Digital Social Hour - The Shocking Truth About Spotify's Major Stakeholders | LJ Fino DSH #827

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Discover the surprising truth behind Spotify's secret stakes as major labels like Warner, Sony, and Universal pull the strings in the music industry! 🎵 Join us on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly, where we dive deep into the inner workings of the music business with special guest LJ Fino. Tune in now to uncover how these powerhouses leveraged their stakes to secure licensing deals and what it means for artists today. 🎤 Packed with valuable insights, this episode explores the evolving landscape of music, the role of AI, and how politics and pop culture intertwine. Don't miss out on this eye-opening conversation! 🌟 Join the conversation and watch now! Subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more compelling stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Keywords: Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly, Podcast, Spotify, LJ Fino, Music Industry, Apple Podcasts. #productmanagement #albumsvssingles #productmanager #productmanagerinterview #musicmarketing CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Solera & French Montana 04:18 - Political Science & Music Business 06:35 - How Spotify Saved the Music Industry 07:59 - Over The Top Streaming Platforms 14:25 - Starting 10 Years Ago 18:15 - Radio Royalties 19:54 - Mariah Carey's Christmas Song 21:40 - How Ghostwriting Works 25:55 - Artist Earnings from Streaming 27:12 - Trump's Music Modernization Act 31:16 - Celebrity Basketball Game 32:55 - Targeting Left Cities 35:00 - Social Media and Pop Culture Politics 36:40 - Francis Suarez 40:00 - Upcoming Concerts 43:20 - Wrapping Up 43:45 - Upcoming Events 43:58 - Get Your Tickets 44:03 - Goodbye APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: LJ Fino https://www.instagram.com/ljfino/ https://www.instagram.com/firstclasslabelgroup/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Warner, Sony, and Universal, the three major labels,

they all ended up getting a stake in Spotify. And then that's what was the catalyst sort of that got them to get the licensing deals for all the content. I didn't know they had a stake. They have a stake. A lot of people don't know that. Which I think should be renegotiated, frankly, because Spotify saved the music industry. All right, guys. LJj fino here today first podcast first podcast thank you man yes thanks for choosing this show as the one to do absolutely um so you're big in the rap space uh still am formerly was a little bit bigger but yes definitely making a little comeback uh yeah i've kept my ties there you just

played some some fire music for me i'd love to dive into that yeah let's talk about it yeah so lara and uh french montana what a combo right there that is quite the collaboration i think i don't think anybody had that on their bingo card um well that happened a few through through mutual friends uh my boy jake uh lece, or Lecce, rather, he put on the first concert for French. So I was talking to him about different collaborations that would make sense. We kind of wanted to do a record that was

Dua Lipa levitating kind of vibes featuring DaBaby, if you remember that record. Dua Lipa and DaBaby. If I saw it, I probably would. It was a huge smash, maybe like four or five years ago. I've never saw it then. But it was a commercialized pop record that fit a commercial rapper. It did very, very well.

So we kind of tried to channel that. We got to French. French was ecstatic about doing it. He thought it was a genius idea. So we FaceTimed. that turned into a twitter space where they agreed to do a collaboration and then next thing you know we're in new york's uh city at platinum studios shout out to platinum studios by the way um and lisa over there and we're there with friends we're recording a hot track i think I think everybody's going to be really excited to hear it.

The quality was incredible. Yeah. Oh, yeah. For someone to have that be their first song ever is like, to set the bar that high. Well, let me correct you. That's not her first song. Oh, okay.

That's her first major single that's coming off of an EP. We're releasing an entire pop EP. Got it, got it. Lara and I. But maybe, I think it was october of 23 she did a cover of uh tom petty's i won't back down that's a classic very much a classic and uh what's funny about it is the pettiest state they're very aptly named by the way the pettiest state sent to cnd campaign. What? Saying, don't play our record, or our composition, rather, because they don't own the record, at your rallies.

Was that the opening song back then? He would play it at some of the rallies. The opening song is always traditionally the, and I'm proud to be an American. But every once in a while, he'll play the Justice for All record, which, are you familiar with that? Yeah, I actually produced that as well. Well done, dude.

