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. Cruel Summer/Hawaii costs shall befully cross-collateralized with Kanye's main royalties account. Rap superstar Kanye West is leading a revolt against . Music; a backronym for Getting Out Our Dreams) is an American independent record label founded by rapper Kanye West in 2004. So I have to keep it versus this is archaic and useless. And according to the general counsel, its worked wonders. Are they making too much? It shows he got a $3.5 million advance on his. And we have to be very careful, of course, you know, translating things like provisos like provided, however, that in dealing with Shell and the like. Its all made from videos. They have before and after sections. Whats your background? He is no longer signed to Def Jam, his longtime record company; his contract expired with his 2021 album, "Donda." And Ye . Lets get back to the show. After the advance was recouped, 15 percent of royalties were to be given to both artists. Last modified on Thu 13 Jan 2022 14.04 EST. Uploaded by Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. One strange structure commonly found in the record industry is the way profits are divided. Welcome to Law Insiders Contract Teardown Show, where we bring smart friends like Ross Guberman over here to break down some contracts. Now, with a click of a finger, your music goes wide to 7 billion people if you want it to. I need every lawyer in the world to look at these," he wrote. And Im going to share a few images. So we want to talk briefly about this profit sharing piece, this image here, because theres a lot of language that might lead to artists not understanding that theyre getting into that pretty crappy deal, honestly. Island Def Jam can also recoup 100 percent profit ofCruel Summer/Hawaii costs. I think this is also, frankly, probably closer to what somebody like Kanye West could demand. . 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. LA Man Charged With Hate Crimes Threatened Classmate: I Want You Dead, Jew In 2012, the label released its debut compilation album Cruel Summer.In 2015, Pusha T was appointed the president of the label . 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. Pearl Jam Vinyl Records. Is this different than the LinkedIn attempt? The you know, the goal is not the same. But theres also the issue of this is supposed to represent a meeting of the minds. UMG is the parent company of Def Jam and West's G.O.O.D. 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. The before section has all the original wording, complete with legalese. Found online, don't shoot the messenger. If you are interested in being a guest on Contract Teardown, please email us at [email protected]. So I want you to do it, take advantage of it. You should need NO ONE else to understand the business youre in. And it was actually really hard to get through because they were just images. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if Roc-A-Fella is obligated to pay such producers a higher fixed amount (the "higher amount") for the applicable project, Grantor's royalty account and the production budget for the applicable recording project will be charged with a recording cost item equal to the higher amount in lieu of the amounts set forth in the preceding sentence. Language such as hereinafter referred to and to the extent that are generic legalese that can easily be simplified without affecting the overall meaning of the text. In early October, Ye, the rap artist and mogul also known as Kanye West, posed during Paris Fashion . Ross Guberman [00:08:11] Yeah, this is a big issue. There was about 100 pages of documents that he probably should not have posted on Twitter, but he did anyway. We need plain English contracts. Kanye West gave the world a rare glimpse into the music industry 's labyrinth of recording contracts last week when he tweeted out his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then. His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial and gospel. Right. This is the same deal your favorite artist signed, this is their label. What do you expect a young, naive artist to do? The way that Gruberman has identified these sections is by using his tool called BriefCatch. You take expenses out and then people are sharing whats left. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call.. 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 . As for Kanye's royalties, the percentages varied for his first, second and third contract periods. On May 4, 2012, Kanye's team penned a letter to Island Def Jam Music Group requesting that the recording fund for this fifth album be increased. This is Kanyes contracts. Ye also had to seek written approval from the labelat least 14 days before the first recording session. So, you know, theres a lot in contract language thats really just generic legaleese the same kinds of things you see in other documents. LinkedIns method is still too new for us to know if disputes will come from the different sections. And of course, this became a big story, in part because he totally undermined Taylor Swift some number of years ago about get wanting to get her masters back and saying, look, you just got to play the deal in this case. Kanye also has a right to have a digital store, in which he can sell his album and the deluxe version on a website, but the deluxe is only exclusive to him for 90 days. Thats probably more than enough. 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. Dependents. You can imagine the anxiety the in-house counsel have, right? 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.". Record Companies have to buy into you, not loan you. And the whole thing does feel very, very dated and and remote. I want you to do me a quick favor. Kanye West gave the world a rare glimpse into the music industrys labyrinth of recording contracts last week when he tweeted out his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then lambasted those agreements as exploitative and unfair, demanding his copyrights be returned to him. The language looks like something you might find, you know, 50, 100 years ago. Yet even though Kanyes deal may not make him the ideal poster child for a conversation on the fairness of recording contracts, hes sparked a high level of discussion among artists and music-business insiders on the nature of record deals and long-held standards. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call . Youre going to sign the amendment. For Kanye, his 15% royalty rate on wholesale for each sneaker sold has netted him roughly $150 million pre-tax annually. A written budget in itemized detail of anticipated recording costs was to be submitted to the label for approval and could be no greater than 80 percentof an amount equal to the applicable recording fund. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. Right. I PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS THAT IT DONT LOOK LIKE THIS TOMORROW," Ye wrote in a tweet with the five accompanying images. He created the first-of-its-kind editing plug-in BriefCatch. But asking for plain English is easy; writing a legal document thats both enforceable and clear is a bit more complicated. Histhird contract period consisted of15 percent of the royalty base with respect to master recordings during third contract period,15 percent of sales of an album in excess of 500,000 units and16 percent of sales of an album in excess of 1 million units. Fine. 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Watch to see how three transactions handled alternative dispute resolution options. For that LP, there was a recording fund amounting to$2.5 million. . Ross Guberman [00:15:01] Yeah, Kanye could read this. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time And although I didnt start my career with contract language, I certainly immerse myself in it. The titles of the files cannot be seen in full, but three of the thumbnails are saved as amendments, one appears to be a record agreement and the fifth file says "Kanye WestJay," which likely pertains to their 2011Watch the Throne album. Uploaded for archival purposes. I mean, shoot, producers can take $15,000 to $20,000 a piece on each track. They will help you draft better contracts faster. 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. 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. The deal. Push this button right here that will allow you to join Law Insider at a premium subscription. Kanye West leaked his recording contracts on Twitter. Mike Whelan [00:00:53] Hey, everybody. Well see you guys next time. Ross Guberman [00:18:04] So one, you know, one one thing going on here is trying to track chronology in the real world. So we know recouped doesnt mean the same thing. Some of the phrases are unnecessarily complicated. not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. If youre part of a team, just email us if youre in house or in a law firm. Contract #1 [PDF] Contact #2 [PDF] Contract #3 [PDF] Contract #4 [PDF] Contract #5 [PDF] Contract #6 [PDF] Contract #7 [PDF] Contract #8 [PDF] Contract #9 New Recording and Publishing Deal Guidelines [ PDF] Whats the principle here? The once hesitant label has now hit the. Kanye West has been active on Twitter once again. call Wests deal standard for an artist at his level. Right. Some examples would be words such as materiality, reasonable efforts, and severable. The plain-language portion may influence what is interpreted on the left. (Epic did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Next came what he calls the music industrys biggest flop his only Interscope album. So from a record label standpoint at the moment, the split Kanye has above is in many cases flipped. Its all digital. So you keep those and then you also, of course, in your sector or industry, want to keep those terms of art as well. Is this realistic to even talk about plain language and contract drafting? He said, were going to transparently change every album deal, every publishing deal. Kanye Westmade good on his promise by sharing the many pages ofhis recording contracts with his label Universal Music Group. NO other business in the world takes a look at the business, buys shares, starts to profit when it profits. Where you calling from? So, yeah, there you go. Ross Guberman [00:16:40] Yeah, you really hit the nail on the head. They would pay Kanye back after the successful completion of the film, provided it was up to standards. But if Kanye West 's statements last year about slavery being a choice were out of bounds, he's taking more of a Prince-like tactic in his ongoing efforts to extract himself from his record. As Kanye West escalates his battle with Universal Music Group, the Chicago rapper decided to share the entirety of his record contract on Twitter. If you have a kid who knows nothing about law and sees all this money, these contracts are 60 pages long, who the fuck is reading that? Anokute says. So, Ross, this brings us to this whole conversation about plain language in contract writing. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Equity & Blanket Licenses are the majority of future new income. I didnt know this was the thing, but apparently its a Twitter meme. Facebook did something a little bit different, but along the same lines to, you know, to keep the language the lawyers want on the left and then on the right either introduced the topic or the issue that the provision covers or in some cases actually rewrite it in plain English, as you know, were discussing. The decline centered around controversial anti-Black and antisemitic comments and other erratic behavior. Another example is General Electric. 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. Were were coloring pictures for you so you understand whats happening here? Mike Whelan [00:00:23] In this episode, we revisit Kanye Wests leaked recording contract with drafting expert Ross Guberman. The rapper initially sued the . The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor. 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. Kanye West had already been burning bridges in the music industry. Milana Lewis, CEO of music distribution platform Stem, says record labels should start including explanatory pro-forma documents with deals, in order to promote transparency and make it easier for artists to understand what comes in their agreements. You need to have some consistency, trying to keep that in there while still, again, capturing the the legal the truly contract law based elements of the original, the proviso, the, you know, the preemption, the classic for the avoidance of doubt and so forth, trying to trying to preserve all that, but not going so far as to worry about sentence length just for the sake of sentence length. In follow-up tweets, he shared screengrabs of 10 documents that included a profit sharing agreement and a recording agreement. . 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.. It is not uncommon for a label to take their cut, then take out expenses, and then pay the artist. 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. Kanye West signed his co-publishing contract with music publisher EMIwho is now owned by Sony/ATVin 2003, before the completion and release of his 2004 debut album, The College Dropout. Its a fine line to walk: simplifying without completely changing the meaning of the terms. 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 . Music. 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