MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / MUSIC

Kanye West outlines plan to 'free all artistes' from record labels, urges music industry to 'break the model'

Kanye West, who has been tweeting about the subservience required from an artiste by giant record labels, has highlighted the need for the music industry to change with the times

For the first time in a long time, an internationally successful musician has spoken out openly against the music industry and its exploitative contracts. David Bowie, Prince, Mick Jagger, Axl Rose, to name a few, have all spoken about it in the past, but to no avail. At the end of the day, artistes have stayed indebted to giant labels who virtually dictate every important decision in their careers. But, now, Kanye West is rallying against the ill practices of the music industry.

Kanye, who has been tweeting regularly over the past week about the subservience required from an artiste by giant record labels, spoke to Billboard Magazine in an exclusive interview about his plans for the music industry. Explaining why he's doing this, Kanye says, "I’m Team 'Free Artistes'. I’m committed to doing whatever is necessary so artistes own their own copyrights. The response is awesome because everyone knows this is a broken system that needs to be fixed".

For Kanye, artistes owning their master recording is the most important. Speaking about how predatory these recording contracts are, Ye says, "You only need to look back to the early days of the record companies and see how predatory they were. Old execs admit it. The contracts are almost the same now. The shape, the terminology... And yet, in that time we moved to a completely digital age. Has the attitude of the labels and the structure in which our music moves on our side changed to that degree? No, it has not."

Answering critics who say artistes would not be successful without these giant labels and their contracts, Kanye says, "What I outlined was in no way linked to me being successful and fortunate in my success. Asking for major labels to adapt their royalty portals is for everyone, especially those unable to afford a team. The music business is new now. You sign to a major, you put your songs in a huge pot of titles they use to negotiate with. Their power now comes not only in selling but investing our songs into apps, DSP platforms and so on."

"We create their value in getting our songs to earn us sales, but also equity. Removing things like [label-wide licenses] is just me pointing out the old deals cannot just [change] by adding the word 'streaming' in the sales section. The business changed. Our catalogs, combined with other catalogs, equals POWER. If we contribute to that power, we get paid. Period. That’s for all. Every single record involved in helping get an equity play over the line is a shareholder in the equity it gained. Small, large, makes no difference. Break the model. The ARTISTE IS THE EQUITY!"

Ye then stressed on the need for the music industry to adapt saying, "You have to adapt. You can't have old rules for new games. No other business in the world would suggest you don’t adapt to a completely new supply chain and income sources. And yet we are tied to a contract formula for vinyl. We can be nostalgic and respectful of those times but we must look at how we create in this new world, and how we make money in this world. How do you think a young artiste stays creative when he or she can’t eat?"

Talking about getting Taylor Swift's master recordings back, Ye says, "All artistes need to be free and own their rights. Taylor Swift deserves that, just like everyone else. As I mentioned before, Scooter Braun is a friend and we’ll be having that discussion." He also added that, as a musician, he'll work with anyone who treats artistes with fairness.

Finally, talking about his strategy, Ye says, "Free all artistes by any means necessary. I will work to rip apart the structure we are attached to that pays people for music. We cannot have designed streaming, but not designed a new method for payment and ownership around it where we all benefit...The balance of power is too off; the gap between major label profit and artiste profit too wide, and I will work to re-think the design of the entire way we move in this space. Streaming re-invented the wheel and we all stuck on the sidewalk wondering if we have cab fare. We have to get out of the Matrix. It will happen: Remember, Ye told you so."

Reacting to Kanye's latest comments, many Twitter users shared what they feel about it. One, totally missing the point, said, "yeah I agree, make things more fair for 'signed artistes' if things have been unfair but...as many may have made deals with the devil to be famous & make that $ in the 1st place...ain't there anything else to fight for like how about the many that literally starved to death 2day?!"

Another, supporting Ye, added, "Just think about how powerful a music-artiste union would be. That's A LOT of influence. Run it Ye." Talking about the future of the music business, a user added, "we’re going to look back in 20 years and be amazed at how much power intermediaries had through crypto and DTC platforms like Shopify and Substack, ownership is going to look very different very soon."

The same day, Kanye, who owns and operates the record label GOOD Music, tweeted, "I’m giving all Good music artistes back the 50% share I have of their masters," followed by a screenshot of his conversation with Elon Musk saying, "Now let’s have Universal match me."

Kanye's movement against the music industry makes sense as many artistes who are not big enough to hold people's attention have complained about being screwed over by recording deals and share of profits from streaming. With services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music, the functioning of the music industry has changed drastically and it only makes sense for contracts to adapt and change in similar ways. If Kanye is able to bring about a real change, it'll benefit musicians in numerous ways, but that's a long, long way to go.