Thank you, I appreciate that. So sometimes he'll open with that one, but traditionally it's the Proud to be an American record. But he would end the rallies, but they won't back down sometimes, or just play it throughout or play it before and they sent him a cnd and so you know that wasn't really the motivation behind it lara's motivation behind it was look and at the time her you know her family was going he was being indicted left and right yeah um tom petty actually wrote the record you can look this up

about legal troubles that he was going through during his time, during that time when he wrote the record, in his own life. So she felt that that fit her family's life. So that's why we went ahead and we did a country version of I Won't Back Down, which actually debuted on the Billboard charts at number six on the digital song sales chart for country. Wow. And number 10 on the digital song sales chart for country. Wow. And number 10 on the digital song sales charts

overall all genres. Well done. So Lara Trump is a billboard charting recording artist. Yeah, well done. Don't get it twisted. My bad, my bad. No, no, you're fine. A lot of people don't know this yet,

and I think that's why we're ready to get this out there and get this out to the masses. Yeah, that's important. So what's the goal with your label? Do you want to tie in politics with it? Well, it's interesting because, I mean, I can go to the backstory. I studied at the University of Miami, political science and music business.

Two weird things that don't necessarily go together, right? But as I sort of watched media evolve, I realized that pop culture and politics are one and the same. I don't believe that news is news anymore. I think that, like, for example, I'll give you CNN as a good example because they're a great example for this. They're owned by Warner. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM,

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BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for? Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Warner Brothers, which is owned by AT&T.

Warner Brothers views CNN as an entertainment division. That's what it is. It's entertainment. They want eyeballs glued to the television screen so that they can sell their advertising slots. And they know their audience. Their audience is people who hate Trump and people who are very progressive

or just, for lack of a better phrase, woke. And that's their audience. And so they cater to that audience in a form of entertainment that's sort of masqueraded by news. But it's really not news. That's something that I've noticed. I think will continue to be a problem moving forward,

especially with these cable news networks. Same thing with MSsnbc they're owned by universal i think universal views msnbc as an entertainment division additional entertainment division um you know they're not really reporting news yeah they're reporting things that will get you know clickbaity kind of things that will get eyeballs glued to the television screen so that they can sell advertising sites well television is losing a lot of viewers. Oh, absolutely. I think, I mean, if I had to guess,

I'd give it three to five years before everybody cuts their cable cords. I already did mine three to five years ago. Yeah, I mean, and people are continuing to do so. I think the thing is that there's a lot of people, you know, people who are used to the way that it was, that they're not prepared to cut those chords yet. Yeah.

But I think as time goes on, they're going to have to. We'll see what happens. I mean, you've got all these different streaming. It's very different than music when you look at streaming. You've got, well, let me explain the music aspect first. Music was being destroyed, the music industry oh yeah by piracy and then came along some swedes who created spotify and they said look you know it was pirate bay it was limewire all these different things no one was buying physical no one was buying you know

the dollar songs on itunes which is the modern day equivalent of a physical sale no one was buying vinyl cds were gone it was it was all being pirated and this these swedes came to the table and they said look we have a solution for you give us all your content we'll stream your music all in one consolidated location and we'll pay you royalties for it and the labels were like no the hell with that free music i don't want to hear another word about free music you know they they pushed back for a long long time and they negotiated and in the end warner sony and universal the three major labels they all ended up getting a stake in spotify and then that's what was the catalyst sort of that got them to get the licensing deals wow for all the content i didn't know they had a stake they have a stake a lot of people

don't know that um which i think should be renegotiated frankly because spotify saved the music industry um but when you look at now um what call OTT, over-the-top streaming platforms, which is the audio-visual version of a DSP, a digital streaming platform, which is the music version of it, you've got Paramount+, you've got Max, you've got Hulu, you've got Netflix, you've got Peacock, you've got... I mean, I'm probably missing like eight.

Apple TV, right? You've got Apple. Picture it this way. Can you imagine if Spotify didn't come along and let's say Universal Music decided, we're going to create our own streaming platform, but it's only going to have Universal artists on it. So if you want to listen to Drake, who signed to Universal,

or Taylor Swift, who signed the universal or taylor swift who signed universal as well you'd have to go to the universal app but the thing is most people don't know which artists are signed to which label every you know the consumer likes it in one consolidated location right so you know and i think people are finding themselves in that pickle today where they're like hey this, this is a great show. You should go check it out. And the next question is, well, what platform is it on? Facts.

Out of like 20 different streaming platforms, like where can I find it? It's annoying because you got to sign up for all of them. It's like 20 a month or whatever. And it's becoming more expensive than what cable was. Way more. Yeah. Yeah, way more. When you need them all.

So what my belief is what's going to happen is that those what they call ott over the top streaming i don't know why they call them over the top i think that's stupidly named because they're not really over the top they're pretty basic apps i mean american airlines has an ott streaming service i mean just yeah on the on your uh they used to have the screens on the on the back of. Now you use your own personal tablet or your iPad. But when you log in on American Airlines and you get on their Wi-Fi, you get free entertainment. And it's all there being streamed through their Wi-Fi. It doesn't take a genius to create these platforms.

