May 30, 2022 • 21 mins
Wendy Day is the founder of the nonprofit "Rap Coalition," an advocacy organization designed to educate, inform and unify rap artists, producers, and DJs
In this episode, she discusses some of the huge record deals Rap Coalition has been a part of and how she helped build the careers several of your favorite artist.
Guest IG: @rapcoalition
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Episode Transcript
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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. Today's guest has been
building millionaires in the music industry since nineteen. She has
(00:24):
worked with Cash Money Records, Machine Gun, Kelly David Banner.
She played a part in some huge deals like Eminem's
deal in the Aftermath, Interscope, and also Masterpiece No Limit
deal with Priority Records, just to name a few. She
is the owner of a nonprofit organization called Rap Coalition,
which helps artists navigate the industry more advantageously in an
(00:48):
industry we know that is renowned for some shady deals.
Money Movers, please welcome to the podcast. Wendy Day. Wendy,
it's so nice to have you here. Keep for having me.
I'm so happy to be here. I love what you're doing.
I'm so excited to have you here. You know we
are both as I have just learned, based in Atlanta,
(01:09):
and this has obviously been a long time and very
epic music hub. You've been in this business for a
very long time, and you've seen a lot go down
and change over the past couple of years. So I'm
really excited to share your journey and inspire so many
others to really be successful musicians. But also understand that
this is a business. This is us and yes, very
(01:32):
much so. And it's easy to forget that because it's
you know, it's glitz, it's glamour, it's fame, it's fun.
Sometimes it's it's easy to forget that it really is
a business. Yeah, and you have to build the right team.
So I want to go back to understanding what really
drew you to like rap and urban music and helping
(01:53):
others be as successful as they could be. Absolutely. I
started listening to rap music in nineteen eighty. I was
in college at the time, and I fell in love
with the energy and the passion of the music. But
I didn't start working in the music industry until I
had just come back from Montreal. I had lived up
(02:16):
there for uh four years. Shout out shout out Montreal,
and shout out Canada and and capa qual. I really
loved the opportunity that I had when I was in
Montreal because I ran a company for a gentleman who
was really just the investor, and it was like training
(02:37):
wheels for me. I really learned how to run a
company and how to be an entrepreneur and how to
be independent. And when I came back to New York,
I decided that I wanted to set up a not
for profit organization to help rap artists because I saw
that some of my favorite artists were being taken advantage
of and I didn't like that. Okay, So I mean,
(02:59):
this is just I feel like such a prevalent theme
in the music industry artists being taken advantage of. And
you know, in early days, when you know artists are
really passionate about what they're creating, They're passionate about their music,
They're passionate about their craft, and so oftentimes they'll sell
their souls to get into a deal that is promising
them gold and platinum records on the other end of
(03:20):
the spectrum. How were you able to, you know, really
help educate these artists and really help them out of
these precarious situations. Well, the first thing I did was
I learned as much as I could about the industry
and then just started to share that knowledge. And I
was in New York at the time, so I was
doing panel discussions at New York University, and then we
(03:43):
grew out of the space that we had there and
I went to UM a giant auditorium at as Cap
and as Cap let me use this the space for free,
which was wonderful because we could educate up to a
hundred and fifty people every month. So I started doing
panel discussions. But I my my goal was always to
(04:06):
educate the artist so that they would learn what was
fair and acceptable. And of course this was before the Internet,
so there wasn't there was no Google, you know, there
there was no place to go, and I'm getting information
was hard. Yeah, I think a lot of these artists
had to learn the hard way. And you know, now
the stories are all out there of like these incredibly
(04:28):
epic artists who's there spanned decades and they don't own
their masters there broke or the public or whatever. When
how did you start really getting involved, for example, like
some of the bigger deals that you did with Eminem etcetera.
