Several weeks after a series of anti-Semitic comments finally caused companies from Balenciaga to Vogue to Gap to TJ Maxx to sever ties, one area of Ye’s empire still remains relatively untouched.
Formerly known as Kanye West, rapper and producer Ye made a name for himself as a cultural firebrand from a music career that spawned four multi-platinum albums and 11 Grammys before he started performing. to be overshadowed by onstage rants, controversies, and ultimately anti-Semitic and other offensive remarks. Remarks.
But through it all, his music has remained accessible on major streaming platforms as brands and social media platforms have come under pressure to take it down.
While it might seem counterintuitive for him to go unpunished over what is effectively his core business, we’re unlikely to see the same kind of pushback and aloofness on streaming sites as we do in other arenas.
“It doesn’t surprise me because they’re fundamentally different types of businesses,” said Serona Elton, a professor who studies the music industry at the University of Miami. “The nature of the commercial and contractual relationship with Ye is quite different in these different sectors.”
While platforms like Instagram, Facebook and – most notably – Twitter have been embroiled in a debate over how and whether to exclude certain voices, music streaming has remained largely exempt.
And the rare times streaming services have taken action to remove an artist from their platform, like Spotify did after R&B singer R. Kelly was convicted of child sex crimes, they have subsequently been fired.
Regarding Ye, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently told Reuters they would take a similar stance. While calling his anti-Semitic posts “righteous awful comments,” Ek said they wouldn’t take the rapper’s songs off their platform, or go into the realm of content moderation beyond the lyrics of the songs. artist songs.
“It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy,” he said, adding that “it’s up to his label whether he wants to act or not.”
This sentiment is why Ye is more likely to be kicked out of public brand deals and social media platforms than spaces designed to share his productions, Elton said.
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“There are other examples of musical artists doing things that are considered morally wrong and, in at least a few cases, criminal,” she said, pointing to the damaging seriousness of Ye’s recent statements. “And art still exists, and people can choose to consume it or not – depending on how much they think the association between artist and art should influence them.”
Controversial musicians
Bryan Sullivan, founding partner of the Los Angeles-based law firm Early Sullivan, which specializes in crisis and risk management in the entertainment industry, said that when it comes to big artists, streaming services are generally limited by the contracts they sign with recording or publishing. companies.
These contracts can run the gamut and can differ from song to song on the same album, Sullivan said. They can require streaming platforms to host everything the company sends them, which means they can’t delete anything. On top of that, such contracts rarely contain character clauses, Sullivan said of requirements in Hollywood that require publicly known entertainment personalities to meet certain standards of behavior.
In music, and in particular in hip hop, a certain degree of controversy has been seen to increase an artist’s sales levels and general buzz, although some analysts say this is starting to change following criticism against artists. rappers 6ix9ine and DaBaby.
In Ye’s case, Sony Music still acts as the administrator for much of his music catalog, controlling where his music can be sold and streamed. Since streaming services derive much of their revenue from subscribers, compared to advertising — like social media or case-by-case sales like in its fashion offerings, Sullivan said even a drop in numbers streaming service for Ye’s music probably wouldn’t do much to cause Spotify or Apple Music to be removed from his discography.
Record, songwriting deals ended
Ye, however, lost important future music partnerships – his songwriting deal with Sony Music ended, as did his partnership with Universal Music’s Def Jam Recordings label. His old music will likely retain its place on streaming services, Variety editor Jem Aswad said, but Ye now faces a host of problems releasing new content.
Universal and Sony have both reported that their deals with Ye have ended and neither seem to have any plans to renew it now.
Without these companies, he will have to navigate the complex world of publishing – either by partnering with an independent business partner (which would invite the same public fallout faced by other companies that have worked with Ye), or he could go it alone, potentially forcing him to leave millions of dollars on the table.
“Once he loses [Sony and Universal]there will be no one who will collect huge amount of money for him or generate more money,” Aswad said. So it’s a huge financial blow, and it’s really not that different from Balenciaga falling or Vogue saying they’re not going to work with him anymore or Adidas are not working with him anymore.”
After cutting ties within the industry and with many members of the public, Aswad said Ye would likely only maintain a core of dedicated fans – much like R. Kelly or R&B singer Chris Brown, who confessed to assaulting singer Rihanna in 2009.
At a time when musicians have an inordinate commercial dependence on live touringobservers said Ye would likely struggle to secure large concert halls in light of his recent comments.
Combined with the business difficulties in releasing new music, analysts said Ye’s career would likely be permanently set back by his own actions, a destruction that Aswad likened to “watching someone burn down their own house”.
“Even though his music has really dropped over the past five years, there’s no doubt about it – no one can touch him,” Aswad said of Ye. “He changed hip hop. He changed the music. He influenced so much.
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