You just have to have the content. But what I've noticed last night is kind of funny. I was just scrolling through Netflix and I saw a SpongeBob movie on Netflix. Classic. And I'm thinking, well, yeah, of course, classic, right? SpongeBob's great. But I'm thinking, why is SpongeBob on Netflix? Paramount owns SpongeBob.

Why would they not put it on Paramount Plus? Good point. I think Paramount Plus will cease to exist in the next one to two years. So you think they're selling their rights? I think they're licensing their content because they're prioritizing revenue. Right.

So you think one of these companies will buy out all these? I don't know if they'll buy out the studios, but I think what will happen is all the, I call them the five families. so there's the three major record labels and then there's the five major television studios which is disney universal sony which is columbia um i'm blanking on a few. Jeez. There's more. Yeah, I don't know. Warner Brothers, of course.

And one more. But I think what they're going to start doing is licensing their content to Netflix and Hulu. Their music? Not their music. No, no, no. Not the music. Because the music's already being licensed

to Spotify and Apple. Oh, okay. So it's funny. A lot of people get this confused. Universal Music has nothing to do with Universal Studios. They're two separate companies. They don't own each other.

Got it. So when it comes to the television film industry, I think the major studios are going to start licensing their content to the ogs which would be netflix which would be hulu and maybe prime because they have the money and maybe apple because they have the money yeah prime just bought nba that's big yeah yeah it's going to be and apple is doing a bunch of mlb right it's going to be those big big companies that have the money to buy the content because content is king.

See, that's the one genius thing. I've got to give it to Bob Iger for this. He bought up all the content. Lucasfilms, 21st Century Fox. The list goes on. There's more. Pixar. They already had a relationship, but then he purchased Pixarar um so all of that he got all the content now it's just well where do you put the content

um and they own hulu outright 100 oh disney on two disney i didn't know that wow so that's their exclusive uh platform for putting out their content. And I forgot to mention on the music side of things, the one stipulation in the contract with Spotify was that Spotify could never become a record label. Because can you imagine if Spotify started signing acts, it would be over for Universal, Sony, and Warner because Spotify could promote their own acts.

They got everyone. They would sign everybody. And that's the flip side. That's the difference because that was stipulated within the contract back in 2011, 2013, 2012, 2013, whenever it was done. Those agreements were not stipulated within to ott television audio visual streaming contracts because you had netflix come out and they had

licensed a bunch of content but then they started coming out with originals immediately house of cards huge smash but you know what i mean uh the list goes on and on yeah the original save netflix i heard yeah oh yeah of course stranger things stranger things yep there's a few what was that one where they were in the rivers i forgot but uh there's a quiet place could have been that one yeah no it's like three boys and a girl oh i forgot the name bro whatever there's so many there's so many the originals do save them yeah because they lose money on the other stuff right yeah well they don't lose money but they they're spending money with the hopes of getting new subscribers so you know it's they've got to cut the check to get the

content but they don't own the content right yeah because squid game they made a killing off oh yeah absolutely another good original yeah yeah, you picked the music industry. That's a tough space. It is. Did you know that going into it? Absolutely. The odds weren't in your favor? Absolutely.

Oh, so you had a good game plan for how to make it successful then? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Okay. Yeah. Because I don't know many labels doing well. Aside from Universal, Sony, and Warner, they're on too many. Yeah.

Aside from the big ones. The majors. Yeah, the majors. Yeah. There's a few independents that do well. It's about relationships. It's about knowing the right people. It's about being able to communicate.

Having hit records, having artists that are talented. There's a lot of different variables that go into it, but luckily I have a good team around me. I have a good head on my shoulders. I know the good guys. I know the bad guys. I know the bad guys. I know who to deal with, who not to deal with. So I think I'm navigating the treacherous waters as best as I possibly can.

Yeah. Where do you see the music industry going and evolving to in the next 5, 10 years? Well, it's really interesting with AI. I think that could tremendously change the way that the music industry goes. We'll have to see because there's going to need to be some amendments to the copyright law as it pertains to AI. And then also there's this thing called, the bill has changed names multiple times,

but originally it was the Ask Musicians music act am fm haha but um the thing is rate i'm gonna say the quiet part out loud sorry radio friends but uh radio doesn't pay royalties to the owner of the intellectual property of the recording they only pay royalties to the songwriters oh which is very unique so we're the only country aside from north korea iran and russia that don't pay master what they call master royalties to the owner of that intellectual property and i think that needs to be changed um you know the original argument, well, we're promoting your music, so people are going to go out and listen to your music and they're going to buy your vinyls,

they're going to buy your CDs, they're going to buy your 8-tracks, whatever it was back in the day. That's not really the case anymore because people get into their car and what do they do? They put on the radio or do they plug in their phone? Plug in your phone, put on Spotify. You plug in your phone, you put on Spotify.

