December 24, 2021 • 36 mins
Adrian developed a following thanks to a steady string of projects in the mid-2010s, which featured musical assists from major acts like Destiny’s Child alumna Kelly Rowland and rappers Wale and Too $hort.
His debut mixtape, 2013’s 7 Days Of WEAK, was released under Universal Republic Records, and featured production by the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Beatroc and more. The seven-song effort introduced fans to the open, emotionally-driven lyricist Marcel continues to be.
Adrian tells us about his experience with label company, his decision to be an independant artist, building Marcel University, and educates about the contracts in the music industry.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @adrianmarcel
For all things Adrian check out his business website: Adrian Marcel Music
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our
(00:22):
next guest is an East Oakland native, a graduate of
the prestigious Oakland School for the Fine Arts, and he
is an R and B artist, the CEO of Third
Voice music group, an actor, a teacher. This young man
does it all. Money Movers, please welcome the platinum selling
R and B artist Adrian Marcel to the podcast. What's
(00:42):
going on? How's everybody doing? How you doing? Oh? Good
to see you, Adrian. Thank you so much for being
here today. Hey, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Well,
it is certainly a pleasure to have you on here.
Where are you you're calling in from? Are you in
Oakland right now? Or where are you? Yes, I'm in
the town right now. He's uh, well it looks beautiful. Um,
super super happy to have you here on the podcast.
(01:05):
You know, on our podcast on Money Moves, we like
to learn about our artists and how they've turned you know,
their passions, whether it's in music, entrepreneurship and all sorts
of different backgrounds into a business so that we can
sort of lay the foundation and road maps for other
up and coming entrepreneurs no matter what industry they're in.
So I'm really happy to have you here today because
I know you've sort of worn many hats throughout your
(01:27):
career and yeah, you've done a lot. Thank you, thank you. Yeah,
you know, it's uh, it's been a blessing, you know. Um,
you know, with with with everything, it's been a learning
experience that I've done. Um, I'm very big on kind
of going through it, figuring it out, finding out, you know,
all the information that that I need for me that's
going to help me, you know, propel myself. And um,
(01:49):
you know it's you take some ills and which I
look at as lessons not losses, you know, and you
apply them, you know, and you and you move forward
and you do better. You know. So can you take
a batch at the beginning? How did you get your
start in the music industry? Did you always know you
were going to be a musician? You know what I
want to say, Yeah, I want to say yeah, because
it was something that I've done since I was a kid.
(02:12):
You know, I've loved music since before I even knew
what it was, you know. I mean videos of me
dancing as soon as this music comes on, trying to sing.
You know, I wasn't one of those kids that sounded
really good at a young age. But I think with
practice makes perfect, you know. Um. But yeah, for me,
it was it was something I think my my mom's
(02:34):
and pops saw early, you know, that it was something
I had a passion for, and they just stayed on
me about it, you know. Uh, they kept me in
as many programs so I could be in from Young
Musicians programs at Berkeley, uh u C Berkeley and UM
Open School for the Arts, you know, UM as far
I mean, just just anything I could I could get
(02:55):
involved and I was in. So I think it was
always a thing for me young that I knew that's
what I wanted to do, you know. Um. Of course
I had other other endeavors that I wanted to get into,
but I feel like, you know, I was always pushed
towards music. I was always pushed there first, you know. UM.
And how I really got my start was you know,
out here in Oakland, it's a very competitive place. Um,
(03:19):
there's a lot of talent here. I mean every corner
you turn, you can find somebody who's doing something pretty amazing,
you know, um and creative or organic, something that's true
to self, you know. And um, I was moving around
really young, going in clubs, sneaking in club getting good
with it, you know what I mean, getting real good
with the with the bouncers, you know what I mean.
And they let me in, you know, make sure you're
(03:41):
don'na go upstairs, make sure you stay right here. That alright? Cool.
I just want to perform, That's it. And um, I
would perform, and it would always it would always turn heads.
It would always have people like yo, who is this kid? Um?
And I think around two thousand and eleven, I got
a call from my first manager and uh, you know,
(04:04):
he called me. He was like, y'all want to bring
you out to Atlanta, you know, working on some records.
You know, see how that is. So I'm like, all right, cool,
I was supposed to be out there for thirty days.
It turned into five years. Yeah. Yeah, So I lived
out there in Lithonia, uh for for a long, long minute,
you know. And a lot of those years I think
in Atlanta really showed me the business. You know, I
(04:26):
was like to be around, you know, all of these
other creatives and entities and and you know, it was
something different from what I was used to seeing in
in the Bay and in Oakland, you know. But for me,
I always messed the two, you know. And um, I
ended up working with excuse me, end up working with
Raphael Sadik. You know, we got in and um we
worked on a couple of projects seven days a week,
(04:49):
week after next. And then I had my head single
two Am that dropped. And then that that was really
like the takeoff for me in you know, and uh,
and then in a lot of that in that time
was the learning experience, you know, I was, I was
paying attention to things, but there was there was a
lot of things I was still missing. Yeah, as a
(05:10):
as a young artist, I was more focused on getting
a hit record. I was more focused on you know,
the the attention and and all of that. I wasn't
kind of focusing more on how these things were coming about,
how do how do these opportunities come about? You know,
how do how do you make the revenue on these opportunities?
How do you make the most of them all? You know,
(05:31):
So it wasn't until I left from my label and
got out of all after you had your mixtape, you
signed with Universal, until you were out of major record
label for a while. Yeah, I was there for a
good year since two thousand twelve to sixteen. Was was
when we we but we all decided, you know, because
(05:52):
you know, in the labels, you know you have, you know, disagreements,
you have, you know, other visions that you want to
take on, you know. Um. And the good thing about
it was there was never any any slight you know,
in any like issues. It was just we we knew
that we couldn't come to um uh an agreement on
what the vision should be, you know. And they still
(06:12):
respected and respected what I what I did, my talent,
I respected everything that they had did for me. So
you know, we were able to walk away and um
and luckily me not get shelved and a bail on
my head, you know what I'm saying. So I was
good with that, you know. UM And even in that
in that time, you know, I think instead of me
being upset or feeling down about it, I really took
(06:34):
that as a time to take a take a second
instead of trying to look for a new deal and
really get to the just of what I really wanted,
you know. And um, I realized that I didn't want
to just be an artist. I didn't want to just
go back and get another deal and do it the
same way. You know. I wanted to be better if
I was gonna come back to it. I wanted to
know more. I wanted to be worth more, you know.
(06:56):
And um, so I decided to be independent, and I
decided to to really sit back for the next two
years eighteen. I just did a lot of research. I
did a lot of study, and I did a lot
of like self searching, and and that's when I started
my label, Third Voice Music Group. You know, I decided,
I said, all of these, all of these things that
(07:17):
I've been able to see and witness and be around,
you know, it's time to start applying them. It's time
to start putting them in motion. And so, you know,
I feel like sometimes, you know, the music industry, the
record business, starting independent labels, oftentimes like there's just not
a lot of guidance. You either have someone who like yourself,
has like learned from their mistakes. Um but you know
(07:38):
what I think is super interesting about this is you
started Marcel University, Yeah, which actually lays the foundation out
for so many up and coming entrepreneurs. And I don't
think there's a lot of places like that out there.
