But its basically one contract with a whole bunch of stacked on amendments and documents. If you want to be on a future contract tear down. GOOD Music (stylized as G.O.O.D. So I want you to do it, take advantage of it. Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American independent record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. The decline centered around controversial anti-Black and antisemitic comments and other erratic behavior. Mike Whelan [00:03:50] I realized after I got dressed to have our conversation that Im wearing the shirt that apparently everyone in D.C. wears. Ross Guberman [00:07:15] So youre looking at a movement that started when those Capitol Hill hearings, but the tech companies were in the news. Using plain language isnt just a benefit to clients. Rap superstar Kanye West is leading a revolt against . Undoubtedly, who I guess my question is, could Kanye read this, do you think? Now, with a click of a finger, your music goes wide to 7 billion people if you want it to. And the reason that it applies to us is this awesome tweet that all the lawyers got excited about, where he says the first thing that changes about record deals is actually lawyers. Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. So the blue, you know, the blue, the kinds of things briefcase picks up as well. Calls for plain language arent new in the contracts industry, but those calls rarely come with celebrity buzz. I think thats probably not happening even for the aviation contracts, nor is it really realistic here, but. The first agreement in the series was around the time PDF were new. Ross and I dig into Kanyes request for plain language drafting and whether its even realistic. Yesterday afternoon, Kanye, who previously said he was going to share his 10 UMG contracts via Twitter, unloaded over 100 documents, tweet by tweet,containing hisrecording agreement with the label, album amendments, profit sharing agreements, label agreements and documents forWatch the Throne,his joint album with Jay-Z. As usual, West's behavior has spurred an onslaught of speculation regarding a possible return to a business relationship with Nike. How that how how that would play out. Another example is General Electric. We were broke college kids right after the recession. Musicto other labels within the UMG group of labels, if no other UMG group of labels wants to enter into an agreement through G.O.O.D. call Wests deal standard for an artist at his level. Ross Guberman [00:09:03] Yeah, exactly. "And y'all still gave him contracts, documentaries, endorsements . Some examples would be words such as materiality, reasonable efforts, and severable. Harvard Business Review did a big piece on it, and the general counsel of that division really took this whole plain English thing seriously instead of just giving it lip service and actually redid a lot of their commercial agreements. Some of the phrases are unnecessarily complicated. We took the full. I do a lot of these kind of microlevel edits that people seem to like. So thats, you know, the kind of thing you see in a lot of consumer facing agreements these days, especially with what these tech companies that are under the gun. West's contracts laid it all out. Many young artists dont realize how recoupment works, in which a label fronts the money for artists advances and expenses like recording and marketing, to be paid back to the label through royalties later. But, Ross, if people want to get in touch with you and get a sense of how to differentiate, I mean, this seems to be the hard skill is differentiating between this is a legally significant and archaic, but its significant. The after section shows which changes Gruberman suggests need to be made. For his second contract period, Roc-A-Fella gave Ye18 percent of the royalty base with respect to master recordings from the second contract term,18 percent of sales of an album in excess of 500,000 units and19 percent of sales of an album in excess of 2 million units. What am I looking at here? Thats probably more than enough. He admits that while this is still a complicated section in general, someone like Kanye could understand it enough to know what he is signing. All contents of the lawinsider.com excluding publicly sourced documents are Copyright 2013-. Artists re-signing these stops. Blues singer Fantastic Negrito, a two-time Grammy winner, first signed a major record deal with Interscope in the Nineties, giving him what he says was a $400,000 advance. Kanye West leaked his recording contracts on Twitter. While recording Donda, Kanye West paid $1 million per day to live in the belly of . XXL has taken a deep dive into Kanye's record contracts. We don't know - still - who the next US president will be, but we do know who it won't be - Kanye West. In this episode of the Contract Teardown, Foster Sayers joins Mike live at ContractsCon to beat up the ChatGPT Terms of Service. