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TikTok took another step to integrate itself deeper into the music streaming ecosystem on Thursday (Nov. 7), as Spotify and Apple Music users gained the ability to easily share songs on the short-form video app — posting them to their For You Page, for example, or sharing them via DM.
When TikTok’s popularity exploded in 2019 and 2020, it seemed like a competitor to many of the older streaming services. Suddenly users didn’t want to leave the addictive short-form video app to listen to songs elsewhere. TikTok proved to be especially effective at driving music discovery for younger listeners.
So it wasn’t surprising that, when Spotify celebrated new features at its Stream On event in 2023, executives poked at TikTok — “There’s a disconnect between where music is being teased and where music is actually being streamed,” for example — without naming it. In recent months, however, two platforms that once looked like rivals appear increasingly interested in collaboration.
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In November 2023, TikTok unveiled the “Add to Music App” to serve as “a direct link between discovery on TikTok and consumption on a music streaming service, making it easier than ever for music fans to enjoy the full lengthy song on the music streaming service of their choice,” as Ole Obermann, TikTok’s global head of music business development, said in a statement at the time. In addition, TikTok shuttered its own streaming service, TikTok Music, in September.
At the same time, Spotify has said it is newly focused on finding ways for users to share the music they love. For a long time, “sharing was generally seen as an afterthought to the core features on the Spotify platform,” Priscilla Chan, associate director on the business development team, explained in a blog post in September.
“Now, these partnerships and features are vitally important drivers of the viral loop of growth for Spotify,” she continued. It’s all part of the platform’s goal of “being everywhere where our existing and potential users are” to “extend our global reach.”
The federal government has ordered the dissolution of TikTok in Canada.
Canadian users will still be able to use and access the popular social media app, but the company’s Canadian operations, which has offices in Toronto and Vancouver, have been ordered to “wind down.”
This follows a national security review of TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” said Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne in a statement, reported by Canadian Press.
He also told CBC that TikTok’s Canadian operations are potentially “injurious to national security.” He wouldn’t go into specifics, but said “I know Canadians would understand when you’re saying the government of Canada is taking measures to protect national security, that’s serious.”
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Canadians will still be able to watch TikTok videos and post their own on the app, but the company will no longer be able to conduct business in the country.
TikTok, however, will not leave without a fight.
“Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest, and today’s shutdown order will do just that. We will challenge this order in court,” a spokesperson for TikTok told the national broadcaster.
TikTok has faced similar scrutiny in the United States, with an order for ByteDance to sell the platform or stop operating.
In Canada, a big part of TikTok’s operations revolve around music and it has a number of initiatives to support local creators. In April, the company launched a weekly music chart measuring viral songs on the platform in Canada.
A number of Canadian artists like Lauren Spencer Smith, Alexander Stewart, Crash Adams and, most successfully, Tate McRae, have built successful music careers on TikTok.
More on this story as it develops.
On Sept. 27, indie labels and distributors around the world received a letter from Merlin, the coalition that negotiates their licenses with TikTok and other digital services. “With no warning, TikTok walked away before negotiations even began… they do not want to renew our deal, which expires on October 31st,” Merlin’s letter said.
Instead, Merlin explained, TikTok wanted to forge deals with most of the labels and distributors the coalition represented directly, a move that Merlin read as an attempt to “fragment” its membership and “minimize” payments for indie music. (TikTok says it walked away from negotiations with Merlin due to concerns about fraudulent content from certain Merlin members making its way onto the social media app. The company also says it wanted to form closer relationships with Merlin members.)
TikTok and Merlin both declined to comment for this story.
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Since then, 12 different labels and distributors among the thousands represented by Merlin have spoken to Billboard about what they would do when their licenses expire after Halloween. Will the indies walk away, attempting to take a stand against TikTok in solidarity with Merlin? Will they renew their licenses individually? And if they do, how will those deals compare to what Merlin negotiated previously? (Nearly all of the executives who spoke to Billboard for this story requested anonymity, given most of their respective companies have non-disclosure agreements with TikTok.)