This is pretty revolution and that's the thing for me,
I didn't when I was in even though I went
into open school for the arts, which was prepared me
(07:58):
for everything do today, you know. I mean, I don't
think if I don't think if I would win to
somewhere else, I would be able to do this job
the way that I do it, you know, or be
prepared for what you have to be prepared for in
this career, you know. Um. But one thing I noticed
that they didn't teach us was the music business. They
taught us everything about the music, you know, but not
(08:21):
the music business. And I mean to some extent, it
wasn't like the teachers there were used to the industry
then themselves were right, you know, you would you would
you would hope, you know, and these teachers were really
young at the time, you know. So for me, I
started to think about the things that I missed. I
missed a lot of royalties, I missed a lot of mechanicals,
(08:42):
I missed a lot of um information on copyrights, what
it really means, like who really owns them? You know,
how do you obtain that? Um? You know, the different
payouts for producers and writers and artists, split sheets and
contracts and all of these things that you don't pay
attention to because you are you're so focused on the
(09:04):
smoking mirrors, you know, mirrors like building a fan and
things that really don't things that really don't matter. The
fan base does, yes, but it's more about how you
obtain it. It's more about how you how you sustain
it as well. So you know, for me, I start again.
I just started diving into these things and in the
(09:24):
time if I was learning, and I'm like, yo, you
know how many kids would need this information? You know
how many people out there don't just it's just by
by ignorance, like we just don't move, we're not taught,
you know. And so many, so many artists now are
locked in contracts that have you know, horrible teams. And
it's continuous. It's continuous, I mean since to be since
(09:47):
the dawn of days, you know what I mean. Even
still today there are people who are still signing ridiculous contracts,
you know what I mean. And I think I'm one
of those people who not only do I learn from
my experiences, but I also learned from other people's experiences
as well. I watched, I watch people's steps, and um,
you know, I just decided, I said, you know, I
(10:09):
want to have something where I can get back to,
you know, to the younger generations, because that's who's really
going to take over. It's not about you know, people
my age at this point. I mean, you know, of
course I want to teach everyone, but I really want
to go to the core of you know, who's up next?
And and and go ahead, you look like you have
(10:29):
no I mean, I just love this because I feel
like it's exactly that, Like you're looking to help the
core of who's up and nest and I feel like
there's so many basics that people don't really realize, even
honestly for someone not coming from the music industry. You know,
but I am an entrepreneur. I invest in early stage
companies and businesses. You know, the questionable what's the difference
between a record label and an independent artist starting their own?
(10:51):
You know, like, can you answer that just point blank?
For most of these people and tell us like some
of the pros and cons So with the difference between
that a record label is a machine, there are many
many entities. There are many parts and and things that
go into this machine that make it run the way
it runs. When you are independent, it is you. You
(11:14):
are labeled if you're smart, because there's some people who
claim to be independent, but there's still other other entities
that are running their stuff for me. When I said independent,
I wanted, I truly meant me. You know, everything is
on you. You're talking about videos. You gotta first of all,
you gotta you gotta have a team that's gonna write
these songs with you. You know, you're gonna have a
(11:34):
team that's gonna produce these records with you, an engineer
who's gonna mix them, who's gonna master them. All of
these things costs, uh as if you're not doing it yourself. Um,
after you get it mix and mastered, you have graphics.
You gotta worry about your finding the people to do
the graphics. You're paying for them to do the graphics.
Then after that you have the promos. You're paying for
all of this stuff. You know what I mean. Videos,
(11:56):
you gotta get the videographers. You have to know the
vision the treatments, all the rest. I mean, being independent
is just being detailed. That's what it is. Detailed. And
I feel like the successes in the details. No matter
what business success, it's in the details. You have to
get down to the nitty gritty. And for me, when
I first started, I was okay with bumping my head.
(12:17):
I'm like, look, this first project I work on, it's
more about the passion. It's not about it being the
best album I've ever created. It's not about it being
the most successful album I've ever created. It's about it
being a learning experience. For me. I want to know
how do I get from point A to point Z
and not miss B, C, D E F, you know
what I mean. Like, I wanted to make sure I
(12:40):
knew all of these things, and then even to this day,
I'm still learning. The other day I just um, I
just learned about broadcasting, you know, so when you have
music videos, I've always had music videos, but I didn't
have to do the placing it on TV, placing it
on you know, getting it to the radio stations, getting
it too, these things, and a lot of that has
to do with D M D S. So you have
(13:01):
to be you have to make sure you're signed up.
You have to make sure that all of these forms
are taken care of and information is properly put in.
You have to send it out. You gotta make sure
it's in by a deadline. And then from there two
weeks to I mean, there's all of these things that
come into play, and again it's still cost This cost you,
This is you playing into that. So I really just
(13:23):
chose the step of being independent because I was ready
to invest in myself and say, if I'm investing in me,
if I win, it's because of me, it's because of me.
I don't want to point no fingers at nobody, but
I think people getting misconscrewed, you know that they think,
you know, a label automatically means success, and it doesn't.
(13:43):
A label just means that you have a team behind
you that will do all of this work for you.
That doesn't necessarily mean a good thing, though, because these
people are not coming to you to say, hey, Adrian,
let me show you what we're doing. This is we
do X, Y and Z, this is how you get
this done. No, because then that would mean you don't
need us no more, don't get we don't get paid.
(14:06):
So we don't really want you to know this information.
We don't want you to know all of this stuff
you have to do. And then on the other end,
you have artists that don't that don't want to know
it because it's too much, it's too much, and it's
a lot. Because honestly, when you describe it like that,
it's almost like you're the artist and you're the CEO
of this entire everything. You can't complain to anybody. You
can't go you can't go to nobody to say, you
(14:28):
know for nothing. You have to really be willing to
have have the endurance to take on the things that
you don't know, to learn them, to adjust quickly, be accurate,
uh you know, with the with with enough agility to
get it done in proper times, you know. And you
just have to be secure. Independent means you are secure
with a slow build. You have you're okay with building slow.
(14:50):
And for me, that's fine because I'm taking step one,
step two, step three. I'm not going from step one.
It's a marathon. It's a marathon, like Nip said, you know,
And I feel like when you when you're taking on
these things, you automatically start to learn new new things.
You start to learn, things that you didn't you didn't
understand or would never even fathom had anything to do
(15:12):
with this, and some of them don't. Some of them
lead you into other things, you know, because of music. Again,
we talked about Marcell University. I've been led into teaching.
I've been led into real estate. I've been led into
you know, UM publishing and UH royalties, all of these
different things that can build new avenues of revenue, you know, UM,
(15:33):
when you're on a when you're not independent, when you're
on a label, your contracted to basically be like, NA,
we don't really want you to do nothing else, going
that studio and record or show up when we tell
you to. You know what I mean? And it again,
it's really all about what you know, what you bring
(15:55):
to the table, what you're worth you know. And I
feel like when I came into the game, aim, I
wasn't really worth nothing, you know, I didn't have anything.
I feel like, you know, you've had this long, illustrious career,
you're going awards. What was it that inspired you to
really give back and create the university? Well, because I
just feel like I'm where I'm from, I'm I'm big on.
(16:17):
I'm big on knowing that longevity doesn't always have to
do with you individually. Longevity and more life comes from
what you put in the soil, you know what I mean.
So I wanted to come back to the soil and
put and plant seeds. You know that years from now,
it's not about what I'm doing. It's about what I
(16:38):
what I helped someone else, do you know what I mean?
And not so that they could say, yo, Adrian Martell
are martial. It's not about that. It's about me being
able to look down the look up down the line
and say, okay, I added to this culture. You know,
I put something that was meaningful into this culture. These kids,
you know, I always say, so many talented kids there,
you know. And it only started there because that was
(16:59):
my that's where I graduated and I and again I
didn't have it there. So I knew that there was
a program that they didn't have. So we came up
with a curriculum that was to show them exactly how
the industry works. And it took them in real time.
The way I learned, I learned by hands on. I
gotta do it. I can't. You can't tell me all
these things, and I write it down and then I
(17:21):
go try it. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna
work for me. Like that. So that's the way I
taught it. You know. We we we came into the school,
we held auditions. We had about a hundred kids calm auditions.
