Patronage

The more an aspiring musician learns about the music industry the easier it is to feel overwhelmed by the daunting way everything is set up to exploit the artists and their art. A lot of money and effort goes into promoting, marketing, and building an artist’s brand and selling their music. Labels fund the music of their artists. They promote their releases, train them, equip them and surround them with producers, musicians, and writers in the hopes that they have the right stuff to land commercial success. In exchange, they own the recordings (masters) and leverage them as much as possible. To protect their investment, labels are highly selective about who they get behind. An artist can try to convince the gatekeepers to get on board waiting for an approval that may never come, or they can go make their own career.