I need every lawyer in the world to look at these," he wrote. Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Kanye West has been sued for breach of contract in Florida for allegedly failing to pay for a rental space he wanted to use as a recording studio. Is this different than the LinkedIn attempt? Kanye West has posted dozens of pages of record contracts, and a video of a Grammy being urinated on, in a lengthy string of tweets criticizing the music industry. Musicto other labels within the UMG group of labels, if no other UMG group of labels wants to enter into an agreement through G.O.O.D. Maybe even my own lawyer is not really looking at the language from my point of view. Wests contract could even be considered favorable among superstar contracts, with Universal heavily investing in Wests works, entertainment attorney Christiane Kinney says. So I apologize to both of you D.C. people watching. So, you know, my provision, these are coded blue brief catch picking up on a lot of those. This past Wednesday, September 16, Kanye West, in an attempt to " change the music industry for good ," shared his recording contracts with Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam Recordings, and Universal. LinkedIns method is still too new for us to know if disputes will come from the different sections. So if Im a lawyer and Im negotiating with another side and youre very practical about these things, like although the plain language movement is nice, in theory, youve got to negotiate with somebody else who might like that archaic language. But as the music industry comes out of its 20-year tailspin, with streaming fueling new growth, artists arent satisfied with that arrangement, and many are demanding newfound power. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. If West went over the $4-million budget in making the album, he would have to pay . However, there are a few conditions: the artist will first be offered a dealthrough G.O.O.D. Theres this site, my my other company, legal writing pro. Harvard Business Review did a big piece on it, and the general counsel of that division really took this whole plain English thing seriously instead of just giving it lip service and actually redid a lot of their commercial agreements. He dumped them all on Twitter. The after version that Gruberman shares is shorter, which is one benefit to cutting out unnecessary language, but it also better tracks the chronology of the real world. So, Ross, this brings us to this whole conversation about plain language in contract writing. . Yeezy, West's sneaker and apparel business with Adidas AG and Gap Inc., is valued at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by UBS Group AG, according to a private document reviewed by Bloomberg. Well see you guys next time. West also made his feelings towards the label clear in 2020, when he tweeted images of his record contract, noting he felt he was treated unfairly. Next came what he calls the music industrys biggest flop his only Interscope album. We were lucky because we were careful. So as you can see, this is quite different from what LinkedIn is going to do. Ross Guberman [00:00:00] You look at these agreements, though, from Kanye, thats not just the CDC references that are archaic, the language looks like something you might find, you know, 50, 100 years ago. Those are four ways to keep the conversation going. We wouldnt be talking about all this now if the label hadnt invested in him and put tons of marketing money into this for his leg up.. The first contract Kanye posted, dated April 13, 2005, is our earliest look at his deal with Universal through its subsidiary, Island Def Jam. Ross describes a counselor that can thread this very tough plain language needle. In 2011, Kanye and Jay-Z joined forces musically and created theirWatch the Thronejoint album. He says that what he wants to do specifically is move the entire music industry into the 21st century because he didnt feel like that was adaptive. Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. Kanye West signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, which was under Island Def Jam Music Group, whose parent company is Universal Music Group, on April 13, 2005. "UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD TO BUY THEM," Kanye tweeted on Wednesday (Sept. 16). GOOD Music (stylized as G.O.O.D. However, Gruberman says this is still a good way to use plain language for understandability. The before section has all the original wording, complete with legalese. Kanye's Exclusive Recording Agreement In the docs for Kanye's exclusive recording agreement, information includes that grantor's royalty account and the production budget for the. Was the pissing on the Grammy to much? Other brands and companies that cut ties to West . Lets rewrite the deals to be understandable from first rate. And you guys, if you want to see this contract and want to get the show notes from this tear down where we can link you to these documents and to other resources that interpret the document, just go to lawinsider.com/resources. UMG is the parent company of Def Jam and West's G.O.O.D. And the reason that it applies to us is this awesome tweet that all the lawyers got excited about, where he says the first thing that changes about record deals is actually lawyers. Last modified on Thu 13 Jan 2022 14.04 EST. The deal. All contents of the lawinsider.com excluding publicly sourced documents are Copyright 2013-. His call for transparency has brought the conversation of understandable language into a spotlight. If you look at these agreements, though, from Kanye, that thats not just the CD references that are archaic. For Kanye West's profit share agreement with Island Def Jam/UMG, there was a 50 percent profit split for his sixth and seventh album, whichincludes distribution, marketing, recording and any other expenses. Pearl Jam Vinyl Records. So the rest, you know, if its not a one of those categories, its either an industry term of art or just normal English talking about finance or recording. Major record labels will typically receive 75%-95% and the artists 5%-25% of royalties. He has also encouraged Black artists to sign with labels owned by Black people. Well make sure you get a deal as well. Prince Vinyl Records. He was given a $6 million advance for his seventh album with $3 