Success is Certain question

[TJMarrs]

So I was kinda late in finding out the album Success is Certain by Royce had already came out. Well I listened and love the album but I have a few questions.

Is Success is Certain being distributed by Shady records? and if so then why was the album promoted so badly?

I hadn't even realized that the album came out. There were no singles/videos and barely any mentions apart from a few interviews which probably caused it to sell like 16,000 copies first week. I read somewhere that he released it from another (underground?) label. Em is featured on it so I assumed it was being distributed by his label.

Is Royce even signed to Shady?

[The Shady Virus]

No it was not through shady and the promotion was terrible. I heard a rumor that royce was signed to shady now as a independent artist but i don;t think it's been confirmed.

[AbramIsaac]

It was pushed by Gracie Productions.

Low-budget promotion. They probably spent a lot of money on the Em feature. I'm sure that he would've done it for free, but Interscope wouldn't let that fly.

It's his last album for them, and after that, I think he's moving on to Shady as a Solo Artist.

[FreeSpeech]

Low-budget promotion. They probably spent a lot of money on the Em feature. I'm sure that he would've done it for free, but Interscope wouldn't let that fly.

Sigh...

I don't get why half the people on here act like they're freaking A&Rs and know shit. Why does everyone think Interscope has some deathgrip on whatever Eminem does? He has a recording contract, for albums. He does not have a "YOU DO WHAT THE FUCK WE TELL YOU" contract.

He can do whatever he wants. A lil ass company like the one Royce used obviously can't afford to pay what it would take someone random to get an Em verse.

Interscope makes $ from liscensing, merchandise, tours, stuff like that. Even if Em charged Royce $500,000 for a verse, which he for sure didn't, that would be a drop in the bucket for Interscope. If Em wanted to put out free mixtapes everyday he could, but he's better at managing his "brand" so he doesn't. Do you think Interscope was cool with Game fucking around for years and putting out free stuff? No, but they couldn't do anything about it.

/rant, but people on here really annoy me with how they act like they have some deep insight into how music biz works. Not just the poster above, but in general.

[AbramIsaac]

Low-budget promotion. They probably spent a lot of money on the Em feature. I'm sure that he would've done it for free, but Interscope wouldn't let that fly.

Sigh...

I don't get why half the people on here act like they're freaking A&Rs and know shit. Why does everyone think Interscope has some deathgrip on whatever Eminem does? He has a recording contract, for albums. He does not have a "YOU DO WHAT THE FUCK WE TELL YOU" contract.

He can do whatever he wants. A lil ass company like the one Royce used obviously can't afford to pay what it would take someone random to get an Em verse.

Interscope makes $ from liscensing, merchandise, tours, stuff like that. Even if Em charged Royce $500,000 for a verse, which he for sure didn't, that would be a drop in the bucket for Interscope. If Em wanted to put out free mixtapes everyday he could, but he's better at managing his "brand" so he doesn't. Do you think Interscope was cool with Game fucking around for years and putting out free stuff? No, but they couldn't do anything about it.

/rant, but people on here really annoy me with how they act like they have some deep insight into how music biz works. Not just the poster above, but in general.

Hey, fuckwad.

I'm not an A&R. This is true. However, there is a rather obvious difference between what Game does--putting out free music--and a feature on a retail album. It comes down to royalties, which is something that Interscope actually does collect.

Unless Em is on a 360 deal, he gets most of the money off of the things you listed, not necessarily Interscope. That's what the artist makes money on, not album sales. I'm sure you know that though, as pretty much every fucking person that takes interest in Record Label dynamics does. So Em makes money on royalties. Interscope most likely collects more off of them.

You see where their interest lies? It's not that Em wouldn't do it because he's afraid of Interscope. It's that Gracie wouldn't put it out without Interscope's blessing, since that's something that they make their money off of. If Interscope thought that the album would make them money on Royalties, they probably wouldn't require much more than that. Since it's an independent release, I would wager that there was more to it than a simple royalty agreement.

Do you remember when Em featured on Trick Trick's Welcome to Detroit? Trick was forced into signing to a label, otherwise Interscope wouldn't allow the Em feature. You would think that they wouldn't care, if they didn't make shit off of it, right?

So again...

I'm not an A&R. That is true. What's also true is that you acted like an asshole. So I could be wrong, but you're still an asshole for ranting before engaging in regular conversation--even if you're right.

[Master Chief]

16,000 is fucking great for an album on an independent label with ZERO promotion and no video out (at the time).

[TJMarrs]

16,000 is fucking great for an album on an independent label with ZERO promotion and no video out (at the time).

I agree. I just wasn't sure if it was distributed by Shady because then those are horrible numbers. But like you said with an independent label and no promotion in in our era of everything leaking those are good numbers. Imagine if he made a magor LP.

[RaidsTheThrone]

16,000 is fucking great for an album on an independent label with ZERO promotion and no video out (at the time).

Yeah, It was dope seeing a Royce album in Wall-mart for once