What Would Happen if Drake Went Independent?

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“If Drake goes independent, the music industry is done.” or at least that’s what Steve Stoute, a veteran record label exec and former manager of Nas, Mary J. Blige and producer of work by Mariah Carey, Will Smith and Gwen Stefani seems to think. You see - a few months ago, in late July, Steve Stoute had something to say about Drake during a panel discussion at SelectCon, a sports, music and finance entrepreneurship conference. Collaborating with Russ, who recently became an independent artist after choosing not to renew his record deal after it ran its course, the two industry veterans talked first about the pros and cons of staying independent or signing to a label. Russ said: “if Drake posts a picture on the ‘Gram of his new album, link in bio — f–k a link in bio, “new album out” — and he was fully independent, Drake will make $10 million a week for f–ing 60 weeks.” Steve Stoute added: “I said this before, Drake is about to come out in the next six months, Drake is about to get the biggest bag in the history of the music business by far. Both A and B, they don’t want that to happen. Because the day that happens, they might as well close the business down.”

You see - over the last decade or two, really since the birth of major streaming services, the logistics of distributing music have become massively less complicated than in the past - without the complications of manufacturing, distributing and selling physical music media, a large piece of the utility of the record label is lost. And with it being the case it’s almost always more profitable to own your own masters rather than to allow a record label to possess them, the list of successful independent musicians and independent labels has been growing rapidly for the last decade. Hell, it’s become almost a requirement in hip hop to blow up before you sign - after all, FL Studio only costs $200 and if XXXTentacion could get billions of streams after recording most of his early music with a Blue Snowball, why can’t just anyone do it? Well, to be honest, it remains the case that the vast majority - more than 95% of mainstream musicians are signed to major labels, despite clearly available financial incentives to hold your own masters and distribute your own music. So while Drake may be able to use his massive gravitational pull as the best selling artist of the streaming era to go independent and still make a killing, is Steven Stoute spitting facts when he claims that Drake going independent would cause a mass exodus of artists leaving their record labels? Or does he just want to promote independent artistry to prospective clients, being the CEO of UnitedMasters, a company that provides advertising, brand partnerships and distribution to independent artists? Let’s look at some actual numbers and facts about the independent music industry and hopefully learn a bit about when independent artists can profit - and when they don’t.

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#Volksgeist #Drake #IndieMusic #SteveStoute #Industry #MusicIndustry #Russ #Vice #Musicians

Видео What Would Happen if Drake Went Independent? канала Volksgeist