Radio is less and less. I like to make the analogy that radio is akin to the movie theater these days yeah very similar yeah it's like an older crowd right they grew up with it they're used to it well and then here's the other kicker and again i'm going to say the quiet part out loud but i don't care i mean people need to know this their argument is oh well we're promoting your music you have to pay radio to get your music on the radio really yeah so if you want to go on 97.1 how you have to pay them money yeah what if you're like number one on the billboard okay so if if you somehow break and you go viral on tiktok

or some reels or some kind of app, it sort of forces their hand to play you. And at that point, you're probably already signed by a major because they've already scooped you up. And then they've got their promotions guys calling the radio guys and they're calling the right people and they're supplying the money. Got it. Now, if you're an independent artist, you can get on radio. You just have to pay.

That's why I stopped listening to radio because it was the same 10 songs dude right so annoying right they put it on rotation and it's just yeah i mean i'm still hearing the same song from two years ago it's like come on i'm kind of tired of this yeah it's annoying yeah they need to play more variety of music i get it because they have to monetize but right you know right that's a weird game well it's just weird i mean to me like if you're going to use someone else's intellectual property to sell advertising slots number one why charge them and number two i think that just am i allowed to curse yeah that's just kind of fucked up like you're using somebody else's property to make money right yeah you're getting double taxed

yeah they're making money off both ends right both ends. That's usually not allowed in business. And to be in the same name list of Iran, North Korea, and Russia, I don't think that makes our country look so great. It's funny. European nations out of spite. For example, if Ed Sheeran gets played over here in the US, we don't pay him royalties. So if Beyonce gets played over in the UK, they're like, well, fuck you.

If you're not going to pay our artists, we're not going to pay your artists. So they'll pay all the other artists that come from anywhere else in the world, aside from North Korea, Iran, and Russia, and the United States, they'll pay them master's royalties, other artists that come from anywhere else in the world aside from north korea iran and russia in the united states they'll pay them master's royalties but they won't pay american artists wow that's crazy i didn't know ed sheeran didn't make money in the u.s yeah from radio i mean he

makes money in the u.s as a songwriter because he's a prolific songwriter i mean he's written some great songs yeah um and he makes money in the U.S. from touring. And he gets his royalty rate from his label. I think he signed to Atlantic Records, which is Warner Music. But he does not get paid from master royalties. Which is a lot. It's a ton. I've seen Mariah Carey's stats on her Christmas song.

Every year she makes $10 million. Yeah. Isn't that nuts? Yeah. But that's largely from streaming. And if I had to guess, she probably had a hand in writing. I'm not sure.

I could look it up. But she probably wrote some of that song, if not most of it. So she probably gets a big songwriter's check. Got it. Because again, they do... With music, this is where everybody gets confused.

There's two pieces of intellectual property on what most people would call a song. A music consumer would call, oh yeah, that's a hot new kendrick lamar song well on the song there's the two the two pieces of ip are the composition which is like i could take a piece of paper right now and write down lyrics and a melody and some notes and that's a composition really yeah that's a copyrightable piece of piece of material right there that's a song then if you take that song and you record it in a studio that's the recorded performance of that song so when you're consuming a piece of music you're consuming two pieces of intellectual property interesting you have the song the

composition which is literally just sheet music and then you have the recorded version of said song being consumed and radio pays the songwriters but they don't pay the owners of the recording i see that's how that works okay wow because that's the artist then and the that's the artist the label the producer. That's the artist, the label, the producer. Yep. Wow. No radio money. Interesting. I always assumed as just a casual person listening to music

that the artist made the most money. No, no. In fact, artists live and die basically off of live performance. Holy crap. For the most part, unless you're writing your own music. Now, if you're writing your own music. Which is rare. It depends.

It depends on the act you're talking to. Oh, okay. And it depends on the act you're talking to okay um and it depends on the genre um but yes obviously of course it's very common practice for people to record other people's songs yeah um but yeah if you're writing your own music you'll make a lot of money from from radio interesting yeah because you see all these ghostwriter memes on like social media right right how does that work are they so it's these ghostwriter memes on like social media right right how does that work are they so it's a ghostwriter so they're not named so the artist takes credit so a lot it depends it's a case-by-case basis and this is where we can get into the intricacies of

it a little bit so there's a famous rapper i don't want to name any names i give anybody's start with a d sorry the d okay uh there's a famous rapper that when he has somebody make a track for him he buys out his publishing so let's say this guy makes a beat that's dope writes some like really cool lyrics he says all right i'm gonna pay you fifty thousand dollars flat fee take it i'm gonna i'm gonna record the track so then that artist owns the songwriters even though he didn't write it he owns it and that's a stick for a lot of artists uh again and then it gets deeper wow it gets it gets deeper there's some artists that you can have like the craziest hit song written ready to go like oh yeah that's dope

like that's gonna be the craziest song and they didn't write a note a lick nothing but they'll demand a percentage of the song really just because of who they are whoa yeah that's like a 360 deal almost well sort of the 360 deal is more with the label yeah but i mean if a songwriter or a publisher for example which is people that is the companies that you have record labels you have publishers publishers deal with songwriters record labels deal with performers and artists it's the publisher's job to pitch songs to artists um so let's say you know you send a song to i don't want to name names because i don't want to give anybody yeah let's say, you know, you send a song to, I don't want to name names cause I don't want to give anybody away.