How were you able to go in there and really
break it apart and help them um get out of
(04:48):
some of those deals. Well, when I started rap Coalition
in nine two, it was to pull artists out of
bad deal. So I made friends with really powerful inner
Hyman attorneys who were willing to help break contracts. So
I saw a lot of really crappy deals. I saw
(05:09):
a lot of deals that just had either things in
them that were hurting artists or missing things that could
be helpful. So I learned really quickly the difference between
a good deal and a bad deal, and I decided
that pulling artists out of bad deals was great, but
it wasn't helpful enough. Like if an artist's goal was
(05:31):
to be successful, I felt like I would have to
get them out of a bad deal and then bring
them into a good deal. That was the way that
that I could help them really, you know, achieved and
live their dreams. So that's what I started doing. Just
from learning what all the bad stuff was, I knew
to put stuff in the contract that was against that right.
(05:53):
And then I was also helping artists put out music independently,
so I was learning very hands all on what works
and what doesn't. So I was making sure that we
were writing things into the contract on the marketing side
that would help them. Fascinating and so all this and
you didn't even have a legal degree. So I really
feel like it speaks a lot to like you know,
(06:16):
when you want to understand a business, when you want
to understand an industry sector, you go in and you
learn all you can. And you know, forming the Rap
Coalition as you did was really, you know, your effort
to help so many of these artists be successful, like
altruistically exactly. And the great thing is so many people
that worked at labels just really admired and loved what
(06:40):
I was doing. So they were feeding me information. They
were telling me like who was getting jerked, who wasn't.
They were sharing marketing plans with me, they were explaining,
you know, how they built success for artists, and it
was really it was almost like my tribe. You know.
People saw what I was doing, they saw that it
was genuine, they saw that and even today they see
(07:01):
that it's altruistic. So they're very inspired to help artists
and they know that I can do that. So even
though they're in the belly of the beasts, as it were,
they're able to um reach out and share information, which
really just helps the whole community. All right, so help
But me understand as someone who's not deep into the
(07:24):
music industry, because you always hear about like sort of
the bad actors and the good actors and you were
clearly you know, the good actor. So if you look
at the whole machine of the music industry, was it
the agents? Was it's particular people? Um, how do people
know who to trust? I think it's sporadic and random
(07:44):
and it really depends on who you ask as to
whether there's more bad than good. You know, there's there's
a million different opinions. But it's an industry that's built
on smoke and mirrors, and it's an industry where you
can make a lot of money really fast. So there's
a lot of greed and there's a lot of power
(08:04):
struggle in the music industry, and there's a lot of
misunderstanding and a lot of the shadiness is hidden behind
people not knowing. So it's sort of an industry that's
not transparent and there's a lot of information that's hidden.
And because it's hidden, there's a lot of people that
can get away with doing shady stuff because it's it's hidden.
(08:28):
It's kind of dark. And so you know, for a
new artists out there, they're starting out and they're like, Okay,
you know, I've made some music. I might have a
track or two. I hired you know my friend to
be my manager. What's the next step and what are
some of the biggest mistakes that you see early artists making. Um,
you mentioned one right there, hiring your friend to be
your manage Oh okay, that's like that's like hiring your
(08:51):
uncle to be your heart surgeon. Wells that you know. Um,
I realized why artists do that because they want to
be surrounded by people they trust. So I totally get
why they want somebody that they know acting in a
role as an advisor. But the management role is actually
(09:14):
the most important role in an artist's career. It's the
captain of the ship. It's the person that shares your
vision and then helps you get from point A to
to to point Z. And a really great manager has knowledge, experience, relationships,
They can call in favors. If they need to get
you on a tour, they can call in a favor
(09:35):
and get you on a bigger, bigger tour with a
bigger artist. So you really need somebody that's knowledgeable and
really well connected as well as trustworthy. I don't want
to downplay that because that's important with anything, but your
your your best friend or your cousin or the guy
down the street is probably not the best choice to
(09:56):
have somebody helming your career unless they're that per some
that has the experience and the relationships. I think that's
a huge mistake that you see a lot of even
you know, whether it's a music it's or an entrepreneur,
Like if you were competing in the Olympics, you need
someone who's going to train you to be at the
level of like world class, And that's how you really
should frame building your business, no matter what industry you're in. Gosh, yes,
(10:20):
and I learned that really early on in my life.