At first, one distribution executive said their company was not yet negotiating its own license with TikTok — because this exec said they were still hopeful that Merlin and TikTok might come back to the negotiating table. “We want to make sure there is no possibility with Merlin first,” the executive said. John Carnell, CEO of Phoenix Music International (PMI), had a similar view. In an email to Merlin, obtained by Billboard, Carnell said that while TikTok has approached Phoenix individually, “There is no way we would undermine Merlin’s position.”
Unlike Universal Music Group (UMG), which pulled its entire label and publishing catalog from TikTok earlier this year when its license with the platform expired amid renewal negotiations, antitrust laws prevent Merlin from forcing its members to move off of TikTok. It can’t even ask its members to collectively strike against TikTok, leaving the coalition with little choice but to accept TikTok’s decision.
Carnell ultimately decided PMI would “not be entering a deal with TikTok,” according to his email, but the other executive holdout took a different tack. This week, in a second interview, the executive said their company had decided to sign a direct deal with TikTok after all. “If I still thought that not signing would help Merlin get a new deal, or could help the independent music community, I would try to not sign,” the distribution executive said. “But even when Universal didn’t sign [a licensing deal], [TikTok] didn’t care… We have no choice [but to sign a new licensing agreement] because our artists want to be on TikTok — perhaps too much — but for them, it is very important.”
This is a commonly held sentiment among Merlin members, many of whom say their artists want to be on TikTok, and they need to oblige — or risk losing talent to competitors. In the last week, both UnitedMasters and Ditto announced that they had signed new agreements with TikTok. Steve Stoute, founder and CEO of UnitedMasters, told Billboard, “I believe we struck a fair deal with TikTok for UnitedMasters and our artists, who understand how valuable promotion can be for their reach… Merlin has done a great job representing independent labels across the world, and I am a proud Merlin member.” TikTok says that now the vast majority of Merlin members have signed direct deals with the company.
Multiple members say TikTok offered them new agreements around the time that Billboard broke the news in late September that Merlin’s negotiations with TikTok had collapsed. But not every member received an offer — which tracks, considering TikTok’s claim that fraudulent activity allegedly stemmed from specific members of Merlin. TikTok’s music licenses typically last two years, and most of the new deals offered this October will expire in late 2026.
Three sources say that the compensation terms provided under the new, individual offers from TikTok are not significantly better or worse than what Merlin previously negotiated, but that there have been some key changes. First, TikTok is now paying out music licensors based on views that videos featuring a song receives, rather than “creates” (how many videos are created with a given song in the background).
Specifically, TikTok will calculate market share based on views, and then the payment will be divided up from there. This does not mean TikTok now pays a certain royalty per view. “It makes sense,” says one indie executive. “I don’t know why they didn’t always pay based on views.” Another exec added, “It won’t lead to a major difference in how much we are paid. We are still doing the math, but it seems like there will be about a 4% difference in what we take in from TikTok, give or take.”
“TikTok was always paying us badly, so none of this is a financial problem in the short term,” says the indie label executive who initially wanted to hold out. “They are one of the biggest social media companies in the world, and the smallest revenue earner for a music company.” Another indie label source had a similar feeling. “It’s a promotional avenue more than anything else,” this person said. “I think there’s value in TikTok deals, but it’s, like, 1% of every company’s books. It’s not a big part of anyone’s business. I truly think the royalty conversation wasn’t the deal breaker, but there were other material terms that we wanted.”
One of those key term changes had to do with “ad credits,” which can also be referenced as “marketing credits.” Three sources said that the deals TikTok sent them did not include these credits, which amount to money offered by TikTok that a label can put toward advertisements and marketing on the app. One source says the previous, Merlin-negotiated agreement guaranteed a budget in the millions for ads and marketing on TikTok, with the sum of credits divided among individual members based on their size. Now, at least some labels, particularly the ones with less bargaining power, might not get them at all.
The three sources also said that while the previous contract included a “most favored nations” (MFN) clause, which gives licensors the right to the same terms and benefits as other licensors who enter similar contracts with TikTok, the new agreements did not. One also said their individual agreement included a new clause requiring “know your customer” (KYC) checks — which would require verification of artists’ identities before allowing them to upload songs — something TikTok says is designed to curb bad actors and fraudsters from getting their music on to TikTok. It also serves to place more responsibility on the labels and distributors for the content they deliver. The executive also claimed, however, that the provision’s language is vague and seems difficult to enforce.