We picked twenty of them, which was extremely hard, you
know what I'm um. You know, we we picked twenty
of them and we broke them up. You know, we
(17:41):
picked we had producers, we had writers, we had m
art we had singers, rappers, and we also had you know,
some some that were more focused on management, you know,
who wanted to be you know, they could sing or
they could do this, but they were more focused on
being behind the scenes. But we picked twenty of them, um,
based on their auditions and based on their correctords at
(18:03):
the school, like you know, how much they're doing and
all that, and um, I just broke them up. I
broke them up in the groups and I made sure
that I put them with people that they weren't used
used to working with. You know, so a lot of
these kids never performed together, not even in the same classes,
probably didn't even talk to each other. You know what,
I mean on on a daily basis. But it taught them.
(18:26):
You know, in this in this industry, you're not unless
you're extremely lucky, you're not gonna be working with everybody
you love working with everybody, you know, that's how it goes.
And you have to make it work. And and in
any business, you have to make it work. You have to.
You can't complain like, you know, I don't get along
with this person, Well, then you don't get along with
a check, because you're gonna stop yourself. You're gonna stop
(18:47):
yourself from getting money because you can't control your emotions
or your character, you know. And with them, we would
put them in groups. Some of them that would be
all producer, maybe producers and one one singer notes songwriters,
no management. That lesson would come there's a there's an
engineer and another group over here. So maybe you got
(19:08):
to go over there and go contract that person. What
do those contracts look like? What do those split sheets
look like? What do they you know? So we we
broke it down into categories and each class, you know what,
we talked about copyrights. Maybe one class, the next class
we went away. It was just gonna ask you this,
can you outline your core curriculum because I mean there's
things that go into the music business from copyrights, so
(19:31):
broke it down. We broke it down copyrights, publishing and royalties, um.
From there, it was like artists development, um, contracts, splitsheets.
We went down from you know, I mean just just
everything from again, like I said, in the artist development field,
you know, and they would learn all of these things
(19:52):
and then with throughout the day after we would go
through it, you know, we would apply it at the
end of the course. So our through all of these
things that you that you've been doing, You've been taking
these notes, you've been in your groups. In the meantime
in between time, they're working on songs and records, because
the whole goal was to at the end of the
course have an EP have about five songs of one
(20:14):
record from each group. They could do more if they
want to, but the goal was to have one song
for each and again they would have to figure that
out on their time. It wasn't just during class, because
we would only meet twice a month, you know, so
in between that time they would have to figure out
how to get these things done. You know, it's on
you because when you get in this business, it's on you.
(20:37):
If you miss something, you can't say they didn't teach
it to me, you didn't try to apply, you didn't
try to That's not how this business works. Every single Yeah,
a lot of it was was on them to be
responsible for. But in the but also at the end
of the course, we would have these files of contracts,
split sheets. We would have breakdowns of how this song
(21:00):
was recorded where I mean all of the details like
we talked about that would go into it, we had.
That was how they were graded. They were graded on
the chorus based on their finals, so not only the song.
The song could be great, but I don't see, like
how was it contracted? How was the split sheets? Robbed
your p R O s Who did anybody? Did any
(21:20):
of you join the pr oh as Cat B M I. C.
Sack whoever? Even now for you, my mind is being blown.
I'm like, what are all those things? What's a p
R oh, what's a split sheet? And you know these
are things that are integ you're publishing. You're publishing. It's
how you know. So with publishing, if you're on the
if your song gets on the radio, if your song
gets placed on TV, if your song is being used
(21:42):
in any type of place, it's like that, that's publishing.
You gotta check for that, you know what I mean.
And based on the percent So in at like an ascot,
they got to learn bus downs. They got to learn
that fifty has to go to the publishing and fifty
has to go to the writers, and and you have
to break that up however you can and ask uh
(22:02):
b M I is two? Um? I mean, so all
of these different things they needed to know. And then
it was also breakdowns of how people are paid out.
Producers are supposed to get Now, if they have a
manager or if they have somebody an agency who's working
with them whatever they contracted to split with them or
to you know, their percentages that they're giving up, then
they give up that percent. But if there's four different producers,
(22:26):
y'all gotta figure out how y'all bust that now, you know,
for riders, you gotta figure out how you bust that
percent down. And if there's an artist who's well known,
maybe they automatically take but they didn't write anything. That's
the that's the game though, you know, So we're teaching
the real time. It's not just the basics. It's the
(22:47):
real thing. I mean, the money's in the details. I'm
gonna think about that all day now, the moneys in
the Yeah, it's all in the details. And then on
top of that, there's different there's different avenues of revenue
from one song. You know, there's fishing, there's royal, there's
your your your masters. Masters are totally different from publishing.
That's a whole different check masters are when are are
(23:08):
when you know, streaming and and things like that you get,
you know, and then also teaching them the the what
what a stream counts for? I think you know, you're
thinking it's this big money, but it's like, nah, for
every million stream do you only get you know, maybe
maybe about six thousand, seven thousand, you know, I would
have thought that was way bigger. No, that's and that's
(23:31):
just Spotify. I think Spotify seven apples or Spotify is
like five apples, like seven the one that pays out
the one of the most titles titles, about twelve thousand
for every million streams you tubes they pay out. They're
definitely nowhere near them. And I think you get like
a thousand, uh for every million views that you get
(23:51):
or something like that you know. Um, but again, all
of these things, all of these little details that you
can get paid for that they had no idea, And
a lot of them already have music out ben if
it's registered. That means there's no way for you to
know if you have any money coming in, you know
what I mean. Like you're just putting music out and
one day somebody comes along because their mentality is like
(24:14):
mine was at the time, Well, nobody knows me, so
what does it matter. It's like, no, you never know
when you're gonna hit. Yeah, and you want to have
all of that documented. Yeah, you you hit tomorrow and
then boom. You ain't got nothing registered, You don't have
nothing together, none of your stuff is aligned. You're not
even you're not even with the p r O. So
that takes about a month or two for them to
(24:35):
even approve you. So your song is doing numbers, you
know what I mean, And you know, and then and
then you only have a certain amount of time that
you're able to obtain those royalties, you know, because after
a while they go into a black box, which is
called black black box royalties, which means it just goes
into a big galaxy of nothing where these p r
(24:55):
O s end up taking your money and using it
for other things, you know what I mean. Like, so
it's it's things like that you get and I was
teaching them that they get paid for performances that you know,
you can register your songs and your performances, so if
you do a ten city tour, you can register register
for those and your pr oh, depending on who you're with,
will pay you for your your shows, on top of
(25:18):
the money that you made for your show, like you
know what I mean. As I feel like, you know,
you're also like a very multi dimensional individual as well.
You've now part laid this long career in music and
you started acting now too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think
acting was really my first love. Honestly. You know when
I went to When I went to always say I
(25:39):
got in for theater and for music vocal music, but
you have to pick one. And the funny part about
me is I started in theater, you know, because I
thought it was gonna be fun all the time. And uh,
the first week I was in there, my teacher hit
us up with four essays you know that we're like
(26:02):
about you know, I mean eight hundreds and you know
what I mean? Uh, all these different all these different
old school ideas and stuff, and I'm like, you know,
this is not what I was trying to get into.
So I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm ahead to vocal music.
So y'all do y'all thing. I'm gonna go up there.
(26:24):
And I ended up going to Vocal Music and I
spent the rest of my time there. But every year
I was always in the musical. I was always starring
in one of the musical. So my first year I
started as the Scapone the Whiz Chicago. We did a
play called The Wild Party. And then I also started
to actually do things that that didn't involve music. And
(26:45):
that's really when I knew acting was something I loved.