So it's just a lesson that I've been able to
share with people that didn't have the same lessons that
I got in my life. Right, So let's talk about
what are some of your favorite contracts that you've helped
be a part of or some really great success stories
from either from rap coalition or just from your work history.
(10:43):
Absolutely so, UM. I have a for profit organization called
Power Moves, and we put out music and we help
artists stay independent. So of course that's always my first
choice is for an artist to keep ownership and to
make money UM independently, but I'm really proud of the
cash money deal. It was a really great split. They
(11:06):
were funded up to thirty million dollars over a three
year period, which was really great. Yes, and they were
able to retain their ownership of their masters and they're publishing,
which is unheard of in this industry um masters in
publishing or the actual ownership of the music itself. And
usually when you do a deal, especially a deal where
(11:28):
somebody is advancing funds, almost always the people putting up
the money get to keep the ownership. And in the
cash money situation, they had such a great track record
of success. They had put out thirty one albums over
a six year period, so they had a really nice
track record. And when the labels started bidding in a
(11:50):
bidding war for them had ensued, which made it, you know,
the price escalate. But the great value was that we
were able to keep ownership for them. And then there
were even clauses in the contract, which is why we
chose Universal. At the at the end of the day,
Universal had to train their staff, so they would send
(12:14):
the staff to to New York. They had to pay
for it. Not Universal, but Universal was willing to train
people in their video department and people in their radio
department in the marketing department on how you know to
do the jobs and how to build their company to
be to become an empire. UM. Another really great example
(12:37):
was David Banner. When we did his deal. He had
been signed to Penalty Records and Tommy Boy and the
deal didn't go so well and Banner was a little
bit frustrated. So when we did the deal with Steve
Rifkins Company, we got the right for David to put
out music independently and retain all of the income from
(12:59):
that in addition to what he was doing at Universal.
And at that point in time, it was unheard of.
That was UM two thousand three when we did that deal,
and that was unheard of for a major label to
let you put out music independently. You could drop mix tapes,
but mix tapes for the most part, were free, and
the labels kind of frowned upon them. But we were
(13:22):
able to drop music independently, and he was able to
put out his bigger releases on Universal and still get
eight hundred to a million dollars in advance for each
album that he delivered. It was kind of cool. That
is kind of cool. I mean, it's kind of epic. Yeah,
you know, you're making some really landmark deals in the industry.
(13:43):
That's incredible. All right, So tell us a little bit
more about what does the future of Rap Coalition look like.
You know, the music industry is changing so much, is different. Yeah,
what what does it look like? You know, it's it's
still educating artists. I just hired somebody full time in
July to build out an educational platform for artists. Um.
(14:07):
That should be dropping probably in the next sixty days
or so. That's kind of been a labor of love. Um,
we're still helping artists get out of deals. The deals
are a little bit different today than they were when
we started in they're more three sixty deals, and a
three sixty deal is where a label owns all of
(14:29):
your streams of income. They own a percentage of everything.
So not only are they making money from the streaming
morayalties you know that they've always made through through the
history of the music business, the sales royalties, but they're
also making money on the shows. If there's a TV
show or a movie involved in the artist career, they
(14:49):
get a percentage of that. They get a percentage of
the sponsorships and endorsements, they get a percentage of all
the sink fees, So they're really eating for all of
the streams of India and I am so not a
fan of that. But um, in two thousand and five,
those deals came into vogue and at that point in
time they were really really impressive because they were brand new.
(15:13):
So I just stopped doing deals with the majors and
focus solely on doing independent work with artists so that
they wouldn't be taken advantage of. Yeah, and how like.
