There have been some good threads the last week or so that have been in my opinion very good ones as they are based on the realities of the business. 1 was about how artists who just aren't poppin' anymore even make money...
I saw someone mention in the "JT 750k+ Selling" thread about how is it possible that someone like Pharrell can be broke...
Let me explain it...
We are in a very different time of the Music Industry... the mystique of this business has been dead for a long time & most of that is due to information being so accessible. Here's how you can go years with multiple Billboard hits & still go broke...
15 years ago... there was no Fruity Loops... there was no Reason... you couldn't just download Logic & start producing. If you wanted to be a producer you needed the real tools... a decent studio... an MPC or Sequencer... quality microphone... & a Triton/Motif/Fantom. In order to have these "Industry Standard" tools you need $$$$$$$... or be cool with someone with these tools who believed in you. So the exclusivity of having the tools was there. Nowadays anyone can download some VST's & FL Studio & start making beats... *ANYONE*... being a Rapper, Singer, Artist, Writer or Producer has lost its merit & the game is over-saturated with half talented & half lazy people & it's blurred the line a LOT...
15 years ago... there was only 1 Timbaland... only 1 Neptunes... only 1 Dr. Dre... & they all had their own "Secrets"... secrets that are published all over the internet on every Producer forum available to all NOW. The great thing to these people about the Music Industry 15 years ago is it was looked down upon to be a copycat. No label or publisher would sign you if your beats sounded too much like The Neptunes or Dr. Dre because they already have them on their Payroll.
This was also at a time where a lot of old heads from the 70's & 80's "refused" to make commercial music so you had cats like Timbaland & The Neptunes doing it & they just had the EAR for radio... a lot of cats lack an EAR... for whatever music they may like. So everything The Neptunes/Timbaland touched would go Top 40 on Billboard so they could NAME THEIR PRICE & labels had NO CHOICE but to pay it.
If your The Neptunes & you're getting $75k-$150k a BEAT... for several years straight... you don't see the money ending anytime soon because you're getting those offers 4-5 times a year & grossing in the hundreds of thousands off of the royalties. Those days were nice for them... but the problem is a lot of cats never re-adjust their lifestyle once those checks start getting smaller & smaller. Of course someone like Pharrell can afford a $50k a month lifestyle & $30k a month mortgage & bills when you're grossing $150k a month but it only takes 2 bad years in the game to have that shyt come crashing down & a lot of Artists/Rappers/Writers/Producers never adjust in time.
And a very dirty practice a lot of labels use is this... they won't come after you while you're hot... they just won't. You could go years in the GREEN making hundreds of thousands or millions in the limelight because you are making your label much more $$$ but as soon as you stop grossing for the label they come after you & show you the fine print in your contracts & collect what you "owe" them despite how much you've already grossed for them... paperwork is paperwork...
So if you're grossing about $2,000,000 a year but spending $1.5 Mil of it a year because you think these Multi-Million years will come forever then when those turn into Multi-Hundred thousand years but you're still LIVING A $2 Mil A YEAR LIFESTYLE... you go broke... and so many of your favorite artists & producers do it... same thing with NFL & NBA Players... the average goes broke within' 5 years because once the checks stop their spending doesn't & bills don't...
It's 15 years later... hypothetically... & every cat with an HP Laptop that has a pirated copy of FL & a Midi Keyboard is a "Producer" submitting beats by the bulk to A&R's & now you have cats who can mimic The Neptunes/Timbaland/Dr. Dre's style so why would a label go to the originals & pay $100k for a beat when you have thirsty cats who can mimic them & gross half of what they can for $5k? It's business before anything. Anyone can download a Timbaland Drum kit & start making their own knockoff beats... ANYONE... the game has changed... the clones are here & they are DIRT CHEAP...
Not to mention this... The Neptunes have not had a Top 40 hit record since about 2007. To put it in perspective... the average Top 40 Hit can gross around $100,000 - $350,000 dollars... you still have to pay out the artist, the writers & the producer. The average Top 10 hit grosses over a Millions Dollars but you still have to split it. The Neptunes haven't had a Top 10 Hit since about 2007 unless I'm forgetting something. I don't mean a song they play on radio a few times... I mean a legit Top 10 Billboard Hit... since 2007... that's 6 years with no real check... so that means in the last 6 years those bills of $30k+ a month that eventually leads to being broke & downsizing horribly...
