Kanye. Portals. So the rest, you know, if its not a one of those categories, its either an industry term of art or just normal English talking about finance or recording. Why is a shift to plain language important? Ross Guberman [00:16:40] Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. 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. In September 2020, "Kanye West Record Deal" started trending. Mike Whelan [00:24:07] That is perfect. The contracts show Kanye received a $2.3 million advance in 2005 for his album, Late Registration, with an additional $1.2 million as a recording budget.For . Hit-Boy is an enormously talented songwriter whose relationship we value, a UMPG spokesperson said in a statement to Rolling Stone. Its actually gotten a lot of press. Nirvana Vinyl Records. Thats not the game here, Noonan recalls as the mindset when negotiating contracts. So tell me, is the language on the right? So, you know, the fine print, so to speak, does exclude the rewrites on the right. Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. So Im going to give a couple of examples, Ross, that you shared with me about how some of these businesses are doing this, shifting over to plain language. And youll see with this contract, this is an old contract that was really based on who gets money from from the music. Record Companies have to buy into you, not loan you. Fine. Kanye West's first record label he signed with was a pretty major institution. How are businesses shifting to using plain language? So I apologize to both of you D.C. people watching. This is the Def Jam amendment. Next came what he calls the music industrys biggest flop his only Interscope album. Are not just for royalties. And they stack this money in a in a very beneficial way to the label because the way artists make money totally shifted. And, to an extent, they're not wrong. Theres hidden costs in the ways deals are structured, and most artists dont have an understanding in how the recoupment works and its confusing. The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor. We were broke college kids right after the recession. Royalty portals need to show (and do not now) Every song you delivered, Every store you are in, How many streams per song Income per song. Theres even a reference to a so-called PDF I guest. Ross Guberman [00:02:46] Its you know, its a great vehicle to take this whole plan, English idea and see if we can, you know, apply it literally seriously or both, because although you say you had an emotional breakdown, hes hardly the first part of your client to object to contract language. After that point, UMG can distribute the albums on their own. The dates of the files range from 2005 to 2014. They are for your entire business. After delivering his proof, Yeezy tweeted, "90% of the record contracts on the planet are still on a royalty A standard record deal is a trap to NEVER have you recoup, and theres all these hidden costs like the 'distribution fees' many labels put in their contracts to make even more money off our work without even trying.". And Im going to share a few images. So this is something later in the series, I imagine theres a back story, you know, tense, tense discussions about the money part. Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. Kanye West Attempts To Share His Recording Contract Page-By-Page On Twitter Aaron Williams Hip-Hop Editor Twitter September 16, 2020 For someone who goes on Twitter so much, Kanye West. In the process of that latter Twitter. 88-Keys . Well see you guys next time. June 21, 2019, 2:27 PM PDT. 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. However, only 50 percent of video costscan berecouped from audio-only record royalties. "And y'all still gave him contracts, documentaries, endorsements . Rock Kanye West Vinyl Records. The language looks like something you might find, you know, 50, 100 years ago. You can imagine the anxiety the in-house counsel have, right? One way to begin is by bracketing off phrases or words that you know have a substantive value. this summer, doesnt point the finger at any one entity or group for the nature of these deals. This is Kanyes contracts. If youre part of a team, just email us if youre in house or in a law firm. 2. Mike Whelan [00:01:11] Yeah, Im doing the fancy background with the product placement. call Wests deal standard for an artist at his level. His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial and gospel. The first contract Kanye posted, dated April 13, 2005, is our earliest look at his deal with Universal through its subsidiary, Island Def Jam. For example, LinkedIn has made some effort to provide easy-to-understand language. 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. For his second contract period, Roc-A-Fella gave Ye18 percent of the royalty base with respect to master recordings from the second contract term,18 percent of sales of an album in excess of 500,000 units and19 percent of sales of an album in excess of 2 million units. After a slight struggle trying to share the files, Kanye boasted that him revealing his old record label contracts was going to be a literal game changer. Well make sure you get a deal as well. The partnership was a nightmare for both Negrito and the label, he says. this summer, doesnt point the finger at any one entity or group for the nature of these deals. 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. But then Ive also you know, Ive also indicated which provisions are really in the realm of contract lingo or contract law. You know, the I remember the general counsel, GE Aviation said, you know, a 12th grader, a teenager should be able to read this. Artists like Kanye feel that they are being cheated. 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. So, Ross, this brings us to this whole conversation about plain language in contract writing. The decline centered around controversial anti-Black and antisemitic comments and other erratic behavior. So lets tear it down. Contract #3. Right. In this episode of the Contract Teardown show, guest Diana Isyanova shares three possible approaches. Thats probably more than enough. Are they making too much? They will help you draft better contracts faster. Ross describes a counselor that can thread this very tough plain language needle. 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. 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 . 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. Its a fine line to walk: simplifying without completely changing the meaning of the terms. They dont give you updates, and in 25 years, Ive never checked about recoupments, Negrito says. So, yeah, there you go. Musician Kanye West changed all that when he went to Twitter to complain about his many contracts with the recording industry. You should need NO ONE else to understand the business youre in. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. Kanye West had some more thoughts to share about recording contracts in a series of tweets on Sunday (Sept. 20). Last modified on Thu 13 Jan 2022 14.04 EST. Were going to deduct a million dollars. So you dont want to run around changing materiality. 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). 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