I didn't want to hide behind my voice, you know.
So tell me about the process now of like making
this transition. How were you able to like book gigs
and get jobs. Do you feel like you're learning curve
was just to steep transitioning to the acting world. Oh? Absolutely,
you know, um, you know, not having an agent, not
(27:07):
having anybody that you know, was even more knowledgeable on
on the subject than I was than I am. You know,
I had to do really what I've always done and
just kind of get it out the mud, you know
what I mean, like go out there and figure it out.
WI out there and go talk, go network, go get
in the get in front of people's face, because you know,
(27:27):
face value is one of the biggest things in this industry,
you know. And Um, I had put some equity in
before just by taking some auditions, finding out, you know,
what shows were coming up, what movies were doing auditions for,
and I would just throw myself out there and I
would audition. I would drive down to l A. I
mean sometimes it would be like you get hit on
Thursday and they're like, we need you here Friday morning, Uh,
(27:50):
in l A to do an audition. And the audition
is only like three minutes. But hey, hey your gas
get or your car whatever, my ob down in l A.
You know, do it. And you know it was because
you know, especially in acting, it's it's it's even sometimes
to me, a lot harder than the music industry because
(28:12):
there's so many people that are coming in at one time,
you know, And I really just looked up. I ended
up getting um getting a look for the Bobby de
bar story on TV one, you know, and uh, It
was actually one of the casting directors who I had
seen many times from me auditioning, and uh, I think
(28:33):
I looked up because it's not a lot of light
skinned singer you know the bar out there, you know,
you know. So it happened, and they sent me that,
they sent me the audition knocked it out the park.
I instantly got the role and I got to really
see what set like was like, I got to see that, Yeah,
this is something that I really enjoy and I think
(28:56):
the pay is different. You know, for for music, there
ain't no run, there ain't there ain't none of that,
you know what I mean, unless you have leverage, unless
you you've already put some worth out there. You know,
it's a lot of back in um. With acting. It's
like you get them checks on time, you know what
I mean. We're gonna pay you for every day you here.
(29:16):
You're gonna get per diem. We're gonna feed you so
you don't gotta buy food. You don't gotta you know.
I mean, yeah, when you when you're hit to hit
the life, when you hit, you hit, you know, And
and that's really that's really where it started. That gave
me the ultimate bite because I was like, yeah, this
is something that I need to incorporate, you know. And
from there it was just me. Even though I was
(29:37):
on set. If I had time where they were saying, Okay,
y'all can hang out in your dressing rooms or trailers,
I'm like, no, I want to be around here looking
at talking to the cameraman. I want to be talking
to that users. I want to stood up here and
see what you do and how you do this, and
and for me, because my thing was Okay, I'm acting,
but I'm gonna apply what I learned in this music
business and what I feel I missed to this acting.
(29:59):
So I'm not gonna miss it if I'm sitting here
as an actor by the time I leave. I want
to be able to be prepared to be a producer,
to be an executive producer, to be understand the whole
industry again. Screenwriter, Yeah, I understand it all. So I
was big on sitting around people and chopping it up
and having real conversations that I could hold onto and apply,
(30:19):
you know. Um, And that's really where I where I
ended up. You know, I've been writing a bunch of scripts.
We've been working with different different riends, of mine where
we were we had we're actually working on a script
that's a call bro code, you know. So I mean
there's a lot of things that you know that inspired
me from that one job, um and also catapulted me
(30:40):
to more jobs. You know, there was a TV show
I did where I was able to do some sitcom
type of yeah yeah, which was really cool. I mean,
a bunch of short films that I've been working on,
you know, throughout this year now that are geared to
come out. A matter of fact, one of my one
of my short films that I did earlier this year,
(31:00):
just one I think like nine awards, Yeah yeah, I
think best best Romantic, uh seeing, best Chemistry. I mean,
it's all these different things and when I'm like, wow,
a thirty minute film that took me, you know, a
day to do but starts, ye are. That's really incredible though,
And that's got to feel good because you've been you know,
(31:21):
you've been in the game a long time. You put
in your time, you've given back, and you know you're
you're on the path to greatness. Do you have any
tips as we as we close out for you know,
how people can really break into the industry maybe how
they can find an agent. But what would you tell
younger Adrian today. I would definitely tell younger Adrian to
get up, stop asking for so many things and go
(31:43):
out there and go do go out there and just
go get to a creative. It's in the world we
live in today. You don't have to you don't have
to go by any rules. You know, there's nothing that
you have to follow. You know, people are making it
up as they're going, and there are people who are
being very successful at it, you know, um, taking their
own routes, taking their organic routes. And I feel like
(32:05):
so many of us at a young age are taught
that there's one way to do something, you know what
I mean, there's one way to do there's one way
to be successful, and it's not you know. My My
thing is really more about, you know, learning as much
as you can learn everything. You can talk to everybody,
(32:26):
find out what they do, why it's important, how you
can learn it, how you can do it. You know
what I mean. I'm I produce, I write, I sing
act um, I write scripts, UM, I'm learning more engineering now, UM,
teaching um into real estate, you know, building a home
building my home right now, I mean, you know all
(32:47):
of these things. I feel like as much as you know,
the more you know, the more you can do, and
you can apply to every business you create, you know.
But as far as you know, finding an agent, make
them find you. I've been find you. You know. I'm
very big on I'm very very big on people working
with you that are fans or that are inspired by you,
(33:10):
or that eager to work with you, rather than you're
going out and begging, you know, please, I'm looking. I'm
looking for this. I'm looking for that that works, that
can't work. But for me, it just it hasn't weighed
as much as when I go out there and I
bring people to me. I've learned that you can send
(33:31):
a million emails all day, but people want to see
what you do with That's what brings them to you.
They want to see that you work and how are
you making it work? You got lemons? Did you make lemonade?
Did you make did you make lemon chicken? Did you make?
I mean, what what did you what did you do?
You know what I mean? And I think that's what
it's about. That would be my advice to anybody that's
(33:51):
trying to break into the industry, create the industry around you. Adrian.
I love that. That is great advice because I think
that you know, if people like yourself are truly you
manifest so much, but you put the time to work
behind it to make it happen, right, And I appreciate
your time today. Yeah, thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you. It's been a it's been a pleasure to
(34:12):
talk about it. Can you make sure before we close out,
can you tell everyone where they can find you on
social media and also where they can sign up for
your university, your mentorship programs. We need to know all
the details, absolutely, so, Adrian Marshall, you can look me
up on this thing called Google. It has all this
information that drops that drops underneath the name. And to
(34:32):
tell you all of this, but Adrian marcell on Instagram
follow me. Um. Also Adrian Marcelle, Adrian marself. If I
wanta on Twitter to get into the university, to to
matter of fact, just to have a conversation with me
and with the team, you can actually call me. I'm
locked in with super phone. That's brought to you by
Ryan Leslie. Another super talented and extreme and a genius
(34:57):
in my opinion. Um, But the number five one oh
seven three seven seven five eight, or you can just
go to text Adrian dot com. It is my real
cell phone. It's sitting right here. I'm texting. I'm talking
to people in real time. UM. But yeah, the best
way to get involved in in Marcella University is to
call me to what to text me and we can
(35:18):
start the conversation and figuring out what it is that
you want to know, what you're trying to learn, what
you're trying to do, you know, um, and then also
you know there's more music on the way. Uh. Marcell
EP is dropping at the end of this year, so
I'm extremely excited about that. Just stay tuned. It's a
lot coming. We're locked in. We're locked in, all right, Adrian.
