DJ Ice: How Producers Get Paid From Royalties & Publishing

Esteban Candelario (00:01.174) Alright, guys, welcome back to Producer Talk. My name is Esteban, your host. And if you're new here, this is the podcast where we sit down with producers or people in the industry to break down what's actually working in today's music business. Producer Talk is presented by Producer Fury, the number one CRM for producers. And today I'm joined by DJ Ice. He was producer first, now he manages producers and he has his hand in a lot of things. Talent agency for producers, athletes, and also he helps.

producers get their master royalties as well. He's cleared over two hundred records, made six figures in the industry, helped a lot of people. And we're gonna learn learn a lot of information from him. So DJ Ice, man, what's up? How are you?

DJ Ice (00:37.715) Man, doing good man. Blessed. Glad to be here. Appreciate you, appreciate you reaching out for sure.

Esteban Candelario (00:45.154) Likewise, man, I've been hearing like so many things about you and I I hear you're the I guess like the Yoda of this of the guys I've spoken to. Y you seem like the wisest and they s and everybody tells me so far that like your words hold a lot of weight. So it's good to have you on. But talk to me, man. I always like starting the journey where before you even got to where you're at or who you became. So, you know, where did your journey start for you? Like how old were you and how did it like, you know, turn into where you are now?

DJ Ice (00:59.954) Appreciate

DJ Ice (01:11.526) Yeah, so my my journey getting into the music business started after I graduated college. I played college football because I paid my way through school. came back home, was working a corporate job at Amazon as a corporate recruiter and while I was doing that I I would build my company A1 Music Group where I help producers clear songs.

copyright infringements. you know, five five years later we're here now. We're over fifty times Putinum, hundred and fifty times Billboard. got tw twenty Grammy nominations and one Grammy win. so definitely tr trying to keep it pushing and you know, just keep on growing growing in the business and do doing the right thing. So

DJ Ice (02:10.266) Yeah, looks like you're frozen, okay.

DJ Ice (03:08.113) I was talking and you were like frozen. I was like, Bro look so un bro look so uninterested. But you were just fro you're you're frozen.

Esteban Candelario (03:13.581) You're good. okay, I'm gonna pick it up though. But okay, so working a corporate job at Amazon and then trying to like build a business, like every entrepreneur is like, you know, story, like, you know, halfway in, halfway out, trying to balance both. So talk about your first win. Like what was your first win like in terms of, you know, helping out producers and what did that look like?

DJ Ice (03:22.193) Yeah.

DJ Ice (03:26.575) Yeah. Yeah.

DJ Ice (03:36.782) Yeah, first win was I helped the producer get paid for a song called Mil Millions by young Doug. actually took the song off the internet. the label called they're like, Hey, like, you know, you you took down the song, like like what the fuck are you doing like Bart, what are you doing? And and I'm like, Yep, you know, my client my client made this this loop. he he needs to be compensated with the

within advance points on the master and and equal equally split publishing. So, you know, I asked them, you know, what did the pr the bigger producer get paid, which was Wheezy, and they paid him twenty eight thousand. They gave him four points and fifty percent publishing. and I asked them to give us half and to change that advance to a sa to a sample clearance fee since it was a s a loop.

so he got he got fourteen thousand on the sample clearance fee and then he got another check on the master for two percent and that's like another like fourteen to sixteen thousand for him. You know, so he left he left with a nice five figure bag nice five figure bag. Label paid it out within a week. and I I put the song back on up on the internet after. First first successful

Esteban Candelario (04:53.676) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (05:00.046) That's crazy.

Esteban Candelario (05:03.822) Crazy.

DJ Ice (05:05.442) first successful win for sure. So yeah.

Esteban Candelario (05:10.84) So you said take the song off the internet, like if I'm a producer and somebody use using my song, how would I even go about that?

DJ Ice (05:17.933) so you would submit a DMCA claim on each DSP. Each DSP they have like a copyright infringement page where you can submit claims. and you just have to go through the process. So you go for instance on Spotify, you just you fill out the form, put in the necessary information and they'll respond back usually within like a week or two.

And then you just go through the process taking the song down. yeah, and then they'll connect you with the opposing party. and then, you know, that's where the the fun starts, you know.

Esteban Candelario (05:58.819) Yeah. And you say the fun because I if you found you did something really, really smart. Like they asked you what did you want? And instead of answering them, you question them like well how much did Weezy get? Like you know what I'm saying? So how important is that? Like knowing what the the main producer, I don't I don't know what you would call that, you know, whatever they get and making sure you ask that.

