Kanye West Offers To Help Taylor Swift Get Her Masters Back
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
Kanye West is making headline again after sending out a series of tweets offering his new guidelines for recording and publishing contracts.
1. The artist owns the copyright in the recordings and songs and leases them to the record label / publisher for a limited term. 1 year deals
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
2. The record label / publisher is a service provider that receives a share of the income for a limited term. The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
3. DEPENDANTS
Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. You should need NO ONE else to understand the business you’re in.
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
4. LAWYERS
the first thing that changes about Record Deals is actually lawyers.
We need Plain English contracts. A Lawyers role is to IMPROVE deals…. not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. Re-write deals to be understandable from FIRST READ.
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
5. EQUITY & BLANKET LICENSES ARE THE MAJORITY OF FUTURE NEW INCOME.
If you’re with a major you have invested your ‘songs’ as shares in their power to get equity and deals. Almost ALL new deals now are based on ALL songs going to a store or app. The equity is the Artists
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
NO MORE blanket licenses. It should be clear from day one… what shares you get NOW and when you leave. If your song helps a deal over the line you invested in that store / app same as they did.
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
5. ADVANCES ARE JUST LOANS!!
On Artists re-signing these stop. Advances are Loans with 75% interest rates (or worse). NO other business in the world takes a look at the business, buys shares, starts to profit when it profits. Record Companies have to buy into you, not loan you.
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
6. ROYALTIES
Again back to dependents. You need a business manager to read how you did? So you pay to see your money!!! NO MORE.
Royalty portals need to show (and do not now)
Every song you delivered
Every store you are in
How many streams per song
Income per song
— ye (@kanyewest) September 20, 2020
Kanye even offered to help Taylor Swift reclaim her masters:
I’M GOING TO PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT TAYLOR SWIFT GETS HER MASTERS BACK. SCOOTER IS A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND
— ye (@kanyewest) September 18, 2020