That's all we have time for today. Money Movers. Please
(35:39):
check out Adrian's music follow him on sociow so that
you don't miss any of the new stuff that he's
working on any of his music drops. We look forward
to seeing it. Thank you so much, Thank you so
much for having me. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Money Moves audience. If you want more or a recap
of this episode, please go to the Bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Funny
(36:05):
Moves is an I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood
Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on
I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts from m
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey, money Movers, Welcome
back to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our
(00:22):
next guest is an East Oakland native, a graduate of
the prestigious Oakland School for the Fine Arts, and he
is an R and B artist, the CEO of Third
Voice music group, an actor, a teacher. This young man
does it all. Money Movers, please welcome the platinum selling
R and B artist Adrian Marcel to the podcast. What's
(00:42):
going on? How's everybody doing? How you doing? Oh? Good
to see you, Adrian. Thank you so much for being
here today. Hey, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Well,
it is certainly a pleasure to have you on here.
Where are you you're calling in from? Are you in
Oakland right now? Or where are you? Yes, I'm in
the town right now. He's uh, well it looks beautiful. Um,
super super happy to have you here on the podcast.
(01:05):
You know, on our podcast on Money Moves, we like
to learn about our artists and how they've turned you know,
their passions, whether it's in music, entrepreneurship and all sorts
of different backgrounds into a business so that we can
sort of lay the foundation and road maps for other
up and coming entrepreneurs no matter what industry they're in.
So I'm really happy to have you here today because
I know you've sort of worn many hats throughout your
(01:27):
career and yeah, you've done a lot. Thank you, thank you. Yeah,
you know, it's uh, it's been a blessing, you know. Um,
you know, with with with everything, it's been a learning
experience that I've done. Um, I'm very big on kind
of going through it, figuring it out, finding out, you know,
all the information that that I need for me that's
going to help me, you know, propel myself. And um,
(01:49):
you know it's you take some ills and which I
look at as lessons not losses, you know, and you
apply them, you know, and you and you move forward
and you do better. You know. So can you take
a batch at the beginning? How did you get your
start in the music industry? Did you always know you
were going to be a musician? You know what I
want to say, Yeah, I want to say yeah, because
it was something that I've done since I was a kid.
(02:12):
You know, I've loved music since before I even knew
what it was, you know. I mean videos of me
dancing as soon as this music comes on, trying to sing.
You know, I wasn't one of those kids that sounded
really good at a young age. But I think with
practice makes perfect, you know. Um. But yeah, for me,
it was it was something I think my my mom's
(02:34):
and pops saw early, you know, that it was something
I had a passion for, and they just stayed on
me about it, you know. Uh, they kept me in
as many programs so I could be in from Young
Musicians programs at Berkeley, uh u C Berkeley and UM
Open School for the Arts, you know, UM as far
I mean, just just anything I could I could get
(02:55):
involved and I was in. So I think it was
always a thing for me young that I knew that's
what I wanted to do, you know. Um. Of course
I had other other endeavors that I wanted to get into,
but I feel like, you know, I was always pushed
towards music. I was always pushed there first, you know. UM.
And how I really got my start was you know,
out here in Oakland, it's a very competitive place. Um,
(03:19):
there's a lot of talent here. I mean every corner
you turn, you can find somebody who's doing something pretty amazing,
you know, um and creative or organic, something that's true
to self, you know. And um, I was moving around
really young, going in clubs, sneaking in club getting good
with it, you know what I mean, getting real good
with the with the bouncers, you know what I mean.
And they let me in, you know, make sure you're
(03:41):
don'na go upstairs, make sure you stay right here. That alright? Cool.
I just want to perform, That's it. And um, I
would perform, and it would always it would always turn heads.
It would always have people like yo, who is this kid? Um?
And I think around two thousand and eleven, I got
a call from my first manager and uh, you know,
(04:04):
he called me. He was like, y'all want to bring
you out to Atlanta, you know, working on some records.
You know, see how that is. So I'm like, all right, cool,
I was supposed to be out there for thirty days.
It turned into five years. Yeah. Yeah, So I lived
out there in Lithonia, uh for for a long, long minute,
you know. And a lot of those years I think
in Atlanta really showed me the business. You know, I
(04:26):
was like to be around, you know, all of these
other creatives and entities and and you know, it was
something different from what I was used to seeing in
in the Bay and in Oakland, you know. But for me,
I always messed the two, you know. And um, I
ended up working with excuse me, end up working with
Raphael Sadik. You know, we got in and um we
worked on a couple of projects seven days a week,
(04:49):
week after next. And then I had my head single
two Am that dropped. And then that that was really
like the takeoff for me in you know, and uh,
and then in a lot of that in that time
was the learning experience, you know, I was, I was
paying attention to things, but there was there was a
lot of things I was still missing. Yeah, as a
(05:10):
as a young artist, I was more focused on getting
a hit record. I was more focused on you know,
the the attention and and all of that. I wasn't
kind of focusing more on how these things were coming about,
how do how do these opportunities come about? You know,
how do how do you make the revenue on these opportunities?
How do you make the most of them all? You know,
(05:31):
So it wasn't until I left from my label and
got out of all after you had your mixtape, you
signed with Universal, until you were out of major record
label for a while. Yeah, I was there for a
good year since two thousand twelve to sixteen. Was was
when we we but we all decided, you know, because
(05:52):
you know, in the labels, you know you have, you know, disagreements,
you have, you know, other visions that you want to
take on, you know. Um. And the good thing about
it was there was never any any slight you know,
in any like issues. It was just we we knew
that we couldn't come to um uh an agreement on
what the vision should be, you know. And they still
(06:12):
respected and respected what I what I did, my talent,
I respected everything that they had did for me. So
you know, we were able to walk away and um
and luckily me not get shelved and a bail on
my head, you know what I'm saying. So I was
good with that, you know. UM And even in that
in that time, you know, I think instead of me
being upset or feeling down about it, I really took
(06:34):
that as a time to take a take a second
instead of trying to look for a new deal and
really get to the just of what I really wanted,
you know. And um, I realized that I didn't want
to just be an artist. I didn't want to just
go back and get another deal and do it the
same way. You know. I wanted to be better if
I was gonna come back to it. I wanted to
know more. I wanted to be worth more, you know.
(06:56):
And um, so I decided to be independent, and I
decided to to really sit back for the next two
years eighteen. I just did a lot of research. I
did a lot of study, and I did a lot
of like self searching, and and that's when I started
my label, Third Voice Music Group. You know, I decided,
I said, all of these, all of these things that
(07:17):
I've been able to see and witness and be around,
you know, it's time to start applying them. It's time
to start putting them in motion. And so, you know,
I feel like sometimes, you know, the music industry, the
record business, starting independent labels, oftentimes like there's just not
a lot of guidance. You either have someone who like yourself,
has like learned from their mistakes. Um but you know
(07:38):
what I think is super interesting about this is you
started Marcel University, Yeah, which actually lays the foundation out
for so many up and coming entrepreneurs. And I don't
think there's a lot of places like that out there.
This is pretty revolution and that's the thing for me,
I didn't when I was in even though I went
into open school for the arts, which was prepared me
(07:58):
for everything do today, you know. I mean, I don't
think if I don't think if I would win to
somewhere else, I would be able to do this job
the way that I do it, you know, or be
prepared for what you have to be prepared for in
this career, you know. Um. But one thing I noticed
that they didn't teach us was the music business. They
taught us everything about the music, you know, but not
(08:21):
the music business. And I mean to some extent, it
wasn't like the teachers there were used to the industry
then themselves were right, you know, you would you would
you would hope, you know, and these teachers were really
young at the time, you know. So for me, I
started to think about the things that I missed. I
missed a lot of royalties, I missed a lot of mechanicals,
(08:42):
I missed a lot of um information on copyrights, what
it really means, like who really owns them? You know,
how do you obtain that? Um? You know, the different
payouts for producers and writers and artists, split sheets and
contracts and all of these things that you don't pay
attention to because you are you're so focused on the
(09:04):
smoking mirrors, you know, mirrors like building a fan and
things that really don't things that really don't matter. The
fan base does, yes, but it's more about how you
obtain it. It's more about how you how you sustain
it as well. So you know, for me, I start again.