Four sources suggested UMG’s previous licensing dispute with TikTok was the catalyst for TikTok to walk away from Merlin. “[UMG] definitely emboldened TikTok,” says one source close to the situation. “They lost that war, and they created a really bad situation for Merlin. Sony and Warner are up next year, too. If I was them, I’d be terrified right now.”
Still, another indie label executive, whose releases run through a Merlin distributor, holds a different view — that, maybe, TikTok is not so important now after all. “We’re sticking with Merlin,” the executive says. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. If this happened a year, two years ago, I’d be freaking out. But these days, TikTok isn’t moving the needle for our artists like it used to.”
While his artists used to “easily get tens of thousands of views on most TikToks without any spend,” he says the social media platform is too “saturated” now, and he’s watched as his artists’ impressions have tanked. He’s not alone. In a recent Billboard story about the modern creator campaign on TikTok, multiple digital marketing sources expressed that it is harder than ever to get a song off the ground on the service. But, as one source put it, “It’s still the best thing we have.”
“But what does not having a deal even mean at this point?” another indie label executive asked. “When these things come down, it just encourages the bootleg use of songs on these platforms. The music will be up, just not properly attributed.” During UMG’s boycott of TikTok earlier this year, it was common to still find Universal songs on the platform, just as bootlegged remixes, not as official audio. Sometimes, to skirt the effects of the boycott, top UMG stars like Olivia Rodrigo would even use these bootlegs to promote their latest releases.
TikTok originally told Merlin members that the deadline to finalize their individual agreements with the service was Oct. 25, but one label executive said they have heard that TikTok has offered extensions to certain members. Three sources believe that smaller Merlin members won’t have room to negotiate past the original boilerplate offer, but the larger players will find more wiggle room. Those who received extensions or finalized deals will not have their music removed from the app today, but TikTok says it has already started removing songs from those members that chose not to strike a deal. The company assures that the vast majority of Merlin members have already cemented their deals.
“I wish it had worked out differently between Merlin and Tiktok,” one Merlin member says. “But if our partnership needs to be direct with ByteDance in order to serve our clients, then you know, that’s the avenue that we have to take. Only time will tell how this all plays out.”
Additional Reporting by Elias Leight
TikTok is reportedly testing a feature that allows fans to pre-save upcoming albums so they will be automatically added to users’ music libraries on Spotify or Apple Music once they’re released. The news of the test was first reported by Music Ally. A rep for the platform declined to comment. Pushing for pre-saves has been […]
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming tops the list of China’s richest people, according to the Hurun Research Institute, although many of them have seen their net worth plunge over the past year.
The institute, which publishes the annual Hurun China Rich List, found that the total wealth of entrepreneurs on the list this year was $3 trillion, down 10% from the previous year.
The number of billionaires based on their net worth in U.S. dollars was also down 142, to 753. Hurun tallied 1,185 billionaires since 2021.
“The Hurun China Rich List has shrunk for an unprecedented third year running, as China’s economy and stock markets had a difficult year,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun report.
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ByteDance’s Zhang came in No. 1 for the first time this year, with a net worth of $49.3 billion, according to Hurun. ByteDance, which is the parent company of popular short-video platforms Douyin and TikTok, saw its revenue grow to $110 billion last year.
He is also the first individual born in the 1980s to top the Hurun list.
Bottled water magnate Zhong Shanshan fell to second place in 2024 with $47.9 billion, after his brand Nongfu Spring faced backlash in February when consumers accused it of disloyalty to China due to designs of its bottles.
The backlash wiped out billions in market value for Nongfu Spring.
Coming in third is Tencent founder Pony Ma with a net worth of $44.4 billion, as the gaming firm saw its revenues rise.
This year’s China Rich List had just 54 new names added to the list, the lowest figure in two decades. New additions include Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu Fang, the founders of Xiaohongshu, a social media and lifestyle platform popular with young users.
China’s economy has lagged in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic as the country grapples with a real estate crisis and a volatile stock market. Policymakers are expected to unveil major stimulus measures to encourage consumption and spending, which have declined in recent months.
