# The Music Industry Was Designed to Keep Artists Broke! Here's How?

An episode of [Earn Your Leisure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1450211392), 28 Jun 2026, 9:14.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/8dbc4f54-a337-4481-9ef2-b355012b0a3d/0bf83231-e212-4534-bf77-b477013f4e5b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=eac4c628-29cb-469a-b5c8-b355012b0a48

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Huge French Martana comes out tomorrow, and he was saying
[0:04] Speaker 1: what most people say when they leave the major label.
[0:06] Speaker 1: There's no the major label system. He said he never
[0:09] Speaker 1: made money from major label. He said that outside of
[0:11] Speaker 1: his advance. He said he sold ten million records with
[0:14] Speaker 1: that song with sway Lee.
[0:16] Speaker 2: He said he never made money from the song.
[0:19] Speaker 1: He never made money in his career other than an advance.
[0:23] Speaker 3: I can tell you why nobody has that. Okay, so
[0:27] Speaker 3: this is a little dirty secret in the music business
[0:29] Speaker 3: that we don't talk about enough.
[0:31] Speaker 4: But the problem, the.
[0:32] Speaker 3: Reason why nobody's able to make money in the music
[0:34] Speaker 3: business as far as producers and writers on their points
[0:37] Speaker 3: and stuff like that, is because artists always take out
[0:39] Speaker 3: advances against the money coming. So yeah, you might not
[0:42] Speaker 3: have got paid for Unforgettable, but because instead of waiting
[0:46] Speaker 3: for the nine months for them to calculate or get
[0:48] Speaker 3: your money, they came back to you and said, hey,
[0:51] Speaker 3: she's doing good.
[0:51] Speaker 4: You want another deal, And you said why not.
[0:54] Speaker 3: All they did was buried the dead under that new
[0:56] Speaker 3: deal and keep it that like it's like like you
[0:59] Speaker 3: can be more. Most major artists are in debt at
[1:02] Speaker 3: major labels on purpose. That's the model that they played business,
[1:06] Speaker 3: that we keep them in debt. They're not forensically looking
[1:08] Speaker 3: at the companies now, they just got an advance.
[1:11] Speaker 4: That is every I want you to ask a shot.
[1:14] Speaker 3: Anytime you're asking artists or executive make this a part
[1:16] Speaker 3: of your questions.
[1:17] Speaker 4: Do you know anybody ever got a royalty check?
[1:20] Speaker 3: I've a diminic record with RCA right now, and I'm
[1:23] Speaker 3: still two hundred thousand I think at the last royalty
[1:26] Speaker 3: statement I got, I'm still.
[1:27] Speaker 4: One hundred and forty nine thousand in the whole.
[1:29] Speaker 2: How explain so with Diamond? What record?
[1:33] Speaker 4: Oh, it's it's a record idea.
[1:34] Speaker 3: Oh my god's rock City locked Away with Adam Fish
[1:36] Speaker 3: and Adam Leavin. It was a big pop record, but
[1:38] Speaker 3: it's Donald's And I'm like, we ain't never got a
[1:40] Speaker 3: royalty check forever.
[1:41] Speaker 2: So you're saying, now watch this now.
[1:43] Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you some I'm gonna just say this
[1:44] Speaker 4: real quick.
[1:45] Speaker 3: For the first time, because we hot, I was able
[1:47] Speaker 3: to negotiate a deal without without debt.
[1:50] Speaker 4: Basically, what's it called unrecoupable points.
[1:53] Speaker 3: I negotiate that we did one record last year, one
[1:56] Speaker 3: record I made it we made I think we probably
[1:59] Speaker 3: made about eight hundred nine hundred K from that song
[2:02] Speaker 3: and royalties in less than the year of it being released.
[2:04] Speaker 3: I mean and within the year of it being released.
[2:06] Speaker 3: Because we got our points unrecoupable. You can't count it
[2:09] Speaker 3: against that. My points come to me from dollar one.
[2:12] Speaker 3: Most points, most deals that you get paid after we recoup,
[2:15] Speaker 3: when do we know you recouped?