DJ Ice (06:14.762) Yeah. So great that is that's a great question. and you the reason why you wanna ask that is so you get the all in terms on the song, 'cause if you don't, they're gonna notice that like, okay, like, you know, these guys don't really know what they're doing. Let's offer fifteen hundred to get the you know, get out the way, give a point and whatever Wheezy offers on the publishing rather than taking control of the whole situation, right?

you have the leverage, they're infringing on your copyrights. And you wanna ask questions. So you wanna ask, Hey, what did this guy get paid? So that way if he did get paid a lot of money, you can just ask for half of it. and if he did it, then you can just ask ask for more, you know. so that's why it's always important to ask questions, especially with working with bigger producers, 'cause they don't usually like

Esteban Candelario (06:44.192) Uh-huh.

Esteban Candelario (07:02.616) Yeah.

DJ Ice (07:11.433) saying the all in terms, you have to ask, you know.

Esteban Candelario (07:15.02) Mm. So did they make it difficult, like offering the fourteen K and the two points? Like did you have to negotiate or did they they make it really easy and just gave it to you?

DJ Ice (07:23.516) No, they just gave it to us.

Esteban Candelario (07:26.51) I guess 'cause you have more leverage in the situation 'cause you took that whole song down. That's that's crazy. so that was your first that was your first win. where do you go from there? Like do you quit your job or do you continue working your job and trying to manage your company at the same time?

DJ Ice (07:31.102) Yeah, yeah.

DJ Ice (07:42.228) Yeah, so I I actually quit my job sh one in twenty twenty three during like the tech layoffs. So Amazon gave me a severance package and then I had signed like a co publishing deal right right then. So I got my co publishing advance and a severance package that same year. So I was like, Man, let me go ahead and hop off the porch and do music full time.

and yeah, man, just been kicking it since twenty twenty-three and just grow grow our roster's grown over twenty five producers, you know, managing talents like Chase the Money, Tony Coles, have Tay Money, Cosfinger, and a bunch of other loop makers and producers as well. You know, we kinda look out for we got hockey, Blazor, Marco Lenz,

split it stupid, you know. Got a got a lot of guys that we support.

Esteban Candelario (08:46.35) Dude, talk about ta talk about talk about timing, bro. Like timing is insane. Like to I mean, how important do you think that that that that is in your journey? Do you think like that was a sign for you? Like getting your publishing and getting the severance and that was like a sign for you to be like, you know what? Like this is a hundred percent the time for me to go a hundred percent on what I want what I really want to do.

DJ Ice (09:05.788) Yeah. And my wife really motivated me too to do it, you know. Usually like a w you know, typical wife wifey, you know, she's gonna be like, No, don't quit don't quit don't quit the job, you know what I'm saying? But you know, my wife supported me and you know, she told me to hop off the porch and that was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life, you know. Made since twenty twenty three, you know, we've

Esteban Candelario (09:10.979) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (09:14.926) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (09:30.488) Yeah.

DJ Ice (09:33.413) We made six figures plus each year, so

Esteban Candelario (09:37.199) Crazy man. bro, it's so important to have the right person with you. It's like s like if you I mean, if you're lucky enough, not everyone, not everyone has it, but if you're lucky enough, bro, just it's so important to have that person behind you. Especially like I think it makes a difference almost night and day. but so then talk about like your publishing deal. How d how does that work for you? And like, you know, how do producers end up in that predicament? What are the steps, you know, you had to follow that maybe a producer can follow?

DJ Ice (09:38.436) Yeah, yeah.

DJ Ice (10:00.613) Yeah, my

well yeah, my publishing deal I got my publishing deal 'cause I was helping producers off of Looperman get paid. And I did that for like my first two years from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three. And they were giving me like five to ten percent publishing for helping them get their copyrights back. So but I only got paid like ten percent of the advances that I helped them on, right?

Which is not like a lot of money. but a lot of these international guys, they didn't wanna they didn't w wanna give me twenty percent of the advances. They were like, Hey, for you helping me get my copyrights back, bro, like I'll just give you five to ten percent of the publishing and I'll give you ten percent of the advance. So like I made that like my business model the first two years, and this was before I met Dan, right? So I'm just doing all of this at the Amazon office.

And doing Amazon work and like taking out songs off the internet. so I looked up in two years, bro, and I owned ninety major copyrights, right? So songs fluctuating from El Alpha, 4K, Mike Towers, Me Droga, got NBA Youngboy songs, you know what I'm saying? Got a big ass catalog full of songs that I that I own, right? Five to ten percent publishing. so I went

Esteban Candelario (11:21.944) Crazy.