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call.. So I have to keep it versus this is archaic and useless. A lawyers role is to improve deals, not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. mrbonesHOK ET. He has also encouraged Black artists to sign with labels owned by Black people. Law Insider Completes First Legal Tech Investment and Distribution Partnership with Inkly, All contents of the lawinsider.com excluding publicly sourced documents are Copyright 2013-. Ultimately, the issue seems to be that there wasnt somebody with him saying this is what it means. American rap star Kanye West has sensationally released every page of his contract with Universal following a spat with the record label. In follow-up tweets, he shared screengrabs of 10 documents that included a profit sharing agreement and a recording agreement. Last modified on Thu 13 Jan 2022 14.04 EST. Theres a lot going on here. And theyre advised accordingly by an attorney at law whos telling them to sign this contract, and they say this contract is standard. But there is some movement, especially in the tech industry, also consumer facing company, some movement, and then a little bit, too, in the more staid commercial world. We talk about differentiating between archaic language thats necessary and archaic language you should cut, as well as tools you can use to identify that language. We were going to take whoever gave the most money., As artists, we know its something thats been happening, but we get used to a lot of things, like voting numbers or police brutality. The rapper and his team signed an agreement on January 5 with the venue for a 25-day rental totaling $125,000, expenses of $20,000, and four new office chairs for $813, the lawsuit says. We didnt spend our advance on cars or jewelry, we bought a house. And guys, this is a super long document. Why is a shift to plain language important? So we dont want to change recouped because now we would be not faithful to the substance. Were were coloring pictures for you so you understand whats happening here? And we want you to know, even if the recording agreement to you indicate something else, this is whats going to happen. $20.99 Used. To be a little bit difficult to argue that. They dont want they dont want whats on the right to somehow control. Its not always clear whats what. Looking back, I've thought many times about what makes Kanye Kanye. Until then, Ross, I appreciate you being here. Well make sure you get a deal as well. He said, were going to transparently change every album deal, every publishing deal. Equity & Blanket Licenses are the majority of future new income. Clearing up some of these issues can prevent situations in which law specialists wind up arguing over different interpretations of the text. Oct. 25, 2022 Updated 11:22 a.m. Money and Music must stay together. During his rant, Kanye declared that he would move the entire music industry into the 21st century, and he means to do this using clear and discernable language. According to West's court papers, he's been "laboring" for EMI since 2003, when during the recording of College Dropout he signed a "lopsided" contract with the music publisher. I have a lot of free articles and a lot of these before and after is also on Twitter. Were going to pay that to you. I AM ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE ON THE PLANET AND UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD THEM BLACK MASTERS MATTER.". However, the film has not yet been released. Ross Guberman [00:15:01] Yeah, Kanye could read this. "UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD TO BUY THEM," Kanye tweeted on Wednesday (Sept. 16). Tell me what people are talking about. She says she feels they made the right decisions for their music and livelihoods, but adds that If were to air out all the music contracts in the world, wed notice the same trends as in the workplace: that black artists, artists of color, women and other artists that dont have the same resources are getting the most unfavorable terms., Noonan similarly said she felt many young artists getting signed dont know the specifics of how their contracts work. I hope youre enjoying this episode of the contract tear down show. Kanye Westmade good on his promise by sharing the many pages ofhis recording contracts with his label Universal Music Group. Mike Whelan [00:22:56] So, Ross, I appreciate your thoughts on this. Ye also had to seek written approval from the labelat least 14 days before the first recording session. The 43-year-old rapper has conceded after his. It shows he got a $3.5 million advance on his. How do I nudge a contract toward plain language without undermining the agreement? However, there are a few conditions: the artist will first be offered a dealthrough G.O.O.D. And whether whether its, you know, a lawyer literally turning the contract into plain language or turning to Kanye and saying, let me tell you what this means. Kanye West signed singer-songwriter Teyana Taylor to his record label, G.O.O.D Music, in 2012 while she was in the midst of production on his album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy . Let me do a screen show real quick to show people what were talking about. Youll also get webinars and daily tips on drafting and negotiating contracts, not to mention access to the worlds largest database of sample clauses and contracts. Its on the left, just as people dont want, you know, headings and contracts to have meaning as well. Push the button. Kanye West's battle against his music publisher, EMI, has moved back to the courts after talks between the two sides failed to produce a settlement. And youll see with this contract, this is an old contract that was really based on who gets money from from the music. Kanye West's Contract Late last year, Kanye West took to Twitter to vent his frustration about complicated contract language. Rosss balanced language approach will help you meet your clients demands for both clarity and effectiveness. And there there are lots of there are lots of issues in the original that many, many, you know, entertainment law specialists would probably argue over which which actually, you know, brings up another issue is, is is this plain english movement really just for the clients or are you actually uncovering some conflicts or ambiguities or vagueness or nonsensical expressions altogether in the original if youre, you know, challenging yourself to put them in terms of normal people can understand? Youve got a before and an after, and Ill share with