Kanye West unveils his plans to “free all artists by any means necessary”
Kanye West has elaborated on his plan to “free all artists by any means necessary” in an ongoing tirade against the music industry.
This week, Kanye suggested new guidelines for recording and publishing deals in the future of the music industry, spending the last week discussing contracts, masters and rights issues in the music industry on Twitter and advocating for fairer treatment for all artists.
After revealing that he’s giving all artists signed to his label, G.O.O.D. Music, the 50 per cent share he holds of their masters back to them, the rapper and Presidential candidate has shared further details of his plan.
In a new interview with Billboard, West said he is committed to “doing whatever is necessary so artists own their own copyrights”.
“Everyone knows this is a broken system that needs to be fixed,” West said. “Currently, artists take advances to make records and yet when they repay those advances the record company still owns the records. Imagine a bank lending you money to buy a house and then when you’ve repaid that mortgage, them telling you they still own it.
“You have to adapt. You can’t have old rules for new games. No other business in the world would suggest you don’t adopt to a completely new supply chain and income sources.”
He added: “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 artist profit too wide; and I will work to re-think the design of the entire way we move in this space.”
As part of his current tirade against the music industry, Kanye also claimed he would help Taylor Swift get her masters back after they were purchased by Scooter Braun in a deal that saw the infamous music manager become the owner of Swift’s former label, Big Machine.
Article originally featured in NME
