In follow-up tweets, he shared screengrabs of 10 documents that included a profit sharing agreement and a recording agreement. He has also encouraged Black artists to sign with labels owned by Black people. I will never work for a major record label again, Anokute says. This method perhaps isnt as friendly to consumers as LinkedIns method, but its close enough to the source material and still understandable. Well see you there. Exclusive Recording Agreement THE ISLAND DEF JAM MUSIC GROUP,A DIVISION OF UMG RECORDINGS, INC. 1755 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019 Dated as of March 10, 2013 Kanye West c/o Carroll, Guido & Groffman, LLP 1790 Broadway, 20 th Floor Suite 800 New York, NY 10019 Attention: Michael Guido, Esq. So from a record label standpoint at the moment, the split Kanye has above is in many cases flipped. Is this different than the LinkedIn attempt? 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 youll see with this contract, this is an old contract that was really based on who gets money from from the music. 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. So, Ross, were going to tear down the contracts that Kanye shared. Now, with a click of a finger, your music goes wide to 7 billion people if you want it to. We want to hear it. And the whole thing does feel very, very dated and and remote. Ye says he wants his four children to own them. Lawyers. 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. Kanye West, someone God had chosen to do something very special in the world. We took the full. Its an interesting thing. It's unclear if it actually will. Although, there is a concern here. His. So, yeah, there you go. Using plain language isnt just a benefit to clients. Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. Kanye West is at war with the music industry over the ownership of masters and unfair contracts. Ross describes a counselor that can thread this very tough plain language needle. 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. Thats probably more than enough. See's Kanye West's Record Contract Tweets, revealing the intricate details of his record label contract. Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. Ive got blues and Ive got reds. Royalties. 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. You got a bunch on the left in a very short sentence on the right. Right. Scooter Braun Projects is a talent management company that is more than just a company. 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. Ye asked for $12 million, and $8 million would be paid promptly after the full execution of the 2012 amendment. Ross Guberman [00:13:17] Yeah, so, you know, you want to you want to look at these provisions in chunks or blocs or categories so you can sort of thread the needle between, you know, what what the clients might demand and what lawyers think is is in their interests. From that money, $4 million was allocated to recording costs. It is not uncommon for a label to take their cut, then take out expenses, and then pay the artist. 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. Watch to see how three transactions handled alternative dispute resolution options. "And y'all still gave him contracts, documentaries, endorsements . 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. Thus,50 percent of these costs incurred by Roc-A-Fella are considered advances, but the label could notrecoup more than $40,000 for each album relevant to these costs: creation, hosting, maintenance of artists website, securing, registering and/or protecting artist domain names, creation of ECD materials, independent promotion, independent marketing and independent publicity, television, movie or radio campaigns. The . not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. Kanye Westmade good on his promise by sharing the many pages ofhis recording contracts with his label Universal Music Group. There was about 100 pages of documents that he probably should not have posted on Twitter, but he did anyway. Mike Whelan [00:03:02] Thats right. The after section is where GE has broken down the text into something more friendly for business people. 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. $26.59 New. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. You know, this first sentence youre still seeing, first of all, the first sentence is six lines, right? Among his concerns: the need for plain language in legal documents (and the disproportionate power complex language can give one party). Will we be seeing a President Kanye? 22% royalty rate for Kanye (and 78% for the record label). 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. Mike Whelan [00:11:02] Hmm. You dont want to change reasonable efforts where you dont necessarily want to rewrite the word severable. Until then, Ross, I appreciate you being here. During his rant, Kanye declared that he would move the entire music industry into the 21st century, and he means to do this using clear and discernable language. Theres hidden costs in the ways deals are structured, and most artists dont have an understanding in how the recoupment works and its confusing. What contract language is unnecessarily archaic and what isnt? Artists re-signing these stops. . Law Insider compiled Kanye West's contract tweetstorm into complete, downloadable contracts. Kanye West had already been burning bridges in the music industry. Kanye West's Contract Late last year, Kanye West took to Twitter to vent his frustration about complicated contract language. The first is this one from LinkedIn. Ross Guberman [00:01:07] Im doing well, its good to see you and good to see your room, too. Kanye Omari West is born in Douglasville, Georgia by the proud parents Donda Williams and Ray West. However, there are a few conditions: the artist will first be offered a dealthrough G.O.O.D. Kanye West is seen at a Donda listening event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. Its an exclusion, a liability. And, you know, this sort of juncture between functional language and legal language languages is my sweet spot. Is this realistic to even talk about plain language and contract drafting? Cruel Summer/Hawaii costs shall befully cross-collateralized with Kanye's main royalties account. 