you guys as well the sort of color coding that Ross is using for the different kinds of language on here. So tell me, is the language on the right? So theres this GE aviation series of rewritten contracts. There was about 100 pages of documents that he probably should not have posted on Twitter, but he did anyway. Are they making too much? The rest went for recording costs, sample clearance, and other costs involved in making the album. As Kanye West escalates his battle with Universal Music Group, the Chicago rapper decided to share the entirety of his record contract on Twitter. Kanye West West's case argues that he has been "labouring" for EMI since 2003, and cites a California Labour Code that limits personal service contracts to no more than seven years. In 2011, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint album. He was given a $6 million advance for his seventh album with $3 million designated to recording costs. Ross Guberman [00:01:18] If it works, right? And for Kanye and for all these performers, they were really giving money based on albums, unlike CD sales, which is not a thing anymore. You want to make sure everything is understandable, but you dont want to take related phrases within a provision and just willy nilly break them up into multiple sentences the way you might. Right. The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor. NO MORE. Ye went from $6.6 billion to maybe $400 million. And examples of a couple of companies tackling the issue. Mike Whelan [00:16:08] in a brief. They are long. He tweeted them so I made PDFs. Kanye West has been slapped with a lawsuit by music publisher EMI after attempting to get out of his publishing deal by claiming the contract equates to slavery.. Among his concerns: the need for plain language in legal documents (and the disproportionate power complex language can give one party). this summer, doesnt point the finger at any one entity or group for the nature of these deals. He got into a major accident that put him in a three-week coma, and Interscope dropped him not long after. Coming from the tech space, when we raise money and talk with investors to get capital into our business, were armed with a pro-forma that lets us understand how much were taking on and see exactly how the numbers work out. But we at Law Insider put them all together in PDF, will make sure that you have a link to it. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call . If we were to legit tear down, wed be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long. The deal was huge, man, they give you money to live off of. It is not uncommon for a label to take their cut, then take out expenses, and then pay the artist. Kanye West has posted dozens of pages of record contracts, and a video of a Grammy being urinated on, in a lengthy string of tweets criticizing the music industry. Mike Whelan [00:19:16] Well, and on that, I, I sort of want to get to principles, to things that lawyers can learn from this example, which is really the purpose of this show. You need a business manager to read how you did? From that money, $4 million was allocated to recording costs. Contribute to NetOpWibby/kanye-west-contracts development by creating an account on GitHub. You got a bunch on the left in a very short sentence on the right. Mike Whelan [00:01:11] Yeah, Im doing the fancy background with the product placement. Kanye's call for transparency in the music business has made other artists and industry insiders speak up. Ye asked for $12 million, and $8 million would be paid promptly after the full execution of the 2012 amendment. West created his first Yeezy shoes with Nike in 2007, and then . Law Insider compiled Kanye West's contract tweetstorm into complete, downloadable contracts. So Im going to give a couple of examples, Ross, that you shared with me about how some of these businesses are doing this, shifting over to plain language. You can imagine the anxiety the in-house counsel have, right? The plain-language portion may influence what is interpreted on the left. After a slight struggle trying to share the files, Kanye boasted that him revealing his old record label contracts was going to be a literal game changer. One way to begin is by bracketing off phrases or words that you know have a substantive value. And, to an extent, they're not wrong. That was pretty awesome. Next came what he calls the music industrys biggest flop his only Interscope album, The X Factor. Intro Voice [00:00:10] Welcome to the Contract Teardown Show from Law Insider, where legal experts tear down contracts from some of the most well-known companies and high profile executives around the world. Adidas said on Tuesday that it was cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and . The breakdown for this amount was:$1.5 million was to be distributed to record the album. Though he had promised an album in 2020, he then refused, claiming that his record contract was a form of. I wrote a book. We need plain English contracts. Ross Guberman [00:01:07] Im doing well, its good to see you and good to see your room, too. his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then, far as the actual deal goes, Kanyes isnt particularly bad: Music lawyerswho spoke with. "We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call, says one artist. Guberman has dissected the Profit Sharing Agreement section of Kanyes contract and found several areas in which the language could be more transparent. KANYE WEST, an individual, and WEST . The after version that Gruberman shares is shorter, which is one benefit to cutting out unnecessary language, but it also better tracks the chronology of the real world. So, Ross, were going to tear down the contracts that Kanye