Kanye Offers 7 Surprisingly Sane ‘Guidelines’ For Fairer Recording, Publishing Deals

Kayne West is on a mission to get control of all of his recording and publishing rights back.

As part of his very public campaign, West took to Twitter with a 7 part definition of what he sees are fair record and publishing deals.

We added the bold.

Kanye West Offers 7 ‘Guidelines’ For Fairer Recording, Publishing Deals

1. 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
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
3. DEPENDANTS – Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. You should need NO ONE else to understand the business you’re in.
4. LAWYERS – the first thing that changes about Record Deals is actually lawyers. We need Plain English contracts. A Lawyers role is to IMPROVE deals…. not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. Re-write deals to be understandable from FIRST READ.
5. ADVANCES ARE JUST LOANS!! On Artists re-signing these stop. Advances are Loans with 75% interest rates (or worse). NO other business in the world takes a look at the business, buys shares, starts to profit when it profits. Record Companies have to buy into you, not loan you.
6. ROYALTIES Again back to dependents. You need a business manager to read how you did? So you pay to see your money!!! NO MORE. Royalty portals need to show (and do not now)
   • Every song you delivered
   • Every store you are in
   • How many streams per song
   • Income per song
   • “It sounds basic and logical but it does NOT exist. They focus on top earners and ZERO look at the 440 stores…. Only the top few. Artists are global… That’s why their contract territory says GLOBAL. Royalty department in EVERY label. No more separating finance teams from the music”
7. PORTALS – Are not just for royalties. They are for your entire business. Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. Money and Music must stay together. When your term ends, download it all. Leave.

Bonus Reminder