So now the three sixty deals we fast forward, now,
are they still as prevalent or people are gotten a
little bit hip to the game? Um, people have gotten
hip to the game. If you're a brand new artist
(15:35):
and you have no leverage, and you don't have a
really solid fan base already in place, and you don't
have great numbers on social media, Like, if you're brand
brand new and you do a deal with a with
a with a major label, it's gonna have some three
sixty elements in it. Not quite as oppressive as they
were back in the mid two thousand's, but still they're
(15:57):
take they're eating off of every stream. Most artists today, though,
have gotten a little more savvy. The Internet has really
helped um. Artists can go direct to fan today, which
they weren't able to do in the nineties and in
the two thousand's. But they go. If they are going
to build their fan base first, and they're showing the
(16:20):
labels that they are viable and that people really are,
you know, vibing with the movement, they can get a
much better deal than a brand new artist could. Wow,
that's incredible, and you know, I think this is one
of the things that technology has really afforded artists. You
can you can reach your favorite fans, you can grow
a fantasy to yourself, and you know, you've got to
(16:41):
do the work. It's not easy to grow a fan base.
You know, you find a fan one by one, you know,
oftentimes on social media, but it will it really pays off,
and I think it really does off. And then of
course meeting amazing people like yourself to help mentor and
guide these artists on their journey. I love that. You know,
I'm in the process of building an incubator right now,
(17:01):
and it's it's very it's very much in the vein
of Wrap Coalition. It's not not for profit because there's
no way to sustain it that way. But we're bringing
artists in every day and educating them and then showing
them hands on how to make money with their music.
And I just wish record labels saw the value in
(17:21):
doing that. There's enough money for everybody. Everybody can eat,
And I just wish that more labels saw artists as
partners instead of seeing them as you know, like a
cob that they can sell on the open market, or
treating them like you know, like a like a pimpo relationship.
(17:42):
It just needs to be a little bit more fair
and a little bit more transparent. Okay, so money movers,
you can't tell, but Wendy is in a really cool
space right now. Can you tell us a little bit
about the space that you're sitting in? Absolutely? Um. I've
always been a fan and of real estate. I've always
made more money in real estate than I have in music.
(18:05):
I realized really early on in my career in the
music industry, because I wasn't willing to take ownership of
artists publishing, that it was always going to be a
little harder for me to make money. I wasn't willing
to take ownership in a share of what I was
helping them build. So I learned around two thousand and three,
(18:26):
I learned how to flip houses back before everybody else was,
and I started doing that. From there, I grew to
flipping hotels, like buying old red roof ins, fixing them
up and then you know, getting them to market standards
and then selling them. And the next next logical step
for me was coworking. I've always worked out of a
(18:47):
coworking space. I I love the whole educating people aspect.
So I built my own. It's thirty th square feet.
I do have partners that helped me UM fund this,
but it's it's a space that holds three hundred and
seventy seven people and once a month we do panel
(19:08):
discussions on how to grow your company. And it's people
that are you know, individual lawyers, they owned tech companies,
their finance people, their insurance brokers. They're from all different
walks of life, and I get to help them similar
to the way I'm helping rappers. You know, UM travel
the music industry. It's not a labor of passion the
(19:30):
way the music industry is, and the music industry will
always be my love. I'm gonna die in the music industry,
I think, but it is a way for me to
make money without having to take ownership from rappers. Wow.
Truly altruistic. What heart Wendy. Thank you so much for
coming to the Money Moves podcat. Thanks for having me.
(19:51):
This has been fun. No, this is really great and
we're going to have you back for another episode where
we do a deeper dive into how you've built the
rap coalition and tell some of our artists in the
audience who are listening, you know, some deeper tips and
tricks to getting the success they wanted to their careers.
But before you leave, can you tell our audience where
they can find you on social media? Make sure you
(20:13):
tell us about your coworking space so that we can
attend some of these incredible lectures or just find a
place to build our businesses. Absolutely. Um. The best place
to find information about me is at Wendy day dot com.
I've got a YouTube channel that offers a ton of
free information on how to build your career. That's YouTube
dot com slash this is Wendy Day. But if you
(20:35):
go to Wendy day dot com, everything you need to
know about me is there. That's kind of my my,
my holding space of all information. Perfect. Well, thank you Wendy,
it's been such a thanks. We'll see you back for
another deep dive. Alright, money Movers, that's all the time
we have for today, but make sure to follow Wendy
on all her social media handles. And if we helped
(20:58):
you make your money move, please make hers let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. 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. Money Moves is an I heart Radio
(21:22):
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For more podcast on iHeart Radio, visit the i Heart
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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. Today's guest has been
building millionaires in the music industry since nineteen. She has
(00:24):
worked with Cash Money Records, Machine Gun, Kelly David Banner.