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Social media giant TikTok announced a partnership deal with UnitedMasters to provide users with more access to numerous independent artists.
In a press release, the social media platform TikTok announced that they reached a deal on a partnership with UnitedMasters. The direct partnership will give TikTok access to UnitedMasters’ full catalog of independent music artists numbering over 2 million, which includes Brent Faiyaz, Tobe Nwigwe, and FloyyMenor among others in a multi-year collaboration. Artists with UnitedMasters will also have access to TikTok’s own Commercial Music Library.
“Our partnership with TikTok provides UnitedMasters artists unparalleled access to a vast global audience, while TikTok creators and users gain early exposure to some of the most impactful independent music today,” explained Steve Stoute, Founder and CEO of UnitedMasters in the press release. “TikTok recognizes the power of music and creativity, which is why we are excited to formalize this partnership.” According to Social Media Today, the move is inspired by TikTok users’ predilection to find and share new music within the app. An internal report from the social media platform stated that approximately 75% of its users learn about new artists while viewing clips in the app. The partnership also gives those artists with UnitedMasters more exposure to global brands with a presence on the platform, including Diageo, Bose, Walmart, ESPN, Coca-Cola, IKEA, and Dove.
“We want to make the world’s best music available to our global community of over a billion music fans,” said Ole Obermann, Head of Music Business Development at TikTok in the statement. “That’s why we are so excited to be entering into a direct deal with a prominent independent label like UnitedMasters, with its deep, diverse roster of independent artists. Together, we’re ready to amplify these voices and bring their music to a global stage, unlocking new opportunities for discovery.”
UnitedMasters has reached a new multi-year licensing agreement with TikTok. News of the deal comes just weeks after Billboard broke the news that TikTok “walked away” from talks to renew its license with Merlin, a collective that negotiates digital licensing deals for more than 30,000 indie labels and distributors.
Instead, TikTok noted that it wished to forge deals with most of the labels and distributors individually and cited previous issues with Merlin’s members delivering “fraudulent content” as the reason why they were not renewing with Merlin. Merlin read this move as TikTok “fragmenting” its membership to try to “minimize” licensing payments for indie music.
UnitedMasters — which has worked with more than 2 million independent artists, including FloyyMenor, Brent Faiyaz, BigXthaPlug, Tobe Nwigwe and Anycia — will include its full, expansive catalog in the new deal. The agreement will also provide additional commercial opportunities for UnitedMasters artists via TikTok’s Commercial Music Library.
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A press release states that TikTok and UnitedMasters “share the vision and understanding that commercial use of music on platforms offers significant revenue and promotional opportunities for artists” — and that having access to TikTok’s Commercial Music Library will give UnitedMasters talent access to new revenue and promotional streams for their talent.
Beyond just TikTok, licensing music for commercial purposes is a crucial focus for UnitedMasters. Previously, it has landed its artists deals with major brands like Bose, Walmart, ESPN, Coca-Cola, IKEA, Dove and more.
“Our partnership with TikTok provides UnitedMasters artists unparalleled access to a vast global audience, while TikTok creators and users gain early exposure to some of the most impactful independent music today,” said Steve Stoute, founder/CEO of UnitedMasters, in a statement. “TikTok recognizes the power of music and creativity, which is why we are excited to formalize this partnership.”
“TikTok has proven that it’s a launchpad for artists, turning viral moments into chart-topping hits,” Stoute added. “With this partnership, I look forward to seeing our artists thrive on TikTok and extend their reach and influence across the music industry. We’re building a future where they can own their success and grow their careers on their own terms.”
“We want to make the world’s best music available to our global community of over a billion music fans,” added Ole Obermann, head of music business development at TikTok. “That’s why we are so excited to be entering into a direct deal with a prominent independent label like UnitedMasters, with its deep, diverse roster of independent artists. Together, we’re ready to amplify these voices and bring their music to a global stage, unlocking new opportunities for discovery.”
Merlin’s license with TikTok is set to expire on Oct. 31. Labels or distributors that have not reached an individual agreement with TikTok by then will become unlicensed and removed from the platform.
Billie Eilish isn’t interested in going viral on TikTok — at least that’s the message she gives in a Saturday Night Live sketch about the social media platform.
