During a recent appearance, Rapper Russ claimed that major labels in the music industry will soon become ‘obsolete’.
Russ thinks that the days of major labels are numbered. During a recent appearance on TMZ Live, the rapper talked about the future of the music industry and claimed that major labels will soon become ‘obsolete’.
“I do think at some point [major labels] will become obsolete, just because the juice isn’t worth the squeeze,” he told TMZ Live.
The primary reason for this, according to him, is that artists simply don’t get enough of their deals. In fact, he opined, everything a label could do, artists could do themselves.
“You don’t need them; they’re not doing anything for you that you can’t do for yourself. I just think that some artists are not very business-minded and they kinda just want to be the artist, so that’s why they go the label approach so that they have a team that does everything for them.” he added.
The rapper – who recently launched his own ‘artist-friendly’ label DIEMON with longtime business partner Bugus – added that artists of the digital age didn’t need a team to market for them.
“But you can get a team to do everything for you and still just be the artist without the label. Artists in today’s day and age, they’re their own digital marketing. I think digital marketing is one of the biggest facades in the music industry. You get with the label and they’re like, ‘Here’s your digital team.’ And it’s like, ‘What do y’all do exactly?’” he said.
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At the end of the day, it all boils down to the music.
“All you really need is consistent quality music and some sort of online presence where you’re engaging with your fans on a consistent, authentic basis, and you’ll be completely fine.” he said.
“All the other stuff — radio, PR — it’s just to help amplify a little bit, but it’s absolutely not necessary. I mean, I’ve been doing big venues for a long time now and it wasn’t because I had crazy PR or crazy radio.” he added.
The rapper, however, was not ignorant of his own time at a major label – until 2020, Russ was signed to Columbia Records, under whom he released three albums before going independent.
While the experience certainly came with its perks, it changed his outlook on how artists should be treated forever.
“I was in a good deal; they didn’t own my masters, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted, drop whenever I wanted. But it just got to this point where it was like, I’m pulling all the weight doing everything, I’m the digital marketing, so why am I giving y’all 50 percent of the profits when y’all are not putting up 50 percent of the work? It just didn’t make sense anymore.” he explained.
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Check out ‘HANDSOMER Remix’ by Russ ft. Ktlyn:
