You have successfully submitted your music to the variety of different distribution channels mentioned in a previous article. You have submitted your music for publishing and possibly signed some sort of publishing agreement for an individual or company to begin the publishing process, and submit your music on your behalf. Due to all of this, and of course the months or years of leg work you put in doing the pervious steps of the first few articles, you have got the ear of one or a few managers and/or A&Rs at major and/or independent labels that are now interested in learning more about you as an artist, and have reached out to set up at least an initial meeting. What do you do to prepare for these meetings? What should you expect from these meetings? How should you conduct yourself in these meetings?
First thing is first, understand what type of meeting you are walking into. Is this a meet and greet meeting to simply meet you and learn the basics of you as an artist, see what you are working on, who is on your team, and how you are operating? Have you reached a tipping point in your music and popularity so much so that the labels are interested in signing you? Or are they just looking to get you in the door to hear more of your music to set a gage on whether they would like to move forward or not, and see what exactly you are looking for in terms of a contract? These are all important aspects to know before walking in the door, as each of these meetings will be different in nature and most likely will be held in different parts of the office and with different personnel from the label.
Let’s start at the top, the first meeting is just an introduction to meet you and your team, and to play a few songs (maybe even just one or two) to get a gage on who you are as an artist. Generally, these types of meetings will not include the artist, as they will be set up by the managers who most likely already have some type of relationship with someone at the label, which is why they were able to get this meeting in the first place. These meetings are short and consist only of a brief catch up between the parties that know each other, a brief overview of who the artist is, what they are about, the type of music they make, and what they have going on. The label representative will play a few songs that the manager gives them from a flash drive, and will possibly give some insight on the songs being played. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes they won’t say anything at all. (depending on the person this can also be good or bad, because when it comes to reactions from people in music, sometimes they can absolutely love something and have zero reaction other than a head nod) I personally have sat in these meetings where people don’t say anything and unless you know the person you can’t tell if they like the song or absolutely hate them. Only to find out later that they loved what they heard and want to conduct another meeting with the artist. The managers have to be prepared for these types of meetings just like the artist will have to be prepared for the meetings I will speak on further in a moment. As a manager you have to represent your artists the best way possible. Don’t come in like a hot shot, thinking your artists is the greatest thing since sliced bread when they are just starting out and this is your first meeting. Be realistic, while at the same time having confidence in your artist. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive the reaction you feel you, your artist and music deserve. Not all music is for everyone, and sometimes the music you choose to play doesn’t resonate with the person sitting across the table. This doesn’t mean the music isn’t good, and the artist doesn’t have potential, sometimes this simply means the artist and music isn’t the right fit for the person you are meeting with or the label. An group like Griselda has outstanding music, however, if they were (before starting their own label) to take a meeting with Ultra (a mostly dance music record label) the meeting might not go the way you would expect, not because the music isn’t great (which popular consensus has said it is) but more so because they are not the right fit for that label. As a manager you have to understand what position you and your artist are currently in, and not be over zealous with what you are expecting from this initial meeting.
Which leads to the second type of meeting, where the artist has reached a tipping point either with the quality of their music and/or the size of their fan base. Of course as mentioned in a previous article, if your following (on social media for this instance) is in the hundreds of thousands or millions, major labels will be looking to meet with you because of the fan base you have and the amount of records you can sell, regardless of the quality of your music. At the same time, if you have an incredible local following (think of Pop Smoke, or Fivio in Brooklyn) labels will look at you because your star power locally can generate X amount of sales that can then be turned into a national campaign. However, for a second let’s assume you have got this meeting based on the above mentioned situation, and the label representative has liked the quality of your music. This meeting (first with the artist, second for the manager) will be to meet the artist in person and learn about their story, and music, also to possibly hear more music (released or unreleased, based on the discretion of the artist) and learn what they have up coming. It is important as an artist (as well as a manager) to be prepared for this meeting. Come in looking like your brand and image, be on time (meaning at least 10 but more like 30 minutes early, never show up late as this could either cut your meeting short because your were only allotted a specific time frame, or worse cancel the meeting altogether) have your best five songs ready (although you will most likely only play two or three, unless they really like you) I would suggest on a flash drive as this can be played on any format because some offices use PC nor MAC and know what you want going in (don’t be unrealistic with your expectations and answers to their questions). Be concise, playing you best music that showcases you as an artist. Have a specific order to the songs you want to play, this way you can easily go from one song to the next without having too look through your folder to see which one to play next. (picture this sort of like a set list for a show, you have a specific set of songs you want to play and a precise order in which you want to play them) When asked questions, know what your answers are going to be (understanding you don’t always know what the questions will be, but have a general idea of what they might ask, especially because going into the meeting your manager should have an idea of what the meeting will be about and should have you as the artist prepared) don’t fumble, mumble or stumble over your words. If the label and representatives in the meeting likes you and what they hear, they will either set up a following meeting to further their situation with you, or will wait and see how your next few steps (which you have explained to them in this meeting) pan out before going forward. Not all meetings will conclude with a deal on the table (honestly most won’t until you have reached a point where signing you makes financial sense for the label) but that doesn’t mean the meeting didn’t go well. Sometimes simply having the representative react in any way, shape or form to your music can indicate a great meeting. For example, one meeting I was apart of we played music from a few different artists, the label representative only said, “I like the sound of this song. What do they have going on?” Nothing further was asked, nothing further was mentioned on the part of the label representative. However, once we left the office, my partners were ecstatic, because the representative simply saying he liked the music indicated a great meeting.
For sake of this article, let’s assume you have nailed the previous meeting, what you laid out as a plan to them has panned out, and they have set up a following meeting to speak further (possibly to set guidelines to working with you further in some capacity). You must be prepared fo this meeting too, there is nothing worse than an artist and/or their team walking into this meeting (or any meeting for that matter) having little to no idea what they want, or being completely unrealistic in what they are looking for. Not naming names, but I was in a meeting with a division head at a label where he told a story about an artists’ team walking into a meeting so high on drugs that they didn’t know which label they were at. On top of this, the dollar amount they were asking for on their first contract was substantially more than what they were worth, that it made the label second guess whether they wanted to proceed further in regard to this artist. (this artist and their team were asking for close to a million dollars for a publishing deal after having only a few songs released, one song becoming popular, and only being popular in one specific city in one state, not to mention that when the representative asked his son about this artist, noting that the son was going to college in a different state, the son mentioned that nobody knew who this artist was in the state he was going to college in, and the son only knew of the artist because he, living with his father, was from the state the artist was from) Never the less, the label ending up not doing the deal with this artist (partly due to these circumstances, although the artist was on point during all meetings and very personable, knowledgable, and respectful, but due to other circumstances as well). Don’t over play your hand, just because the label is coming to you for these meeting and is trying to court you to sign with them, doesn’t mean they are willing to break the bank on a new unproven artist. (although you can, in certain circumstances, create a bidding war between a few labels to up your initial price, but be careful in doing this because once one label knows they are in a bidding war with another, it can play to their advantage because now they know what other labels are willing to offer you, thus setting a ceiling for your contract) Be realistic with what you are looking for, sometimes it is better to negotiate your worth than try to get the most money possible. Of course I am not saying to undervalue yourself, or saying that you shouldn’t get as much money as you can (let’s face it, who doesn’t want a ton of money) but sometimes starting with a smaller deal will be more beneficial in the long run. Think of it this way, if you as a new act sign a massive deal and doesn’t live up to those expectations, when it comes time for your second contract (if you ever even get to that point, because if you underachieve you have the possibility of getting shelved, which could be worse then getting dropped because now you are still contractually obligated to this label, but maybe unable to release any music) you will have less power going into these negotiations and give the label every right to negotiate your price down based on performance. Now on the flip side, if you start with a smaller first contract and over produce on that, think of all the leverage you have to get more out of your second contract. Being realistic is a negotiating tool not only because it will show the label that you have a business acumen that they may not be able to exploit, but also because it will show them you know what you want and give you leverage in the long run. A quick example, think of all of the crazy sport contracts we hear about daily on ESPN. Take football for instance, we all know (or at least those of us who watch, follow and understand football) that a rookie that gets drafted number one overall will have a substantially larger first contract then someone drafted in the seventh round. (they will even have a bigger contract than someone drafted at the end of the first round) Every year there are rookies that out perform their rookie contracts and those that don’t do so well as they adjust to the NFL from college. The rookies that over achieve, think Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, have incredible leverage when it comes to their second contracts, however players that either don’t perform or get in trouble, Josh Gordon, have a substantially harder time trying to get what they are, or think they are, worth for their second contracts. Mahomes and Jackson were both MVPs and one won a Super Bowl, this is leading them to soon become the two highest paid quarterbacks and possibly players in the league. In the case of Gordon, he has been suspended multiple times, and although he had a breakout rookie year, he has to play on lesser contracts because of his off the field issues. Think of Zeke, or Dak for the Cowboys, both of them have had issues with their second contract talks because the team didn’t want to pay what they the players thought they were worth, it wasn’t until team realized what they player meant to the team in game terms that they got what they were seeking, however if the team was able to play well without them, they wouldn’t have got the contracts they want. It all comes down to knowing your worth, but also how you are performing. Being realistic at the onset will be incredibly beneficial in the long run, again as long as you meeting and/or exceed your goals and standards.
Conducting yourself in the right manner during these meetings can be the difference between getting signed and getting passed on. Know your worth, but don’t over extend yourself. Be prepared to answer any and all questions with concise and persist answers. Have your best music ready and in a format that can be played on all media platforms (flash drives are best but be sure they can be used on both Mac and PC). Most importantly always be on time (this means early). Remember, Big Pun got his deal without ever playing any music in his label meeting simply due to the fact he showed up early to the meeting at a time where it was universally known that rap artists were always late.
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