How Artists Can Take Back Their Power

Major record labels take an average of 80% from an artist’s music. 80%.

Let that sink in.

Is the sink inside yet?

Excellent. Now allow me to say it again: Major record labels take an average of 80% from an artist’s music. That is the equivalent of baking an entire wood-grilled, mouth-watering pizza for yourself to enjoy, only for your roommate to eat 7 slices, while leaving you 1.

If this were to happen in real-time, would you trust your roommate around your food again? Not likely.

Should that discourage you from ever making pizza for yourself ever again? Absolutely not.

All cheesy analogies aside (pun intended), artists should not have to sacrifice their intellectual property in exchange for the world’s listen. Labels justify this atrocity through uneven contracts. Such contracts handicap artists into no-win situations that eventually force them into deeper financial struggles than before. How can aspiring artists avoid this form of manipulation?

The first barrier to entry in the music industry is exposure. Most people do not search the internet for new songs to consume. Most listeners simply listen to the music that is placed right in front of them through various platforms such as:

- Radio

- Editorial Playlists

- Clubs

- Advertisements

- Word-of-mouth

The key to increasing exposure/earnings is by infusing music into different platforms without label involvement. Of course, partnering with record labels would ease this process, but that may not be worth the lifelong price paid by the artist. Instead, artists can allocate their resources into their marketing plans.

The most successful music marketing strategies are omnipresent. This means the music is thoroughly advertised across every social media platform with a consistent objective. Each of these socials have specific audiences that dominate the platform. Artists should tailor their content to permeate their target audience with respect to who dominates the platform. If this is done successfully, artists will have effectively developed an omnipresence.

Aside from marketing, artists also need to be creative with how their content is consumed. When an artist drops an album or single, they should explore different ways to present that project to their target audience. This could include virtual concerts with a creative twist, merchandise, interviews, sneak peaks, vlogs, BTS footage, etc. Each of these ideas are common, but music consumers love to see a common idea with an artist’s own creative sprinkle on top.

Eliminating the need for record labels is becoming the top mission for all artists across the entire industry. It is almost as if creatives throughout the industry are unionizing and discovering the power of their art and realizing the strength of their fan bases. Any artist can develop expansive influence without the help of manipulative corporations. They just must get creative in more ways than one.