{"id":106348,"date":"2024-10-18T15:10:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T19:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/10\/18\/what-happens-when-an-artist-gets-dropped-from-their-record-label-its-complicated\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T15:10:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T19:10:20","slug":"what-happens-when-an-artist-gets-dropped-from-their-record-label-its-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/10\/18\/what-happens-when-an-artist-gets-dropped-from-their-record-label-its-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When an Artist Gets Dropped From Their Record Label? It\u2019s\u00a0Complicated."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tRicky Montgomery began rehearsing for his tour in late January. The singer\/songwriter played shows across America before heading to Europe, Asia and Australia, returning to the U.S. in June. \u201cIt had been a long year, and I was also sick,\u201d he says. That\u2019s when he found out his label had dropped him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Market,<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018A Fundamental Change\u2019: How Major Labels Learned to Stop Worrying and Love\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\t\u201cThere was a disconnect as far as creative direction,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe label didn\u2019t really know what to do with me, and instead of listening to my ideas, they just tried to apply standard pop templates. Ed Sheeran<\/a> was the one they thought would work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat \u201cdisconnect\u201d is the subject of Montgomery\u2019s upcoming single, a downcast acoustic ballad out October 24 called \u201cSuperfan.\u201d He sings with a deflated quaver: \u201cTeam just got the numbers in\/Said try it more like Ed Sheeran\/But he\u2019s not me, and I\u2019m not him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeing dropped hasn\u2019t hurt Montgomery\u2019s career, though. In fact, he\u2019s now earning more streams \u2014 around 2 million streams a day across his catalog \u2014 than he was previously. \u201cFor better or worse, it\u2019s a social media content game now,\u201d says the 31-year-old singer, who has close to 2 million TikTok followers. \u201cSo if you\u2019ve been investing your time into that, the odds are that you\u2019re going to be totally fine if a label decides to drop you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting dropped is in vogue this year: Two of the biggest breakout artists of 2024, Chappell Roan<\/a> and Shaboozey<\/a>, were both cut by major labels before their recent explosive success. And more acts could soon join their ranks, because the major labels have been cutting costs by slashing staff \u2014 and dropping artists.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEach time there have been major staff layoffs across the label systems, concurrently there were artists released from rosters,\u201d says Leon Morabia<\/strong>, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law. \u201cSome artists are really happy about it and relieved, and some artists are very upset. Their reaction ultimately depends on how much they depend on the record company to do what they do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDropped acts lose access to an extended support team; plans for upcoming releases must be jettisoned or heavily reworked; tours can be scrapped. That said, Lulu Pantin<\/strong>, founder of loop legal, is adamant that \u201cbeing dropped has no bearing on long-term success.\u201d And this is probably more true than ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMore Hits Debut in the Hot 100\u2019s Top 10, But They Also Burn Out More\u00a0Quickly\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tDuring a recent interview with<\/a> Bloomberg<\/em>, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer<\/strong> pointed out that when he joined the music industry in 1985, labels had a lock on manufacturing, distribution and radio. \u201cWe had a lot more power,\u201d he said. Today, in contrast, \u201cthe artists have at the very least equal power to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s because they can make music cheaply, and promote it internationally, without ever leaving the house. \u201cArtists have to be as good, if not better, at marketing as any professional marketer now,\u201d Montgomery says. \u201cThey are, by default, the most experienced person in the room in marketing meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, the buttons that labels can push \u2014 to get radio play, appearances on award shows and late-night television, and prominent press placements \u2014 no longer guarantee real fans. As a result, Montgomery says, \u201cLabels only want to focus on Tiktok or Reels or YouTube Shorts right now. I had three times as many meetings about TikTok strategy as I did about music. There\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t do that stuff on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, getting dropped can be jarring, a corporate version of a breakup. And like a breakup, disentangling takes a while, as it requires additional negotiation between the artist\u2019s team and the label. \u201cIt\u2019s not just, someone waves a magic wand and then you\u2019re dropped,\u201d says an A&R who left a major label job earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis legal wrangling can be crucial for the next phase of an artist\u2019s career. In a typical record deal, the label enjoys exclusive rights to any songs delivered during the contract period \u2014 even if they haven\u2019t come out yet. For artists who are being shown the door, then, \u201cthe key point is who gets ownership of the unreleased music,\u201d Pantin says.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"workers,<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHave Labels Hit a Breaking Point With Data-Driven\u00a0A&R?