She played a part in some huge deals like Eminem's
deal in the Aftermath, Interscope, and also Masterpiece No Limit
deal with Priority Records, just to name a few. She
is the owner of a nonprofit organization called Rap Coalition,
which helps artists navigate the industry more advantageously in an
(00:48):
industry we know that is renowned for some shady deals.
Money Movers, please welcome to the podcast. Wendy Day. Wendy,
it's so nice to have you here. Keep for having me.
I'm so happy to be here. I love what you're doing.
I'm so excited to have you here. You know we
are both as I have just learned, based in Atlanta,
(01:09):
and this has obviously been a long time and very
epic music hub. You've been in this business for a
very long time, and you've seen a lot go down
and change over the past couple of years. So I'm
really excited to share your journey and inspire so many
others to really be successful musicians. But also understand that
this is a business. This is us and yes, very
(01:32):
much so. And it's easy to forget that because it's
you know, it's glitz, it's glamour, it's fame, it's fun.
Sometimes it's it's easy to forget that it really is
a business. Yeah, and you have to build the right team.
So I want to go back to understanding what really
drew you to like rap and urban music and helping
(01:53):
others be as successful as they could be. Absolutely. I
started listening to rap music in nineteen eighty. I was
in college at the time, and I fell in love
with the energy and the passion of the music. But
I didn't start working in the music industry until I
had just come back from Montreal. I had lived up
(02:16):
there for uh four years. Shout out shout out Montreal,
and shout out Canada and and capa qual. I really
loved the opportunity that I had when I was in
Montreal because I ran a company for a gentleman who
was really just the investor, and it was like training
(02:37):
wheels for me. I really learned how to run a
company and how to be an entrepreneur and how to
be independent. And when I came back to New York,
I decided that I wanted to set up a not
for profit organization to help rap artists because I saw
that some of my favorite artists were being taken advantage
of and I didn't like that. Okay, So I mean,
(02:59):
this is just I feel like such a prevalent theme
in the music industry artists being taken advantage of. And
you know, in early days, when you know artists are
really passionate about what they're creating, They're passionate about their music,
They're passionate about their craft, and so oftentimes they'll sell
their souls to get into a deal that is promising
them gold and platinum records on the other end of
(03:20):
the spectrum. How were you able to, you know, really
help educate these artists and really help them out of
these precarious situations. Well, the first thing I did was
I learned as much as I could about the industry
and then just started to share that knowledge. And I
was in New York at the time, so I was
doing panel discussions at New York University, and then we
(03:43):
grew out of the space that we had there and
I went to UM a giant auditorium at as Cap
and as Cap let me use this the space for free,
which was wonderful because we could educate up to a
hundred and fifty people every month. So I started doing
panel discussions. But I my my goal was always to
(04:06):
educate the artist so that they would learn what was
fair and acceptable. And of course this was before the Internet,
so there wasn't there was no Google, you know, there
there was no place to go, and I'm getting information
was hard. Yeah, I think a lot of these artists
had to learn the hard way. And you know, now
the stories are all out there of like these incredibly
(04:28):
epic artists who's there spanned decades and they don't own
their masters there broke or the public or whatever. When
how did you start really getting involved, for example, like
some of the bigger deals that you did with Eminem etcetera.
