This blog has dealt with the subject of the ownership of masters in the past. To put it succinctly, with one or two very specific exceptions, I’m totally against the idea of record labels...
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Is THAT how you get out of a record contract these days? Singer Raye escapes Polydor’s clutches after complaining loudly on Twitter – so will other artists be tempted to do the same?
A couple of weeks ago, British singer Rachel Agatha Keen – known in the music world simply as Raye – complained on Twitter that her record label was preventing her from releasing an album....
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Are Universal, Warner and Sony facing an anti-competition probe? If a UK parliament’s streaming enquiry has its way, major label bosses won’t be sleeping easy!
The Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee have filed their report on streaming, and my goodness – initial impressions are that it doesn’t hold back. 50/50 pay for artists and labels, equitable renumeration, issues...
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Were your wages in the bank today? Help A Guy Called Gerald to get paid, lifting the curse of Voodoo Ray once and for all…
This blog has been writing up about A Guy Called Gerald and the injustice he’s faced against Rham! Records for a while now. He recently announced that he wanted to pursue legal action against...
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Sensible new strategy for the 21st century or a disservice to new producers? Mixed reactions to King Street’s habit of bundling new remixes along collections of older ones…
King Street Sounds is a record label which is very happy to plunder its own archive for modern gain. If the new music they released now was as good, it might not be an...
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As the Black Music Action Coalition releases a progress report one year on from Blackout Tuesday, the one change record labels could make that no one’s talking about…
July 2nd last year was Blackout Tuesday. It was meant to be a day of reflection for black people and others in the community which would lead to long term changes. In reality? The...
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Where artists can owe labels money (albeit on a technicality) – a glimpse inside the weird world of releasing music from personal experience
Some of you might not be aware of this, but I’ve been making music for the past five years. That endeavour is currently on a hiatus whilst I get this blog to where I...
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Not a bad old day in the office, Dave! Some French DJ you might never have heard of gets $100million in deal with Warner Music – so is David Guetta more shrewd than he gets credit for?
Many people in the dance music world are well into caricature territory, but they just don’t know it. They still think they’re private figures who nobody knows. This blog thoroughly enjoys mocking them for...
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As Sondela starts getting a push from Defected following criticism, why does the African influenced label not make more of the association with its bigger brother?
Last week, I wrote about how Sef Kombo had decided to leave his job at Transport for London to run Sondela Recordings full time. Since then, a curious thing has happened. Defected appears to...
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As Sony Music wipes the debts of its legacy artists, is there any chance the likes of Trax Records and other early house labels could do the same?
When you stream music from the likes of Spotify, you expect that abysmal $0.0038 royalty rate to go to your favourite artist, right? Well, you’d be wrong. In a lot of cases, that money...
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Sef Kombo is leaving his current job to run beleaguered Defected outfit Sondela full time – question is, will the Dunmore father/son duo let him?
An anonymous friend sent this tweet in my direction on Friday, which puts the Sondela post that I did the other day in a rather different context. It turns out one of the reasons...
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You never know who might be reading online! Mutya Buena has been in touch about a recent article – and as you can guess, she isn’t too lost in me…
You might recall a few weeks ago, I wrote about a new single that Mutya Buena was featured on for garage label Upcycle Records. I wasn’t terribly nice, quoting something from that week’s edition...
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Is there anyone in the dance music trade who ISN’T a crook? Now A Guy Called Gerald reveals he’s never made a penny out of “Voodoo Ray”
The more I read about the early days of house music, the more utterly depressing it gets. Paris Brightledge was conned out of the rightful credit for “It’s Alright”. Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body”...
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Girls I Rate – a movement aimed at disrupting the norm, yet feeding the norm with judges at the heart of music establishment for their latest contest
I’ve recently become aware of the Girls I Rate movement. They want to bring more women into the music industry – citing that less than 19% of all PRS members are female. I’d like...
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The vast majority of labels absolutely suck! Scott Diaz slams record labels who aren’t doing their jobs
House and garage don Scott Diaz has panned record labels for failing to do their jobs properly. Taking to Twitter, he pointed out that only two record labels have sent him statements in the...
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OPINION: Is dance music drowning in a sea of mediocrity? And what’s the answer?
Every week on this page, I feature a column called the Six On Saturday. It’s where I go through Traxsource and occasionally the other odd place and compile and review my favourite releases of...
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