American rapper, Kanye West, is still not done with music record labels and he has taken to his Twitter page to speak more on it.
The Jesus Walks crooner promised to give back artistes on his GOOD music label the 50% share he has of their masters. He wrote: “I’m giving all Good Music artists back the 50% share I have of their masters.”
The rapper spoke further on this on his interview with Billboard. According to him, music labels can’t have old rules to new games. When he was asked if he felt music contracts were predatory by nature and also enslavement, Kanye said: “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. You’re locked in; once you’re locked in you can ask no questions. Name me one contract which allocates the amount of time you get with the finance team? It’s audit or nothing. Insane.” Speaking on his current strategy, Kanye said he would work to rip apart the structure that pays people for music.
“Free All Artists 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. Predominantly the equity i.e the artist!! The balance of power is too off, the gap between major label profit and artist 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 the Matrix. It will happen: Remember, Ye told you so!!”
