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Kanye West has said publicly for years that he deserves to own the rights to his music, the master recordings of his songs and their publication, even though he knowingly signed contracts with Universal Music Group and Sony / ATV Music Publishing, with the best lawyers present. . , which adhere to the standards of the music industry according to which the company owns. He even sued both companies over the matter last year; While Universal’s lawsuit is ongoing, sources say it settled with Sony / ATV last fall.
West renewed those efforts during his epic Twitter marathon earlier this week, tweeting screenshots of dozens of pages of his contracts (though not all).
In the process, he revealed that he apparently already owns some of his teachers.
In fact, rather than showing just how unfair his contracts are, it seems more likely that his tactic will cause tension at Universal with artists whose deals are not as artist-friendly as his own, not to mention infuriating himself, as the documents invite scrutiny of the terms offered. for his GOOD Music, the label he founded in 2004 now distributed by Universal, and of which he is the CEO (and presumably has signed artists with connections similar to what he calls unfair). And taken as a whole, the series of documents, covering several of the nine solo albums he has released through Universal since 2004, shows a career path that most artists would envy.
As is typical of many music and sports contracts, early and continued success creates influence, so while some of West’s tweets complained that Universal put him on a series of contracts: “I DON’T HAVE A CONTRACT WITH UNIVERSAL. .. I HAVE TEN “, the PDF barrage shows that each new renegotiated deal puts you in a more advantageous position.
In fact, the amendment he signed in 2014 was an urgent and distribution agreement, a “P&D agreement” whereby a company, in this case Universal, manufactures and distributes recordings whose masters are owned by another party, which in this case it’s presumably West, who the sources tell Variety he probably obtained the rights to at least some of his master recordings in one of his renegotiations.
But, before we get you to the top of the ladder, here are some highlights of the steps that got you there.
April 13, 2005Although this is the first of the contracts that West shared, it cannot be the first, because the debut album “College Dropout” was released in February of the previous year. It is signed by representatives of the Universal Island Def Jam label, which had distributed the first album, so it was probably also an interested party in the first contract; West’s former Jay-Z label, Roc-A-Fella, and Roc the World are also part of this deal. Terms are set for subsequent albums, but will change with subsequent modifications.
January 11, 2011: This is a specific album deal covering “Watch the Throne”, West’s collaborative album with Jay-Z from that year. It stipulates a registration budget of $ 2.5 million, with $ 1 million for West and the remaining $ 1.5 million will be managed by Roc-A-Fella. This title did not count towards the obligations that West agreed to in previous contracts.
May 2012: There are three different amendments signed within a 10-day window: one on May 4, another on May 7, and a third on May 17. These documents begin to shift the West from a royalty deal to more purchased terms. An experienced music attorney who reviewed these documents believes that although the agreements were executed on separate dates, all of the terms outlined in the May 7 and 17 amendments were anticipated when the first of these three was drafted.
These agreements mark the beginning of a distribution agreement for West’s GOOD Music label, which was originally distributed by Sony. These amendments also improve album terms that had been stipulated in previous agreements. For example, West now receives a $ 12 million advance for his sixth album and $ 6 million for his seventh (2013’s “Yeezus” and 2016’s “Life of Pablo,” respectively). More significantly, the beginning of May 7 moves you away from a royalty deal, as the terms of the sixth and seventh album will entitle you to a share of the profits, plus an improved royalty rate of 22% plus 100%. of mechanical royalties.
These amendments further promise that the eighth and ninth albums (their most recent and comparatively low-selling releases of “Ye” and “Jesus Is King”, although the latter was distributed by independent company Vydia) will change the artist on terms of P&D where 100% of the profits are yours. And while it is clear that West wants his masters now, this amendment shortens the timeframe before he can take control of the masters from his sixth and seventh albums to 20 years, if he recovers (although the length of the period from which he shorten is unclear). A later amendment shortens that window for later albums to seven years.
March 10, 2013: This amendment improves the terms for the seventh album, adds a tenth album to the deal, reduces West’s distribution fee, and covers excess costs on a film he produced called “Cruel Summer,” linked to an album of the same name. You have not seen him? Little wonder. It was a seven-screen production shown at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, which the Los Angeles Times described as “immersive sound quality that makes a 3-D Michael Bay effort feel like a short iPad.” .
A 35-minute runtime and the need for multiple screens means that “Cruel Summer” was never intended for a theatrical or practical presentation for home video platforms, but it was apparently an expensive project, because this amendment takes the West out of surplus. not covered. by prior arrangement from Island Def Jam or Doha Film Institute production partner.
According to the documents, the film exceeded its budget of $ 3.2 million by about $ 1.5 million, with the surplus removed from future West album trailers.
August 11, 2014: The deal begins reducing West’s distribution fees from 26%, which was stipulated in 2012, to 25% after the $ 15 million US sale for the sixth album. More significantly, the seventh album now becomes a P&D deal, with a distribution fee of 21% for the first million dollars, then reduced to 17% for this and future albums for the remainder of the deal.
Almost any seasoned music business lawyer would probably be proud to have negotiated these contracts, and if West’s plan was to illustrate the imbalances of the music industry by showing how much friendlier his contract is to the artist than many others succeeded.
One artist commenting on his tweets was Big Sean, who was signed to West’s GOOD label and whose latest album, “Detroit 2,” recently charted at No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Albums chart.
When West tweeted “My kids will own my teachers,” Big Sean replied “Mine too,” punctuated with a sentence emoji.
Additional reporting by Jem Aswad.
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