“The ‘music trade’ will not be a time period I take advantage of,” Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits stated to Rolling Stone in 2015. “I have a tendency to focus on music, and the music enterprise is one thing completely different.”

In different phrases: there’s a line between the artists who make music and the individuals who distribute, market and promote it. The previous get together is often involved with the authenticity of their work and the artistic management they’ve over it, whereas the latter is, sadly, usually profit-driven. In the perfect of situations, these two sides come collectively to craft a shared imaginative and prescient for the artwork, one through which everyone seems to be justly compensated for the work they do, creative or in any other case.

It ought to come as a shock to nobody that as a result of the music enterprise includes loads of cash, ego and fame, it is the prime surroundings for issues like lawsuits and different such discrepancies. This normally has little or no to do with any precise creative benefit, and will be made much more ugly when parts of racism and/or misogyny are current.

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“I heard somebody from the music enterprise saying they’re not in search of expertise,” Joni Mitchell stated to the Los Angeles Occasions in 2004, “they need individuals with a sure look and a willingness to cooperate.”

Within the chronological gallery beneath, we’re analyzing over a dozen occasions artists put their foot down and stood as much as the powers that be within the music trade — attorneys, label heads, and so forth. — within the title of their very own artwork.