Bargain The Deal To Save Money
When you reach out to the artist and ask how much it cost for a feature you can always bargain a deal.
If they say 10k, say you can do 9k!
It’s not much to them but it may be a lot to you. It never hurts to try.
Do The Deal Right
Make sure you set the terms of what the deal will involve so both parties (you and them) understand what the money is being traded for.
Make sure you discuss if the verse will come with any amount of posts on social media or not.
Often times you are just buying the verse and not any promotion for the song.
If the song isn’t amazing or you aren’t really that well known it will cost a pretty penny to get promotion for the song.
If you are spending $5,000 or more I recommend you get a contract put together for the feature. You want to make sure that everything you are trading the money for is under contract so they don’t just skip out with your money.
In the state of California E-mails can actually be used in court as legally binding contracts. I’m not sure about other states but you should check for yours.
A list of 150+ industry contracts can be found here.
Why You Should NEVER Pay All At Once!?!?
I knew an artist that paid Nipsey Hussle $1,000 for a verse and after he paid he completely ignored him.
Lucky for him my friend knows a lot of people and he was able to call around and still make it happen.
This is a big reason to NOT pay all at once. The person on the other end has no incentive to do anymore work than necessary because they have already received everything they are going to receive from the deal.
I’ve witnessed this numerous times in my life when paying people to do things and now I never give them the money upfront unless completely required. But a trick I use if I have to pay 100% upfront is that I offer a ‘bonus’ that they will get for better work upon completion. This gives them the incentive to work harder for more.
I literally used this psychological tactic earlier on Fiverr.
I’ll take you through it really quick so you understand.
1) I had to pay in full because it was on Fiverr. $100 for some graphic work.
2) They took down to the actual completion day (2 weeks later) to actually get me the file and we didn’t talk the entire 2 weeks. That throws up red flags for me.
3) The file they sent me didn’t even load when they sent it. They then realized it was corrupted.
4) To safeguard my $100 initial investment I offered additional money to make sure the problem is 100% resolved and to incentivise them to make sure it gets completed correctly.
5) Look at their response after I offer up $50.
What you should do is half up front or whatever else is required as a deposit and then the other half when you can hear a finished verse over the phone.
After you send the other half of the money they can e-mail you what you heard over the phone.
And again, get a contract.
And no matter what you do, make sure that how you do it there is a MONEY TRAIL. PayPal or a wire transfer so you can PROVE that you sent the money. This way there is no one saying that someone intercepted the money or stole it.
You want to make sure you can go to court if they steal your money. It’s nothing personal…. it’s business!
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