On Monday, American rapper and actor, Bow Wow shared his rant on the music industry via the social media platform, X. The first post read:
“Can we please bring back artist development at these labels…. Do these labels even care about these artist[s]? Y’all be throwing them on platforms knowing they not ready. A boxer is trained and taught before battle. We just keep throwing these subpar [a**] artist[s] out here with no proper teaching.”
He goes on to explain how there are so many artists that have the potential to be top in the game in this generation, but they are not getting the attention they deserve. Instead labels are monopolizing on up-and-coming artists with barely any professional training.
I-along with many of Bow Wow’s followers that were flooding his comments-think the hip-hop star could be on to something with his statements. Time and time again we hear stories of how the music industry has majorly screwed over artists, songwriters and producers. Some of the most disappointing stories I’ve heard surround up-and-coming artists that are seduced by the little taste of fame labels give them. They sign minimally negotiated deals that end up leaving them with basically nothing.
These contracts, like the infamous “360 Deal,” are no stranger to any type of musician regardless of status as well. Celebrities like Lady Gaga, TLC and Toni Braxton have all cited being stuck in a bad contract at points in their careers that hindered their work and didn’t pay them.
With Bow Wow’s thoughts in mind, I wonder-could this newer approach to A&R and signing artists with no blueprint to their short-rising careers be intentional? Could this be a part of these top industry executives’ maniacal plan to screw over young creatives at any chance they get for profit?
Maybe I’m just cynical, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Streaming platforms have allowed music to be extremely more accessible than it was when you had to buy physical CDs and records. Social media such as Instagram Reels and Tik Tok push certain songs to circulate more with viral trends-this can cause an artist to blow up in the matter of days. I think labels have caught on to this and can look at up-and-coming artists as disposables for quick cash. Artist development may not be as necessary monetarily-wise for music industry tycoons because it’s so easy now to just get viral-but unfortunately while music executives could gain a great amount of profit from this, the artists lose the most.
With news of the Writers’ Strike coming to an end last month, I’ve been wondering-why hasn’t the music industry done something like this?
I’ve been observing a sense of symmetry between the struggles of both music artists and writers in Hollywood pre-strike. There’s a similar system of exploitation between CEO’s and the ones actually making the work. Also, as tech continues to advance, the issues both groups face in these tech transitions are almost interchangeable. When considering the Writers’ Strike, the transition from cable to streaming in television opened up a lot of doors for film and television. It also brought up many challenges. As the industry has been navigating through a film streaming boom, the people that were getting the short end of the stick were the same ones Hollywood was built on the backs of-the writers. There is no show without a script-similar to how there is no music without musicians.
This strike wasn’t just over a minimum wage. It encompassed the overall treatment of writers and pushed to protect the essence of their work. Over the past ten years a lot has shifted in the production process of film and television. With streaming services continuing to grow, so is the demand for new content. Writers have reported being treated like disposables in tight conditions with minimal benefits.
“They only hire us when they need us, and they only keep us around for as long as they want us, and then they go off and profit off our backs, assuming we’re fungible,” said TV comedy writer Patric Verrone during one of the strikes reported in the article, “Writers Face a New Deadline: Their Industry’s Survival.”
The very nature of the creation process was also getting eliminated by major Hollywood studios. Writers reported issues surrounding one of the most quintessential aspects of their job that leads to the countless amazing innovations we see on TV-the writer’s room.
As more serious discussions have emerged around A.I. in Hollywood, there has also been the threat of Generative Artificial Intelligence models like Chat GPT-another key aspect of the strike. Writers shouldn’t have to worry about A.I. stealing their jobs as Hollywood wouldn’t have to pay these A.I. models for generated scripts.
While on strike, writers, producers and directors were banned from creating any type of work- no matter how minimal. Soon we could see a visible drought in film and television content. After 148 days, the strike ended with a new three-year contract drawn up between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that better catered to the needs and concerns of writers and was mutually agreed upon.