\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tRecord companies are reluctant to give these rights up, since they helped fund the songs\u2019 creation. To secure the return of unreleased music, artists may have to give the label a concession, either in the form of \u201can \u2018override\u2019 payment or a royalty on sales and streams,\u201d Pantin adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the label refuses to give up the rights to unreleased songs, artists have one other option. \u201cI\u2019ve called labels and asked them to waive the re-recording restriction,\u201d says Tiffany Almy<\/strong>, founder of PKA Law. The re-recording restriction is in place to prevent an artist from putting out a competing version of a song the label already released, a tactic made famous by Taylor Swift<\/a> with her Taylor\u2019s Version<\/em> album re-recordings. But the restriction serves no purpose if the label never put out the track in the first place. And if the artist succeeds in convincing the record company to nix that provision, they can then re-cut their music\u00a0 \u2014 on their own dime this time \u2014 for release.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother point of negotiation when artists and labels are uncoupling: The act may be able to obtain some additional money, depending on the structure of their contract. \u201cThe deal could be worth $500,000, and $150,000 is given to the artist on signing and the rest is for recording,\u201d the former A&R executive explains. \u201cThen when you deliver the album, whatever\u2019s left from the fund is supposed to go into the artist\u2019s pocket.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorneys try to prepare for these situations long before the label is even thinking about trimming rosters by including what\u2019s known as \u201ca pay-or-play provision\u201d in the artist\u2019s initial contract. (The initial deal negotiation period is when lawyers push for other protections as well: \u201cI always try to build in caveats that the re-recording restriction doesn\u2019t apply if the track doesn\u2019t get released within a certain period of time,\u201d Almy says.)<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"TikTok<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAre Major Labels Cooling on Viral\u00a0Artists?\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tThe pay-or-play clause ensures that, \u201cIf you get dropped in the middle of the contract period, you will be entitled to at least a portion of the remainder of the fund,\u201d explains Oren Agman<\/strong>, an entertainment attorney. \u201cLabels are now capping that, so they\u2019ll give you maybe 30% or 40% of the balance. [But] if you have no pay-or-play provision, then you\u2019re not getting anything other than the advance.\u201d Jodie Shihadeh<\/strong>, a music lawyer, calls this provision \u201cone of the last key points\u201d when negotiating a record deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the lawyers for both sides go back and forth after an act is dropped, the artist may be stuck twiddling their thumbs. \u201cI\u2019ve seen labels delay responses for months, extending the process and keeping artists in limbo,\u201d Pantin says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat limbo period matters because an artist technically can\u2019t sign a new deal before getting out of the old agreement. Some do so anyway, figuring a label that dropped them isn\u2019t likely to spend money suing them for breach of contract. \u201cIt can be a game of chicken,\u201d the former A&R notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor an artist\u2019s collaborators, it may be more than that \u2014 they don\u2019t have the potential cushion of a pay-or-play clause. Many labels give a producer half their fee for a track up front, and fork over the rest only when that track comes out, Almy says. A dropped artist may mean a shelved track; for a producer, a shelved track represents lost income. \u201cI\u2019ve called the A&R at the label that dropped the artist and asked them to consider paying the producer for the work that they already did,\u201d Almy says. Mixers are often in the same predicament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists have it easier, because they can just start recording and releasing as they see fit. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some artists where it really helped that they got dropped, even though they didn\u2019t want to be,\u201d Shihadeh says.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Gigi<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHow Gigi Perez Turned Queer Longing Into a Breakout Hit: ‘Representation Gives People the Ability\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tAnother recent post-drop success story is Gigi Perez<\/a>, who parted ways with Interscope earlier this year. \u201cI was stuck inside of a machine that didn\u2019t work or make sense for me and I was unhappy,\u201d she wrote<\/a> in a lengthy message on Instagram on March 8. \u201cI think a ton of artists were\/are in this position as this new model of the music industry changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe ended her post on an upbeat note: \u201cLet\u2019s go, bitches.\u201d And in July, she released \u201cSailor Song,\u201d a muscular folk track that works as well in an arena as it does around a campfire. It proved to be effective on TikTok as well: Users were soon soundtracking tens of thousands of videos with at least three different snippets of the single.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStreams of \u201cSailor Song\u201d shot up. And on October 8th, Perez announced a new label home: Island Records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ricky Montgomery began rehearsing for his tour in late January. The singer\/songwriter played shows across America before heading to Europe, Asia and Australia, returning to the U.S. in June. \u201cIt had been a long year, and I was also sick,\u201d he says. That\u2019s when he found out his label had dropped him.\u00a0 Related \u2018A Fundamental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}