As fans, we often think of the music industry as a purely artistic endeavor. Most listeners don’t see how the sausage gets made—they don’t see the “industry” part of the equation. While nothing happens without good songs, countless moving parts grind and churn before the public ever hears a note. These deals can be good. They can be bad. They can be somewhat meaningless. They can be era-defining. We’re focusing on the latter group for this list. Below, revisit three groundbreaking deals that subsequently changed the music industry forever.
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Prince Versus Warner Bros.
Taylor Swift has made the topic of artist rights a part of everyday conversation in the last couple of years. She has been a vocal advocate for artists owning their music for some time now. She’s shaped her career around that belief. But she’s not the only artist to have ever taken this stance. Before Swift, Prince was fighting that uphill battle.
Prince was one of the first musicians to bring the topic of artist rights to public attention. Prince wanted to own his masters, but Warner Bros. controlled them under a restrictive contract (in Prince’s view). When they couldn’t reach a deal, Prince changed his name to a symbol, which caused all kinds of confusion among fans. Looking past the minutiae of this feud, the contract was significant because it brought attention to artists’ rights. Before Prince brought up his grievances, many fans had no idea that musicians didn’t own the songs they wrote outright. That awareness then paved the way for other artists, like Swift, to try their hand at tipping the scales.
Elvis Presley’s RCA Deal
Though many musicians helped carve a niche for Elvis Presley, his career is seen as the origin story for rock stars. He became impossibly famous, earning ears the world over. But that level of fame might have never happened if RCA hadn’t bought out his contract from Sun Records.
Sun Records produced some timeless songs with Presley, but they lacked the reach that RCA had. This deal opened doors for Presley that most of the world didn’t even know were there. Presley’s height of fame later left that door open for others to walk through, giving the genre decades of top-billing artists. If Presley hadn’t changed labels, rock might never have been the same.
The Beatles’ Breakup
The Beatles‘ breakup isn’t known for being the most amicable in rock history. It’s also not the most ferocious either. Most of their fighting was with pen on paper, as they struggled to distance themselves contractually from the Beatles’ banner. They eventually worked out the stipulations and ended the career of one of the biggest bands ever to perform together.
While the first two entries on this list had more direct effects on the music industry, the Beatles’ breakup produced a more gradual shift. Firstly, their breakup left a massive gap in rock music, which many bands tried to fill. The Beatles’ breakup helped pave the way for the explorative era of rock in the ’70s. Moreover, each Beatle tried their hand at a solo career, earning hits of their own. Think of a world without John Lennon’s “Imagine” or Paul McCartney’s time with Wings. Rock would’ve been a very different place if the Beatles hadn’t called it quits.
(Photo by Roy Cummings/THA/Shutterstock)
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