explain royalties/masters and how is it important to the artist

[eastside313]

damn so you gotta have a good lawyer to try to obtai your masters?

are most record companies unwilling to sign over your masters?

whats some artist that got they masters...only person i can think of lately is Drake?(could be wrong)

Bruh none of these rappers got they masters unless they truly independent.

Master p and suge had all they masters and them white folks didn't stop coming at them until they got em back. I think cool j got his masters from def jam a few years ago. J prince probably got his masters from rap a lot and birdman probably say he got his but that nikka lie so much who knows.

 

[cleanface coney]

Bruh none of these rappers got they masters unless they truly independent.

Master p and suge had all they masters and them white folks didn't stop coming at them until they got em back. I think cool j got his masters from def jam a few years ago. J prince probably got his masters from rap a lot and birdman probably say he got his but that nikka lie so much who knows.

damn so if a nikka was to try and get his shyt he basically gotta have bread already and strike a deal with a distributor?

not even Jayz got his shyt?

 

[HipHopFeeling]

damn so if a nikka was to try and get his shyt he basically gotta have bread already and strike a deal with a distributor?

not even Jayz got his shyt?

As President, Carter retained control of the Roc and his masters, ousting his two former partners. He later explained that he had offered to turn down the position and ownership for the masters to Reasonable Doubt alone:
“ So I was like, let me get Reasonable Doubt and I’ll give up [the rest of] my masters. I’ll give up Roc-A-Fella Records, I’ll give up president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings—everything. Just give me my baby to hold on to so 10 years down the line, I can look back and I got something—I’m not empty-handed. And I was the one being offered everything. I thought it was more than fair... And when that was turned down, I had to make a choice. I’ll leave that for the people to say what choice they would’ve made. That’s about it. I don’t really wanna talk about Dame or Biggs. I don’t have nothing negative to say about them.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

If you're a big star that gets a lot of radio burn and have a bunch of recognizable material that may get a lot of third party play (in sports arenas and other public settings, movie, tv, and commercial placements etc.), or have a catalog that will see significant sales years and years after the initial release (or can even be very profitable if rereleased) then owning your masters can be VERY important and valuable...basically you own the rights to your music and not the label..and if you're a big successful act, there's a great deal of actual money and value in them, they end up being a pretty big asset...it's pretty much nonexistent in modern label deals at this point, which was why cash money owning their masters as part of their distribution deal is such a big deal...otherwise if you want them, you'll have to buy them from the label at a considerable price depending on the act...

we've seen people's masters used as an asset to pay off debt, when no limit and death row went bankrupt their masters were sold off to settle the debt those companies found themselves in...which is why you see these new death row albums coming out from that new janky ass label...no limit, not so much because while they sold a lot of records in their hey day...the catalog doesn't seem to be that profitable from a legacy standpoint...they didn't have the iconic mainstream hits that deathrow did (the demand for a random song from DoggyStyle to be included in a movie is a lot more than some random track from Charge It 2 Da Game)...which brings me to another point, at the low end...far as owning your masters go its prolly a tad bit overrated in hip hop circles...if you're an independent artist with no hits and never blows up on a major level, in all reality your masters ain't gonna be worth shyt more than sentimental value anyway....like you'll see these no name mixtape rappers sometime talking this "I'm not signing to no major because I want to own my masters" stuff when them shyts ain't gonna be making him no money 10 years from now when not a single fukk is given bout him or his music anymore ....so on the high-end, very important...in the low-end, not so much

 

[Danie84]

dude sold over a million records 100% independently...If I'm correct, he's the most successful independent rapper of all time

Congrats to him and Strange Music

 

[Another Man]

thats why rappers like Tech N9ne, Macklemore etc will make more money in the long run than these label-rappers...

cuz you know most of these rappers also give most of their tour money to the labels...

actually...both major and indy artists get all tour money.

 

[HipHopFeeling]

actually...both major and indy artists get all tour money.

A lot of 360 deals incl. sharing tour money...

 

[Red]

actually...both major and indy artists get all tour money.

It depends on the contracts you've signed. Obviously there are costs associated with a tour also that syphon the profits away from the headline act, such as paying for the promoter/logistics of a tour, etc. It also depends on what type of tour the artist is on.

Why do you think Jay does all these big shows? It's part of his contract with Live Nation and how they recoup the money they gave him to sign.

 

[Another Man]

A lot of 360 deals incl. sharing tour money...

Damn...ppl getting raped out here

 

[Another Man]

It depends on the contracts you've signed. Obviously there are costs associated with a tour also that syphon the profits away from the headline act, such as paying for the promoter/logistics of a tour, etc. It also depends on what type of tour the artist is on.

Why do you think Jay does all these big shows? It's part of his contract with Live Nation and how they recoup the money they gave him to sign.

True...

 

[Zach Lowe]

Jay-Z doesn't own the masters to Reasonable Doubt

That's why Dame sells it on iTunes through TuneCore

 

[Breh Obama]

Royalties are the kings that sold African slaves to the king of England and made slave Masters over here in Merica.


































The artists are slaves to the music industry and the record labels are the masters

 

[beenz]

damn so you gotta have a good lawyer to try to obtai your masters?

are most record companies unwilling to sign over your masters?

whats some artist that got they masters...only person i can think of lately is Drake?(could be wrong)

hell naw, unless u either pay for them or negotiate that in ur contract from the beginning.

that's one of the reasons MJ and paul mccartney fell out. cuz paul taught MJ about owning his music and publishing and MJ went out and purchased a large part of the beatles catalogue and he was getting bread off their music being used whether they liked it or not.

stevie wonder was another cat who didn't get jerked from the jump. his moms was shrewd cuz he was a child prodigy and got a good lawyer and negotiated a deal with barry gordy where he would retain ownership of all his music unlike most of the other motown stars of those days.

 

[cleanface coney]

hell naw, unless u either pay for them or negotiate that in ur contract from the beginning.

that's one of the reasons MJ and paul mccartney fell out. cuz paul taught MJ about owning his music and publishing and MJ went out and purchased a large part of the beatles catalogue and he was getting bread off their music being used whether they liked it or not.

stevie wonder was another cat who didn't get jerked from the jump. his moms was shrewd cuz he was a child prodigy and got a good lawyer and negotiated a deal with barry gordy where he would retain ownership of all his music unlike most of the other motown stars of those days.

is it true MJ owned the publshing rights to Sony?

 

[Zach Lowe]

is it true MJ owned the publshing rights to Sony?

He bought ATV which later merged with Sony's publishing division to become Sony/ATV

His estate owns that along with Sony