I just started diving into these things and in the
(09:24):
time if I was learning, and I'm like, yo, you
know how many kids would need this information? You know
how many people out there don't just it's just by
by ignorance, like we just don't move, we're not taught,
you know. And so many, so many artists now are
locked in contracts that have you know, horrible teams. And
it's continuous. It's continuous, I mean since to be since
(09:47):
the dawn of days, you know what I mean. Even
still today there are people who are still signing ridiculous contracts,
you know what I mean. And I think I'm one
of those people who not only do I learn from
my experiences, but I also learned from other people's experiences
as well. I watched, I watch people's steps, and um,
you know, I just decided, I said, you know, I
(10:09):
want to have something where I can get back to,
you know, to the younger generations, because that's who's really
going to take over. It's not about you know, people
my age at this point. I mean, you know, of
course I want to teach everyone, but I really want
to go to the core of you know, who's up next?
And and and go ahead, you look like you have
(10:29):
no I mean, I just love this because I feel
like it's exactly that, Like you're looking to help the
core of who's up and nest and I feel like
there's so many basics that people don't really realize, even
honestly for someone not coming from the music industry. You know,
but I am an entrepreneur. I invest in early stage
companies and businesses. You know, the questionable what's the difference
between a record label and an independent artist starting their own?
(10:51):
You know, like, can you answer that just point blank?
For most of these people and tell us like some
of the pros and cons So with the difference between
that a record label is a machine, there are many
many entities. There are many parts and and things that
go into this machine that make it run the way
it runs. When you are independent, it is you. You
(11:14):
are labeled if you're smart, because there's some people who
claim to be independent, but there's still other other entities
that are running their stuff for me. When I said independent,
I wanted, I truly meant me. You know, everything is
on you. You're talking about videos. You gotta first of all,
you gotta you gotta have a team that's gonna write
these songs with you. You know, you're gonna have a
(11:34):
team that's gonna produce these records with you, an engineer
who's gonna mix them, who's gonna master them. All of
these things costs, uh as if you're not doing it yourself. Um,
after you get it mix and mastered, you have graphics.
You gotta worry about your finding the people to do
the graphics. You're paying for them to do the graphics.
Then after that you have the promos. You're paying for
all of this stuff. You know what I mean. Videos,
(11:56):
you gotta get the videographers. You have to know the
vision the treatments, all the rest. I mean, being independent
is just being detailed. That's what it is. Detailed. And
I feel like the successes in the details. No matter
what business success, it's in the details. You have to
get down to the nitty gritty. And for me, when
I first started, I was okay with bumping my head.
(12:17):
I'm like, look, this first project I work on, it's
more about the passion. It's not about it being the
best album I've ever created. It's not about it being
the most successful album I've ever created. It's about it
being a learning experience. For me. I want to know
how do I get from point A to point Z
and not miss B, C, D E F, you know
what I mean. Like, I wanted to make sure I
(12:40):
knew all of these things, and then even to this day,
I'm still learning. The other day I just um, I
just learned about broadcasting, you know, so when you have
music videos, I've always had music videos, but I didn't
have to do the placing it on TV, placing it
on you know, getting it to the radio stations, getting
it too, these things, and a lot of that has
to do with D M D S. So you have
(13:01):
to be you have to make sure you're signed up.
You have to make sure that all of these forms
are taken care of and information is properly put in.
You have to send it out. You gotta make sure
it's in by a deadline. And then from there two
weeks to I mean, there's all of these things that
come into play, and again it's still cost This cost you,
This is you playing into that. So I really just
(13:23):
chose the step of being independent because I was ready
to invest in myself and say, if I'm investing in me,
if I win, it's because of me, it's because of me.
I don't want to point no fingers at nobody, but
I think people getting misconscrewed, you know that they think,
you know, a label automatically means success, and it doesn't.
(13:43):
A label just means that you have a team behind
you that will do all of this work for you.
That doesn't necessarily mean a good thing, though, because these
people are not coming to you to say, hey, Adrian,
let me show you what we're doing. This is we
do X, Y and Z, this is how you get
this done. No, because then that would mean you don't
need us no more, don't get we don't get paid.
(14:06):
So we don't really want you to know this information.
We don't want you to know all of this stuff
you have to do. And then on the other end,
you have artists that don't that don't want to know
it because it's too much, it's too much, and it's
a lot. Because honestly, when you describe it like that,
it's almost like you're the artist and you're the CEO
of this entire everything. You can't complain to anybody. You
can't go you can't go to nobody to say, you
(14:28):
know for nothing. You have to really be willing to
have have the endurance to take on the things that
you don't know, to learn them, to adjust quickly, be accurate,
uh you know, with the with with enough agility to
get it done in proper times, you know. And you
just have to be secure. Independent means you are secure
with a slow build. You have you're okay with building slow.
(14:50):
And for me, that's fine because I'm taking step one,
step two, step three. I'm not going from step one.
It's a marathon. It's a marathon, like Nip said, you know,
And I feel like when you when you're taking on
these things, you automatically start to learn new new things.
You start to learn, things that you didn't you didn't
understand or would never even fathom had anything to do
(15:12):
with this, and some of them don't. Some of them
lead you into other things, you know, because of music. Again,
we talked about Marcell University. I've been led into teaching.
I've been led into real estate. I've been led into
you know, UM publishing and UH royalties, all of these
different things that can build new avenues of revenue, you know, UM,
(15:33):
when you're on a when you're not independent, when you're
on a label, your contracted to basically be like, NA,
we don't really want you to do nothing else, going
that studio and record or show up when we tell
you to. You know what I mean? And it again,
it's really all about what you know, what you bring
(15:55):
to the table, what you're worth you know. And I
feel like when I came into the game, aim, I
wasn't really worth nothing, you know, I didn't have anything.
I feel like, you know, you've had this long, illustrious career,
you're going awards. What was it that inspired you to
really give back and create the university? Well, because I
just feel like I'm where I'm from, I'm I'm big on.
(16:17):
I'm big on knowing that longevity doesn't always have to
do with you individually. Longevity and more life comes from
what you put in the soil, you know what I mean.
So I wanted to come back to the soil and
put and plant seeds. You know that years from now,
it's not about what I'm doing. It's about what I
(16:38):
what I helped someone else, do you know what I mean?
And not so that they could say, yo, Adrian Martell
are martial. It's not about that. It's about me being
able to look down the look up down the line
and say, okay, I added to this culture. You know,
I put something that was meaningful into this culture. These kids,
you know, I always say, so many talented kids there,
you know. And it only started there because that was
(16:59):
my that's where I graduated and I and again I
didn't have it there. So I knew that there was
a program that they didn't have. So we came up
with a curriculum that was to show them exactly how
the industry works. And it took them in real time.
The way I learned, I learned by hands on. I
gotta do it. I can't. You can't tell me all
these things, and I write it down and then I
(17:21):
go try it. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna
work for me. Like that. So that's the way I
taught it. You know. We we we came into the school,
we held auditions. We had about a hundred kids calm auditions.
