Swans over the abyss: How labels 'freeze' musicians

Ultimate Guitar, an aggregator of guitar tabs and an information resource for musicians, published an article about a common problem in the industry: music publishers conclude contracts with artists, but for a long time refuse to release their albums, often “freezing” musicians, forcing them to look for new sources of income. While this situation may seem like exploitation, there are quite rational commercial considerations behind it, related to the desire of labels to keep control of profitable artists and maximize the profits from their creativity.

Labels aim to bring as many artists with similar sound under their wings as possible, especially when a new sound is gaining popularity. They often sign all-inclusive or 360 contracts that cover every possible source of income – album sales, touring, merch, endorse, and even TV appearance fees. These terms look cannibal, but if the artist is ready for legal work and the label behaves professionally, both parties can win. The label invests in the promotion of the artist, funding studios, video clips and photo shoots, and the artist gets the opportunity to develop and earn.

However, this logic of calculation creates risks. The audience may not accept the new recording of the star, so the label is trying to "squeeze" from the artist the maximum quality material, using warming up algorithms. If this fails, the artist risks being abandoned, and the label will try to compensate for the losses by promoting another artist.

Examples of such situations are given by well-known musicians: British singer Raye (Raye) has been waiting for years for the release of her debut album, which was ready, but the label postponed the release until the single “Call On Me” was successful; Joanna Lovek (JoJoJo) also for a long time could not release her third album, despite the fact that the artist’s team prepared three versions of the tracklists and all the necessary materials; Lupe Fiasco (Lupe Fiasco), Sky Ferreira (Amanda Palmer); even Metallica in 1994 came out of the “Sky Ferreira”. a "strong" contract.

The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence could make matters worse: labels could use AI to create new recordings of artists without their input, as well as require artists to accelerate content production. This could lead to even greater exploitation of musicians, as they will have fewer opportunities to defend their rights and interests. In the end, artists find themselves at the bottom of the food chain, where their interests are not protected.