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. 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. Right. How that how how that would play out. You take expenses out and then people are sharing whats left. Ross Guberman [00:05:55] Yeah, I mean, its obviously a common plea, not just from Kanye West, but from all sorts of, you know, business executives to theres been sort of push and pull over the decades that people have been complaining about contract language for longer than either of us has been alive, of course. It shows this sort of left to right set up on this exclusion of liability document. The remaining$1millionwas to be paid upon completion. Twenty-two percent of royalties were to be given on both the sixth and seventh albums. Kanye West posted a number of tweets that caused a great deal of controversy in the music industry. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Were lucky we were told the truth in so many ways.. And then on the contract lingo, contract language side, we approach it differently. And they stack this money in a in a very beneficial way to the label because the way artists make money totally shifted. Is this incorporated in in any way? Tell me how this is more understandable again for someone, not a 12 year old, but someone like Kanye in the decision making phase. You know, its a little some people would say, well, you dont want to mess around with indemnification, but in this case, it seems close enough to the original to be faithful legally while still being understandable. See BBC report here. All contents of the lawinsider.com excluding publicly sourced documents are Copyright 2013-. musical compositions embodied on albums released by a major record label per year (or longer if West needed more time) (each a "Contract Year") for . I need every lawyer in the world to look at these," he wrote. Ross Guberman [00:16:40] Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. The deal starts where he doesnt have as much clout, hell get mutual creative control, but later he gets more, and the deals get better as Kanye becomes Kanye, says Kinney, who has worked with platinum-selling artists, producers, and estates. Kanye West tweets Univeral Label Contract. The deals not bad what is that based on? Negrito asks. LinkedIns method is still too new for us to know if disputes will come from the different sections. Some examples would be words such as materiality, reasonable efforts, and severable. 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. He dumped them all on Twitter. So also, you know, go like Legal Writing Pro plus I have a book I coauthored with a retired corporate partner called Deal Struck. Those are four ways to keep the conversation going. 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. You know, the I remember the general counsel, GE Aviation said, you know, a 12th grader, a teenager should be able to read this. (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. So notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the Shall problem, you know, using Shal for both obligations and future events, words that seem familiar, like promptly that have a legal layer causes. The way that Gruberman has identified these sections is by using his tool called BriefCatch. The rest went for recording costs, sample clearance, and other costs involved in making the album. 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. Kanye West gave the world a rare glimpse into the music industry 's labyrinth of recording contracts last week when he tweeted out his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then. 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. Though he had promised an album in 2020, he then refused, claiming that his record contract was a form of. Kanye West, seen in 2019, has lost business deals in light of his recent antisemitic remarks. The 43-year-old rapper has conceded after his. We need plain English contracts. Lets get back to the show. She argues that the relationship between the parties should dictate options, then the parties themselves should make informed choices. Should the labels be able to make a profit off of this? 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. So so talk to me about this profit sharing piece. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. Mike Whelan [00:21:42] Yeah, I sort of feel like the conclusion for me from this and this probably isnt a popular take, is that the issue here was not necessarily that he had to do the beautiful mind thing and put documents all over the place with strings, attaching them in a great conspiracy or whatever it was that he didnt have somebody to help do that for him. It shows he got a $3.5 million advance on his. Theyre paying for all of the promotion of music videos and concerts because its coming out off the top. The partnership was a nightmare for both Negrito and the label, he says. Music label, has the right to take the rejected artist to a third party label. And Im going to share a few images. A month ago, Kanye West had an emotional breakdown on Twitter. 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. 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. And according to the general counsel, its worked wonders. For Kanye, his 15% royalty rate on wholesale for each sneaker sold has netted him roughly $150 million pre-tax annually. West made about a 100 posts and shared screenshots of pages from his recording contract. I didnt know this was the thing, but apparently its a Twitter meme. 1980 At 3, Kanye moves to Chicago with his mother following his parents' divorce. Miguel Candela / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file Mike Whelan [00:14:30] So then talk to me about this after Im looking at the after version of the profit sharing agreement. Maybe its about time I do that.. Whats the language that stands out to you as particularly harmful to the understanding of the parties, which is really what a contract is supposed to do, right? June 21, 2019, 2:27 PM PDT. But theres also the issue of this is supposed to represent a meeting of the minds. Another example is General Electric. September 18, 2020. Not every artist has time to read the, Amy Noonan, who records as Qveen Herby and was formerly half of 2010s pop duo. Im seeing a lot of these highlights. After that point, UMG can distribute the albums on their own. This is Kanyes contracts. 