My Experience With Shady “Record Labels”

About two and a half years ago, my producer Sev met this woman at a sound gig he was working at. This woman claimed to be this big time “Record Label” owner who claims to have ties to sony, when she really was just starting out her business. Over time Sev had told me about this promotional mix tape Idea she had, in which I obviously knew there was some sort of a catch. Trying to seem professional. she sent over a contract to Sev in which he forwarded me the contract. Apparently there was some “miscommunication” although, any TRUE professional record label owner would have known this in the beginning. This woman assumed that my producer had the initial say on where my music could be promoted or distributed. Unless my producer was actually writing the lyrics for me, or even on the song. I don’t understand how she would come to the conclusion that he would have 100% say on where my music goes to. In technical terms it’s “our” song and we are a team. Obviously her getting to know my producer and knowing he’s not the artist in the song, it makes no logical sense that she would think he had the initial say.

She sends over a professional looking contract, however I could see the lack of professionalism already in the beginning. To even work with her on this small scale was already a red flag for me. Being a business owner myself, I know what signs to look for to see if someone is professional or not. Some of the red flags of her professionalism were:

• She assumed my producer had a final say on where MY music goes to

• Her website images were low quality

• Her websites fonts and design doesn’t look seamless and cohesive. It looks like a 15 yr old created her website.

• Her website claims to have ties to all these media publications but when I looked her label up it was nowhere to be found on any of them

• Out of all the artists she had under her “label” I sounded very different musically. Which is unprofessional in itself. She had all these indie artists but then she wanted me a trap soul artists on her mixtape. It didn’t fit musically that’s like hearing a hip hop album and hearing a polka music track randomly, it’s off.

There were honestly too many red flags to count. However, I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt until I declined wanting to sign the contract. When I declined she wanted to hop on a phone call ,which I knew was a waste of time including the fact I was too busy with my clients to respond at that moment. She sends me another email 2 hours later impatiently and leaves me this very unprofessional, belittling, and emotional email. Trying to gaslight me she tried to talk down on me as if I didn’t understand the contract but I did. I was very professional in my email which I’m sure caught her off guard. Most people are use to working with desperate artists who lack any industry knowledge. Fortunately for me I am not only an artist but a business owner. I also have 12 years of music experience in terms of playing shows, dealing with marketing, promoting, net working, dealing with bigger labels such as interscope records, and even have people close to me who work alongside with big labels such as universal records and interscope till this day.

I could tell early on she was a beginner business owner and not an established successful business owner. What you’re taught as a beginner business owner is to usually fake it until you make it. They teach you all these tactics that are generic and do not work such as pretending to be busy or to exaggerate your accomplishments. Being someone who worked in the fitness industry for years who has taken multiple business classes , this is the exact garbage they teach you. One beginner sales tactic that she used to try to do too was to “Sandwich” which is when you pretty much say something negative but then add a positive statement right after. It’s a manipulative sales tactic to try to make you want to need them or need their services. Several times my producer would tell me how she would bring me up and try to critique me, but the truth is I was younger and more professional than her. She was trying to seem bigger and more knowledgeable than what she was in order for my producer to continue to trust her and work with her.

She wanted me to sign a contract allowing her to have my song in her promotional mix tape, that she was going to promote.

So pretty much she was :

• Promoting my music the same exact way I was with a 3rd party distributor

• Wouldn’t let me collect royalties off my own song through her mixtape

• Wanted a finders fee

  The issue with the finders fee is even if someone approached me about my song energy it would be through my own efforts and none of the “beginning labels”. I had more followers, more views, more engagement, and my own promotions going on. If I had signed this she could easily claim that they discovered me through her promotional mix tape, when literally she had nothing to offer me. I did my research on her artists, her, her label , pretty much everything. Obviously I don’t want to give this person clout so i’m not going to even mention the “beginning label”. I could sense this person was unfaithful, dishonest, and unprofessional all from the beginning.

  Later on, my producer decided to work with her on the side. I warned him once he told me, because I knew it was going to be a waste of time. I knew she was exaggerating her background, who she is, her connections, and anything else that came out of her mouth. Eventually as my producer continued working with her he noticed all of her “artists” left her and her “beginning label”. They would all say things like “its not a real label”. I’m sure she wants it to be a real label, but its not at the same level as artists that she’s looking for. I checked some of the people she knew but they were really good artist who probably were looking for that real push. Her label is honestly meant for someone who knows nothing about music at all. I’m talking, no experience doing shows, no experience with networking, etc. She needs freshly new artists, because the truth is she can not help seasoned artists, which is what she wants to draw in.

  She would literally bring people who couldn’t sing at all and beg my producer to try and make them sound better. At one point she questioned the skills of my producer. Mind you this woman also claimed to be a “vocal coach” but couldn’t coach her own artist how to sing apparently. I’m sure that she was into music in her younger years and it never went anywhere which is why she wants to shift to the business side of music. However, this is really not the way to do it. You have to be honest with yourself and enhance the skills you are great at.

Some ways to spot someone unprofessional is by their:

• Marketing : Website, Copy, Visuals have to be on point.

• Emails: are always short, sweet, and get straight to the point.

• Sales: When talking to a business owner or

  salesman they will not need to make themselves or their company seem a lot bigger than what they way. Their knowledge and skill level will speak for itself. There will be no type of over compensation

• Compensation: You must always be compensated for your time if they are approaching you.