[2:17] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[2:18] Speaker 5: And for the artists and for the business people, how
[2:20] Speaker 5: can you even track when they recoup if you're not
[2:24] Speaker 5: allowed to see the accountant.
[2:25] Speaker 4: You have to hire a forensic expert. I know one
[2:28] Speaker 4: by the way. I'm starting to company with.
[2:29] Speaker 2: Them, Forensic account cut Smart.
[2:31] Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to find someone that reads charts, that
[2:35] Speaker 3: understands what's missing and that can help you get your money.
[2:38] Speaker 4: This guy s found billions of dollars.
[2:40] Speaker 1: Yeah, we were talking to French Montamna about that. But
[2:41] Speaker 1: it's not even just the music industry. You look at
[2:43] Speaker 1: book industry, look at any type of thing. Like it's
[2:45] Speaker 1: like anytime somebody said, like the royalty thing, it's a
[2:49] Speaker 1: catch twenty two because it's like, do they only say,
[2:52] Speaker 1: don't take advanced money, take the royalty money, But then
[2:55] Speaker 1: I gotta trust you.
[2:56] Speaker 2: I don't know what the royalty money actually is.
[2:58] Speaker 1: You got, so the only thing you really can trust
[3:00] Speaker 1: is the advanced because that's money right here in my
[3:02] Speaker 1: pocket right now that I know, I know, you get
[3:04] Speaker 1: me two million dollars that I know what that is.
[3:06] Speaker 1: You're saying, Okay, the smart thing is, don't take no
[3:08] Speaker 1: money up front. Just take a fifteen percent royalty for
[3:11] Speaker 1: the perpetuity of the album. Bro but fifty who's calculating
[3:15] Speaker 1: this fifteen percent?
[3:16] Speaker 3: But to me, to me, that's when it becomes you
[3:19] Speaker 3: have to have your business together and like you just
[3:21] Speaker 3: have to understand it. But Doug, it's so many I
[3:24] Speaker 3: remember watching Postalon probably has never seen a royalty check
[3:27] Speaker 3: and he's one of the biggest semin artists.
[3:29] Speaker 4: Of all time. Taylor Swift probably has.
[3:31] Speaker 3: But when they said Drake got you know what they said,
[3:33] Speaker 3: Drake got half a billity. That half a billity was
[3:35] Speaker 3: probably four hundred and fifty million of it was probably
[3:38] Speaker 3: money that they owed him.
[3:38] Speaker 2: Throw them and then what.
[3:39] Speaker 3: They do with they seven re shots his half a
[3:41] Speaker 3: billion now gonna make us five more albums. And he's
[3:44] Speaker 3: so happy that he got half a billion. He realizing
[3:47] Speaker 3: they owe me that.
[3:48] Speaker 2: Then they get to cost the lot, realize the Yeah,
[3:50] Speaker 2: this is the.
[3:51] Speaker 4: Difference between the mate. This is the object of every
[3:53] Speaker 4: record label.
[3:54] Speaker 2: Keep them in debt a second bank.
[3:57] Speaker 4: It's a bank. Keep them in debt to the loan.
[3:59] Speaker 4: They ain't looking at it our books.
[4:00] Speaker 3: Ain't nobody like, ain't nobody three million in the hole
[4:03] Speaker 3: saying let me go look at your books.
[4:05] Speaker 4: Show has down trying to find an extra hundred k.
[4:07] Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
[4:08] Speaker 3: But like if you if you like right at that
[4:10] Speaker 3: customd you like. That's how I think fifty cent got
[4:12] Speaker 3: out his deal in it. So he all found out
[4:15] Speaker 3: they owed him like eighteen million dollars and was like,
[4:18] Speaker 3: just let me be free instead of paying me the
[4:20] Speaker 3: eighteen million.
[4:20] Speaker 4: And that's how he got That's how the rum I
[4:22] Speaker 4: heard how he got his deal. These labels played dirty games, bro.
[4:24] Speaker 4: But when you look at the big buildings and.
