Mistakes Artists Make

Mistakes Artists Make
By, Wendy Day from Rap Coalition (www.WendyDay.com)

I’ve learned so much from mistakes—both my own and others’. Mistakes are NOT necessarily a bad thing (provided you can fix the situation when things go wrong), if one learns from them. The cool thing about mistakes is that it means that you are trying new things and taking action (assuming you aren’t making the same mistake over and over)! Here are some mistakes I have learned from and that I’ve seen others’ learn from—some are small errors in judgment and others are million dollar career killing mistakes. If this prevents one person from making one fatal mistake, it was worth the time it took to research and write it. Thank you to everyone who shared their painful stories to help others avoid the same pitfalls (I’ve protected your identity, as promised). These are in no particular order of importance…

Surrounding Yourself With The Wrong Team: If the best player in the NBA stepped out on the court alone, against the worst team in the NBA, the worst team would win. Why? Because they are a team working against one player. There’s a powerful force that occurs when multiple people come together with one goal in mind—especially if each person plays their role and stays in their lane. And teamwork is especially powerful if you have key players who are the best at what they do, all coming together to move forward towards one goal.

New artists don’t often choose the best teams. They often surround themselves with their friends and family who know very little about the music industry or how the business works. Whether due to trust issues or laziness in finding the right people, I’ve seen more careers end because an artist has trusted their careers to the wrong people.

There are people in the music business who are good at what they do, and even more who are not. Unfortunately, because it’s a “who you know” business, one’s popularity in the music business is not conditional upon being good at what one does. If an artist doesn’t do thorough research on a person to find out if their skill level is sub-par, they could very easily have a team member who sucks at what they do. For example, having managed a major recording artist is NOT a sign of aptitude, it’s a sign of access. Managing multiple recording artists successfully IS a sign of strong management skill.

A team consists of a manager, an entertainment lawyer, an accountant, a booking agent, and a publicist (I am the only person I know who includes a publicist as a mandatory part of the team, but if there’s no one broadcasting the artists’ moves and triumphs, no one will know). Since this is a “who you know” business, relationships, connections, experience, and aptitude are all important.

On the flip side, often artists choose the wrong people to surround themselves with and are outcast by the industry. This fact may be hidden temporarily while the artist is experiencing a little success or popularity, but it really shows itself down the road when there are no endorsements, limited media coverage, reduced shows (burn a promoter one time and your show money is affected all over), etc. Everyone will put up with a bullshit team while the artist is riding a hot record. But where it matters is on the upside or downside of that hit record, and this is where a strong team comes into play. This is the main reason why urban artists have such a short shelf life….they often have shitty representatives and terrible teams.

A contract can protect your rights, but it can also hurt you. It’s important to have a well-connected, experienced entertainment attorney look over everything before you sign it. It’s often what’s missing from a contract that can hurt you more than what’s in there. You need professionals on your side to advise you.

Indecision -Or- Jumping From Plan To Plan: Quite a few artists go from person to person in the industry seeking a quick and lucrative way into the industry. When one plan doesn’t seem to lead anywhere, or even before giving it a solid chance, they meet someone else that they think can advance them forward and they jump from person to person, plan to plan, or crew to crew. Aside from being exceedingly disloyal, it doesn’t make good business sense to do this. The best way to find a direction and plan for yourself that will work, is to learn as much as possible about the music business, devise a plan that’s best for your situation, and then move forward to enact the plan with the proper team. If you’ve given one plan a solid try and enough time to work, and it doesn’t, then it makes sense to rethink your plan and try another angle. But to jump from industry person to industry person alienates the folks who really can help you, and makes you appear desperate for success, thereby attracting to you all of the bottom feeders who may want to take advantage of your desperation. There are numerous paths to success in this business. Find one that works for you, make a decision, and stick with it long enough to see if it is the right path for you.

Waiting Too Long To Realize Something Is Wrong: As I am writing this article, I got a call from a major platinum producer who informed me that he was never paid his royalties on a number of #1 hits he had with a record label. I remember these hit records because they are classic records today, but they were in the early 1990s, which was almost ten years ago. My first question to the producer was: why did you wait so long to try and collect your money? “We were family,” he said, and “I was hoping I’d get more work from that label.” I won’t mention that the label eventually hired in-house producers and this guy hasn’t made a record for that label in at least 5 to 7 years. How long did he hang onto hope of more work?!

In law, there is a statute of limitations on everything including collecting back royalties, and except for a case of fraud (which is difficult to prove) an artist has a limited time to file a claim against their royalties due. That time can be anywhere from 2 to 4 years, and is stipulated in whatever agreement was signed at the time. Additionally, most artists and producers have limited financial resources for legal fees and filing lawsuits against labels that are international conglomerates with very deep pockets and lawyers on staff. It’s important to chase your money immediately—twice a year, every year. Royalties are paid in March and September of each year and part of your team’s job is to chase money due, audit regularly, and keep track of what’s owed and outstanding.

Do not let a label or powerful artist bully you. By speaking up for what’s due you, you are NOT hurting your career, not stopping more work coming your way, or creating tension. By not being paid properly, they are fucking you out of what’s rightfully yours. If the money isn’t coming to you, it’s going to somebody—you earned it, so collect it in a timely fashion.

