Fresh (well, maybe that’s not the best word) from expressing his views on the music industry by tweeting a video of a Grammy award being urinated on, Kanye West offered some more constructive suggestions for how he’d like to see the industry change.
In a series of tweets yesterday, West outlined some “new recording and publishing deal guidelines”, having already tweeted out a selection of his own contracts with UMG last week.
West wants artists to own the copyright for their recordings and songs, and lease them to the label and publisher “for a limited term. 1 year deals”, with those “service provider” partners taking a 20% cut of the income.
West also had guidelines for lawyers (“We need Plain English contracts. A Lawyers role is to IMPROVE deals…. not charge for contracts we cannot understand or track. Re-write deals to be understandable from FIRST READ”); demanded “NO MORE blanket licenses… If your song helps a deal over the line you invested in that store / app same as they did”; hit out at advances as “just loans”; called for every label to have its own royalty department, and analytics portals that aren’t just for royalties.
“Every audio file, every asset, every deal stored WITH the money. Money and Music must stay together. When your term ends, download it all. Leave.”
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