[4:26] Speaker 3: The security and the nice dinners and the corporate cards,
[4:29] Speaker 3: who the fuck is paying.
[4:30] Speaker 2: For all of that? Yes, we are, we are.
[4:35] Speaker 3: They give us advances, then we pay for their lifestyle,
[4:37] Speaker 3: and then we gonna make money from other things.
[4:39] Speaker 4: That's how everybody has done it.
[4:41] Speaker 5: For anyone who wants to break into the industry. Is
[4:44] Speaker 5: there a book that you can recommend? And like, why
[4:46] Speaker 5: hasn't anyone written a not a tell all, but like
[4:50] Speaker 5: a business book about the music industry.
[4:53] Speaker 3: Well, the book that everybody says to read is that
[4:56] Speaker 3: men everything you know about the music business. I wrote
[5:00] Speaker 3: a prequel to that book, and it's called The Artists Agreements.
[5:02] Speaker 3: I'm like literally talking to publishers right now, and it's like,
[5:05] Speaker 3: how I describe it is is it's like how you
[5:08] Speaker 3: It's like it's the prequel to his book. His book
[5:10] Speaker 3: tells you about the business. You don't even know the
[5:12] Speaker 3: business if you ain't in this motherfucker.
[5:14] Speaker 4: Like you come in and wrote tell my asking about
[5:16] Speaker 4: your masters. You ain't even man it hit yet. You
[5:18] Speaker 4: don't even know how to write a song.
[5:19] Speaker 3: So my book is showing you how to be creative
[5:22] Speaker 3: and get into the business, and then you do that.
[5:24] Speaker 3: But I wrote one because I feel the same when
[5:26] Speaker 3: you feel. I'm just like, man, why don't nobody think
[5:28] Speaker 3: that this is important? Music is, Forcally, gonna be the
[5:30] Speaker 3: one thing that every kid is gonna want to get
[5:32] Speaker 3: into at.
[5:33] Speaker 4: Some point in their life. Sports has got to figure
[5:36] Speaker 4: the fuck out.
[5:37] Speaker 1: Music We still learning what's the worst deal that you
[5:40] Speaker 1: spaient ever, Like, what's the worst deal ever?
[5:43] Speaker 4: Like what you mean?
[5:44] Speaker 3: Like like the worst deals ever keep you trapped in
[5:46] Speaker 3: it and don't return the ship back to you.
[5:48] Speaker 4: The worst deals ever have the word perpetuity in it.
[5:54] Speaker 3: Yes, the worst deal is like like like, let me
[5:56] Speaker 3: give you all some shit that I had to learn.
[5:57] Speaker 4: All right, So you remember that song Mike.
[6:00] Speaker 3: Will Miley Cyrus Wiskalief for Juicy J in the club
[6:04] Speaker 3: Higher Perk with some shades on.
[6:07] Speaker 4: We did that record, right, record goes triple platinum.
[6:09] Speaker 3: Yeah, we got the royalty check for it, but it
[6:12] Speaker 3: doesn't count what you mean? Okay, So it was a single,
[6:16] Speaker 3: It wasn't released on an album. The only way records
[6:18] Speaker 3: counted and your deal is if they were released on
[6:21] Speaker 3: an album album. So Mike Will put that out as
[6:24] Speaker 3: a single, three million, triple platinum. We don't get that
[6:28] Speaker 3: don't count against our deal. That's when I wanted to
[6:29] Speaker 3: start renegotiating. That's when I figured out, like what and
[6:33] Speaker 3: I renegotiating my deal to take M d R C
[6:36] Speaker 3: out and just make it releases.
[6:38] Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
[6:39] Speaker 3: People are sucking deals right now because they putting out music,
[6:41] Speaker 3: and it's just not coming out on one of the
[6:43] Speaker 3: three majors.
[6:43] Speaker 2: That don't count, yeah, or they want to allow you
[6:45] Speaker 2: to yeah.
[6:46] Speaker 3: Like it's like it's a it's a dirty game, and
[6:48] Speaker 3: it's all about rights, and it's all about people who
[6:51] Speaker 3: aren't talented trying to maintain rights of the people who are.
