Grammy Winner Miguel Explains the Biggest Contract Mistakes Artists Make

Added: 2026-04-28

[00:00:00]Well, the students at Columbia, they are very, very intelligent students, but they don't get a chance to see you, right? Over at NYU. So, I I called, I said, "Hey, listen, what question would y'all ask Miguel, right? I'll sneak a question in for y'all." And so, the professor, Shawn Gregory, he sent me over one, and I thought it was a good one. Um and it is uh you know, listen, you've created this curriculum uh at NYU to help artists and creators retain power over their work. Looking back on your own career, what's the most expensive mistake you've ever made with regards to contract negotiations and IP rights? Mhm. What's the best thing you fought for? At the time, I was I was primarily a writer. Yeah. And I undervalued my passion for being an artist and what that means in its entirety, in totality, being an artist and what that represents. I didn't realize how passionate I was about being an artist.

[00:00:52]And um the smartest thing I did was protect my publishing. I knew that as a writer and a producer, but it was a massive income stream.

[00:01:03]And my publishing deal was great, and I've I've done really well for myself on the publishing side. As an artist, what I wish I would have done better was paid more attention to the business and where it could possibly go. I talk about this in my in the course.

[00:01:19]Looking at where the business is and and I think that entails educating oneself.

[00:01:22]You got to educate yourself about whatever sector it is you're you're intending to disrupt um or or participate in. Uh you need to know the ins and outs of that business so you can imagine where it may go, and then structure business on where it could go. In that way, then you're at least protecting yourself for all the possibilities or as many as you can imagine. What [snorts] I didn't imagine was that streaming would become a part of the music business, that ad sales or ad revenue would become a model that could be adopted and would affect and impact music and broadcast and so on and so forth. So, I did my deal well before YouTube was an established product service, and that they even adopted a, you know, that their ad revenue model, well before Spotify was a viable streaming service, and well before iTunes even existed. So, um or it was just bec- it was just happening, you know? Biggest mistake.

[00:02:20]And what I would tell myself now is to stick to your guns. And if you don't If you don't have an idea of what your value is, go figure out what your value is first. So, then you have leverage in the marketplace to say, "Well, look, this is what I'm worth in the marketplace. I can do this. I know I can sell this." Then you have leverage. Um without leverage, people will reason with you law- lawyers will reason with you down. And they'll they'll talk you down. And um and you'll you'll take a deal that maybe will be impactful in a way that removes your your passion. Mhm. And I was lucky not to have not to have it happen, but if I did it again, I'd have waited.