Lyfe Jennings is claiming his old record label Sony Music owes him $15 million, and they're dragging their feet about paying him -- but he's focused on getting even by revamping his old songs!!!
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00:00What's up, bro? It's good to see you.
00:04Hey, what's up, brother?
00:05I see that, you know, you got some beef with Sony.
00:08They spent money they shouldn't have and now you're looking to recoup some of it.
00:11Yeah, you know, a lot of times you'll sign a contract with a label and the contract is vague.
00:17And in the beginning, you don't really realize how vague it is.
00:21So, if you don't audit them in a three-year period, whatever that they did in that time is kind of just a wash.
00:29Right.
00:30And that's just kind of what I'm going through.
00:31Twenty years later, I didn't audit them on time and it's a bunch of money misallocated.
00:36So, you know.
00:37So, what sort of action are you looking to take?
00:39It's kind of, hey, what's up, though?
00:42It's kind of hard to really take any kind of action because, again, the contract does say you can audit them within three years.
00:50So, it's just kind of a learning curve, you know.
00:52Are you trying to get some of the money back?
00:54I mean, I would love to have some of the money back.
00:57But, you know, when I did audit them and put in paperwork before, they just bombarded us with so much paperwork.
01:03And obviously, we don't have as much money as they have to fight them.
01:06So, sometimes I can't spend a million dollars on lawyers, but they can.
01:11Yeah, that makes it hard.
01:12How much money do you think it was that was rightfully yours?
01:15I think it was like $15 million.
01:17Wow.
01:18And I say that because, you know, videos are supposed to be recouped at only half.
01:24Also, if you cross-reference the money from other albums, like my first album, I sold a couple million records on it, and I'm not even recouped on that album.
01:33For real?
01:34Yes.
01:35That sucks.
01:37A lot of artists I hear are having kind of similar issues with their management or labels.
01:44Like, Justin Bieber thinks a lot of stuff was spent, you know, his money was spent on stuff that shouldn't have been.
01:51He wants some money back, too.
01:52And they should be able to get it.
01:53But they got to do what I did.
01:55You know, all of my stuff is now being released like Must Be Nice.
01:58I'm releasing it on my platform called AOU, which is Artist Owned Umbrella.
02:04So, every time you see that AOU stamp, fans know that that money goes straight to the artists.
02:10It doesn't have anything to do with labels.
02:12And we just need to take control of our future by, you know, making platforms that represent us better.
02:19It seems like what you're talking about is an increasingly popular thing that artists are kind of trying to release themselves.
02:25It seems like the future, labels may have less power.
02:29Yeah, shout out to Taylor Swift because she was really the first one who done it.
02:34But, you know, we just got to learn and we just got to move forward.
02:37It's an expensive lesson, but at least it's learned.
02:40But you credit Taylor Swift with starting this movement.
02:43Yes, yes, I do.
02:45At least that's the first one that I really saw who did it herself.
02:49And that's what inspired me to release mine myself too.
02:52No way. That's fantastic, man.
02:54Well, good luck with everything, man.
02:56I hope, you know, somehow maybe you can recoup some of the money.
02:59But as you say, it's hard when you sign a contract that you're not really 100% sure what you're signing at the time.
03:03Yeah, and this is a lesson for past, present and future artists.
03:07Just make sure, I know in the beginning you're really not going to understand all of the terminologies.
03:12You just got to make sure that you understand what kind of lawyer that you have and that they do understand the terminology.
03:17Because young artists are so hungry and so they're too eager maybe.
03:21And so they don't properly vet things and then maybe you get what you were after with the, you know, attention and like the success.
03:29But the finances don't match up.
03:31And let me just add this.
03:33It's not necessarily just a total bad thing what happened.
03:37Because I really believe in this business that somebody is going to use you.
03:41But you got to pick who uses you.
03:43And that is going to benefit you in the long term.
03:46Because with Sony, if I wouldn't have that relationship to be used by Sony, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now.
03:52So it's kind of give and take.
03:54And I'm okay with it.
03:55There's some give, but there's definitely some take still.