Comments by "yessum15" (@yessum15) on "JRE Clips" channel.

  1. RZA ignores that the only reason Napster was able to steal from the music industry was because the industry was a bloated, corrupt monster that had grown fat stealing from their customers and artists. The RIAA was an oligopoly engaging in price fixing and collusion. In 1997 Tower Records was selling 2pac's Hail Mary single for $13 (1997 dollars). Multiple artists (including Wutang) put out double CDs to instantly double their revenue without actually having enough good material to fill the record. Recording contracts were charging artists completely fraudulent fees like "Breakage Clauses" on contracts that were already incredibly predatory and exploitative (eg: Artists were seeing pennies off a CD sold for $20+, but then forced to pay all production costs and bullshit fees from their penny stake.) This is why artists like TLC could go multiple times platinum & multiple globally iconic hits while simultaneously going bankrupt. All of this would have been illegal, but the only thing the RIAA didn't skimp on was investing in lawyers, lobbyists and bribery in order to cement their position of power. Napster would not have made a dent in their business if: 1) Prices were set anywhere near the real fair price for the product. 2) The industry used its massive revenue to invest in improving the customer experience by developing innovative music delivery technology (I mean fuck they should've been the ones to invent Napster) 3) Customers perceived illegal downloads as actually stealing from the artists, rather than from the bloated bureaucracy between them. Honestly, stealing Jeru the Damaja's entire music catalog and sending him $1 in the mail would've been a lot more generous than actually buying all his albums. RZA doesn't care because Wutang started from such humble beginnings and became so wildly successful that he can overlook the fact that 98% of his money early on was stolen by his bosses. But he needs to shut the fuck up about illegal downloads.
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  27.  @MichaelJames-lz7ni  This is not true. Record sales revenue did not pay for production costs. Rather, the tiny portion of record sales revenue earmarked for the artist were used to pay production costs (and multiple other invented fees). The company's share was untouched. This was known as 'recoupment'. Many platinum artists did go bankrupt directly as a result of predatory recording contracts (TLC, Toni Braxton, etc.). Furthermore, it's extremely misleading to include examples like Madonna & Michael Jackson who are radical outliers, even among platinum artists (who are already outliers). This doesn't represent the prevailing reality. It's a bit like studying poverty but only looking at homeless people who won the powerball lottery twice. Finally, it's important to understand that even among these super-outliers better terms came as a result of contract renegotiation subsequent to their success. They lost a lot of money under the terms of their first contracts. The prevailing wisdom amongst managers, agents, and financial advisors was that in the absence of some miracle, the vast majority of artists (particularly debut & sophomore) should expect to realistically earn $0 from recording royalties after fees were deducted, and focus on merch, live shows, and capturing as much of the advance as they could. This was all the case before the invention of .mp3 Let me be clear: Unless you were already a multi-millionaire, there was no way in hell you would see a million dollars from selling 1 million records.
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  48.  @unnamed776-m9h  This is well beyond my field of expertise. I understand contract terms and economics, but I have no idea what it takes to make a star. I wouldn't feel comfortable giving much advice in this regard. That said, I can suggest generally: 1) Keep costs down 2) Perform often 3) Focus on establishing a living wage through your work before thinking about being a star. Being a star is a unicorn/winning the lotto type thing. If you can earn a living wage from your art, you're already ahead of most people. 4) Find visual artists that can help you with branding. A cheap way to do this is to find senior year visual arts students. 5) Read any contract carefully. Do not sign anything on the spot. Always ask politely for time to review. No exceptions. 6) Seek the assistance of pro-bono lawyers. Organizations like Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts provide these services at little to no cost. 7) Try to minimize the duration of any contact you sign. Preferably 3 albums, although this is often difficult to get them to agree to. More than 5 is too much. 8) Treat the enterprise as a small business. 9) Get health insurance, establish a savings & retirement fund, go to the dentist and brush your teeth. These sound silly, but little things like this derail entire careers. An unchecked cavity can become a career ending disaster when you find out an infection has spread and you need $10,000 to treat. Now you have to get an exhausting job and are trapped in a cycle of debt that is difficult to break free from. 10. If you get signed, treat your advance like the only money you'll get, because its the only thing guaranteed.
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