Chappell Roan sheds light on decades of artists’ mistreatment by the Grammy’s

During the “Hot to Go!” singer’s acceptance speech at the Grammy’s, Roan called out the music industry for its treatment of artists.

By: Michael Doyle

On Feb. 5 at the music world’s most important night of the year, the 67th Annual Grammy Awards’ pop artist Chappell Roan won the Grammy for Best New Artist, following a dominant year on the charts. 

Roan’s acceptance speech was the focal point of the night, leaving artists, fans and critics buzzing. 

“I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists,” Roan said in her speech. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” 

The struggles that developing artists face are one of the most open secrets, but it’s an uphill battle against an industry that has full control of the art form. Artists looking to boost their careers struggle to find trustworthy managers. They are prone to signing unfair contracts and are at risk of being dropped in the pursuit of their passion. 

Independent artists arguably have it worse, being forced to do all of their own promotional work, including scheduling and distribution. In a billion-dollar industry, why are these the only options given to the people who keep it alive? 

The average annual income of a musician is just over $21,000, according to a 2023 survey of nearly 6,000 musicians by the Musicians’ Census. The survey also found that 23 percent of musicians said they cannot support themselves or their families financially. 

Roughly half of the surveyed musicians reported having another job, which serves as both an obstacle and commitment that hinders their musical growth. 

Developing artists must also work another job to receive benefits such as health insurance, which is typically only given to more prominent musicians signed to labels. Artists therefore must choose between stable benefits and other commitments or devoting all of their time to growing as musicians, at the risk of bankruptcy and no insurance.   

Unlike physical sales or downloads that pay a fixed price, Spotify pays royalties based upon artists’ streams compared to the streams of other artists on the platform. Spotify then pays approximately 70 percent of this revenue to the rights holders, typically the labels that artists are signed to. These labels pay artists based on their contractual agreements, with the label keeping most of the money.  

The profits artists receive are incredibly low, which has resulted in major artists such as Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke temporarily removing their music from the streaming service in protest. 

Unethical business practices have existed in the music industry for decades. Labels typically own the entirety of artists’ work and fail to advertise or promote their content efficiently. When music is released, two separate copyrights exist, which include the music composition and the master recording. Songwriters often own the composition while the labels own the official recording from the master. 

Taylor Swift’s legal battles against her prior label, Big Machine Records, resulted in Swift re-recording all six albums released through Big Machine after her contract expired in 2018. The two were unable to agree to terms for Swift to acquire the rights to the masters.  

The re-recordings were released through Republic Records, along with her contract including her ownership of both copyrights. Only then could she fully own the music she wrote, but this doesn’t apply to the specific recordings released by Big Machine. 

Moby Grape, an influential part of San Francisco’s psychedelic rock scene of the 1960s, are an infamous example of artists not owning the rights to their art. Moby Grape’s manager, Matthew Katz, owned the group’s name and later sold the rights to their music, along with mismanaging the band and hindering their success, as explained in an article by the Louder Sound Magazine. 

Despite his influence on artists such as Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin and the Grateful Dead, lead guitarist and Tacoma native Jerry Miller’s musical career and livelihood was stolen by the industry. 

Major label Roadrunner Records had signed some of alternative’s most successful artists such as Korn, Type O Negative and Avenged Sevenfold, but their failure to treat many artists resulted in Roadrunner being relegated to a much smaller label by the 2020s. Artists such as Slipknot, Megadeth and Glassjaw have been vocal of their displeasure with the label, criticizing record contracts, business practices and the overall management of their records. 

“We never toured half as much as we wanted to, I just wish we got to tour more,” said Glassjaw singer Daryl Palumbo in a 2002 interview with Crud Magazine. “They had 2 cash cows, Slipknot and Nickelback, and every other project they had rode backseat to those bands.” 

Although Roadrunner plummeted in popularity, the mistreatment of the label’s bands did irreparable damage that changed the livelihoods of those affected. While it is sensible for labels to see more potential in certain bands, the negligence negatively affects every other artist, resulting in more careers damaged than boosted. 

Despite an immeasurable number of issues developing artists face at the hands of record labels, artists are unable to distribute the power alone. Roan’s Grammy’s speech is just the latest example of an artist calling out the industry that survives off of them. For change to occur, artists of all genres will have to unify and protest for proportionate treatment from the corporations controlling the industry. 

Roan’s speech has already received mixed responses from corporations, notably from the former music industry executive Jeff Rabhan, who stated in an article written for Hollywood Reporter that Roan is too uninformed and new to the industry to call for change. Despite the criticism, Roan’s speech has already benefited musicians, with Universal Music Group partnering with the Music Health Alliance to launch the Music Industry Mental Health Fund, as reported by Pitchfork. 

Roan’s speech will continue to initiate change in the music industry, as it became the biggest headline of the Grammy’s and the young artist’s career is positioned to continue growing. Although the battle has been going on for multiple decades, Roan’s efforts will be seen as a major event in the fight for artists to be compensated the way that they deserve.