Buying Features 101 For Hip Hop Artists Article

[MilesAaron]

Buying features 101 for Hip Hop Artists

Written By: Miles "M.i." Aaron
Twitter.com/Milesaaron
[email protected]



Artists, artists, artists!! Do I have your attention yet? Ok good now I need to address this issue that a lot of you still not to understand. When you purchase a feature from a fellow artist, there are a few things you need to ask yourself.

1) If I purchase this feature will I still have money to market the project and myself? This should seem pretty obvious but it’s obviously not because a lot of you are running around with a feature from a major label artist with no money left to let others know you have it. Who cares if Lil Wayne is singing the hook on your CD when no one but yourself knows about it.

2) Do I have all clearances from artist and label?: Guess what guys and gals that Trey Songz feature you just got is amazing and perfectly compliments your flow. Only problem is you either didn’t set money aside to pay his record label for clearance or if you did the label is flat out refusing to give clearance. Your song with no clearance means that you are now in possession of a feature that the record label can and will sue you for the minute you attempt to sell that song, have it played, make a video for it, etc.

3) Does the cost justify the feature? If you go out and spend $5,000 on a feature, will that song be worth the same amount financially or in pushing your career? In other words if we are just looking at it from a financial stand point, will that song sell enough CD’s, singles on I tunes, and or ring tones to make you your $5,000 back. From a career stand point a feature marketed the right way with the right artist can give you great cross marketing look and secure you new fans from their established fan base

4) Can I record in the studio with them? No no no, this is not so that you can tell them how much you loved their last music video or toss back drinks. Putting yourself in the studio with the artist you are paying for to feature allows you to get video footage, pictures, and live U-Stream footage of you together. All things that you can not only use for marketing the song later on, but also to convince their artists and the industry that you and that artist really are cool enough to record together and therefore you must be cool enough for them to check out your music.

Good luck on your musical journeys and as always stay #Successful.

Sincerely,
Miles Aaron

 

[hustlematic1]

game.

 

[Les Vegas]

you forgot about rappers spittin' that verse you paid for on somebody elses shit

 

[CapN1ne]

On point!

 

[MilesAaron]

thanks for the feedback

 

[radiostationrep]

Pretty good article. You could probably add a section regarding contracts as it pertains to verses, imo. As in what should be the contract and what is being protected. We all know some artists will re-spit a verse for different people on different albums.

 

[Mars]

When you make music, you either do it as a hobby, or to make money. To make money you have to invest money. Most collabs are marketing points. Something that creates interest in your CD. Let's break it down.

Say theres an artist thats out there doing it super big and sells thousands of CD's and has a big name and you ask him hey MC Hyphy Face, how much do you charge? He says $400. You got to think about it like this. He's out there selling thousands of CD's by himself, so people are obviously buying his shit. If you promote your project correctly, to his fanbase as well as others it shouldn't be a problem selling the 40 CD's at $10 a pop to make your money back. Will 40 of that artists' fans buy your CD for that song? Yes? If you sell 40, at $10 a pop thats $400.

Will this artist help move 40 units of yours? No? Then why the fuck do you want him on your album? I charge less than that but not by very much for a verse, and 95% of the time, I am the one being approached for the collab. I'm one of the cheapest out of most of my friends and I try to keep it affodable so the collabs keep coming steady. Use them artists' hustle as your own and bank off their draw and / or name. If your paying a $50 artist (and I dont mean any disrespect to anyone that charges that amount at all because thats cool too) are they going to get you the sales you strive for for their apperance?

Thats one of many reason to get a collab though. Can that artist help you come up with a track that may be your single? An artist that has great hooks can do wonders for your sales. A single helps push the entire record, thats why radio plays the same song over and over and you soon learn the words to it even though you hate it! People go and buy those albums.

Shows and collabs. If you aint making money doing that, you can't live off music alone. But I'm also on the other side of the fence. I'm buying a hook from a well known artist not only because I'm certain it will help draw sales from his name, but because he has single potential.

 

[TRAJIK1]

miles and mars good shit!

 

[MilesAaron]

Mars, thank you for dropping by the thread and dropping some great game, this was a brief article that I do plan on adding too as a section too a e-book a few of us are collaborating on.

 

[Gemini]

I think the whole I buy a verse / hook & I will make my money back is not only cliche', but rather small way of thinking business.

The whole point in actually "investing" into your project is to make it big, not simply get your money back. You want it back ten fold.

Maybe the idea was good back in 2000 - 2002, but in 2010 it's a whole new game. People are not buying cd's like they used to. Back in the day you could walk up to a hot spot & get off 15 - 20 copies. Them days are over.

And even then, what was the real response? Say you sold 200 copies that day. How many, out of those 200 people actually got back at you anticipating your next release? I say 1 to zero for the simple fact that most of those Cd's sold end up underneath the car seat or jammed in between the center counsel & the seat belt.

The artist walks away feeling like yeah, they're bumping my music. People have got to be feeling me. It all goes back to them people getting back at you. If you got nothing repetitive back (emails, comments etc.) they felt nothing.

iTunes and all that online digital downloads help, but it will also fail due to lack of marketing. And good music & big marketing go hand in hand.

And good music doesn't mean the people you know personally telling you your tight. It's the random people (try and keep count of how many random people gave you great feedback) ... those are the ones that count, but should mean that you should perhaps think twice about paying for a feature. And invest in a real marketing team to help you push your product.

 

[The Bay Area]

I had a chance to get on a track that featured Mike Marshall on the hook. The producer had baught the hook for x amount of dollars. He said I could put the track on my album and had free reign on it's marketing. I could keep any returns that came from it. Had I have followed through with the deal I could have marketed that track in ways you wouldn't believe possible. I think if the price you spend is within your budget then go for it. You can follow that popular artist's shows and help promote his events. His/her flyers have nothing to due with you but add your flyer with his/her image that shows your collabo song. Tell the record company you will help that artist with promoting their upcoming shows if you can tag along. Promote the joint song you share. That doesn't cost money to do (online). Try to get a video shoot to be included with the price. You don't need the artist through the whole vid just enough to make it work. Charge other artists to get on the remix of the song and get your money back once you made the original track popular. Get tshirts made with the name of the song on the chest and the lyrics on the back. Make the record company he/she is associated with interested in how you market their artist and find other things to barter with them. Find that hidden money. Work in a circle not a straight line and you will always see the return in your investments. I can't tell you the whole perspective of what can be done but this %15 of information can go a long way. Ugly Nigga...I Put That On My Life.