And I know for a fact that since 2009 they've only been getting MAYBE $10k a track... why? They're The Neptunes right? Well... this is a business & you have cats like Da Internz, Hit-Boy, Pop & Oak, etc whose songs ARE charting on Billboard & they're only charging $15k a track so why would anyone pay someone like The Neptunes their quote if they're not grossing any money?
And let me dead the whole "cats still getting royalty checks" Myth... what checks? When was the last time you heard "Frontin" or "Like I Love You" on radio? Even if some random radio stations play that shyt 5 times a year those checks MIGHT be $100... that's not enough to fill up the Bentley...
Most of these cats signed terrible deals in the 90's & early 2000's before a lot of information of bad deals was available via the internet so nowadays shytty deals aren't as bad as they used to be. You think Timbaland works still because of his love for music? That nikka has one of the WORST contracts in history... Barry Hankerson owns him for LIFE... if he stops working for a year he could be broke within' 2. Dr. Dre makes no money off of music anymore because his sound used to be special & now anyone can mimic him so he doesn't want to blow his mystique by putting out a mediocre Detox.
I have friends... a LOT of friends who have success in the game but the second they decide to quit the labels will come for their money. It's easy for your favorite artist to front on TV with the whips & chains & nice cribs WHILE THEY'RE HOT but let them have 2 bad years... the labels are coming for their money... they're not going to hurt the artists perception WHILE THEY'RE HOT... but when the sales stop they come for all of that shyt *IF* it's owed...
Don't get it twisted... their are some very smart cats who are smart enough to take this music industry money & flip it into other businesses but a lot of cats aren't that smart. You think Lil' Wayne wants to keep pumping out album & mixtape after mixtape? He's Baby's highest grosser... he won't let him just stop working because he makes him too much money. You can't just "quit" working for a drug dealer if you're his highest grosser pusher... he won't let you... call it extortion... it happens & is happening to your favorite artists... that's why they're heavy on drugs a lot... because you can't just "quit" sometimes... theirs even pop artists with "drug money" behind them...
Everything stated in this thread are EXAMPLES... just to put things in perspective. I always tell people don't judge how much money an artist or producer or writer has until 5 years after their last Billboard Hit...
Someone said it best a long time ago... the Music Industry is like a friend who gives you an Umbrella when it's sunshine & takes it away when it starts to rain...
I saw someone mention in the "JT 750k+ Selling" thread about how is it possible that someone like Pharrell can be broke...
Let me explain it...
We are in a very different time of the Music Industry... the mystique of this business has been dead for a long time & most of that is due to information being so accessible. Here's how you can go years with multiple Billboard hits & still go broke...
15 years ago... there was no Fruity Loops... there was no Reason... you couldn't just download Logic & start producing. If you wanted to be a producer you needed the real tools... a decent studio... an MPC or Sequencer... quality microphone... & a Triton/Motif/Fantom. In order to have these "Industry Standard" tools you need $$$$$$$... or be cool with someone with these tools who believed in you. So the exclusivity of having the tools was there. Nowadays anyone can download some VST's & FL Studio & start making beats... *ANYONE*... being a Rapper, Singer, Artist, Writer or Producer has lost its merit & the game is over-saturated with half talented & half lazy people & it's blurred the line a LOT...
15 years ago... there was only 1 Timbaland... only 1 Neptunes... only 1 Dr. Dre... & they all had their own "Secrets"... secrets that are published all over the internet on every Producer forum available to all NOW. The great thing to these people about the Music Industry 15 years ago is it was looked down upon to be a copycat. No label or publisher would sign you if your beats sounded too much like The Neptunes or Dr. Dre because they already have them on their Payroll.
This was also at a time where a lot of old heads from the 70's & 80's "refused" to make commercial music so you had cats like Timbaland & The Neptunes doing it & they just had the EAR for radio... a lot of cats lack an EAR... for whatever music they may like. So everything The Neptunes/Timbaland touched would go Top 40 on Billboard so they could NAME THEIR PRICE & labels had NO CHOICE but to pay it.
If your The Neptunes & you're getting $75k-$150k a BEAT... for several years straight... you don't see the money ending anytime soon because you're getting those offers 4-5 times a year & grossing in the hundreds of thousands off of the royalties. Those days were nice for them... but the problem is a lot of cats never re-adjust their lifestyle once those checks start getting smaller & smaller. Of course someone like Pharrell can afford a $50k a month lifestyle & $30k a month mortgage & bills when you're grossing $150k a month but it only takes 2 bad years in the game to have that shyt come crashing down & a lot of Artists/Rappers/Writers/Producers never adjust in time.