DJ Ice (11:28.406) create gave me a a co pub deal and I'm forever grateful to those guys. You know, they really believed in what I was doing. and that really helped me do the music business full time. You know what I'm saying?

Esteban Candelario (11:43.48) Yeah. And you know what? I'm glad you brought up brought up Dan. People who are watching probably don't know who Dan is, but he's gonna be the episode that comes out before this episode. So like talk about like meeting Dan and like what he did and like where it goes from there.

DJ Ice (11:51.539) go ahead.

DJ Ice (11:57.88) Dan, yeah, so Montano truly a special person just in general, right? Like if if I had to find like a picture of him in the dictionary, it'd be it would be like next to locked in. You know what I'm saying? 'Cause bro stays locked in. Dan, big fin finance background out of Tampa, really good with organizational skills, so like

Esteban Candelario (12:16.856) Ha ha.

DJ Ice (12:28.164) He or helped me get organized, fine helped me structure like the finance side of my business, and he really let me know where I was at in life, you know what I'm saying? He's like, yo, like you're not gonna make enough money to provide for your family, you know, doing ten percent, helping producers at ten percent. And you know, cause I mean my wife, we have five kids and we have one on the way. Baby baby'll be she'll be here.

in three three weeks and I'm on I'm thirty four. So he's just like, yo, you gotta we gotta switch over to standard management with twenty percent advances and we just gotta push the needle. so you know he came in, got me organized, Excel sheets, I got email domains, my shit says at A one music group now, shit like that. Gotta Google Google workspace, websites, you know what I'm saying?

Esteban Candelario (13:19.598) Ha ha ha.

DJ Ice (13:25.15) And you know, he really po polished me up and it shit really made made helped me make a lot of money, bro. You know what I'm saying? It's not too many managers out here. You know, last year I almost made close to half a million dollars, you know what I'm saying? And I'm only making twenty percent commission. So imagine how much work that is. You know what I'm saying? It's a lot of songs to clear. And we only have a team of two people at A one. It's just Dan and Anthony, you know what I'm saying? So they help me answer my emails.

Esteban Candelario (13:37.742) Crazy.

Esteban Candelario (13:42.889) Uh-huh.

DJ Ice (13:53.226) they send out all our invoices. That way I can stay focused on finding talent and negotiating like the best deals for our top clients, you know. So definitely blessed to meet Dan and you know, we started Royalty Masters and you know that that's been a amazing project. That's been his baby, you know, so he really proud of him and he's helped me become a really solid

music executive for sure so

Esteban Candelario (14:26.83) It's crazy man. It's crazy to think that you guys are like making half a million with only three people, you and two other people. I think like I mean that's that's beautiful for you. I guess the margins are great, but like that's just that's just fucking insane. so go ahead.

DJ Ice (14:37.707) Yeah, and I and I pay and I pay him, you know, and I want people to understand where people like that you have to pay them, right? So like, you know, I pay him like fifteen, twenty percent of every dollar that I make, you know what I'm saying? so you know, I just wanted to put that out there. People would be like, a lot of people don't take care of those people who help you do that, right? but you know, you gotta definitely wanna pay people,

Esteban Candelario (14:43.096) Yeah.

DJ Ice (15:06.622) And and move the right way, do the right thing, you know what I'm saying? So

Esteban Candelario (15:11.298) I agree, I agree. Especially in an industry where like it's really shaky and people always are scan I feel like I personally feel like scamming people out of money. yeah, yeah, it's hard to find somebody like that.

DJ Ice (15:18.858) Yeah, thanks. Run ac run across that run across that all the time, bro. So you know.

Esteban Candelario (15:25.752) Do you do you have a story in particular where maybe you you ran into some shaky business in the music industry that you could share?

DJ Ice (15:32.049) Yeah, my artist Tay Money. she was signed to Geffen for for like three three or four years. They brought me in the picture late with her. My best friend Q Taylor, Quinn Taylor was managing managing her. He brought me in to kinda like clean up the business at first and the relationship which kinda grew into me join joining the management team with him.

and super blessed to get to work with them. They're really fun to get to work with. but with her, I was going through her publishing, right? So I like I I was getting her pub deals and I noticed I was like, Man, so her name is Taylor Watson, right? And

There was like another Taylor Watson that had all of her record records registered on on BMI on her PRO. And it was to another Taylor Watson in Australia, bro. So ever since she's been in the music industry, all her publishing income was gone to another Taylor Taylor Watson. So I had to get with the PROs. you know, we had to get that name relinquished and

Esteban Candelario (16:31.917) Okay.