Going back to the music industry-with threats of A.I. stealing work, bad pay wages with streaming services and a lack of recognition of worth in their industry, songwriters, musicians and producers face almost identical struggles as the WGA did. What I’ve learned however is that while music industry workers could gain a lot of inspiration from the Writers’ Strike, mimicking this is not as simple for them and could even cause federal intervention.
“A lot of musicians are really angry now. I get messages all the time asking ‘Why aren’t we on strike?’ ” said co-founder of the nonprofit group, United Musicians and Allied Workers, Joey DeFrancesco in an interview with LA Times. “Writers and actors are on strike demanding changes in how streaming platforms compensate labor. They’re fighting at the bargaining table. Most musicians don’t even have a seat at that table.”
Why don’t musicians have a seat? Because in order to strike you need to be able to unionize. Unions for the most part in the music industry are not permitted by the government, making striking for musicians in many cases illegal.
The last popular and successful strike in the music industry occurred back in 1942 when the American Federation of Musicians held a two year long strike against the recording industry. The issue on the forefront was the fact that recording technology was advancing, and musicians weren’t getting payed enough based on royalties for their recorded performances. During The Recording Ban of 1942, over 100,000 of artists with the AFM withheld their work until a contract was mutually agreed upon with a trust fund for performers.
The Pitchfork article, “Why Songwriters Can’t Have Their Own Writers Strike—Yet,” highlights the thoughts of Guitarist and AFM member Marc Ribot, and explains how recording companies were eventually able to find loopholes in these contracts to pay less money.
“When the AFM won in the 1940s, they negotiated contracts with major labels guaranteeing fair pay for all member musicians that are still in place today, protecting recording artists on those labels,” the article states. “But for decades, those companies have been outsourcing production and working relationships to smaller indie labels, which aren’t subject to union contract terms.”
Following World War II, the Lea Act (1946) and Taft-Hartley Act (1947)-both passed under conservative administrations-limited any further pay wage discussions amongst the AFM.
The AFM also didn’t unionize well after this because they were racially divided. The LA Times article, “Why Can’t Pop Musicians Strike? No Unions To Start,” explained how the AFM failed to organize properly again after these acts.
“In the ‘50s, the AFM, owing in part to racist beliefs about Black music, didn’t organize then-emerging rock and R&B acts,” the article says. “Black musicians organized valiantly, but segregation limited their abilities to perform and benefit from the trust fund.”
The article also explained how the Reagan administration had impacted labor rights for those in the music industry through their anti-union approach in the 1980’s. In 1983 the non-profit, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, was formed. The group sought for union status and went to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to achieve this. Instead, composers and lyricists were ruled to be independent contractors-making it illegal to form any type of union.
Federal antitrust and copyright laws since then have made it even harder for songwriters, performers and producers to band together or take their music off any streaming platforms.
Currently many of today’s songwriters, musicians, performers, and producers are independent contractors. If they form a union or withdraw their work, they can get majorly sued and people can’t afford that on less-than-deserved wages in the first place.
The AFM doesn’t have much power either because it technically only deals with live performers, so it can’t really strongly push against some of today’s antics. The AFM has introduced a set of rules for A.I. in music moving forward and having been pushing for artists rights against artificial intelligence. Other smaller music nonprofits have also been pushing against A.I.
What could help those working in the music industry is solidarity amongst all workers to push for certain laws that could aid them in this long complicated journey of labor rights.
The Pitchfork article noted the “Protect Working Musicians Act of 2021.” If this bill was passed, then musicians could maneuver around antitrust laws to push for better pay without getting sued by stream services.
Other bills focusing on the music industry and labor force on a broader scale could help artists band together for better wages and treatment, but the problem is a lot of these bills haven’t received much traction. Representatives that are anti-union are also more likely to push these bills back.
That’s why for the music industry, the battle may not be on the picket line, but it’s definitely in the voting booth. If industry workers could come together to raise awareness of these bills to their local representatives, maybe some traction could occur and hope could be found to finally restore some integrity back to the music industry.