Self-Destructing and Making Bad Decisions: This mistake is the most popular one I see artists, producers, and DJs make in our industry. I don’t have a solution for this one beyond getting your shit together as an artist and getting some professional help if you continually do dumb shit and can’t stop yourself. I most often see this occur surrounded by drugs and alcohol. The music industry is naturally a “party” industry and has a fun vibe. Most artists spend their time in clubs when they aren’t recording, so the influence is constant. But many artists take partying to the extreme-- to the point where they miss important events in their schedules, get arrested, exercise bad judgment, or do inferior work. I’m not saying not to have fun, or party. I’m saying that if you have to take drugs or have “chemical cocktails” on a regular basis, you are a junky (the industry seems to have a fascination with syrup, ecstasy, Viagra, pills, cocaine, and weed—and often mix them, hence the term “chemical cocktails”).

But self-destruction doesn’t just come in the guise of excessive partying. I’ve seen rappers have babies like they are accessories, spend more money than they make, fight to prove their “realness,” beef with people who ether them, make music that is outside of their lane, date the wrong women, do prison bids mid-career, die, not pay people properly, say or do dumb stuff publicly, etc. Self-destructive behavior comes in many forms. In my opinion, the goal in life is to be the best human being you possibly can be, and if you are a miserable scumbag that can’t even stand to be around yourself, it’s time to change some things about yourself. No time like the present!!

I have also seen artists make horrendous decisions about their careers—like a street rapper choosing to let his label bully him into making super commercial pop music. Or an artist has a very public negative event happen (a sex tape leaks, domestic violence, a drug overdose, and public fight or shooting, an arrest, etc) and doesn’t handle the situation immediately with qualified publicity firms that specialize in damage control. Exxon has a major tanker accident with the Valdez, killing the eco system and wildlife for generations and for hundreds of miles and recovers, yet you punch someone in the face or have a sex tape release and your career never recovers…. Mel Gibson gets arrested and spews anti-Semitic remarks in a drunken stupor in an industry where his livelihood depends mostly on Jewish executives and it doesn’t even dent his career, but you get into a verbal battle with another rapper and it ends your credibility and career? C’mon son… learn from others who’ve survived worse.

Not Understanding How The Industry Works: Back in the 80s and early 90s, I understood how artists got jerked. It was difficult to learn how the label system worked and hard to do any research on the aspects of the industry that effect artists. But in the mid-90s all of that changed with the internet. Today, anyone can research and find out anything they need to know about anyone or anything. Not understanding how this industry works is unacceptable for anyone considering a career in the music industry. So if you come into this industry just thinking you can rap, sing, make beats, or DJ and that’s all you need to know, you are an idiot.

You don’t get “put on” in this industry without getting pimped—so building your own buzz and leverage so you put yourself on is a good career move. A great connection doesn’t lead to a great career, but it does lead to making someone else a ton of money at your own expense. Sending out demos to record labels won’t get you “discovered,” but it will allow an idea, a beat, or a whole song to be stolen from you (even if you copyright your songs, so you have enough money to sue and enough proof that they took your song?). Promoting yourself at industry convention after industry convention doesn’t build your buzz with fans and people who buy records (the ones that REALLY get labels’ attention), it just makes people like me hug you a lot. Getting signed to a record deal isn’t a guarantee that your career will take off you will be successful. More people sign to labels each year than records come out by that label. Just because you have the funding to start your own label doesn’t mean you have the talent or know-how to do so. I’ve seen some mediocre artists spend millions of dollars to fail.

Take the time to study the industry, learn who the players are, and find out who’s on the teams behind each successful artist (this shouldn’t be difficult to do since so few artists are successful today). Attend industry events and actually network with industry people and attend the panel discussions instead of macking hoes or looking for your next boytoy. Read as much as you can about the music industry. Some great books are Confessions Of A Record Producer (Moses Avalon), Everything You Need To Know About The Music Industry (Donald Passman), Dancing With The Devil (Mark Curry), Hit Men (Fredric Dannen—this is a history book more than a how-to book), etc. Meet with as many successful people who are doing what you want to do, as will meet with you. Many won’t take the time for you, but many will. Build relationships with those who will.

A solid understanding of how publishing works, performance rights societies (ASCAP and BMI), and how to get a record deal, will prevent you from getting jerked out of money by others. A little bit of education goes a long way in this business. We can’t stop the huge amount of fuck boys in this industry who will try to steal your dreams from you to make a quick buck, but you can educate yourself so their pitch doesn’t make good business sense to you. You can keep yourself from being a victim.

Focus On The Talent, Not The Money: In the mid-90s, the music industry shifted from being about talent to being about money. It seemed to become the new dope game. Folks were trying to get into this industry to hit a quick lick, not because they wanted to impact music or propel the artform of Hip Hop forward. International corporations got involved, either as record labels or through endorsement opportunities with international superstar artists hawking their products.

Rather than choosing the best music or writers for songs, companies and even artists themselves began choosing people that were signed to them or their own companies to create for them. Rather than choosing the best producer to compliment a rapper, labels began choosing in-house producers to make the beats because the label would retain an additional 50% of the ownership, or get a kickback from the producer or writer of the song.

Some employees at companies quickly tired of seeing the money wasted by their employers and figured out enterprising ways to get a bigger share of the pie—they started secret production companies with the artists they signed, took big kickbacks from artists in exchange for record deals, signed artists and then cut out the teams and producers who got them where they were, chose producers based on kickbacks or co-ownership of the music, chose song writers based on kickbacks or co-ownership of the songs, etc. Even the artists started their own companies so they could eat off of the artists coming up under them—there’s a lot of money in being a middleman, especially if others are doing all of the work.