Let’s be clear here: the problem was never that bigger artists weren’t supporting smaller artists enough. The problem is that labels aren’t supporting their artists enough, period. Labels still need to step up and fix their part in the collapsing system — and to suggest artists themselves become the solution encapsulates pretty much everything that’s wrong and dangerous about the U.S.’s failing social infrastructure.⁠ ⁠ In 2024, according to Billboard, Chappell Roan’s label Island Records quadrupled its market share from 0.62% in 2023 to 2.49%, while other labels like Interscope and Warner also had “big years.” RIAA reported that the recorded music industry as a whole made $8.7 billion in revenue in the first-half of 2024 alone. While that’s not a breakdown of what individual record labels made, it’s safe to say major labels are doing completely fine when it comes to making record-level profit — and likely far, far exceeding whatever its most successful artists are taking home.⁠ ⁠ Read...