SwagProductionz
@SlurRty on Twitter
If you are on Twitter, I recommend following @1_Shot as he drops gems and is always happy to share industry info.
This was a good one, where he really ranted (in the good way) about the realities of producer revenue streams and a managers position. This came about mainly because of managers moving on to get publishing deals and therefore quota's of their own.
It's just an overview and from the top of his head, but there is a lot of great information in here for many people looking to come up in the industry. It is also a VERY long read, but a good read. I hope some peeps enjoy it. I tried to format it from the twitter format as best as possible.
Taken from 1 Shot Managements Twitter Feed 31/01/2013
Ok so first things first lets talk income streams that come to producers for producing music. There are two main revenue streams for a prod. Better put, there are two sets of royalties that are due to a producer when he produces a song.
1) the producer royalty and
2) the mechanical
Producer royalties are always tied to a budget, of which when you get an advance for the track, its an advance against this royalty
so once you get this advance, its an advance against your royalty for the song which means that you don't see another dime for that song...
until the money spent on that song is recouped. nowadays they tie it to the budget of the whole album, so you wont see any$ till they recoup
If you have it only tied to them recouping off the song you have a better chance of seeing a royalty...if said song sells good...BUT...if you have to wait till the entire album recoups till you see a royalty your in for a LOOONNNGGG wait...close to never.
The reason being that as of 2010 roughly only 4% of all commercially released albums recouped!!So generally speaking this means roughly only 4% of albums paid out royalties...of which the producers would then see their producer royalty.This number is so low, that unless you get on a really good selling album, what you get for your advance is generally what you get period...
So...thats the producer royalty...in todays market...it's hard to get real money from royalties on a consistent basis. Then you have the mechanical royalty...this royalty is tied to the publishing of a song, there is copyright law which governs this payment..and with mechanicals because of how the law works, you don't have to wait for a record/album to be recouped, they pay on them straight up.
In hiphop and with all of other genres nowadays...the producer is generally also a writer of the song they produce and therefore based on how much of the song you wrote...you as the producer if you wrote (read made the beat yourself) you get mechanicals ......and since mechanicals are paid out regardless of recoupment status...if you write on a record you are sure to get something coming in...
What's this all mean? It means that generally speaking, the bulk of money that will be coming to you for sure is based on writing/publishing. Your advance is certain and your share of the mechanicals will be certain to come in. Seeing producer royalties is very rare..Then there are additional revenue streams that come in based of your writing as a producer; for example performance royalties...This is the money that is collected on your behalf by your PRO (performing rights organization) based on your %age of the record written & based on how heavily performed (read: publicly played) the song is. How many spins you get determines your PRO income.
So I've just explained how 3 of the main sources of revenue works for the common producer of our music. Producer royalty, mechanical & pro $ ...1 of the 3 you RARELY ever get and the other 2 ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO YOUR PUBLISHING. Publishing means your writing contribution on a song.
So whats this all mean? It means for a producer of our music...your main ways to get money are based on your writing %ages on your records.This producers, is your real bread and butter,this producers is how you will be able to sustain yourselves & this is the bulk of your revenue. This means that your publishing is YOUR MAIN AND IMPORTANT REVENUE GENERATING ASSET. Point blank period. So it should go without saying that since publishing is your greatest $ maker as a producer, YOU AS PRODUCER SHOULD KEEP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
So enters the manager...the single most important person(s) of your team outside of the creatives...this is the person that supposed to fight for YOUR BEST INTERESTS, supposed to conduct ALL BUSINESS WITH YOUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND...this is your watchdog. Management is there to help ensure you get what you deserve...to help you get the most you can get for yourself as the creative...we make our money based off how much you make...so that means I should only be eating when your eating....furthermore it means that if I wanna eat good, then I need to work and bust my ass to ensure you eat great! Since I get a piece of all of what you make...I need to ensure and work towards making sure you get the most for yourself as possible as that should be the only way to ensure I eat!
And it makes sense, without the talent there is nothing for the manager to manage, without your gift and labor there is nothing to "work" This model also ensures that the manager works hard for you, because since they get a small subset of your $, we should work hard to make you allot of $ if we in turn want to make good $ too! And this squares perfectly with the concept of team.
So...if the manager role is to guard you, protect your works and then work hard to make said works generate income, I should be fighting...