Let's say you send a song to a major recording artist and they really liked the song. Like, ah, I would love to record that, but I need 20% of the publishing without changing a lyric, without changing any melody, nothing. Wow. And then you as a songwriter, this may be the first hit song you ever wrote you have to wrestle with the fact that okay well this a-list act wants to cut as we say cut record my song but i have to give up 20 of my work in order for that to happen and you know in in many instances it's worth it because it can it can break you as a songwriter. Because their name holds a lot of weight.

Of course, of course. But it's just something that's kind of a shame. That's interesting. People have to give up some of their work to give to the artists. Yeah, I see artists getting a lot of heat for using ghostwriters. And as a business point of view, it makes sense to use them. Because if you want to scale, if you want to write a ton of songs you know exactly and the thing is though on on the based off the scenario i just described to you you would never know that it's a songwriter because when it comes out that artist will be listed as a songwriter so you're just assuming

oh that person wrote part of it right and in reality everybody behind the scenes now he or she didn't write shit you know what i mean yeah so yeah music is very intricate it's very it's cutthroat great you know i've been in the clubs before when i was younger trying to cut deals and this i mean dude i've seen i've seen an artist get $10,000 thrown in his face. He signs the deal. Record label makes like $15 million off of it. What? Yeah.

Holy crap. Because these like 17, 18-year-old kids have never seen that much money in their life. It's like, shit, I'll take that. Meanwhile, they're signing them for everything. Like literally merch, publishing, live appearances like everything damn and then they're flipping them to like so they'll sign them and they'll flip them to another label and they'll take all the profits meanwhile the guy that signed him for 10k walks away with 15 mil that 10k check was the biggest check the artist ever got and they don't even know how much the

label's making usually, right? Yeah. Because there's no way of really knowing. I mean, you can do the math, you know, based on like what you're getting as your royalty rate. And then figure out what 100% of it would be. But no. Crazy. So if you get a million views on Spotify, because I think Snoop Dogg made a video about this.

He got like no money and he had. The average is $6,000. $6,000. If you get a million six thousand dollars you get a million spotify streams you get about okay that's actually more than i thought to be honest but you got to split that that's where it gets well you have to split it depending on the situation so if you have a producer he usually gets a card if you've got a label they get a cut um as far as i know stoop dog is independent at the moment and bought Death Row Records, so he should be getting all of his records.

Dude, look at that video, because he had like 100 million views, something crazy, and he got thousands. Yeah. I don't know. Does that $6 vary per genre, or is it a set $6? It's set $6,000. Yeah, $6,000, I mean.

It's set. They have a set royalty rate based on streams. Yeah, he must have had a weird split agreement then. Yeah, I actually know the distributor that he works with. It's Create Music Group. They're out of LA. They're really good guys. They're actually doing Lara's album as well. Oh, nice. They did Vultures for Kanye, the first one.

That's a big one. Yeah, they broke a lot of big acts. Ice Spice, they're responsible for Ice Spice. Tekashi 6ix9ine, when he was blowing up, they were responsible for him spice uh takashi 69 when he was blowing up they were responsible for him tory lanes wow so good good label oh yeah the digital era of music i think it's it some laws need to be amended to better reflect that yeah yeah and and trump president trump hate to jump into politics real quickly president trump did pass uh the music modernization act which was the first step to rectifying that issue it amended copyright law

to better reflect the digital era of music but i think um there needs to be some additional legislation passed and we'll see what happens should trump change his theme song to many men by 50 cent i would say so i think he should he should have capitalized that on the moment like that that was going so crazy i think he should have walked out to that at the rnc 100 that would have broke the internet it would have it would have and i don't want to say too much but we were working on getting something to happen but uh i can say that trump walked out to many men today during the aiden ross oh he did oh i didn't see that yeah oh i can't wait to watch that later finally he made that happen dude that's legendary yeah

yeah yeah that's a lot of fun dude that's a that's a hit right there oh yeah have you ever met 50 50 cent yeah um i think we've crossed paths maybe once or twice but we don't know each other personally got it because hip-hop you're that's where you're most connected right the hip-hop space the hip-hop space yeah that's always a political space as well but they right yeah and those two never really mix on the republican side not until now you're like the bridge not until now yeah because they've always supported democrats we're changing that you know even with uh who's that rapper that just performed that Kamala's thing? I forget.

