A Breakdown of Kanye West’s Deal Points
Kanye is at it again! Can Mr. West take down the major record labels and publishing companies with his 7-step proposal? Only time will tell but he does make some interesting points. Not every artist locked into a lengthy recording or publishing contract will have the access to lawyers the way Kanye does, but artists and songwriters of the future can definitely look at their deals from a clearer lens. Artists and songwriters who are signed and believe there is no way out, should also take this new ethos and attempt to have this dialogue with their music companies. Below I breakdown Kanye’s deal proposals, what is typically standard with the industry now, and a balanced median ground that I believe will push the creative/music company relationship into the next decade.
Per Kanye West’s Twitter Page:
- The artist owns the copyright in the recordings and songs and leases them to the record label / publisher for a limited term. 1 year deals.
Okay so to jump this off, to be clear a record label typical owns the sound recording copyright (recordings) and the publishing company typical owns the music composition copyright (songs). I totally agree with Kanye here in regards to artists having ownership of their copyrights. A record label typically takes ownership of an artist’s sound recording copyright and does a royalty split once the recording advance is recouped. Publishing companies are known for doing co-publishing deals where both parties share an equal share of the music composition copyright. Lease terms, also referred to as Licensing terms, are a better option for all parties. The issue that lies with Kanye’s first point are 1 year deals. From first glance this seems very beneficial for the artist/songwriter, but in retrospect, it is not. Once an artist signs a deal, it can be months to have any music ready to distribute, that year could be up and no product ready to release. A 3–5 year lease / license seems more feasible for both parties with 1–2 commercial releases during the lease / licensing term.
2. The record label / publisher is a service provider that receives a share of the income for a limited term. The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor.
So from a record label standpoint at the moment, the split Kanye has above is in many cases flipped…