We picked twenty of them, which was extremely hard, you
know what I'm um. You know, we we picked twenty
of them and we broke them up. You know, we
(17:41):
picked we had producers, we had writers, we had m
art we had singers, rappers, and we also had you know,
some some that were more focused on management, you know,
who wanted to be you know, they could sing or
they could do this, but they were more focused on
being behind the scenes. But we picked twenty of them, um,
based on their auditions and based on their correctords at
(18:03):
the school, like you know, how much they're doing and
all that, and um, I just broke them up. I
broke them up in the groups and I made sure
that I put them with people that they weren't used
used to working with. You know, so a lot of
these kids never performed together, not even in the same classes,
probably didn't even talk to each other. You know what,
I mean on on a daily basis. But it taught them.
(18:26):
You know, in this in this industry, you're not unless
you're extremely lucky, you're not gonna be working with everybody
you love working with everybody, you know, that's how it goes.
And you have to make it work. And and in
any business, you have to make it work. You have to.
You can't complain like, you know, I don't get along
with this person, Well, then you don't get along with
a check, because you're gonna stop yourself. You're gonna stop
(18:47):
yourself from getting money because you can't control your emotions
or your character, you know. And with them, we would
put them in groups. Some of them that would be
all producer, maybe producers and one one singer notes songwriters,
no management. That lesson would come there's a there's an
engineer and another group over here. So maybe you got
(19:08):
to go over there and go contract that person. What
do those contracts look like? What do those split sheets
look like? What do they you know? So we we
broke it down into categories and each class, you know what,
we talked about copyrights. Maybe one class, the next class
we went away. It was just gonna ask you this,
can you outline your core curriculum because I mean there's
things that go into the music business from copyrights, so
(19:31):
broke it down. We broke it down copyrights, publishing and royalties, um.
From there, it was like artists development, um, contracts, splitsheets.
We went down from you know, I mean just just
everything from again, like I said, in the artist development field,
you know, and they would learn all of these things
(19:52):
and then with throughout the day after we would go
through it, you know, we would apply it at the
end of the course. So our through all of these
things that you that you've been doing, You've been taking
these notes, you've been in your groups. In the meantime
in between time, they're working on songs and records, because
the whole goal was to at the end of the
course have an EP have about five songs of one
(20:14):
record from each group. They could do more if they
want to, but the goal was to have one song
for each and again they would have to figure that
out on their time. It wasn't just during class, because
we would only meet twice a month, you know, so
in between that time they would have to figure out
how to get these things done. You know, it's on
you because when you get in this business, it's on you.
(20:37):
If you miss something, you can't say they didn't teach
it to me, you didn't try to apply, you didn't
try to That's not how this business works. Every single Yeah,
a lot of it was was on them to be
responsible for. But in the but also at the end
of the course, we would have these files of contracts,
split sheets. We would have breakdowns of how this song
(21:00):
was recorded where I mean all of the details like
we talked about that would go into it, we had.
That was how they were graded. They were graded on
the chorus based on their finals, so not only the song.
The song could be great, but I don't see, like
how was it contracted? How was the split sheets? Robbed
your p R O s Who did anybody? Did any
(21:20):
of you join the pr oh as Cat B M I. C.
Sack whoever? Even now for you, my mind is being blown.
I'm like, what are all those things? What's a p
R oh, what's a split sheet? And you know these
are things that are integ you're publishing. You're publishing. It's
how you know. So with publishing, if you're on the
if your song gets on the radio, if your song
gets placed on TV, if your song is being used
(21:42):
in any type of place, it's like that, that's publishing.
You gotta check for that, you know what I mean.
And based on the percent So in at like an ascot,
they got to learn bus downs. They got to learn
that fifty has to go to the publishing and fifty
has to go to the writers, and and you have
to break that up however you can and ask uh
(22:02):
b M I is two? Um? I mean, so all
of these different things they needed to know. And then
it was also breakdowns of how people are paid out.
Producers are supposed to get Now, if they have a
manager or if they have somebody an agency who's working
with them whatever they contracted to split with them or
to you know, their percentages that they're giving up, then
they give up that percent. But if there's four different producers,
(22:26):
y'all gotta figure out how y'all bust that now, you know,
for riders, you gotta figure out how you bust that
percent down. And if there's an artist who's well known,
maybe they automatically take but they didn't write anything. That's
the that's the game though, you know, So we're teaching
the real time. It's not just the basics. It's the
(22:47):
real thing. I mean, the money's in the details. I'm
gonna think about that all day now, the moneys in
the Yeah, it's all in the details. And then on
top of that, there's different there's different avenues of revenue
from one song. You know, there's fishing, there's royal, there's
your your your masters. Masters are totally different from publishing.
That's a whole different check masters are when are are
(23:08):
when you know, streaming and and things like that you get,
you know, and then also teaching them the the what
what a stream counts for? I think you know, you're
thinking it's this big money, but it's like, nah, for
every million stream do you only get you know, maybe
maybe about six thousand, seven thousand, you know, I would
have thought that was way bigger. No, that's and that's
(23:31):
just Spotify. I think Spotify seven apples or Spotify is
like five apples, like seven the one that pays out
the one of the most titles titles, about twelve thousand
for every million streams you tubes they pay out. They're
definitely nowhere near them. And I think you get like
a thousand, uh for every million views that you get
(23:51):
or something like that you know. Um, but again, all
of these things, all of these little details that you
can get paid for that they had no idea, And
a lot of them already have music out ben if
it's registered. That means there's no way for you to
know if you have any money coming in, you know
what I mean. Like you're just putting music out and
one day somebody comes along because their mentality is like
(24:14):
mine was at the time, Well, nobody knows me, so
what does it matter. It's like, no, you never know
when you're gonna hit. Yeah, and you want to have
all of that documented. Yeah, you you hit tomorrow and
then boom. You ain't got nothing registered, You don't have
nothing together, none of your stuff is aligned. You're not
even you're not even with the p r O. So
that takes about a month or two for them to
(24:35):
even approve you. So your song is doing numbers, you
know what I mean, And you know, and then and
then you only have a certain amount of time that
you're able to obtain those royalties, you know, because after
a while they go into a black box, which is
called black black box royalties, which means it just goes
into a big galaxy of nothing where these p r
(24:55):
O s end up taking your money and using it
for other things, you know what I mean. Like, so
it's it's things like that you get and I was
teaching them that they get paid for performances that you know,
you can register your songs and your performances, so if
you do a ten city tour, you can register register
for those and your pr oh, depending on who you're with,
will pay you for your your shows, on top of
(25:18):
the money that you made for your show, like you
know what I mean. As I feel like, you know,
you're also like a very multi dimensional individual as well.
You've now part laid this long career in music and
you started acting now too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think
acting was really my first love. Honestly. You know when
I went to When I went to always say I
(25:39):
got in for theater and for music vocal music, but
you have to pick one. And the funny part about
me is I started in theater, you know, because I
thought it was gonna be fun all the time. And uh,
the first week I was in there, my teacher hit
us up with four essays you know that we're like
(26:02):
about you know, I mean eight hundreds and you know
what I mean? Uh, all these different all these different
old school ideas and stuff, and I'm like, you know,
this is not what I was trying to get into.
So I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm ahead to vocal music.
So y'all do y'all thing. I'm gonna go up there.
(26:24):
And I ended up going to Vocal Music and I
spent the rest of my time there. But every year
I was always in the musical. I was always starring
in one of the musical. So my first year I
started as the Scapone the Whiz Chicago. We did a
play called The Wild Party. And then I also started
to actually do things that that didn't involve music. And
(26:45):
that's really when I knew acting was something I loved.
I didn't want to hide behind my voice, you know.