During SNL‘s Michael Keaton-hosted episode on Oct. 19, the 22-year-old pop star made a cameo in a nearly four-minute sketch, aptly titled “TikTok,” in which she brushes off influencer Harry Daniels (played by Bowen Yang), who’s made a name for himself by singing to random celebrities on TikTok.
“Excuse me, Miss Eilish, can I sing to you?” Bowen’s Daniels requests as he accosts Eilish in hallway and quickly belts out a tune. Clearly annoyed, the “What Was I Made For?” hitmaker quickly interrupts him with a lucrative request. “Here’s 10 grand, please stop following me,” she says, handing him a wad of cash and scurrying off.
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Daniels has indeed encountered Eilish in real life, as seen in videos on his TikTok account, which boasts 1.6 million followers. During the SNL skit, Bowen’s Daniels also sings to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump
The pre-recorded “TikTok” sketch featured a person doomscrolling through their social media tread, encountering clips of a cat dancing to SNL cast member’s Marcello Hernandez viral cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” Chloe Fineman playing Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper and Kenan Thompson portraying a foodie reviewing a Fruity Pebble-covered chicken sandwich from his car.
Elsewhere during the episode, Eilish appeared for the fourth time as musical guest, performing Hit Me Hard and Soft album tracks “Birds of a Feather” and “Wildflower” alongside her brother Finneas. She previously performed on SNL in 2019 and 2023, pulling double-duty in 2021 as host and musical guest. Her appearance with Keaton follows last week’s Ariana Grande-hosted episode, which featured live performances from Stevie Nicks.
Watch SNL‘s “TikTok” sketch below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
Ricky Montgomery began rehearsing for his tour in late January. The singer/songwriter played shows across America before heading to Europe, Asia and Australia, returning to the U.S. in June. “It had been a long year, and I was also sick,” he says. That’s when he found out his label had dropped him.
“There was a disconnect as far as creative direction,” he explains. “The label didn’t really know what to do with me, and instead of listening to my ideas, they just tried to apply standard pop templates. Ed Sheeran was the one they thought would work.”
That “disconnect” is the subject of Montgomery’s upcoming single, a downcast acoustic ballad out October 24 called “Superfan.” He sings with a deflated quaver: “Team just got the numbers in/Said try it more like Ed Sheeran/But he’s not me, and I’m not him.”
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Being dropped hasn’t hurt Montgomery’s career, though. In fact, he’s now earning more streams — around 2 million streams a day across his catalog — than he was previously. “For better or worse, it’s a social media content game now,” says the 31-year-old singer, who has close to 2 million TikTok followers. “So if you’ve been investing your time into that, the odds are that you’re going to be totally fine if a label decides to drop you.”
Getting dropped is in vogue this year: Two of the biggest breakout artists of 2024, Chappell Roan and Shaboozey, were both cut by major labels before their recent explosive success. And more acts could soon join their ranks, because the major labels have been cutting costs by slashing staff — and dropping artists.
“Each time there have been major staff layoffs across the label systems, concurrently there were artists released from rosters,” says Leon Morabia, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law. “Some artists are really happy about it and relieved, and some artists are very upset. Their reaction ultimately depends on how much they depend on the record company to do what they do.”
Dropped acts lose access to an extended support team; plans for upcoming releases must be jettisoned or heavily reworked; tours can be scrapped. That said, Lulu Pantin, founder of loop legal, is adamant that “being dropped has no bearing on long-term success.” And this is probably more true than ever.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer pointed out that when he joined the music industry in 1985, labels had a lock on manufacturing, distribution and radio. “We had a lot more power,” he said. Today, in contrast, “the artists have at the very least equal power to us.”
That’s because they can make music cheaply, and promote it internationally, without ever leaving the house. “Artists have to be as good, if not better, at marketing as any professional marketer now,” Montgomery says. “They are, by default, the most experienced person in the room in marketing meetings.”
At the same time, the buttons that labels can push — to get radio play, appearances on award shows and late-night television, and prominent press placements — no longer guarantee real fans. As a result, Montgomery says, “Labels only want to focus on Tiktok or Reels or YouTube Shorts right now. I had three times as many meetings about TikTok strategy as I did about music. There’s no reason you can’t do that stuff on your own.”