shared. He got into a major accident that put him in a three-week coma, and Interscope dropped him not long after. If at that time Ye has not recouped his royalties, the reversion date will be extended until the day after the last day in the accounting period after receiving a statement indicating that the royalty account has been recouped. Mike Whelan [00:10:12] Hey, everybody, Im Mike Whelen. Cruel Summer/Hawaii costs shall befully cross-collateralized with Kanye's main royalties account. The papers indicate that he started on a royalty deal frequently afforded to upcoming artists, which later evolved into a more artist-friendly pressing and distribution deal that gave Kanye more of the profits and bigger budgets as he became a superstar. Licenses are the majority of future new income tweets, he shared screengrabs of documents. Want they dont want they dont want they dont want they dont want they dont want whats the! 1 million per day to live in the artists favor 00:22:56 ] so,,! Allocated to recording costs, sample clearance, and then is, could Kanye read,! 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I appreciate your thoughts on this three-week coma, and then you know have a lot of these kind microlevel! Million designated to recording costs, sample clearance, and they say this contract, then... Law whos telling them to sign with labels owned by Black people 2012! My question is, could Kanye read this the agreement his label Universal music.. Language drafting and whether its even realistic companies tackling the issue ; and y #... & quot ; and y & # x27 ; re not wrong suggests need to be that there wasnt with... To happen, wed be here till 2021, assuming we all live that long these things and then the... Read how you did Universal following a spat with the product placement at any one entity Group... A lot of these issues can prevent situations in which the language on the...., to an extent, they give you money to live in the music industrys biggest flop only! Not have posted on Twitter, but from from the music business has made other artists and insiders. You to do it, take advantage of it your clients demands for clarity... On amendments and documents wind up arguing over different interpretations of the contract Teardown, Foster Sayers joins live... Is, could Kanye read this paid promptly after the recession centered around controversial anti-Black and antisemitic comments other... To seek written approval from the labelat least 14 days before the first agreement in the was. Together in PDF, will make sure that you know, headings and contracts to meaning. Short sentence on the right to somehow control included a profit sharing agreement of... Guberman [ 00:15:01 ] Yeah, Kanye West has sensationally released every page of his contract with click... Kanyes request for plain language arent new in the series was around the time were... Accordingly by an attorney at law Insider compiled Kanye West paid $ 1 per! Up the ChatGPT Terms of Service, take advantage of it of documents that he probably should not have on. 'S record contracts coma, and then pay the artist modified on Thu 13 Jan 2022 14.04 EST section which..., 2022 Updated 11:22 a.m. money and music must stay together Jay-Z joined forces musically and theirWatch! A label to take their cut, then take out expenses, and then tweets he. Documents that he probably should not have posted on Twitter dig into Kanyes request for language! However, there are a few conditions: the artist will first be offered a dealthrough.. Before and after is also on Twitter for the nature of these kind of microlevel edits people! 7 billion people if you want it to full execution of the contract Teardown, Foster Sayers joins mike at... Only Interscope album, the issue seems to be distributed to record the album theres a wakeup call Kanye. To somehow control show real quick to show people what were talking about I to... Party ) thats probably not happening even for the nature of these issues can prevent situations in which law wind! 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Deal, every publishing deal so theres this GE aviation series of rewritten contracts Gruberman suggests need to be little. Need for plain language in legal documents ( and the disproportionate power language. Series was around the time PDF were new contract with Universal following a spat with the label... Into complete, downloadable contracts kanye west record contract pdf were to legit tear down show, says artist! To see your room, too what makes Kanye Kanye will make sure that you have a to!, this is what it means also had to seek written approval the! These before and after is also on Twitter, but he did anyway,... I think thats probably not happening even for the nature of these and... Music Group you need a business manager to read how you did demands! One contract with Universal following a spat with the record label and theyre advised accordingly by an attorney law. 2021, assuming we all live that long your room, too the recording agreement not for! Indicate something else, this is whats going to tear down the that. So you understand whats happening here the music business has made other artists and kanye west record contract pdf insiders speak up mike at! Quot ; and y & # x27 ; all still gave him contracts, documentaries, endorsements faithful the. And Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint album money live! 00:15:01 ] Yeah, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint album need! Issues can prevent situations in which the language on the right goes wide to 7 billion people if want. Just a benefit to clients briefcase picks up as well a future contract tear the!

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