Meg Thee Stallion. Meg Thee Stallion, yeah. Well, she's with Roc Nation, which is Jay-Z, and they're very anti-Trump. So that was to be expected. But yeah, they get paid. Yeah. No, it's cool to see you bringing some of them to the Republican side, man. That must have been difficult, actually.

It was. It was a tough conversation with every artist. But I'll tell you what, after the assassination attempts, they all started calling. My phone was going off the hook. Really? Everybody. Oh, wow. From artists you couldn't even imagine.

So that was like the final straw for people. And people were like, yo, like, like, because I had been I had spoken to a lot of recording artists privately and they all told me oh yeah we fuck with trump like yeah trump's trump's the guy we just can't say it because we're scared of cancel culture i'll give you an example um president trump brought chef g and sleepy hollow out to the rally in the bronx and then maybe a week later there were calls for them to be taken off the hot 97 summerfest whoa so they lost a big business deal because well i think i don't think they got taken off because

the contract was already done but it's like just the calls just like people saying it it's like it makes people reluctant to book them again right because they'll lose a ton of money right and again like i said like that's the way that artists like live and die off of my performance so you know it's it's it's a real shame damn yeah i get it from a business point of view 100 right but i you know it's funny because i had been telling a lot of people behind the scenes yo sway lee loves trump sway lee loves trump and they were like really it's like yeah they got a song like up like trump you know ray schremer i don't know if you ever heard it yeah yeah but um and then he puts out a tweet

maybe a week ago like do not vote for kamala harris my phone's blown up and they're like lj how did you know i was like what do you think i just pulled this out of my ass like i've been talking to him for like eight months about this and um i've seen him rocking a maga hat like he's all in love it dude little pump little pump yeah he's in he's cool i i'm a i'm a fan of his gucci gang gucci gang yeah he's miami too right that's where you're at yeah he's yeah he lives right around the corner yeah yeah they're coming out man um amber rose she's not a rapper but that was a big deal that was a big deal yeah because she was growing up in cali and stuff you know with khalifa kanye yep trenched in that world yeah that was a deal. And she got a lot of heat for it.

So props to her for like sticking through that. Big props to her. And she's from Philadelphia. I think Scott Pressler and myself are going to be working on some events in Philadelphia. Oh, nice. That she'll be involved in. So hopefully that's going to prove it. What type of events?

Well, we're going to be doing some canvassing, door knocking, street cleanups, celebrity pickup basketball pickup basketball games oh i'm in for that come hit me up you ball yeah oh yeah yeah i'm nice bro uh how tall are you six six you ball yeah i'm not six six though uh i'll see you gotta play some one-on-one we might have to put a friendly wager down yeah maybe i'm a betting man let me hear your experience first did you play high school college no actually i didn't um i played middle school okay i played middle school so it's even but then i would always play just like pick up with my friend yeah i'm the same exact format i picked track in high school so yeah yeah so okay i'll tell you again six two i think i i like my chances maybe pushing six three yeah okay are you shooter used to be okay used to be you're gonna need a jumper to beat me

okay you think so you're not making a layup over me you don't think so no i got these crazy layups i'm a tumble down there bro i got that euro you got the euro yeah i got the euro all right all right we're gonna have to run it we're gonna have to run it bro yeah i love basketball yeah i'd love to have you out there for one of those yeah i'd love to promote that in philly in philly or pittsburgh we're working with uh senator or senatorial candidate dave mccormick okay that's a very left area isn't it oh yeah well we're going into the trenches wow for lack of a better phrase i don't mean it in a negative way but we're going right to north philadelphia we're registering voters there we're going to be doing major concerts um in philadelphia and pittsburgh and detroit and phoenix and vegas uh where am i

missing i'm in vegas so i'll definitely help with that one too oh yeah come it's at aviator stadium okay that's gonna be a big one yeah so definitely come to that so you're targeting these left cities though absolutely what's the strategy with that well if you carve 10 to 15 percent away of the inner city vote from the democrats it's the nail in the coffin. Wow. So you really think you can convert those communities, though? Absolutely. I mean, look at the polling. The polling is one thing, but you actually have to turn those polls into votes. I never know what polls to trust, dude, because I'll see Kamala tweet one.