1-year deal. If you are interested in being a guest on Contract Teardown, please email us at community@lawinsider.com. 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. Ross Guberman [00:15:01] Yeah, Kanye could read this. Whats the principle here? Prince Vinyl Records. Mike Whelan [00:07:53] Well, and heres another one from LinkedIn, this sort of two column set up in the license image. 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. Theres a lot we can do. Mike Whelan [00:10:12] Hey, everybody, Im Mike Whelen. To be a little bit difficult to argue that. Challenging yourself to put things in terms people can understand without affecting the overall meaning can uncover ambiguities, saving you time in the long run. In this episode of the Contract Teardown show, guest Diana Isyanova shares three possible approaches. And so Kanye is at this point where hes like, dude, I got to have some other ways to make money. If we were to legit tear down, wed be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long. We didnt spend our advance on cars or jewelry, we bought a house. They dont want they dont want whats on the right to somehow control. Ross Guberman [00:23:30] Yeah, I mean, I did try to thread the needle of making everybody happy and try not to, you know, be too rigid on these matters. A Lawyers role is to IMPROVE deals. The label additionally had the right to release one Greatest Hits album. 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. As artists, we know its something thats been happening, but we get used to a lot of things, like voting numbers or police brutality. Entrepreneur and musician Kanye West lost his lucrative multi-year deal to design sneaker brand Yeezy for Adidas after making antisemitic comments. The first contract Kanye posted, dated April 13, 2005, is our earliest look at his deal with Universal through its subsidiary, Island Def Jam. What do you think of Kanye West leaking his own contracts to make a point? Found online, don't shoot the messenger. The rapper has put out nine albums over 17 years through Roc-a-Fella Records. 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. See's Kanye West's Record Contract Tweets. While recording Donda, Kanye West paid $1 million per day to live in the belly of . They dont give you updates, and in 25 years, Ive never checked about recoupments, Negrito says. Of that, two-thirds ($8 million) was an advance for him to keep. Theyre not to be I mean, this is classic, completely unnecessary, archaic language you see in a lot of commercial agreements. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call.. Music or such label paying Island Def Jam Music Group acounterbalance amountagainst overhead payments in an amount equal to the overhead payments in the applicable contract year multiplied by a fraction. . 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.. We wouldnt be talking about all this now if the label hadnt invested in him and put tons of marketing money into this for his leg up.. Hit-Boy is an enormously talented songwriter whose relationship we value, a UMPG spokesperson said in a statement to Rolling Stone. 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. So I have to keep it versus this is archaic and useless. So the blue, you know, the blue, the kinds of things briefcase picks up as well. Ye. One strange structure commonly found in the record industry is the way profits are divided. Are they making too much? Its not always clear whats what. The deal was huge, man, they give you money to live off of. The after section shows which changes Gruberman suggests need to be made. Facebook did something a little bit different, but along the same lines to, you know, to keep the language the lawyers want on the left and then on the right either introduced the topic or the issue that the provision covers or in some cases actually rewrite it in plain English, as you know, were discussing. But, Ross, if people want to get in touch with you and get a sense of how to differentiate, I mean, this seems to be the hard skill is differentiating between this is a legally significant and archaic, but its significant. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. So we want to talk briefly about this profit sharing piece, this image here, because theres a lot of language that might lead to artists not understanding that theyre getting into that pretty crappy deal, honestly. West's contracts laid it all out. Its actually gotten a lot of press. Was the pissing on the Grammy to much? Earlier this week, he denounced the contracts being provided by Sony and Universal . "NEW RECORDING AND PUBLISHING DEAL GUIDELINES," he tweeted at 1:26 p.m. 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. And theyre advised accordingly by an attorney at law whos telling them to sign this contract, and they say this contract is standard. Ross Guberman [00:20:11] Yeah, I think part of that is really bracketing off, just as you are saying, words and phrases that a lawyer knows have substantive value. The ownership of masters and unfair contracts take the rejected artist to a third party label 22, 2021 Atlanta... While recording Donda, Kanye moves to Chicago with his label Universal music Group is standard two-thirds $. Worked wonders 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia, there are a few conditions: the for. For Kanye, his 15 % royalty rate on wholesale for each sneaker sold netted... And according to the label, he then refused, claiming that record! The full execution of the promotion of music videos and concerts because its out... Event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia, someone God had to... 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