[6:55] Speaker 5: If you have to do it all over again, what
[6:58] Speaker 5: you still going to the music industry knowing everything that
[7:00] Speaker 5: you know what you putting on the industry.
[7:03] Speaker 4: I would I would go on this shear, I would
[7:04] Speaker 4: have ran circles around it.
[7:05] Speaker 3: The music industry is the easiest business to win in
[7:07] Speaker 3: because everybody in it, for the most part, is low
[7:10] Speaker 3: i Q.
[7:12] Speaker 2: Ok what I let me say.
[7:13] Speaker 3: What I mean by that is in lo i Q
[7:15] Speaker 3: is not disrespectful. Lo IQ just means that they they
[7:17] Speaker 3: they live in their creative gene.
[7:20] Speaker 2: Okay, that's what.
[7:21] Speaker 3: Makes jay Z so ill and even NOAs now because
[7:24] Speaker 3: they're not just.
[7:24] Speaker 4: Brilliantly talented mass brilliant businessman.
[7:28] Speaker 3: Also, yeah, you feel me so when I say the
[7:31] Speaker 3: music business has low IQ people meaning it's like like
[7:35] Speaker 3: my nigga. If a nigga puts out a song in
[7:37] Speaker 3: the hood of fucking Kansas City and he's the hottest
[7:40] Speaker 3: nigga in the world. And now you got all these
[7:42] Speaker 3: big people and all these buildings talking to him. This
[7:44] Speaker 3: nigga don't know what the game. He don't understand that
[7:48] Speaker 3: part of the game. I was just on the phone
[7:49] Speaker 3: arguing with an artist because he's, like my lawyer said,
[7:51] Speaker 3: But my lawyer said, I'm like, your lawyer only says
[7:53] Speaker 3: that because that's.
[7:54] Speaker 4: How he gets paid. Bro listen to someone that plays
[7:57] Speaker 4: the game.
[7:57] Speaker 3: So what I mean by that is like, this business
[7:59] Speaker 3: is to work, and that's why so many people fall
[8:01] Speaker 3: out with artists because the artists they're not coming in thinking,
[8:05] Speaker 3: they're coming in feeling the brain is not being used in.
[8:07] Speaker 4: The music business.
[8:08] Speaker 6: The feeling is I feel like with Shah can take
[8:11] Speaker 6: me farther than Ray. So I'm gonna fuck right over
[8:13] Speaker 6: because I feel so. And it's based on fears, like, hey,
[8:18] Speaker 6: you know, come over here with us, you might not
[8:20] Speaker 6: ever get there. It's based on fear.
[8:23] Speaker 4: So for me, it's like the easiest business to win
[8:25] Speaker 4: in is the music business.
[8:26] Speaker 3: Because I mean, I want to say this to be
[8:29] Speaker 3: an asshole, but like, in what world does someone like
[8:32] Speaker 3: a sexy red become as rich as he became without
[8:35] Speaker 3: hip hop music.
[8:36] Speaker 1: But when you said the low IQ people, because what
[8:40] Speaker 1: people are thinking is that you're going to take advantage
[8:42] Speaker 1: of people like it's like, oh.
[8:43] Speaker 3: But that's the business we end it is like, this
[8:46] Speaker 3: is the only business where you have people signing to
[8:49] Speaker 3: you for you on eighty five percent of them and
[8:52] Speaker 3: them to get fifteen percent of it. That's not people
[8:55] Speaker 3: that's thinking if the music business is going to change
[8:58] Speaker 3: in the future, because entrepreneurs he it now.
[9:00] Speaker 4: But when I say low IQ people, that's like, shit,
[9:03] Speaker 4: I'm a low IQ person. Nigga.
[9:05] Speaker 3: I thought maybe I could do music because I wasn't
[9:07] Speaker 3: the smartest nigga in school. Maybe I could figure music
[9:09] Speaker 3: out and then it was easy for me.
[9:11] Speaker 2: But it wasn't.
[9:11] Speaker 4: It's not go ahead.
[9:12] Speaker 2: But when you said you said

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