VIDEO: How the Music Industry is Raping Artists and Making a Killing
- Sep 12, 2015
- 3 min read
This week we are featuring a very important documentary at Lovingood Filmclub: Artifact.
We truly believe this documentary sheds a shocking light on how the music industry works and more importantly, how the industry is financially raping their own artists through outrageous long-form contracts and entertainment pork.
In today’s blown-out celebrity culture, musicians are the hottest, sexiest commodities out there, yet they are the lowest paid of the bunch. Even some broadcast newscasters make considerably more money than some music artists. It is a common myth that artists make 8-figures. In reality, your typical music artist forks over an average of 85% of their music sales to the label, in addition to paying retail for all recording and distribution costs incurred by the label as debt carried forward, album after album. These costs tend to be in the millions for each album depending upon how many albums that artist sells, whether they tour, and how elaborate the tour is. The most ludicrous element of all is that this same principle carries over to digital downloads. So, in essence, the more albums the artist sells, the further in debt they become. Sounds like a legal prostitution ring to me, and the labels, year after year have made billions off of this celebrity slave trade. For most artists, there is no other viable recourse other than going independent.
The most painful question asked in Artifact, that is almost rhetorical is:
Do you know of any mainstream, successful artist or band that has made it without the support of a major label?
The answer at this pint point in time, unfortunately is no.
We can identify many artists that got their start through independent channels of distribution like YouTube (Jessie J, Shawn Mendez, Justin Bieber) but other than giving them their first line of exposure, it’s only after they’ve signed their first record deal that you start hearing them on the radio, performing on SNL, at award shows and late night and daily talk shows. The labels control the marketing and distribution and artists have no other way of making it big without the trusty record label. Artists are desperate for that record deal, and will do anything to get one…including neglecting to consult an attorney before signing and negotiating the terms in their favor.
In the video above, it explains the outrageous earmarks and what politicians call “pork” that are included in the fine print of these deals. In the documentary, you get a glimpse of how thick those contracts are (sometimes 100-200 pages long) and just how much legal prowess is needed to get what you want, yet rarely do.
The question above is the underlying question throughout the documentary: should we sign our lives away again to a label that is only going to continue to screw us, or go independent and drive a new path in the industry. But what options are there down the independent path?
It was only 8 years ago that the first iPhone was introduced and just over 10 that we first got a glimpse of Facebook. Have we built a foundation to support independent musicians online through these mediums? Will we be able to fight piracy so those independent musicians that we love so much won’t have to starve, but make a living doing what they love…giving us the music that gives us the will to keep living every day? These questions still plague the industry to this day and we have yet to find a solution or honest answer to these questions, but in Artifact, we finally get a glimpse of what it would mean to try.
Jared Leto, the lead singer of “30 Seconds to Mars” provides an authentic and strikingly calm battle. In essence, he moves through the battlefield like a swift fox that gives his troops the confidence to continue with the ease and comfort that somehow, everything will be okay. Leto is a talent that we have yet to see more of. His talent surmounts most Hollywood artists today.
With a successful band and an Oscar, we have only seen the beginning of his brilliance. He shows us a different side in Artifact. A side of leadership, dedication and the will to always stay true to not only ourselves, but to the team so we can all flourish in the successes of what we created together.
Without further ado, Lovingood Filmclub is pleased to present, Artifact:
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