DJ Ice (16:50.641) you know, get her name attached back to all those records and then get retroactive paym get retroac re retroactive payments as much as I could, right? 'Cause publishing money's black box, but you know, we we recovered we recovered around like seventy thousand dollars for her. but it was a it was it was just crazy to see that for years, right, and for her publishing money was going to another person that had her name and they

Esteban Candelario (17:01.63) Uh-huh.

Esteban Candelario (17:09.848) Ha ha ha.

DJ Ice (17:20.472) And they already they knew that other person knew it was illegal what they were doing, and they can't even get in trouble for it, you know, unfortunately. but that's like a big thing right now in in the publishing world is you know, there's scammers out there registering these top songs, making money off of them. You know what I'm saying? so definitely something to to keep your eye out for. yeah. I have another story too, if you if you want another one.

Esteban Candelario (17:47.222) And that per that person can't get in trouble because they're in Australia?

DJ Ice (17:53.404) yeah. It would cost more money for it would cost more money for my c for my client to like sue that person, right? It wouldn't be like a profit margin on that, you know. So yeah.

Esteban Candelario (17:55.743) that sucks. But yeah.

Esteban Candelario (18:05.196) sense. but yeah man you you mentioned you mentioned another story, sure I I would love to hear

DJ Ice (18:11.42) yeah, n another story, the song Wait For You with Future and Drake. was a client I used to manage, his name was Israel. Still real tight to this day. We actually are from the same city. And the song Wait For You, so he went to LA to play a session, like he got a call from Tim's t and they invited him to you remember the people were doing the Spotify Live sessions?

Do you remember that?

Esteban Candelario (18:41.582) Mm nah I don't.

DJ Ice (18:44.279) No, well Spotify, they would used to invite people and they would like record the sessions live with live instr instrumentation. Israel was one of the people there along with Sonic Major, shout out him to amaz amazing producers. but they were playing on Tim's the original song that was sampled, but they played like new composition on their bass. It wasn't the same

you know, bass notes that is on the original song. and I believe F and Z saw that video, they sampled it. and then it got sent to ATL Jacob and they put out that record. Israel called me one day 'cause he knew I was in like the copyright infringement space for like taking songs down. So he's like, Hey man, like I think this is like

my base like my baseline. And long spinounce it was and we went through the process together. It was a little different with Israel. Israel's like his own boss. So it's more it wasn't me like leading the charge. We partnered on it and I just kinda backed him, walked him through the steps and that in that song he ended up getting published in on that song. and I got

him into his first pub deal, moved out of Arlington, went to LA and actually ended up being the biggest song of it of his career. Z n number one record in the world, you know. and I got super blessed super blessed to be able to help out and help him kind of clear the business on that one and just to be able to manage up to one of the most talented producers I've been around. So

Esteban Candelario (20:27.246) Crazy.

Esteban Candelario (20:41.272) crazy. How do you think like producers, like you know, I mean maybe a lot of it is luck, but let's say like if you are a producer and and you want to start from scratch, like how do you end up in those predicaments? Obviously that was a little bit different. That was a Spotify live session. But if I wanted to land a placement, how do you think producers should go about it if they don't have any placements, no connections or anything like that?

DJ Ice (21:02.796) Yeah, man, definitely. like it also depends like where you live at, right? So if you're in like one of the main hubs, like a Miami, Miami's like the new music hub right now. a lot of people are going there to make music. If you live in a big city like Miami, LA, or New York, I don't really like to count New York, but you know, people count it, I guess, in the music industry, but go to the studios, man. Just go sit in the studios, the main the big studios.

Especially if you can play instruments and stuff like that. If you're just a regular producer though, definitely use the internet online. You should be posting on YouTube, if posting loops, beats, making sure the titles are right. You know, they got different tools out there to where you can you can search and see what type of shit people are looking for in regards to beats, so you can have the right hashtags, the right titles on your YouTube videos, so you get in that algorithm.

And just crank it out on the internet, you know, like I've had Central C team, Kodak Black, we've got two placements with those guys off of YouTube videos and their producers were missing in the studio session. So the them as artists just got on YouTube, typed in Kodak Black type beat, central t central C type beat. And my guys, they just had the titles right, hashtags, and the their videos only had two hundred views.

Esteban Candelario (22:18.766) Yeah.

