I think its a fair discussion. I didn't say labels should give me s*** contracts. I just said artist shouldn't just be expected their masters get handed to them.

People took it a whole different direction.

And to answer @op labels need the masters to make the money they've invested into the artists

But they should be able to be bought back after a contract ends IMO

I hate this idea of “oh you’ll grow up and understand that predatory bs is just “business””

No s*** the artists are agreeing to these deals
Doesn’t make the deals less f***ed up
The industry is built on the fact that labels have historically been the only option for an artist and as a result they can exploit them for everything they’re worth

That’s not how the industry is today. Artists can be independent and succeed and yet labels are still exploiting artists. There hasn’t been a correction to the way the industry operates to acknowledge that artists have other options nowadays

OP making a good point, first page is just for the memes

It’s not, it’s absolutely not the case

Let’s roleplay, I’m the big bad label and you’re the holy artist. I give you 200k to make an album and 100k to market it. You flop like crazy and don’t make ANYTHING back to me.

What happens here? What’s your options and what’s mine? Well you can just decide to quit that peofession and just become a baker, and accountant, a cashier, a construction worker, etc. and you won’t have to pay back anything and plus you won’t make a single financial loss. Me on the other hand, I can’t just do something else, because I have 200k in this and if you flop I’m gonna lose that money entirely.

Because I said artist shouldn't be handed their masters. You don't understand business at all.

KTT logic: they get hired at a pizza joint. they use the company ingredients and utilities to make the pizza. they make the pizza and now want full profit for the pizza because they made it and pizza joint gets nothing

lmao f***in idiots itt

This is a massive oversimplification of the issue

Your title and the op suggests you have a far less reasonable take on this than you do

Terrible thread. What's the point of discussing this we all know it's wrong

umm... yes there has lol you just said it yourself. be independent, thats the correction

Why would you sign knowing you’re getting screwed? Look for a deal elsewhere. Lots of artists get their masters back later in their career once they’ve helped the label be profitable, as it should be

Your logic
Your hiring manager tells you to sign with this pizza company and tells you that the pizza company is great and very fair to you
You’re broke and homeless so you need to sign with a pizza company
The pizza company hires you for their business in California
They fly you out to New York to sign your contract to the pizza company so they can have a contract that lasts over 7 years
They pay you some money but it turns out you now have to work for them until you’ve earned that money back and whatever costs they claim you have incurred while making pizza
You design original pizza styles for the company that are hugely successful and earn millions
Meanwhile you still somehow are paying back what the pizza company first gave you along with those costs
Because you signed a contract that included ownership of your pizza flavors you will never be able to earn money from them beyond the 15% the pizza company gives you after the initial money has been paid back
Meanwhile your manager and the label are multi-millionaires because of the pizza flavors you created

How is this any different than a loan from the bank?

OP is right.

Artists sign a contract and should be held accountable.

thread needs more shambles tbh

Make it sound like this would be a bad thing. Might actually get some talented artists signed if the labels had some risk involved.

Half these kids cant get a single f***in hit with billion dollar labels backing them.

These arent legit contracts, theyre f***ing handouts. Yachty, kreashawn, these are f***in high risk, low reward to begin with. These ppl ARE living their best life.

I’m honestly shocked this thread isn’t locked yet

Because this misses almost every way that labels manage to be predatory

From management firms encouraging artists to sign bad deals, to signing them in NY to keep them on contract for years, to offering large advances so that artists feel like they’re winning only to get trapped, to falsifying profit to prevent royalty payments, to signing away merch and touring money etc

Absolutely artists need to be educated enough to not make these mistakes. But I’m not gonna blame the artists who just wanna make music and earn an income for not understanding the ins and outs of the industry or for signing a bad deal in desperation