And a very dirty practice a lot of labels use is this... they won't come after you while you're hot... they just won't. You could go years in the GREEN making hundreds of thousands or millions in the limelight because you are making your label much more $$$ but as soon as you stop grossing for the label they come after you & show you the fine print in your contracts & collect what you "owe" them despite how much you've already grossed for them... paperwork is paperwork...
So if you're grossing about $2,000,000 a year but spending $1.5 Mil of it a year because you think these Multi-Million years will come forever then when those turn into Multi-Hundred thousand years but you're still LIVING A $2 Mil A YEAR LIFESTYLE... you go broke... and so many of your favorite artists & producers do it... same thing with NFL & NBA Players... the average goes broke within' 5 years because once the checks stop their spending doesn't & bills don't...
It's 15 years later... hypothetically... & every cat with an HP Laptop that has a pirated copy of FL & a Midi Keyboard is a "Producer" submitting beats by the bulk to A&R's & now you have cats who can mimic The Neptunes/Timbaland/Dr. Dre's style so why would a label go to the originals & pay $100k for a beat when you have thirsty cats who can mimic them & gross half of what they can for $5k? It's business before anything. Anyone can download a Timbaland Drum kit & start making their own knockoff beats... ANYONE... the game has changed... the clones are here & they are DIRT CHEAP...
Not to mention this... The Neptunes have not had a Top 40 hit record since about 2007. To put it in perspective... the average Top 40 Hit can gross around $100,000 - $350,000 dollars... you still have to pay out the artist, the writers & the producer. The average Top 10 hit grosses over a Millions Dollars but you still have to split it. The Neptunes haven't had a Top 10 Hit since about 2007 unless I'm forgetting something. I don't mean a song they play on radio a few times... I mean a legit Top 10 Billboard Hit... since 2007... that's 6 years with no real check... so that means in the last 6 years those bills of $30k+ a month that eventually leads to being broke & downsizing horribly...
And I know for a fact that since 2009 they've only been getting MAYBE $10k a track... why? They're The Neptunes right? Well... this is a business & you have cats like Da Internz, Hit-Boy, Pop & Oak, etc whose songs ARE charting on Billboard & they're only charging $15k a track so why would anyone pay someone like The Neptunes their quote if they're not grossing any money?
And let me dead the whole "cats still getting royalty checks" Myth... what checks? When was the last time you heard "Frontin" or "Like I Love You" on radio? Even if some random radio stations play that shyt 5 times a year those checks MIGHT be $100... that's not enough to fill up the Bentley...
Most of these cats signed terrible deals in the 90's & early 2000's before a lot of information of bad deals was available via the internet so nowadays shytty deals aren't as bad as they used to be. You think Timbaland works still because of his love for music? That nikka has one of the WORST contracts in history... Barry Hankerson owns him for LIFE... if he stops working for a year he could be broke within' 2. Dr. Dre makes no money off of music anymore because his sound used to be special & now anyone can mimic him so he doesn't want to blow his mystique by putting out a mediocre Detox.
I have friends... a LOT of friends who have success in the game but the second they decide to quit the labels will come for their money. It's easy for your favorite artist to front on TV with the whips & chains & nice cribs WHILE THEY'RE HOT but let them have 2 bad years... the labels are coming for their money... they're not going to hurt the artists perception WHILE THEY'RE HOT... but when the sales stop they come for all of that shyt *IF* it's owed...
Don't get it twisted... their are some very smart cats who are smart enough to take this music industry money & flip it into other businesses but a lot of cats aren't that smart. You think Lil' Wayne wants to keep pumping out album & mixtape after mixtape? He's Baby's highest grosser... he won't let him just stop working because he makes him too much money. You can't just "quit" working for a drug dealer if you're his highest grosser pusher... he won't let you... call it extortion... it happens & is happening to your favorite artists... that's why they're heavy on drugs a lot... because you can't just "quit" sometimes... theirs even pop artists with "drug money" behind them...
Everything stated in this thread are EXAMPLES... just to put things in perspective. I always tell people don't judge how much money an artist or producer or writer has until 5 years after their last Billboard Hit...
Someone said it best a long time ago... the Music Industry is like a friend who gives you an Umbrella when it's sunshine & takes it away when it starts to rain...
