Music Industry Myths Debunked

By Lauren C

Nepotism - This is a very touchy topic within the music fan community, and people love to discredit artists by saying they're a nepo baby. In reality, a lot of smaller artists with famous parents work just as hard to work their way up in the industry. In fact, having famous parents can make it harder to build a recognizable, unique brand, as oftentimes children of famous people are only known for their parents. Although, Nepotism can provide some artists with advantages like access to money, connection, and resources.

Most artists own their work - Most people automatically assume that their favorite artists own their work, but in reality, most do not. Unfortunately, this is extremely common in the music industry (which definitely has some shady corners to it), and many artists who blindly sign with labels realize later on that they are tied to a contract that doesn't allow them to do what they want with the songs they write and sing. Of course, it's extremely easy for record labels to take advantage of these small artists, who are desperate to break into the industry and send their art out into the world immediately, so much so that they don't really think about the consequences signing a contract could have. This is evident with artists like Taylor Swift, who has been extremely vocal about ethics in the music industry and the fight for artists to own their own work. Swift was recently able to buy back her master recordings after a long and messy battle with Scooter Braun and her former indie record label, Big Machine Records, and as we all know, she underwent a years long process to re-record her first 6 albums, which were sold out from under her nose without her consent. This situation is very common in the music industry, and it's good that Swift was able to bring awareness on a broader scale to something that was previously well hidden. Of course, many artists are not able to buy their own work back, so this is a battle that is ongoing and will be until great steps are taken to ensure that every artist just starting out is able to sign to a label that allows them to own their art.

All artists who blow up are overnight sensations - This myth is extremely common with artists that blow up on Tiktok, for example, and has become even more popular with artists like Sabrina Carpenter, who has exploded in popularity over the last few years and went from playing 5,000 capacity venues in 2022-2023 to headlining arenas in 2024. The truth is, however, that most artists who seem to blow up overnight spent years slowly building a dedicated fanbase, connections with important figures in the music industry, and finding their sound. Carpenter's first album, Eyes Wide Open, was released in 2015, and she went on to release 3 more albums and countless singles until her breakthrough album, emails i can't send, was released in 2022. Many people are shocked to find this out, and I have witnessed countless fans of Carpenter not even know she had albums before emails. Carpenter has talked about this fact many times and has made it clear in interviews that she was not, in fact, an overnight sensation, and slowly built up the conversation around her name until she was able to break away from her childhood label and create a brand for herself that was separate from her own Disney-ish persona. Of course, it's possible that opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour helped with this popularity, it's clear that Carpenter went through many different stages and experimental sounds until she found her niche, which was ultimately the reason for her extreme rise in popularity.