I'll see some other ones. Well, you got to look at the sample sizes. You have to see where they're coming from. You know, sometimes I see some of the internal polling coming from the trump campaign they'll email to some people but um don't look at national polls right they're not indicative you know a lot of these journalists love to like show off the national polls they're not indicative of the electoral college like they're indicative of the popular vote potentially which doesn't matter it doesn't matter that doesn't get you into the white house you need to be looking at michigan wisconsin pennsylvania um i don't even consider north carolina a swing state anymore but north carolina they're saying georgia is a swing state i don't

believe it's a swing state no um arizona key state there's nevada swing nevada it they're considering it a swing but if you look at the polls trump is up huge nice huge when i found out because i've been there three years when i found out vegas is left i was like what i never met any democrats there yeah it's weird yeah it's interesting super interesting it's i mean it's a you know it's back and forth yeah it's back and forth i guess just who i surround myself with but yeah that makes sense yeah that's a cool strategy though i can't wait to see that man yeah definitely definitely because i you know i think that the democrats for too long have felt like they've had an ownership on entertainment i mean they own all the platforms well well there's

that yeah well you know it's funny because you know a lot of people started to cancel their uh netflix subscriptions i forget what it was about what did they do they did something oh one of their executives like donated a bunch of money to to kamala's campaign oh okay and i and i my thought was well if you're canceling your netflix subscriptions get ready to cancel every other subscription because they're all going to have executives giving to kamala's campaign that's just hollywood for you right so you're gonna be left with no entertainment so yeah we need it for sure the only one on the right is twitter you're right you're right and truth social and uh you're right uh rumble and that's why i love social media i think social media has sort of bridged that gap

between pop culture and politics where i mean you may as well drop the name social it's just media right and i think you know think about it maybe 10 15 years ago you wouldn't have celebrity congressmen and women no you know what i mean yeah you wouldn't know any streets like you would maybe know like one or two people all on you was sarah palin right right from the snl and all that i mean you know she was a character and she's great but But now you have people like AOC on the left, or Anna Paulina Luna, who I really like down here. She's very popular. Matt Gaetz is very popular.

Byron Donalds. I'm trying to play both sides here. Who on the other side is popular? I can't think of any. AOC is kind of the face, I feel like. Newsome. Oh, yeah. I can't think of any. AOC is kind of the face, I feel like. Newsom. Oh, yeah.

Wes Moore from Maryland is popular. Guys like that. But prior to social media, could have walked the streets and asked, hey, have you ever heard of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? The answer would have been no. Now social media, everybody knows who she is. Out of of staters people who don't even live in her district oh yeah champion for the left you know and same thing on the right you know matt gates oh yeah champion for the right you know so you know we have this

situation where celebrities i mean where politicians are becoming celebrities no for real i'm in vegas and i hear about francis suarez i hear about the um you know florida yeah suarez is an interesting guy actually yeah what's your take on him do you live in miami i like him i've had a couple chances to meet him he's a nice guy he's pro crypto which i like i'm big in crypto oh yeah yep he's pro crypto i'm big not big in crypto but i've gotten into crypto a little bit recently this week's don't look at your portfolio right now i know i know and stocks are oh man yeah everything's looking bad i know which is worrying because usually leading up to an election they're pumping the market a little bit oh yeah absolutely so i don't know if this is going to turn into something more well let's see what happens i mean everything's down from stock to crypto to real estate's down a little bit i

mean so damn it'll bounce back yeah now's a good if you have cash now's a good time to buy it at discount i would say yeah yeah theorem's at almost two thousand dollars dude that's insane it was at four thousand like a year ago bitcoin was up to seventy thousand yeah it's like 50 now yeah it's insane nuts insane you need a tough stomach to get into crypto you do you do um have you been in miami your whole life no actually i was born in edgewater new jersey oh i'm from jersey oh no way yeah how close to edgewater uh i was in bridgewater so maybe 45 okay all right different waters yeah but i lived in jersey city oh okay for a couple months gotcha yeah i was born in edgewater new jersey just across the gw bridge

lived there for about a year and And then I moved to outside of Philadelphia where I grew up. Wow. Went to high school. Then I went to the University of Miami. Never looked back. That's a big change. I've been here ever since.

So you were in Philly. So you were a Democrat growing up. Hell no. Oh, you weren't? Oh, no. But you were surrounded by that. Oh, yeah. I was raised right.

My first vote was Mitt Romney. Oh, wow. Yeah. So you voted early. Yeah, I think I was one of the only people in my grade that was able to vote at the time. I was born in September. So it was like that. Oh, yeah, you were that kid. I was like, I was the kid who could drive first. Yeah, I hate everyone hated that kid. Oh, man. University of Miami. What was the deciding factor to go all the way there?

Well, I had a couple of friends who had gone there, came down and visited. Small school. I like the fact that it was small. Is it small? I didn't know that. Yeah, it's about 14,000 students. Oh, wow. When you think of Miami, you think of like 50,000 people.

