In this contemporary climate, the falsities of the music industry and the way it operates have started being exposed. Artists are slowly starting to become independent or sign onto different labels that do not subscribe to unfair treatment of the team of creatives involved in the making of a record.
One instance that came straight into the public eye was the controversy surrounding Taylor Swift and record label Big Machine Records. The opposing sides came into dispute in regards to the ownership of the masters of the entirety of Swift’s discography up until 2019, this being her first six studio albums! Essentially, Swift was disallowed independent ownership of her own masters, as the label was profiting off her music greatly. For Swift, she reinforced that it was never about the money for her, it was about proud ownership over her own art, and so the music she made being restricted from her, led to her labelling Scooter Braun (owner of Big Machine Records) an “incessant, manipulative bully”. Tensions rose and rose until Swift changed the music game by deciding to remaster all of her previous music, putting the entirety of its ownership under her own name and sparking the ‘Taylor’s Version’ records being released.
Fans were overwhelmingly excited for this, not only to hear remasters of their favourite Swift songs, but also to see her come out as an artist who could take control of her own music, rather than let it be owned by a record label who would profit off of it and control its distribution. It really distances the artist from their art, something that they likely poured their heart and soul into, just to be taken from them. Obviously, labels aid the success of the projects, yet it is on their own terms that this is achieved, and when it all comes down to it, one person is making these decisions One person who is not the creator of the music. Prince explained it quite frankly, stating
that “The way I looked at it, I owned the work because I paid for it. I created it, so I felt like it should belong to me”, as he compared signing the contract to a major label as a different form of slavery, but slavery nonetheless.
When it comes to the creative teams involved in the creation of a record, the production and songwriting is obviously the foundation of it. Therefore, it feels apt that the producer, songwriter and talent all have somewhat equal profit from its success. However, this is unfortunately not the case. Record labels will state that when a song is released to the public, the songwriters of that song will receive a 9.1 cents of mechanical royalty payments. The royalties of a song are payments that are made to creatives of the track: songwriters, recording artists, labels, producers etc. for the licensed use of their work. What is meant to be the case, is that the publisher will own the copyright and so has to approve composition and then collect these royalties, which are then split 50/50 between songwriter and publisher. All seems fair, how it should be.
26-year-old singer-songwriter RAYE (Rachel Keen) has shed light on why she became an independent artist in 2021, exploring her struggles within this cutthroat music industry, and it is very enlightening to say the least. From her experiences, she displayed how her label Polydor Records controlled the distribution of her discography so much so that they refused to allow her to release a full studio-album. They attempted to box her into the stereotype of a dance-music feature artist, who only supported other artists, and never became one in her own right. She became independent in 2021, and has since then released her first studio album My 21st Century Blues in February 2023. It was the best decision she could have made, as she skyrocketed into the limelight, hugely popular on TikTok and becoming the artist with the most BRIT award wins ever. Through this popularity, RAYE has consistently shared her experiences of inequality, misogyny and even assault by those who work in the music industry.
Beginning as a songwriter, RAYE rightfully feels quite strongly about the mistreatment of songwriters, and showed just how awful it can get. She knows songwriters for artists who made it into the Billboard Top 10, who reaped none of the benefits from their song’s success. Explaining it on the ‘iluvlive’ podcast she said that “For every song that is released in the world, there are 100 royalty points on a record. A songwriter who has contributed to a record, written the record and even crafted the record entirely is entitled to zero points”, even worse than that is “record labels are taking eighty points for marketing”, artists who have the capacity to build their own platforms on social media, and therefore require less and less external marketing as before.
These, and many other artists, truly despise the mistreatment of the creative team in place of the success of the record label. It seems it is the creative teams, either the talent or the behind-the-scenes songwriters and producers, that consistently get the short end of the stick after doing the most work for it. What needs to be noticed is that the industry is getting to a point where representing an artist becomes different to respecting an artist and their wishes. Not in every case, but in some, labels choose to profit from the artist’s success and completely disregard the ownership of the artist’s art by the people who made it. Labels should exist to help aspiring artists share their music with the world on their own terms, and then the profit given to the label in appreciation of their help will be valid, if distributed fairly. The rise of independent artists is both exciting in terms of increasing authenticity, but also eye-opening to labels who perhaps need to begin treating their talent in fairer terms before their industry becomes exhausted completely.