DJ Ice (22:30.144) They came and bought the beats for five, ten thousand five, ten thousand dollars, you know what I'm saying? so the internet is de like a lot of people be like, that's what everybody's doing, but it's like, yo, if you wanna play ball, you know, if you're that dope and your your shit can connect with people like that and it sounds good, you know, you can get your shit placed off of YouTube. Literally, you know what I'm saying? So

U use all the online resources you can. Beats BeatStars is another avenue. Love the Beat Stars team. but you know, when you upload shit on Beat Stars, just c make sure you go into the contracts and edit that shit yourself. Don't leave it as the standard, you know what I'm saying? So but yeah, use the internet for upcoming producers and you know, solid work ethic and crank it out every day, you know what I'm saying? So

Esteban Candelario (23:27.426) No, that's some that's some solid game. I didn't even know you could edit like contracts on on BeatStars. Like if people were to purchase that. I didn't even know that. That's that's actually pretty smart. you just you never know who's listening. Like 200 views and you just you just really never know. and I think I think f right now what I see is too many bedroom producers. Like too many people just producing in their bedrooms. Like I think right now, like your face card is probably more the most valuable thing you can have, especially in this generation, because everything

DJ Ice (23:34.536) Yeah, man, definitely.

Esteban Candelario (23:55.531) is done through DMing, emailing, texting. I feel like if you can be present in that studio and impress people or, you know, if you can be of value to them, you know, whatever that's for engineering, recording, producing, instrumentation, like whatever it is, it can really take you to it could bring you open up a lot of doors for you. I personally feel like the DM or the email or text message could be like the gateway. You know what I mean? And then from there it can turn into a lot of things. I mean for you personally, how do you know when a producer is ready?

DJ Ice (24:17.469) Yep.

Esteban Candelario (24:25.336) to look for management or how do you or I'm sure you get producers maybe DMing you that aren't ready yet. Like, you know, what do you tell them? What do you say to them if that's the case?

DJ Ice (24:34.675) man,

It's it's a little different for me. Like managers that are that are at where I'm at, they usually wouldn't take on like the smaller clients, but like I literally will take on anybody. If you get a placement, I will help you clear this on, you know what I'm saying? you know, so I try to answer my DMs as much as possible. But, you know, shit if you get if you have a major placement, you know, if you wanna have a manager, somebody, you know, you're gonna take it serious, it's gonna help.

you're gonna take the music industry serious and really start cranking out shit and connecting, like, you know, you definitely need a manager, because you're gonna get taken advantage of. You know, people always say, you gotta get to a certain status before you need a manager. Like that's not how it works with upcoming producers. If you don't have a manager, you know, eight out of ten times you're gonna get fucked over, you know what I'm saying? So,

Esteban Candelario (25:37.326) Mm-hmm.

DJ Ice (25:38.435) If you're making music, find the upcoming manager to connect with, learn the business with, you know what I'm saying? Learn the three points of negotiation on an advance points on the master and publishing and just learn how to negotiate, man, you know. I always say say no to the first offer, right? and just keep keep it pushing from there. But upcoming producers, if you're making music,

You're taking it serious and your intellectual properties out there on the internet. You need a manager. You don't just need a lawyer, you need a manager. You know what I'm saying? So lawyers, a lot of these music lawy big music attorneys out here, they politic and they do not have your best interests. You know what I'm saying? That's why I was blessed to meet Matt Buzer. He was a very big attorney when I met him, but he's also the only one who didn't hang up on me. but he told me he was like, yo

If I'm gonna work with you, you have to negotiate your own deals. You gotta figure that shit out and I'll I'll red line your paperwork. And you know that shit is really help me. I'm damn near like a lawyer without a fucking bar like bar license, you know what I'm saying? I don't let any lawyers you know, I don't let them negotiate for my clients, you know, so

Esteban Candelario (26:54.72) Esteban Candelario (27:03.084) Mm. So then I mean, what what are the exact purposes of lawyers? Like what are the differences that they're gonna do for you versus like what a manager is gonna do?

DJ Ice (27:13.719) It just depends on what type of lawyer you get, right? So if you get like a lot of these lawyers are tr are transactional and they just want the money for the the red lines and their red lines are already pre made because all these lawyers have already been working with each other, you know, so they already have what's called stepped up music agreements. you know, so you'd want a manager who's gonna learn the business.

And work alongside with your attorney. You know what I'm saying? and you you you want a manager who's gonna ask a lot of questions, and just figure you know, figure it figure it out, you know what saying? Hopefully that answers that. I'm not sure. A red line is yeah, red line, red line is so that when you get a placement.

Esteban Candelario (27:59.637) And what's a red line? You mentioned red line, what's that?

