THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING THE BUSINESS

A large number of musicians who are ripped off are young people, often without a lot of money. Most are hungry for a deal. A label might offer what seems like a huge chunk of the change at the time $5,000, $10,000, or even $25,000 as an advance. To a kid desperate for a deal, that could seem like a lot. Often without the benefit of a lawyer or manager, artists sign contracts on their own, clueless as to the amount of money and/ or control they’re giving away. It’s usually too late when they finally see how much money the label is making off of their album, and how little they are getting.

When I’d just started rapping, I met a man who turned out to have written some of the biggest, most memorable hit songs of the 1950’s. This man was living on the fifth floor of a run – down tenement building in Harlem. He had one room and was sharing a bathroom. During the day he pumped gasoline to earn a living. He told me that his record label got all the money from his songs. Forty years ago he singed whatever they offered because he was so excited about the deal. By the time he learned what songwriting royalties were, he’d singed all of his rights away. This man’s classic songs are still sung today and yet he makes nothing from them. He encouraged me to learn as much about the business as possible.