16 Times Singers Stood Up And Called Out The Music Industry – BuzzFeed

The best of the internet, delivered straight to your inbox!Former Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui alleged that, despite having billions of streams, the royalties she receives aren’t even enough to pay her rent.BuzzFeed StaffShe continued, “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”Her former label has not publicly responded to her comments.She continued, “And we’re not trying to be a sad story. If that was the case, we would’ve been on everybody’s talk show talking about how broke we are. We haven’t done that. I know it’s hard to believe because we’ve sold so many albums, but it is possible. That’s the deal here, so, and we’re not happy at all.”At the time, reps for Arista Records and LaFace Records told the LA Times that the band members had been appropriately compensated under a “fair, industry-standard agreement.”The group and their label later settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit. It resulted in a contract that was more fair.In 2023, Chili alleged to People that, because of bad contracts, the band members were unfairly compensated for album sales and being charged for “gifts” from their label. She said, “When money came in, we were splitting, like, $5,000.”She continued, “We’re the reason [LaFace parent company] Arista Records first got security. We kind of held Clive Davis hostage, like, ‘You’re the head guy. How do we fix this?'”She continued, “Now, this is going back years ago. Years ago. I was a teenager, but I was very much with my [now] husband at that time. He was even stood in that office while I was told they weren’t gonna spend any money on the album —pushing the album — but I was to go hookup with someone megafamous and basically leech off the back of someone else’s fame.Was I not good enough? Was I not good enough to invest in that you would rather use me in that way?”Cher’s former label has not publicly responded to her claims.Neither Jay-Z, Azealia Banks, nor Roc Nation have publicly responded to M.I.A.’s claims.She continued, “When I signed, I didn’t really know what was in my contract. I was young. I think I was like 20, and I ain’t know everything that was in my contract. So when I got with Roc Nation, I got management, real management. I got real lawyers. They was like, ‘Do you know that this is in your contract?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s crazy — no, I didn’t know.'”1501 founder Carl Crawford denied that he or the label were preventing Megan from releasing music, telling Billboard, “It’s a whole lie. Nothing is true that she said. Me being greedy and taking money from her, that’s crazy. I never tried to take nothing from her. The only thing we ever did was give, give, give.”A few days later, in a statement to Rolling Stone, Megan said, “I’m extremely pleased that 1501 and Carl Crawford were denied the request to dissolve the Court order and try to stop my music from being released. I will proceed with the release of SUGA on Friday, March 6. To be clear, I will stand up for myself and won’t allow two men to bully me. This has nothing to do with anyone else including Jay-Z, stop deflecting and trying to make this a publicity stunt. I want my rights.”Megan and 1501 settled their legal dispute in 2023. In a statement, a rep for the label told Rolling Stone, “Megan Thee Stallion and 1501 Certified Entertainment are pleased to announce that they have mutually reached a confidential settlement to resolve their legal differences. As part of the arrangement, both parties have agreed to amicably part ways. Both Megan and 1501 are pleased to put this matter behind them and move forward with the next chapter of their respective businesses. All of us at 1501 wish Megan the very best in her life and career.”The label sent floppy discs containing the Love Symbol to media outlets. However, Prince continued demonstrating his frustrations, eventually writing the word “slave” on his face.In 2023, Prince’s former publicist, Michael Pagnotta, told Variety, “There had been a number of huge deals in the early ’90s — Michael Jackson, Madonna, R.E.M. — and of course Prince had to have the biggest one. So we put out a press release that we jiggered together that said it was $100 million deal — but nobody really bothered to look into the details very closely, because he had to sell 5 million copies of each record to get the next $10 million advance, so that number was really bullshit. It’s the music business, right? And for a minute, it seemed like he was okay. But then he started to run into problems, because they didn’t want to release as many records as fast as he wanted. How can you accommodate a major artist who wants to release a record every three or six months? You just can’t do it.”He continued, “Prince was constantly doing the unexpected — his reputation was ‘Don’t be surprised by anything.’ But it becomes apparent pretty quickly that he’s doing this so he can say, ‘Well, you guys signed Prince, but I’m not Prince anymore: I’m the symbol,’ which of course isn’t going to fly, but we decided to have fun with it — which actually annoyed him even more. It was just another crazy thing from Prince, and we thought we could use it as a publicity stunt to get some attention, right?”In 1996, Prince left Warner Bros, and a few years later, he reverted back to the name Prince.She also said, “We were told by one massive producer in the US that we shouldn’t be writing, we should just be given songs.”In response, Simon Cowell, who founded Syco Records, Little Mix’s original label, reportedly told The Sun, “If we’d have known about that at the time, whoever said that, he or she would have been fired.”She continued, “I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.  Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.  Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it…Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it. This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.  When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.  Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make.I will always be proud of my past work. But for a healthier option, Lover will be out August 23. Sad and grossed out,💔Taylor”He also alleged, “Out of courtesy, I personally texted Taylor at 9:06pm, Saturday, June 29th to inform her prior to the story breaking on the morning of Sunday, June 30th so she could hear it directly from me. I guess it might somehow be possible that her dad Scott, 13 Management lawyer Jay Schaudies (who represented Scott Swift on the shareholder calls) or 13 Management executive and Big Machine LLC shareholder Frank Bell (who was on the shareholder calls) didn’t say anything to Taylor over the prior 5 days.  I guess it’s possible that she might not have seen my text.  But, I truly doubt that she ‘woke up to the news when everyone else did’….Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career.  She chose to leave. As to her comments about ‘being in tears or close to it’ anytime my new partner Scooter Braun’s name was brought up, I certainly never experienced that.  Was I aware of some prior issues between Taylor and Justin Bieber?  Yes.  But there were also times where Taylor knew that I was close to Scooter and that Scooter was a very good source of information for upcoming album releases, tours, etc, and I’d reach out to him for information on our behalf.  Scooter was never anything but positive about Taylor.”You can read Scott’s full post here.A few months later, Scooter told Tony Gonzalez’s Wide Open podcast, “I went through some drama recently. … And people question your integrity. They talk shit. You’ve got to know your intention. I think you should have no regrets in life unless you do something with malicious intent. I go through life with no malicious intent. Hurt people hurt people — they’re going to project it onto you.”The next day, Punch tweeted, “I am a person and you guys are hurting my feelings.”Then, in response to a quote tweet accusing him of not letting SZA release her music because he “has superiority complex that makes it impossible for [him] to have healthy relationships with women,” he said, “Wow. That was a great read except you’re 100% wrong.”In late 2024, Punch “stepped away abruptly” from managing SZA. Per Rolling Stone, in the Instagram comments of a post about their split, she said, “To be clear I love punch deeply ! NO ONE should be attacking him or being cruel on my behalf . Sometimes ppl grow apart and that’s okay.”In another tweet, she said, “I’ve done everything they asked me, I switched genres, I worked 7 days a week, ask anyone in the music game, they know. I’m done being a polite pop star. I want to make my album now, please that is all I want.”In response, a rep for Polydor, her label at the time, told NME, “We were saddened to read RAYE’s tweets last night and have reached out to her management team to discuss and offer our full support.”A few weeks later, in a since-deleted social media statement, Raye reportedly said, “Today I am speaking to you as an independent artist. Polydor and I have spoken and have agreed to part ways.I want to say a big thank you to the Polydor team, and all the individuals who have fought for me, believed in me and worked so hard for me across the years.Polydor are an incredible infrastructure powerhouse team, unfortunately we have different goals artistically and I am very grateful to them for giving me a graceful, smooth exit to start my next chapter as an artist.”They continued, “Everything is marketing,…and they are doing this to basically every artist these days. I just wanna release music, man. And I deserve better tbh. I’m tired.”A rep for her label at the time, Astralwerks-Capitol, told Variety, “Our belief in Halsey as a singular and important artist is total and unwavering. We can’t wait for the world to hear their brilliant new music.”You can watch the video here.Gavin’s label hasn’t publicly responded to his TikTok.However, a year later, he made a new TikTok video set to his parody song. He said, “Hey TikTok, I’m sorry I doubted you. Thanks for a great 2022.”Her label has not publicly commented on her claims.She also said it was “criminal” that someone was making money from the former band’s streams, “but not us.”She said, “We don’t have that protection that we should have, you know what I mean? Like, we should do our own type of strike.”However, elsewhere in the interview, she revealed that the Fifth Harmony members had “just got [their] trademark back thanks to Simon [Cowell],” which would, in part, give them access to the money their songs continue to make.Fifth Harmony’s label hasn’t publicly responded to Ally’s claims.She said, “The songwriters [and] the producers, they all make money off of it too, which, they gotta eat too…You know, it is what it is. I’m not attached to making a fortune off of what we created, you know, ’cause that’s not what it was for me. It wasn’t what it was while I was in it, and it’s not what it is for me now.”The band’s label has not publicly responded to Lauren’s claims.She also said she messages other artists to offer her support.She said, “I do have a sense of feeling protective of young women in music. I really hope my joy can stand for others to know that it’s available to them and to not give up. I enjoy feeling my power, which hasn’t been available to me for a really long time, and I’d love to give that gift to others if I can.”

Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharris1/times-singers-called-out-the-music-industry