DJ Ice (28:10.603) The artist's attorney is going to send a draft over of the song agreement, and your lawyer is going to redline it, aka mark out, mark out things you you don't want in the contract and mark out and mark in things that you want in the contract. And then they're going to send that first red line draft back to the artist attorney. Then that artist attorney is going to send their red lines back, right? And that's how lawyers negotiate. Now managers should be involved in that.

in that process, a lot of major music managers are not. You know what I'm saying? The best in the business are not involved in that process. You know what I'm saying? I've seen it. we're at A1 Music Group, we're involved in that process of red lines. You know what I'm saying? so you know that that that is what red lines are and your manager should be side by side with your attorney as they send red lines back and forth.

Esteban Candelario (29:08.76) Do you have, and maybe this isn't like your wheelhouse, but do you have like any advice in terms of like marketing? Like f as as a producer, like how do you how do you think you should market yourself or what's gonna get you the most attention to get you, you know, closest to whatever placement you wanna get?

DJ Ice (29:21.913) Yeah, so my guys

They send out weekly loops, right? So they have like an email list of like four hundred people. My guys shoot out loops every week. That's one thing we do. They connect with bigger producers and send them exclusive loops direct to their email or phone. So that's another thing you can do. and the other part is YouTube and any other online platform.

To get your shit out out there as long as it's not royalty free. But my guys, they send out weekly loot packs and they connect with bigger producers and send them exclusive loops.

Esteban Candelario (30:12.376) So do you think it's smarter to or maybe I don't know, maybe they're doing both. You think it's smarter to connect with bigger producers sending loops or like c trying to connect with bigger artists sending like beat packs?

DJ Ice (30:22.997) You're not gonna get to the bigger artist. So you gotta get to that bigger artist is producer. You know what I'm saying? And that's how you work your way in. The art the artists will hear your shit. You know, if the big producer's like cool and is about putting people on and putting people in position, you know, ninety percent of them are not, they're never gonna mention your name to the artist that they work with, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, that that way or

Esteban Candelario (30:31.16) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (30:45.313) Yeah.

DJ Ice (30:51.834) shooting your shit off to songwriters. Like we have Bezzy. He's the only songwriter signed to A one. And you know, people send him loops. He'll write top lines on it if he likes it. you send him beats if he likes to he's super picky with beats. But if you land a beat with Bezzy, you know, he's they're gonna do their thing. You know, those guys write a lot of songs. He w he wrote Ran to Atlanta for future Drake. I said f yeah for future

And Drake. and you know, he's a upc upcoming upcoming songwriter doing his thing. He got two two Chinese number one songs right now that he also wrote. so yeah, that's another way you can market yourself producers is shoot shoot your shit out to songwriters.

Esteban Candelario (31:44.888) Damn bro, that might be a new method. I think that's the first time somebody's ever told me that to to network with songwriters. So, I mean what's a good way of finding songwriters? Probably just like Instagram or social media.

DJ Ice (31:55.206) Yeah man, Instagram, dive into the credits, you know what I'm saying? everything all the information is f is there for you. You know, at the end of the day it's how bad you want it, so that's all there for you. Spotify credits are Instagram.

Esteban Candelario (31:59.427) Uh-huh.

Esteban Candelario (32:14.326) I was I had this conversation with Daniel Hernandez and I was just talking to him and asking him like why do you think it's so difficult for producers, you know, to collect their royalties and why do you think it isn't really advantageous to be like a producer? He told me why and I kinda got the answer, but I kinda wanna hear from your perspective, like why is it so hard, you know, for producers to make a living basically in this industry?

DJ Ice (32:40.475) Yeah, well one, you gotta know you gotta know the business you're in. So you gotta know where you're gonna get your royalties from. Number two, you gotta sell sell records. You know, a lot of this shit in the music industry, smoke and mirrors. If so if you're not really selling any records, you're not gonna make any money. And a lot of these kids have the expectation, like, I get one rap placement, like, where's my money? Like, where's my money? It's like

You're not gonna make any money if you're not selling half a million copies. You know what I'm saying? Like that's where the money's at. You need to you need to be making music with the artist that is actually selling records. five hundred thousand streams isn't gonna cut it. A million streams isn't gonna cut it anymore. Five five to ten million streams is big, you're barely you're still not cutting it. You know what I'm saying? You can't even get a publishing deal with that.

you need to be in that hundred million to one billion range that's selling records and you need to do it consistently. Other than that, go get a nine to five and it's for real, go get a nine to five. I did it for I did it for I did it for three years, you know what I'm saying? and you just gotta grind it out, you know.

Esteban Candelario (33:56.494) No, that's it. Yeah.