I should naturally be fighting off everyone who wants to take away or pick off of my clients greatest asset and money maker for them.How in the **** am I working in YOUR best interest as my client for me to TAKE A PEICE OF YOUR BEST ASSET and make it just my own?? This to me just makes zero sense, ethically seems wrong & just as a man of morals and principles smells like some grimey ass foul shit to do
Whats it look like that if one of my duties is to watch over your prize possession and asset from all others trying to get a piece...What I look like then looking dead in your face tell you that I need a piece of that asset to come straight to my face instead...and then.. to make matters worse..still put my hand out to you for my %age off everything you make as well! <- that shit just doesnt sit well w/me That basically makes it that Im double dipping on u. Means that I'm literally double dipping on my mans...me whose supposed to be his guard. So that means that I get paid off everything you do & since I talked you into giving me a slice of your work I get paid again on that dolo? I take what I do serious and I just don't see how I am looking out for your best interest if I knowingly take a piece of your work from u
Ok so that's one part of why I disagree with the whole manager's getting pub deals rant, the next part is simple and shorter
For the record...let me first say that I am NOT against pub deals and I def am NOT against working with the big/real publishers.Why? because I know the benefits of them and HAVE SEEN THEM WORK! That is an addition to the team and I've seen it really work.
A manager is supposed to go hard for you regardless cause of said reasons in the rant earlier, giving them pub yields no additional results! The only thing giving pub to a manager does is allows them to make more money off of you then they normally would, they get to eat twice....
And this is coming from a manager. So I'm keeping it as funky as possible yo. I can't be shy to speak on the truth, it is what it really is
Aight so inherent with a pub deal comes 2 main things of relevance for this topic: an advance...and a publishing commitment/quota. The advance from a pub deal can come in a myriad of forms but generally a nice chunk up front and the rest of the advances come in chunks.. when you reach a certain threshold in your publishing commitment/quote you get another chunk of an advance. It gets way more complicated but in a nutshell thats how the advances are given out and this does two things...
a) it protects the publisher whose investing in you (read: loaned you money up front) by making sure you continue work for the rest of the $
b) it makes you bust your ass and makes you want to get your commitment/quota completed as quick as possible to see that next check
This makes perfect sense to me and I have no issues about this. From a manager standpoint, I get to eat off the advance my %age so I have to make sure as a team member I work hard to help get the client to finish his commitments as quick and best as possible. So the first thing that stands out is that if I take some of your publishing I own that all to my face you have no parts of it...which means that the %age that I take from you stays out of the scope of the pub deal b/w you and the publisher. This means that now it makes it that much harder for YOU TO COMPLETE YOUR COMMITMENT cause I'm taking away from your %age of pub w/each placement....not only do I get to make money off your asset which I now own & it comes just to me, but it also makes it harder for you to fullfill quota........so there's strike one and two as why this is not a cool practice and certainly not done in the best interest of the client/creative but...
Ok so onto strike three. This one is simple and deals with quota and the manager getting a pub deal. If a manager gets a pub deal and they are not ones who write on anything they are getting the publishing from it sets the tone...it sets the tone for them to now have an ulterior motive in performing their work against all of their clients...why? because now they take out a loan (advance) from the publisher basically on the strength of how many more people they are going to take from how many more people they are going to take from in the future, cause now THEY HAVE THEIR OWN QUOTA TO FULFILL and this sets forth a cycle. So now manager has a quota & pressure to complete said quota so they can get another big check to their face...all off the works of others. So now I have my own interests to look our for at the same time as looking out for my clients bests interests & in the end you the client now becomes a tool and one of many I will have to get %ages from in order to fulfill my quota that I now owe as well.
And now said manager is in a bind and a self produced paradox and this generally leads to pimp-ish style behavior and actions...
Your manager should be your guard/watch dog...NOT a pimp that will lead you to the dogs. Peoples natures you work with are going to lean 1 of 2 ways...either towards loyalty and helping you or toward selfishness at your expense. a manager with their own quota to fulfill will inherently NEED to continue with their vampire ways on all of their clients because since they dont write anything in and of themselves, how else can they fulfill their quota that they owe except it come from someone and now there's the nasty cycle I spoke of. Now the manager instead of thinking long term for clients...instead of brand building...they trade that in for quick come ups, anything to help them get a pub %age off someone. Lose loyalty & become wolves in watchdog clothing
and there you have it, 3-4 reasons why I disagree with managers taking a %age of producers publishing & against them getting pub deals.