Yeah, you think huge. Just like Penn State, it's like 50,000 people. But no, Miami's small. It's private. My high school had about 4,000 students. So to me me it wasn't like a huge leap but also the campus is beautiful i really i just really liked it down here i've always loved warm weather traveled a lot as a kid hate the cold and have you ever lived up in well

you said you lived in jersey was cold we had a cali campus in high school you have to wake up you have to defrost your car you've got to shovel the snow you got to rake the leaves i mean it's just too much you know it's too much out here you just walk outside yeah exactly i don't even check the weather i just walk outside the worst the worst you can get is rain yeah a lot of that but it's quick here at least i'll take the rain over like five ten minutes yeah well dude it's been fun uh where can people find you keep up with the music label and and potentially get involved with you? Well, you can find me on, my Instagram is ljfino.

My truth social is just at lj. My Twitter is also ljfino. So those are probably the best places to find me. If you want to keep up with the Super Pack and what we're doing, which we didn't touch on too much, if you'd like to touch on more, I can. Yeah, we could touch on that.

It's newgen47.com. We have about five to six concerts planned with Turning Point Action in conjunction with them. Nice. Through those swing states that I mentioned with artists that you wouldn't believe. Not at the liberty to say yet, but I did name one but uh

um so yeah those are those are the places to find me keep up with me keep up with with what i'm up to and then the label on instagram is first class label group and on twitter it's fc label group all right so when and where are the upcoming concerts and who will be performing at these? So we've got our first concert in Detroit. The artist for that one, I guess I'm not really at liberty to say yet. Actually, you know what? I am. I'll just say it's 5AO4 and 42 Doug.

Whoa. Doug got out of prison. Doug's out. Let's go. Doug's from detroit that's gonna be a big crowd that's a that's a big homecoming homecoming one nice what was the date on that one uh september 1st okay so get ready for that one you're obviously welcome please come thank you i've never been to detroit actually i haven't either i'm excited i'm a big music fan it's motown you know what i mean let Let's do it. Gotta go see Hitsville. Yeah, a lot of music out there. Absolutely. So our second concert is in Phoenix.

We have French Montana. And I believe it's going to be Sway Lee. If it's not Sway, it's going to be Fabulous. And we're working on getting Laura Trump out there too so she can perform her song with French as well, which will be very cool. What's the date on that one? september 8th so the following weekend then we've got a couple uh weeks in between where i'm going to be doing some get on the you know get out the boat boots on the ground grassroots efforts in philadelphia and in

pittsburgh um up until october 28th where we have uh ot7 Quani. Maybe you've heard of him? I haven't, actually. Well, he's like, if you're in Philly, he's like the hottest rapper out of Philly. Me growing up in Philly, Meek Mill was the hottest rapper for me. I remember that, yeah. OT7 Quani, if you're 20 years old, you know who he is.

He's the next Meek Mill. Yeah, yeah. He showed up at Trump's rally in North Philadelphia about a month ago. I was the one who kind of actually coordinated that. Nice. So he's going to be at the club. I believe we're going to try to get Amber Rose

there as well. Hell yeah. Maybe I'm giving something away, but Saquon Barkley will be in the house. For the Philly one? In Philly. Yeah, he's on the Eagles now, right? I'm a Giants fan. That hurts, but congrats for you. I'm a Giants fan too. Let's go. I'm in a rough eight years too let's go i know i know let's see what happens to you the training camp videos have looked nice though yeah but those always like deceive you you're right you know what i mean

you're right eli manning would look amazing in training camp yeah yeah you never know so hoping for the best yeah but um yeah so philly um and then i think the other artists in philly is gonna be fabulous okay then we move to vegas on october 16th and we have kodak black whoa yes that's that's surprising yes i did not know he was a trump supporter you didn't know kodak was a trump supporter no dude trump pardons him really yeah i did not. Dude, Kodak walks around with a ring that says Trump ties. No way. He's got Trump tatted on him. Dude.

He's got this crazy chain with Trump smoking a blunt. That's legendary. I had no idea. Yeah. Yak is. I'll be at that one. Come to that one. Yeah, for sure.

Which venue is that at? The Aviator Stadium. Aviator Stadium. It's at the Minor League Baseball Stadium. Cool. Yeah. I'll be there. Is that all four events? No. And then the other one is in Pittsburgh. It's going to be late into the season. The final push with what we hope to be Lil Wayne.

Whoa. That's big time. We'll link all this below, man. If you guys want tickets, check it out. Thanks for letting us know about it. Absolutely. Thank you, Sean. Thanks for watching, guys, as as always see you next time thank you