DJ Ice (34:08.141) A good example is one of our clients, Tony Coles. Tony used to work at Woodfire Chicken, Buckeys, and fucking Chipotle a year and a half ago. And now my guy's like worth over five, six million dollars, sold millions of records with Big X the plug. and you know, he worked a full time job and he still went

produced and recorded for X while working a full time job, bro. You know? and I think that's the message that needs to be sent out to a lot of these producers so they can take care of themselves while still chas chasing their dreams. You know what I'm saying?

Esteban Candelario (34:53.026) Yeah, that's funny. I actually just saw that interview on what's that YouTube channel on the porch, I think. It's I think it's on the porch. But I saw an interview with that with that producer when I was learning about you. that's crazy, bro. That's that's I think and I think most

DJ Ice (35:03.478) you are you wa you watch Tony y you watch Tony's off the off the porch video?

Esteban Candelario (35:07.156) Yeah, off the porch. Yeah, I saw that. And he was talking about how he was working at Bucky's and how he he ran into I don't know if it was his manager, but he ran into somebody named Bubba. I don't know, but anyways, that had some relation to BX the plug.

DJ Ice (35:09.485) Fire.

DJ Ice (35:17.815) Yeah, Bubba Bubba Bubba Bubba is Big X the Plugs DJ. He's also one of the people that really helped X in the beginning and he co manages Tony Calls with me.

Esteban Candelario (35:32.492) Nice. Okay, cool. I I feel like most people and you know what, I've been a victim of this too. I've done it where like I quit my job and like I'm gonna go all in and I completely fail and I'm like, damn, I got no money right now, I gotta like go get another job, you know? And I think

DJ Ice (35:43.97) Yeah man, yeah.

Yeah, no.

Esteban Candelario (35:48.303) No, you're good. Now I think a lot of I guess if you especially if you're an entrepreneur, a lot of people they believe in themselves so much that they forget about the process. And the process is like for some people, for most people, it is the nine to five and then grinding outside of five to nine. I mean for you right now, like what's like I don't know, what's what's the big what's the next step for you? Like is there anything in particular you're looking to like push the needle in?

DJ Ice (36:14.474) Man, yeah, man. Keep scaling out royalty masters with my guys, crews in Montano and you know that's that's where the focus is at right now. That's where it's been at. A one kind of runs its sales, right? We clearing songs and doing publishing deals. we can do that shit in our sleep. You know what I'm saying? We're gonna clear at A one we're gonna clear a hundred to two hundred songs a year. That's what it is.

so now we're just focused on we're focused on royalty masters, scaling that out. We've been doing it for a year and a half or two, collected over close to ten million dollars. as one of the only four master royalty administration companies. so yeah, we're just looking keep fleshing that out. We signed some big big names over there, Rico Love, Vidal Davis,

Esteban Candelario (36:46.232) Crazy.

DJ Ice (37:13.249) Chop Squad, DJ, Adaway, Mello, and just signed Chase the Money as well. But we got over a hundred plus client, got over a hundred plus signees, you know. And we're just we're just grinding it out right now. definitely looking to expand out on the marketing. That's why you're starting to see like more content and stuff like that. So that that's what we're focused on content, marketing.

And pushing all that shit towards royalty masters.

Esteban Candelario (37:46.872) crazy. How do you even manage a roster like that? Like what goes behind that? Like a hundred people sounds like impossible. Like

DJ Ice (37:49.052) DJ Ice (37:55.21) What do you mean? like managing y on the master royalty side you're saying like the hundred people that are signed?

Esteban Candelario (38:01.548) Yeah, like how are you keeping track of like all their loops or all their beats being used? Like you know what I'm saying? I know a lot of stuff goes under the radar.

DJ Ice (38:06.89) So with with master royalties it has it's nothing to do with loops or tracking, none of that shit like that. It's getting these producers royalty accounts set up at each label for each song they have, 'cause some of these producers have a hundred to two hundred song catalogs. so that's what the guys work on like all day. Dan Montano, man, he trying to tell y'all, bro, he's one of those special

Esteban Candelario (38:13.4) Okay.

Esteban Candelario (38:33.976) Ha ha.

DJ Ice (38:35.707) One of those special entrepreneurs, bro, he's putting in seventeen hour days, like that I don't know how he does it. He he's he's a legend. And you know, I always tell I I I tell him I'm like I always tell him like, yo, like after Royalty Masters, bro, you gotta bro, you gotta do you gotta do it again with another company, bro. Like you're too good. You know what I'm saying? It's not too many people, right? Like we bootstrapped this business. We bootstrapped the business, bro. We didn't take no money from nobody. You know what I'm saying?

Esteban Candelario (38:40.472) Jesus.

Esteban Candelario (39:00.13) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (39:05.421) Mm-hmm.