How were you able to go in there and really
break it apart and help them um get out of
(04:48):
some of those deals. Well, when I started rap Coalition
in nine two, it was to pull artists out of
bad deal. So I made friends with really powerful inner
Hyman attorneys who were willing to help break contracts. So
I saw a lot of really crappy deals. I saw
(05:09):
a lot of deals that just had either things in
them that were hurting artists or missing things that could
be helpful. So I learned really quickly the difference between
a good deal and a bad deal, and I decided
that pulling artists out of bad deals was great, but
it wasn't helpful enough. Like if an artist's goal was
(05:31):
to be successful, I felt like I would have to
get them out of a bad deal and then bring
them into a good deal. That was the way that
that I could help them really, you know, achieved and
live their dreams. So that's what I started doing. Just
from learning what all the bad stuff was, I knew
to put stuff in the contract that was against that right.
(05:53):
And then I was also helping artists put out music independently,
so I was learning very hands all on what works
and what doesn't. So I was making sure that we
were writing things into the contract on the marketing side
that would help them. Fascinating and so all this and
you didn't even have a legal degree. So I really
feel like it speaks a lot to like you know,
(06:16):
when you want to understand a business, when you want
to understand an industry sector, you go in and you
learn all you can. And you know, forming the Rap
Coalition as you did was really, you know, your effort
to help so many of these artists be successful, like
altruistically exactly. And the great thing is so many people
that worked at labels just really admired and loved what
(06:40):
I was doing. So they were feeding me information. They
were telling me like who was getting jerked, who wasn't.
They were sharing marketing plans with me, they were explaining,
you know, how they built success for artists, and it
was really it was almost like my tribe. You know.
People saw what I was doing, they saw that it
was genuine, they saw that and even today they see
(07:01):
that it's altruistic. So they're very inspired to help artists
and they know that I can do that. So even
though they're in the belly of the beasts, as it were,
they're able to um reach out and share information, which
really just helps the whole community. All right, so help
But me understand as someone who's not deep into the
(07:24):
music industry, because you always hear about like sort of
the bad actors and the good actors and you were
clearly you know, the good actor. So if you look
at the whole machine of the music industry, was it
the agents? Was it's particular people? Um, how do people
know who to trust? I think it's sporadic and random
(07:44):
and it really depends on who you ask as to
whether there's more bad than good. You know, there's there's
a million different opinions. But it's an industry that's built
on smoke and mirrors, and it's an industry where you
can make a lot of money really fast. So there's
a lot of greed and there's a lot of power
(08:04):
struggle in the music industry, and there's a lot of
misunderstanding and a lot of the shadiness is hidden behind
people not knowing. So it's sort of an industry that's
not transparent and there's a lot of information that's hidden.
And because it's hidden, there's a lot of people that
can get away with doing shady stuff because it's it's hidden.
(08:28):
It's kind of dark. And so you know, for a
new artists out there, they're starting out and they're like, Okay,
you know, I've made some music. I might have a
track or two. I hired you know my friend to
be my manager. What's the next step and what are
some of the biggest mistakes that you see early artists making. Um,
you mentioned one right there, hiring your friend to be
your manage Oh okay, that's like that's like hiring your
(08:51):
uncle to be your heart surgeon. Wells that you know. Um,
I realized why artists do that because they want to
be surrounded by people they trust. So I totally get
why they want somebody that they know acting in a
role as an advisor. But the management role is actually
(09:14):
the most important role in an artist's career. It's the
captain of the ship. It's the person that shares your
vision and then helps you get from point A to
to to point Z. And a really great manager has knowledge, experience, relationships,
They can call in favors. If they need to get
you on a tour, they can call in a favor
(09:35):
and get you on a bigger, bigger tour with a
bigger artist. So you really need somebody that's knowledgeable and
really well connected as well as trustworthy. I don't want
to downplay that because that's important with anything, but your
your your best friend or your cousin or the guy
down the street is probably not the best choice to
(09:56):
have somebody helming your career unless they're that per some
that has the experience and the relationships. I think that's
a huge mistake that you see a lot of even
you know, whether it's a music it's or an entrepreneur,
Like if you were competing in the Olympics, you need
someone who's going to train you to be at the
level of like world class, And that's how you really
should frame building your business, no matter what industry you're in. Gosh, yes,
(10:20):
and I learned that really early on in my life.