This was a good one, where he really ranted (in the good way) about the realities of producer revenue streams and a managers position. This came about mainly because of managers moving on to get publishing deals and therefore quota's of their own.
It's just an overview and from the top of his head, but there is a lot of great information in here for many people looking to come up in the industry. It is also a VERY long read, but a good read. I hope some peeps enjoy it. I tried to format it from the twitter format as best as possible.
Taken from 1 Shot Managements Twitter Feed 31/01/2013
Ok so first things first lets talk income streams that come to producers for producing music. There are two main revenue streams for a prod. Better put, there are two sets of royalties that are due to a producer when he produces a song.
1) the producer royalty and
2) the mechanical
Producer royalties are always tied to a budget, of which when you get an advance for the track, its an advance against this royalty
so once you get this advance, its an advance against your royalty for the song which means that you don't see another dime for that song...
until the money spent on that song is recouped. nowadays they tie it to the budget of the whole album, so you wont see any$ till they recoup
If you have it only tied to them recouping off the song you have a better chance of seeing a royalty...if said song sells good...BUT...if you have to wait till the entire album recoups till you see a royalty your in for a LOOONNNGGG wait...close to never.
The reason being that as of 2010 roughly only 4% of all commercially released albums recouped!!So generally speaking this means roughly only 4% of albums paid out royalties...of which the producers would then see their producer royalty.This number is so low, that unless you get on a really good selling album, what you get for your advance is generally what you get period...
So...thats the producer royalty...in todays market...it's hard to get real money from royalties on a consistent basis. Then you have the mechanical royalty...this royalty is tied to the publishing of a song, there is copyright law which governs this payment..and with mechanicals because of how the law works, you don't have to wait for a record/album to be recouped, they pay on them straight up.
In hiphop and with all of other genres nowadays...the producer is generally also a writer of the song they produce and therefore based on how much of the song you wrote...you as the producer if you wrote (read made the beat yourself) you get mechanicals ......and since mechanicals are paid out regardless of recoupment status...if you write on a record you are sure to get something coming in...
What's this all mean? It means that generally speaking, the bulk of money that will be coming to you for sure is based on writing/publishing. Your advance is certain and your share of the mechanicals will be certain to come in. Seeing producer royalties is very rare..Then there are additional revenue streams that come in based of your writing as a producer; for example performance royalties...This is the money that is collected on your behalf by your PRO (performing rights organization) based on your %age of the record written & based on how heavily performed (read: publicly played) the song is. How many spins you get determines your PRO income.
So I've just explained how 3 of the main sources of revenue works for the common producer of our music. Producer royalty, mechanical & pro $ ...1 of the 3 you RARELY ever get and the other 2 ARE DIRECTLY TIED TO YOUR PUBLISHING. Publishing means your writing contribution on a song.
So whats this all mean? It means for a producer of our music...your main ways to get money are based on your writing %ages on your records.This producers, is your real bread and butter,this producers is how you will be able to sustain yourselves & this is the bulk of your revenue. This means that your publishing is YOUR MAIN AND IMPORTANT REVENUE GENERATING ASSET. Point blank period. So it should go without saying that since publishing is your greatest $ maker as a producer, YOU AS PRODUCER SHOULD KEEP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
So enters the manager...the single most important person(s) of your team outside of the creatives...this is the person that supposed to fight for YOUR BEST INTERESTS, supposed to conduct ALL BUSINESS WITH YOUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND...this is your watchdog. Management is there to help ensure you get what you deserve...to help you get the most you can get for yourself as the creative...we make our money based off how much you make...so that means I should only be eating when your eating....furthermore it means that if I wanna eat good, then I need to work and bust my ass to ensure you eat great! Since I get a piece of all of what you make...I need to ensure and work towards making sure you get the most for yourself as possible as that should be the only way to ensure I eat!
And it makes sense, without the talent there is nothing for the manager to manage, without your gift and labor there is nothing to "work" This model also ensures that the manager works hard for you, because since they get a small subset of your $, we should work hard to make you allot of $ if we in turn want to make good $ too! And this squares perfectly with the concept of team.
So...if the manager role is to guard you, protect your works and then work hard to make said works generate income, I should be fighting...