million designated to recording costs. Right. Were going to deduct a million dollars. This is the same deal your favorite artist signed, this is their label. What do you expect a young, naive artist to do? Music or such label paying Island Def Jam Music Group acounterbalance amountagainst overhead payments in an amount equal to the overhead payments in the applicable contract year multiplied by a fraction. Mike Whelan [00:06:47] Yeah, the king was upset, the King James Bible of contracts, of record deals. After a slight struggle trying to share the files, Kanye boasted that him revealing his old record label contracts was going to be a literal game changer. Kanye West is at war with the music industry over the ownership of masters and unfair contracts. Im Mike Whelen. Thats a sort of grey area, and I think its an important conversation to be had., Editors picks 1-year deal. Its an exclusion, a liability. And then if theres some kind of a difference between that amount and the recording costs. Portals. Ross Guberman [00:03:18] And so Im the president of legal writing prose, so Ive been doing workshops and consulting on all different aspects of lawyer writing and judicial writing for a couple of decades now. In 2012, the label released its debut compilation album Cruel Summer.In 2015, Pusha T was appointed the president of the label . Russ and I are going to do a pretty fun and weird thing today. Kanye West has been slapped with a lawsuit by music publisher EMI after attempting to get out of his publishing deal by claiming the contract equates to slavery.. I will never work for a major record label again, Anokute says. The suit said West. Thats not the game here, Noonan recalls as the mindset when negotiating contracts. Dependents. Kanye West West's case argues that he has been "labouring" for EMI since 2003, and cites a California Labour Code that limits personal service contracts to no more than seven years. You want to get in and get as much as you can is what we were told. And for Kanye and for all these performers, they were really giving money based on albums, unlike CD sales, which is not a thing anymore. Before we do, Ross, I want you to tell me about yourself. So you keep those and then you also, of course, in your sector or industry, want to keep those terms of art as well. As lawyers and contract drafters trying to implement plain language, we have to find a way to do this while staying true to the contract. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. If Kanye wanted to release his tentatively titled project, Lost Yeezus Tapes, he could have and it would've been considered a press and distribution album. Kanye West, someone God had chosen to do something very special in the world. Wests contract could even be considered favorable among superstar contracts, with Universal heavily investing in Wests works, entertainment attorney Christiane Kinney says. Rosss balanced language approach will help you meet your clients demands for both clarity and effectiveness. And thats why the color coding comes in. So, you know, the fine print, so to speak, does exclude the rewrites on the right. Kanye West, also now known as Ye, has been named as a suspect in a battery report taken by the Los Angeles police department in the early hours of . Right. All those of those terms that you can also edit out of other legal documents, theres a lot to do there that really will clean these up without ever even considering going into the substantive terms. Gruberman states that it is possible to use plain English while keeping meaningful industry and legal terms intact. When youre awake to this, you cant be the perpetrator anymore.. Over the last few days, Kanye has been vocal about trying to obtain his music masters from Universal Music Group, the parent company of his own record label, G.O.O.D. Kanye West is seen at a Donda listening event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. The label signed an exclusive long-term worldwide label agreement with the Island Def Jam Music Group in 2011. Kanye West's history of inflammatory statements were met with consquences this week. We don't know - still - who the next US president will be, but we do know who it won't be - Kanye West. Artists like Kanye feel that they are being cheated. Ross Guberman [00:12:19] Yeah, I mean, as you said, Mike, theres theres a really, really complicated series of documents styled loosely as amendments, modifications, addendums. Just minutes prior, he had finished tweeting out the entirety of his Universal contract, one page at a time for a total of more than 100 tweets. Right. His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial and gospel. A lawyers role is to improve deals, not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. Leave. Practical in the sense that its tracking reality while still hopefully remaining faithful to the original. Ye's business manager's inability to . Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. Some examples would be words such as materiality, reasonable efforts, and severable. However, only 50 percent of video costscan berecouped from audio-only record royalties. Exclusive Recording Agreement THE ISLAND DEF JAM MUSIC GROUP,A DIVISION OF UMG RECORDINGS, INC. 1755 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019 Dated as of March 10, 2013 Kanye West c/o Carroll, Guido & Groffman, LLP 1790 Broadway, 20 th Floor Suite 800 New York, NY 10019 Attention: Michael Guido, Esq. on September 21, 2020. And so were going to go through parts of this. They are long. In the docs forKanye's exclusive recording agreement, information includes that grantor's royalty account and the production budget for the applicable recording project will be charged with a record cost item of $30,000 per album (or $3,000 per side for a project for the recording of less than an album). So I want you to do it, take advantage of it. What am I looking at here? You got a bunch on the left in a very short sentence on the right. Adidas said on Tuesday that it was cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and . Ross Guberman [00:08:11] Yeah, this is a big issue. So, Ross, this document, why does it matter? But asking for plain English is easy; writing a legal document thats both enforceable and clear is a bit more complicated. 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