So tell me about the process now of like making
this transition. How were you able to like book gigs
and get jobs. Do you feel like you're learning curve
was just to steep transitioning to the acting world. Oh? Absolutely,
you know, um, you know, not having an agent, not
(27:07):
having anybody that you know, was even more knowledgeable on
on the subject than I was than I am. You know,
I had to do really what I've always done and
just kind of get it out the mud, you know
what I mean, like go out there and figure it out.
WI out there and go talk, go network, go get
in the get in front of people's face, because you know,
(27:27):
face value is one of the biggest things in this industry,
you know. And Um, I had put some equity in
before just by taking some auditions, finding out, you know,
what shows were coming up, what movies were doing auditions for,
and I would just throw myself out there and I
would audition. I would drive down to l A. I
mean sometimes it would be like you get hit on
Thursday and they're like, we need you here Friday morning, Uh,
(27:50):
in l A to do an audition. And the audition
is only like three minutes. But hey, hey your gas
get or your car whatever, my ob down in l A.
You know, do it. And you know it was because
you know, especially in acting, it's it's it's even sometimes
to me, a lot harder than the music industry because
(28:12):
there's so many people that are coming in at one time,
you know, And I really just looked up. I ended
up getting um getting a look for the Bobby de
bar story on TV one, you know, and uh, It
was actually one of the casting directors who I had
seen many times from me auditioning, and uh, I think
(28:33):
I looked up because it's not a lot of light
skinned singer you know the bar out there, you know,
you know. So it happened, and they sent me that,
they sent me the audition knocked it out the park.
I instantly got the role and I got to really
see what set like was like, I got to see that, Yeah,
this is something that I really enjoy and I think
(28:56):
the pay is different. You know, for for music, there
ain't no run, there ain't there ain't none of that,
you know what I mean, unless you have leverage, unless
you you've already put some worth out there. You know,
it's a lot of back in um. With acting. It's
like you get them checks on time, you know what
I mean. We're gonna pay you for every day you here.
(29:16):
You're gonna get per diem. We're gonna feed you so
you don't gotta buy food. You don't gotta you know.
I mean, yeah, when you when you're hit to hit
the life, when you hit, you hit, you know, And
and that's really that's really where it started. That gave
me the ultimate bite because I was like, yeah, this
is something that I need to incorporate, you know. And
from there it was just me. Even though I was
(29:37):
on set. If I had time where they were saying, Okay,
y'all can hang out in your dressing rooms or trailers,
I'm like, no, I want to be around here looking
at talking to the cameraman. I want to be talking
to that users. I want to stood up here and
see what you do and how you do this, and
and for me, because my thing was Okay, I'm acting,
but I'm gonna apply what I learned in this music
business and what I feel I missed to this acting.
(29:59):
So I'm not gonna miss it if I'm sitting here
as an actor by the time I leave. I want
to be able to be prepared to be a producer,
to be an executive producer, to be understand the whole
industry again. Screenwriter, Yeah, I understand it all. So I
was big on sitting around people and chopping it up
and having real conversations that I could hold onto and apply,
(30:19):
you know. Um, And that's really where I where I
ended up. You know, I've been writing a bunch of scripts.
We've been working with different different riends, of mine where
we were we had we're actually working on a script
that's a call bro code, you know. So I mean
there's a lot of things that you know that inspired
me from that one job, um and also catapulted me
(30:40):
to more jobs. You know, there was a TV show
I did where I was able to do some sitcom
type of yeah yeah, which was really cool. I mean,
a bunch of short films that I've been working on,
you know, throughout this year now that are geared to
come out. A matter of fact, one of my one
of my short films that I did earlier this year,
(31:00):
just one I think like nine awards, Yeah yeah, I
think best best Romantic, uh seeing, best Chemistry. I mean,
it's all these different things and when I'm like, wow,
a thirty minute film that took me, you know, a
day to do but starts, ye are. That's really incredible though,
And that's got to feel good because you've been you know,
(31:21):
you've been in the game a long time. You put
in your time, you've given back, and you know you're
you're on the path to greatness. Do you have any
tips as we as we close out for you know,
how people can really break into the industry maybe how
they can find an agent. But what would you tell
younger Adrian today. I would definitely tell younger Adrian to
get up, stop asking for so many things and go
(31:43):
out there and go do go out there and just
go get to a creative. It's in the world we
live in today. You don't have to you don't have
to go by any rules. You know, there's nothing that
you have to follow. You know, people are making it
up as they're going, and there are people who are
being very successful at it, you know, um, taking their
own routes, taking their organic routes. And I feel like
(32:05):
so many of us at a young age are taught
that there's one way to do something, you know what
I mean, there's one way to do there's one way
to be successful, and it's not you know. My My
thing is really more about, you know, learning as much
as you can learn everything. You can talk to everybody,
(32:26):
find out what they do, why it's important, how you
can learn it, how you can do it. You know
what I mean. I'm I produce, I write, I sing
act um, I write scripts, UM, I'm learning more engineering now, UM,
teaching um into real estate, you know, building a home
building my home right now, I mean, you know all
(32:47):
of these things. I feel like as much as you know,
the more you know, the more you can do, and
you can apply to every business you create, you know.
But as far as you know, finding an agent, make
them find you. I've been find you. You know. I'm
very big on I'm very very big on people working
with you that are fans or that are inspired by you,
(33:10):
or that eager to work with you, rather than you're
going out and begging, you know, please, I'm looking. I'm
looking for this. I'm looking for that that works, that
can't work. But for me, it just it hasn't weighed
as much as when I go out there and I
bring people to me. I've learned that you can send
(33:31):
a million emails all day, but people want to see
what you do with That's what brings them to you.
They want to see that you work and how are
you making it work? You got lemons? Did you make lemonade?
Did you make did you make lemon chicken? Did you make?
I mean, what what did you what did you do?
You know what I mean? And I think that's what
it's about. That would be my advice to anybody that's
(33:51):
trying to break into the industry, create the industry around you. Adrian.
I love that. That is great advice because I think
that you know, if people like yourself are truly you
manifest so much, but you put the time to work
behind it to make it happen, right, And I appreciate
your time today. Yeah, thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you. It's been a it's been a pleasure to
(34:12):
talk about it. Can you make sure before we close out,
can you tell everyone where they can find you on
social media and also where they can sign up for
your university, your mentorship programs. We need to know all
the details, absolutely, so, Adrian Marshall, you can look me
up on this thing called Google. It has all this
information that drops that drops underneath the name. And to
(34:32):
tell you all of this, but Adrian marcell on Instagram
follow me. Um. Also Adrian Marcelle, Adrian marself. If I
wanta on Twitter to get into the university, to to
matter of fact, just to have a conversation with me
and with the team, you can actually call me. I'm
locked in with super phone. That's brought to you by
Ryan Leslie. Another super talented and extreme and a genius
(34:57):
in my opinion. Um, But the number five one oh
seven three seven seven five eight, or you can just
go to text Adrian dot com. It is my real
cell phone. It's sitting right here. I'm texting. I'm talking
to people in real time. UM. But yeah, the best
way to get involved in in Marcella University is to
call me to what to text me and we can
(35:18):
start the conversation and figuring out what it is that
you want to know, what you're trying to learn, what
you're trying to do, you know, um, and then also
you know there's more music on the way. Uh. Marcell
EP is dropping at the end of this year, so
I'm extremely excited about that. Just stay tuned. It's a
lot coming. We're locked in. We're locked in, all right, Adrian.
That's all we have time for today. Money Movers. Please
(35:39):
check out Adrian's music follow him on sociow so that
you don't miss any of the new stuff that he's
working on any of his music drops. We look forward
to seeing it. Thank you so much, Thank you so
much for having me. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Money Moves audience. If you want more or a recap
of this episode, please go to the Bank Greenwood dot
com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog. Funny
(36:05):
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