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The trap here is, above all, emotional. An artist is told to trust someone“ from the same neighborhood,”“ the same church,”“ the same color.” That closeness can be real and valuable. But it should never be allowed to substitute for a clear contract, a genuinely independent lawyer, books that can actually be audited, and, above all, the absolute right to say no.
The illusion of independence and the quiet return of the majors
These days, many artists believe they’ ve finally found a way around the old system thanks to social media. They self-produce, self-distribute, go viral without ever signing a single contract with a major label.
Flashmag! Issue 174 July 2026
That’ s a real step forward, in part. But this kind of independence often hangs by a thread: the platforms that control access to audiences, the algorithms that change their rules without warning, the aggregators that hold, in practice, the keys to distribution itself. Major labels, for their part, no longer even need to sign an artist early on; they can simply wait for TikTok or Spotify to identify the next winner, then swoop in with a distribution deal, a partnership— or an outright buyout. European regulators’ scrutiny of Universal’ s proposed acquisition of Downtown Music has, in recent months, reignited exactly these concerns about a sector once thought to be on its way to genuine democratization. The word“ independent,” on its own, no longer guarantees much of anything. An artist is only truly free if they can answer, without hesitation, five simple questions: Who owns the masters? Who owns the publishing? Who controls the data? Who gets paid back first, before the artist sees a dime? And who, tomorrow, will have the right to use their voice?
Artificial intelligence: the twenty-first century’ s poison-pill contract
Boney M
That last question has never burned hotter than it does right now. Artificial intelligence could become the most democratizing tool in the history
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