So it's just a lesson that I've been able to
share with people that didn't have the same lessons that
I got in my life. Right, So let's talk about
what are some of your favorite contracts that you've helped
be a part of or some really great success stories
from either from rap coalition or just from your work history.
(10:43):
Absolutely so, UM. I have a for profit organization called
Power Moves, and we put out music and we help
artists stay independent. So of course that's always my first
choice is for an artist to keep ownership and to
make money UM independently, but I'm really proud of the
cash money deal. It was a really great split. They
(11:06):
were funded up to thirty million dollars over a three
year period, which was really great. Yes, and they were
able to retain their ownership of their masters and they're publishing,
which is unheard of in this industry um masters in
publishing or the actual ownership of the music itself. And
usually when you do a deal, especially a deal where
(11:28):
somebody is advancing funds, almost always the people putting up
the money get to keep the ownership. And in the
cash money situation, they had such a great track record
of success. They had put out thirty one albums over
a six year period, so they had a really nice
track record. And when the labels started bidding in a
(11:50):
bidding war for them had ensued, which made it, you know,
the price escalate. But the great value was that we
were able to keep ownership for them. And then there
were even clauses in the contract, which is why we
chose Universal. At the at the end of the day,
Universal had to train their staff, so they would send
(12:14):
the staff to to New York. They had to pay
for it. Not Universal, but Universal was willing to train
people in their video department and people in their radio
department in the marketing department on how you know to
do the jobs and how to build their company to
be to become an empire. UM. Another really great example
(12:37):
was David Banner. When we did his deal. He had
been signed to Penalty Records and Tommy Boy and the
deal didn't go so well and Banner was a little
bit frustrated. So when we did the deal with Steve
Rifkins Company, we got the right for David to put
out music independently and retain all of the income from
(12:59):
that in addition to what he was doing at Universal.
And at that point in time, it was unheard of.
That was UM two thousand three when we did that deal,
and that was unheard of for a major label to
let you put out music independently. You could drop mix tapes,
but mix tapes for the most part, were free, and
the labels kind of frowned upon them. But we were
(13:22):
able to drop music independently, and he was able to
put out his bigger releases on Universal and still get
eight hundred to a million dollars in advance for each
album that he delivered. It was kind of cool. That
is kind of cool. I mean, it's kind of epic. Yeah,
you know, you're making some really landmark deals in the industry.
(13:43):
That's incredible. All right, So tell us a little bit
more about what does the future of Rap Coalition look like.
You know, the music industry is changing so much, is different. Yeah,
what what does it look like? You know, it's it's
still educating artists. I just hired somebody full time in
July to build out an educational platform for artists. Um.
(14:07):
That should be dropping probably in the next sixty days
or so. That's kind of been a labor of love. Um,
we're still helping artists get out of deals. The deals
are a little bit different today than they were when
we started in they're more three sixty deals, and a
three sixty deal is where a label owns all of
(14:29):
your streams of income. They own a percentage of everything.
So not only are they making money from the streaming
morayalties you know that they've always made through through the
history of the music business, the sales royalties, but they're
also making money on the shows. If there's a TV
show or a movie involved in the artist career, they
(14:49):
get a percentage of that. They get a percentage of
the sponsorships and endorsements, they get a percentage of all
the sink fees, So they're really eating for all of
the streams of India and I am so not a
fan of that. But um, in two thousand and five,
those deals came into vogue and at that point in
time they were really really impressive because they were brand new.
(15:13):
So I just stopped doing deals with the majors and
focus solely on doing independent work with artists so that
they wouldn't be taken advantage of. Yeah, and how like.