I should naturally be fighting off everyone who wants to take away or pick off of my clients greatest asset and money maker for them.How in the **** am I working in YOUR best interest as my client for me to TAKE A PEICE OF YOUR BEST ASSET and make it just my own?? This to me just makes zero sense, ethically seems wrong & just as a man of morals and principles smells like some grimey ass foul shit to do
Whats it look like that if one of my duties is to watch over your prize possession and asset from all others trying to get a piece...What I look like then looking dead in your face tell you that I need a piece of that asset to come straight to my face instead...and then.. to make matters worse..still put my hand out to you for my %age off everything you make as well! <- that shit just doesnt sit well w/me That basically makes it that Im double dipping on u. Means that I'm literally double dipping on my mans...me whose supposed to be his guard. So that means that I get paid off everything you do & since I talked you into giving me a slice of your work I get paid again on that dolo? I take what I do serious and I just don't see how I am looking out for your best interest if I knowingly take a piece of your work from u
Ok so that's one part of why I disagree with the whole manager's getting pub deals rant, the next part is simple and shorter
For the record...let me first say that I am NOT against pub deals and I def am NOT against working with the big/real publishers.Why? because I know the benefits of them and HAVE SEEN THEM WORK! That is an addition to the team and I've seen it really work.
A manager is supposed to go hard for you regardless cause of said reasons in the rant earlier, giving them pub yields no additional results! The only thing giving pub to a manager does is allows them to make more money off of you then they normally would, they get to eat twice....
And this is coming from a manager. So I'm keeping it as funky as possible yo. I can't be shy to speak on the truth, it is what it really is
Aight so inherent with a pub deal comes 2 main things of relevance for this topic: an advance...and a publishing commitment/quota. The advance from a pub deal can come in a myriad of forms but generally a nice chunk up front and the rest of the advances come in chunks.. when you reach a certain threshold in your publishing commitment/quote you get another chunk of an advance. It gets way more complicated but in a nutshell thats how the advances are given out and this does two things...
a) it protects the publisher whose investing in you (read: loaned you money up front) by making sure you continue work for the rest of the $
b) it makes you bust your ass and makes you want to get your commitment/quota completed as quick as possible to see that next check
This makes perfect sense to me and I have no issues about this. From a manager standpoint, I get to eat off the advance my %age so I have to make sure as a team member I work hard to help get the client to finish his commitments as quick and best as possible. So the first thing that stands out is that if I take some of your publishing I own that all to my face you have no parts of it...which means that the %age that I take from you stays out of the scope of the pub deal b/w you and the publisher. This means that now it makes it that much harder for YOU TO COMPLETE YOUR COMMITMENT cause I'm taking away from your %age of pub w/each placement....not only do I get to make money off your asset which I now own & it comes just to me, but it also makes it harder for you to fullfill quota........so there's strike one and two as why this is not a cool practice and certainly not done in the best interest of the client/creative but...
Ok so onto strike three. This one is simple and deals with quota and the manager getting a pub deal. If a manager gets a pub deal and they are not ones who write on anything they are getting the publishing from it sets the tone...it sets the tone for them to now have an ulterior motive in performing their work against all of their clients...why? because now they take out a loan (advance) from the publisher basically on the strength of how many more people they are going to take from how many more people they are going to take from in the future, cause now THEY HAVE THEIR OWN QUOTA TO FULFILL and this sets forth a cycle. So now manager has a quota & pressure to complete said quota so they can get another big check to their face...all off the works of others. So now I have my own interests to look our for at the same time as looking out for my clients bests interests & in the end you the client now becomes a tool and one of many I will have to get %ages from in order to fulfill my quota that I now owe as well.
And now said manager is in a bind and a self produced paradox and this generally leads to pimp-ish style behavior and actions...
Your manager should be your guard/watch dog...NOT a pimp that will lead you to the dogs. Peoples natures you work with are going to lean 1 of 2 ways...either towards loyalty and helping you or toward selfishness at your expense. a manager with their own quota to fulfill will inherently NEED to continue with their vampire ways on all of their clients because since they dont write anything in and of themselves, how else can they fulfill their quota that they owe except it come from someone and now there's the nasty cycle I spoke of. Now the manager instead of thinking long term for clients...instead of brand building...they trade that in for quick come ups, anything to help them get a pub %age off someone. Lose loyalty & become wolves in watchdog clothing
and there you have it, 3-4 reasons why I disagree with managers taking a %age of producers publishing & against them getting pub deals.