Still, getting dropped can be jarring, a corporate version of a breakup. And like a breakup, disentangling takes a while, as it requires additional negotiation between the artist’s team and the label. “It’s not just, someone waves a magic wand and then you’re dropped,” says an A&R who left a major label job earlier this year.
This legal wrangling can be crucial for the next phase of an artist’s career. In a typical record deal, the label enjoys exclusive rights to any songs delivered during the contract period — even if they haven’t come out yet. For artists who are being shown the door, then, “the key point is who gets ownership of the unreleased music,” Pantin says.
Record companies are reluctant to give these rights up, since they helped fund the songs’ creation. To secure the return of unreleased music, artists may have to give the label a concession, either in the form of “an ‘override’ payment or a royalty on sales and streams,” Pantin adds.
If the label refuses to give up the rights to unreleased songs, artists have one other option. “I’ve called labels and asked them to waive the re-recording restriction,” says Tiffany Almy, founder of PKA Law. The re-recording restriction is in place to prevent an artist from putting out a competing version of a song the label already released, a tactic made famous by Taylor Swift with her Taylor’s Version album re-recordings. But the restriction serves no purpose if the label never put out the track in the first place. And if the artist succeeds in convincing the record company to nix that provision, they can then re-cut their music — on their own dime this time — for release.
Another point of negotiation when artists and labels are uncoupling: The act may be able to obtain some additional money, depending on the structure of their contract. “The deal could be worth $500,000, and $150,000 is given to the artist on signing and the rest is for recording,” the former A&R executive explains. “Then when you deliver the album, whatever’s left from the fund is supposed to go into the artist’s pocket.”
Attorneys try to prepare for these situations long before the label is even thinking about trimming rosters by including what’s known as “a pay-or-play provision” in the artist’s initial contract. (The initial deal negotiation period is when lawyers push for other protections as well: “I always try to build in caveats that the re-recording restriction doesn’t apply if the track doesn’t get released within a certain period of time,” Almy says.)
The pay-or-play clause ensures that, “If you get dropped in the middle of the contract period, you will be entitled to at least a portion of the remainder of the fund,” explains Oren Agman, an entertainment attorney. “Labels are now capping that, so they’ll give you maybe 30% or 40% of the balance. [But] if you have no pay-or-play provision, then you’re not getting anything other than the advance.” Jodie Shihadeh, a music lawyer, calls this provision “one of the last key points” when negotiating a record deal.
While the lawyers for both sides go back and forth after an act is dropped, the artist may be stuck twiddling their thumbs. “I’ve seen labels delay responses for months, extending the process and keeping artists in limbo,” Pantin says.
That limbo period matters because an artist technically can’t sign a new deal before getting out of the old agreement. Some do so anyway, figuring a label that dropped them isn’t likely to spend money suing them for breach of contract. “It can be a game of chicken,” the former A&R notes.
For an artist’s collaborators, it may be more than that — they don’t have the potential cushion of a pay-or-play clause. Many labels give a producer half their fee for a track up front, and fork over the rest only when that track comes out, Almy says. A dropped artist may mean a shelved track; for a producer, a shelved track represents lost income. “I’ve called the A&R at the label that dropped the artist and asked them to consider paying the producer for the work that they already did,” Almy says. Mixers are often in the same predicament.
Artists have it easier, because they can just start recording and releasing as they see fit. “I’ve seen some artists where it really helped that they got dropped, even though they didn’t want to be,” Shihadeh says.
Another recent post-drop success story is Gigi Perez, who parted ways with Interscope earlier this year. “I was stuck inside of a machine that didn’t work or make sense for me and I was unhappy,” she wrote in a lengthy message on Instagram on March 8. “I think a ton of artists were/are in this position as this new model of the music industry changes.”
She ended her post on an upbeat note: “Let’s go, bitches.” And in July, she released “Sailor Song,” a muscular folk track that works as well in an arena as it does around a campfire. It proved to be effective on TikTok as well: Users were soon soundtracking tens of thousands of videos with at least three different snippets of the single.
Streams of “Sailor Song” shot up. And on October 8th, Perez announced a new label home: Island Records.