So now the three sixty deals we fast forward, now,
are they still as prevalent or people are gotten a
little bit hip to the game? Um, people have gotten
hip to the game. If you're a brand new artist
(15:35):
and you have no leverage, and you don't have a
really solid fan base already in place, and you don't
have great numbers on social media, Like, if you're brand
brand new and you do a deal with a with
a with a major label, it's gonna have some three
sixty elements in it. Not quite as oppressive as they
were back in the mid two thousand's, but still they're
(15:57):
take they're eating off of every stream. Most artists today, though,
have gotten a little more savvy. The Internet has really
helped um. Artists can go direct to fan today, which
they weren't able to do in the nineties and in
the two thousand's. But they go. If they are going
to build their fan base first, and they're showing the
(16:20):
labels that they are viable and that people really are,
you know, vibing with the movement, they can get a
much better deal than a brand new artist could. Wow,
that's incredible, and you know, I think this is one
of the things that technology has really afforded artists. You
can you can reach your favorite fans, you can grow
a fantasy to yourself, and you know, you've got to
(16:41):
do the work. It's not easy to grow a fan base.
You know, you find a fan one by one, you know,
oftentimes on social media, but it will it really pays off,
and I think it really does off. And then of
course meeting amazing people like yourself to help mentor and
guide these artists on their journey. I love that. You know,
I'm in the process of building an incubator right now,
(17:01):
and it's it's very it's very much in the vein
of Wrap Coalition. It's not not for profit because there's
no way to sustain it that way. But we're bringing
artists in every day and educating them and then showing
them hands on how to make money with their music.
And I just wish record labels saw the value in
(17:21):
doing that. There's enough money for everybody. Everybody can eat,
And I just wish that more labels saw artists as
partners instead of seeing them as you know, like a
cob that they can sell on the open market, or
treating them like you know, like a like a pimpo relationship.
(17:42):
It just needs to be a little bit more fair
and a little bit more transparent. Okay, so money movers,
you can't tell, but Wendy is in a really cool
space right now. Can you tell us a little bit
about the space that you're sitting in? Absolutely? Um. I've
always been a fan and of real estate. I've always
made more money in real estate than I have in music.
(18:05):
I realized really early on in my career in the
music industry, because I wasn't willing to take ownership of
artists publishing, that it was always going to be a
little harder for me to make money. I wasn't willing
to take ownership in a share of what I was
helping them build. So I learned around two thousand and three,
(18:26):
I learned how to flip houses back before everybody else was,
and I started doing that. From there, I grew to
flipping hotels, like buying old red roof ins, fixing them
up and then you know, getting them to market standards
and then selling them. And the next next logical step
for me was coworking. I've always worked out of a
(18:47):
coworking space. I I love the whole educating people aspect.
So I built my own. It's thirty th square feet.
I do have partners that helped me UM fund this,
but it's it's a space that holds three hundred and
seventy seven people and once a month we do panel
(19:08):
discussions on how to grow your company. And it's people
that are you know, individual lawyers, they owned tech companies,
their finance people, their insurance brokers. They're from all different
walks of life, and I get to help them similar
to the way I'm helping rappers. You know, UM travel
the music industry. It's not a labor of passion the
(19:30):
way the music industry is, and the music industry will
always be my love. I'm gonna die in the music industry,
I think, but it is a way for me to
make money without having to take ownership from rappers. Wow.
Truly altruistic. What heart Wendy. Thank you so much for
coming to the Money Moves podcat. Thanks for having me.
(19:51):
This has been fun. No, this is really great and
we're going to have you back for another episode where
we do a deeper dive into how you've built the
rap coalition and tell some of our artists in the
audience who are listening, you know, some deeper tips and
tricks to getting the success they wanted to their careers.
But before you leave, can you tell our audience where
they can find you on social media? Make sure you
(20:13):
tell us about your coworking space so that we can
attend some of these incredible lectures or just find a
place to build our businesses. Absolutely. Um. The best place
to find information about me is at Wendy day dot com.
I've got a YouTube channel that offers a ton of
free information on how to build your career. That's YouTube
dot com slash this is Wendy Day. But if you
(20:35):
go to Wendy day dot com, everything you need to
know about me is there. That's kind of my my,
my holding space of all information. Perfect. Well, thank you Wendy,
it's been such a thanks. We'll see you back for
another deep dive. Alright, money Movers, that's all the time
we have for today, but make sure to follow Wendy
on all her social media handles. And if we helped
(20:58):
you make your money move, please make hers let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. 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. Money Moves is an I heart Radio
(21:22):
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
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