It is pretty evident that the record industry is and has been struggling for a while now. Digital piracy is extremely widespread and people just aren’t buying music like they used to. That being said, music is still a business, and record companies still try to make money by embracing digital sales, tours, and merchandise, the main methods of money making now that album sales are down. Profits from tours and merchandise used to go right to the artist, but now record companies will try to sign artists to what is known as a 360 deal in their contract which means that they get a percentage of basically anything they sell related to their music.
This is exactly the case of Lupe Fiasco and his label, Atlantic records. Lupe has been with Atlantic for years, and he has released 3 albums with them now. However, his most recent release, entitled LASERS, was delayed by Atlantic for over 3 years. Lupe refused to sign a 360 deal with Atlantic, because he felt that it was unfair to him, and in return Atlantic refused to release his album. It is pretty unsettling to think that the record label would do that to one of their most successful and critically acclaimed artists, and it ended up taking a fan signed petition and protest march outside of the Atlantic headquarters to finally persuade them to release the album.
The notion that a corporation has that kind of control over the art that is released to the public is scary to me and I hope to everyone else as well. Even though it is inevitable to have some dilution in the media, especially in the music industry, , the freeze-out that Lupe experienced with Atlantic sets a scary precedent for other music labels and I hope this trend stops where it started.
No comments:
Post a Comment