DJ Ice (39:05.806) so that guy is just special that's a special dude, bro. hopefully he's not just gonna retire after Royalty Masters though. And we could we could do another business. But I know I know Montana, he's definitely not he's gonna he's gonna be out for sure, I'm pretty sure.

Esteban Candelario (39:19.622) Mm.

Esteban Candelario (39:25.97) so then talk about that. Talk about finding the right people to work with. Like what how did you find I know how you found Dan, but for the people watching, you know, how did you find him and how did that develop?

DJ Ice (39:35.166) Yeah.

DJ Ice (39:38.75) You saying how I found Dan Montana or Cru Daniel Cruz?

Esteban Candelario (39:42.885) Montana.

DJ Ice (39:44.475) Yeah, Montana yeah, so Montana was goes back to the consultation call that I had told you about. but yeah, we just we just been working working since then, you know. And like Dan paid me to talk to him about the music industry and he saw how much work I was doing at A one and he was just like, Bro, just let me help you build. And you don't get those calls every day. Like usually the calls I get are like people just want to use me for a service. They don't

Esteban Candelario (40:13.961) Uh-huh.

DJ Ice (40:14.714) It's straight up transactional. A lot of these people are international. I don't know if you guys know about international people. They do not fuck with Americans like that. They think we're some of the greedy greediest people ever. You know what I'm saying? so just to get a call like that is like somebody's like, Yo, rather than me try to take this information that I just paid you for on a phone call, let me help you build and he

Esteban Candelario (40:24.174) Mm-hmm.

DJ Ice (40:44.272) Bro, he did that and we all all came up with the idea of like royalty masters. He's like, bro, like let me do it. I was like, sh run with it. You know what I'm saying? And him and him and Daniel Cruz did that. And you know, Cru Cruz is a special cat too. Like, it's not too many people out here. he's a freshly barred attorney.

Esteban Candelario (40:57.882) DJ Ice (41:13.135) But before he before he was in school studying, while he was doing that, putting in all those hours studying, he was building up producer royalty, killing it on the content. and now he's running that royalty masters and doing producer royalty at a high scale, has the big has one of the biggest brands in the producer community. so again, shout out to both those guys.

Esteban Candelario (41:13.314) Mm-hmm.

DJ Ice (41:43.01) I got blessed with two special partners, for sure. So

Esteban Candelario (41:49.369) Yeah, man. And I feel like that's the biggest lesson. Like if like finding I mean, cr one, for like asking somebody if they if you can give them value, but then also like actually fulfilling that promise, like I'll do it for you and then actually being good at it. But I think again it it's another situation where like you know you're on the right path when other people join you and they take it to another level with you. Like you know what I'm saying? I I mean I I think luck is a part of that, but I also think there are more things in motion that are part of that as well. It just

If it happens, it happens for a reason. but yeah, man. thinking, I I think I'm I might be out of questions, but I guess, you know, before I go, I like asking this question to people, not everybody, but most people, if I remember. If you could go back in time at any age, your younger self, you know, maybe when you started this journey, what would you tell yourself to do differently if there was anything?

DJ Ice (42:46.554) give a hundred percent, not eighty.

DJ Ice (42:54.401) That's what I would tell myself. I'd be a I'd be a lot f further than what I am for sure. So anybody out there listening, even when it's going good, give a hundred percent like a eighty people always say like, you know, success looks like this, but I'm trying to tell you, bro, my partners, like there's none of this shit. This shit is like. You know what I'm saying? So they they really

Esteban Candelario (42:56.622) That's big. No, that's big.

Esteban Candelario (43:05.965) I mean

Esteban Candelario (43:22.36) Mm-hmm.

DJ Ice (43:23.426) They really motivate me, bro. Those guys give a hundred and twenty percent effort every day and you know I I wish I can get there. I'm gonna get there soon though, so

Esteban Candelario (43:35.864) You're already there, my friend, trust me. Don't don't be too hard on yourself. Don't discredit yourself. But awesome man. That was actually that was solid advice. before I go, anything you want to plug? Any anywhere where they can find you or anything like that?

DJ Ice (43:38.977) I say it.

DJ Ice (43:49.238) Yeah man. find me on Instagram, the official DJ ICE or at A one U S dot I C. And then keep a eye out for A One Sports Group. I'm working on some special things with that. so super excited and any producers who aren't collecting their master royalties, come fuck with us at Royalty Masters, man.

Esteban Candelario (44:16.876) Nice. Thanks, bro. Good conversation. I appreciate you.

DJ Ice (44:20.344) Really man business.