Does a record deal with a record label mean anything anymore, or has the long arm of corporate ownership produced one big company where affiliations are merely symbolic? Two artists - The Game and Drake - represent both the best and worst aspects of this system.
After The Game dropped the multi-platinum album The Documentary on Interscope Records in 2005, he was quickly shifted over to Geffen Records once the beef with his G-Unit labelmates became too heated. Since then, both of The Game's follow-up records - The Doctor's Advocate and L.A.X. - have helped fill to the coffers at the house David built. This business relationship has now changed however, and according to The Game's manager Jimmy Rosemond, the rapper's new album The R.E.D. will be packaged with the Interscope brand and not Geffen's. But what's the difference?
You see, Interscope owns Geffen, and Universal Music Group owns Interscope, so Game's shift "back" to Interscope is merely a symbolic gesture signifying that The Game has served his time down on Geffen Records and is ready to come back to the big leagues. But it's the same league.
What it boils down to is that record labels have a lot riding on brand differentiation and maintaining the illusion of competition and hierarchy in the corporate world. What Game has accomplished by moving to Interscope is equivalent to moving from the basement apartment to the penthouse. However, it's still the same building and all that rent money goes to the same group of people at the start of every month.
A real shift in Game's corporate affiliation would have seen the Compton rapper ditch the "Big Four" record label model and sign directly to an alternative form of music distribution. These alternative methods of moving music are quickly becoming the most desirable way to release content, because recording contracts with the "Big Four" are viewed as an obsolete way to make a buck in the entertainment industry.
In today's music industry, if an artist truly wants to make money and blanket the world with his or her product, a business savvy rapper has to embrace the best aspects of both the new and old systems. Although nothing of what I just wrote is revelatory or particularly useful, following the wheelings and dealings of the career of Toronto rapper Drake is.
The Toronto rapper Drake has come a long way since his days as a teen star on the television series "Degrassi: The Next Generation". After turning a huge mixtape buzz into huge mixtape revenue - his single "Best I Ever Had" has sold over 600,000 copies on iTunes - the young rapper inked a deal with Universal Music Group to distribute his product. However, while Drake may have signed with a major, his deal is far from the conventional business model that artists like The Game are still clinging to, and the rapper has an ambitious plan to sell his music in Canada.
In an interview with TheBoombox.com Drake spoke about his unconventional plan for getting his music out there in Canada, stating that "I want to distribute my album in Canada over cell phones so everybody on the network will get a text the day my album comes out. In Canada everybody belongs to one phone company."
The motivations behind Drake's desire to switch up the traditional distribution model lie in the untapped commercial potential of mobile marketing, and his goal is to make a big mark on the Canadian record industry in a different kind of way. What lies behind this is his drive to be successful, and he ads that "Really, what I would love to do is sell a million records out here because that has never been done. Platinum in is 100, 000 records. So if I could sell a million records, which I think it's possible, to go 10 times platinum in would be crazy."
As a Canadian cell phone owner, I assure you that Drake's assessment of the phone industry up here is not exactly accurate, and there are about 3 major mobile phone companies in Canada. But if Drake did manage to ink a deal with Canadian industry leader Rogers/Fido, that might be enough to make his musical dreams of going "diamond" up North come true. Consequently, his relationship with the telecommunications industry would herald in a new era of corporate partnership and marketing strategies.
Much of the credit for Drake's successful business dealings should go to Cortez Bryant and the management team Hip Hop Since 1978. Because of their business prowess, Drake's team engineered a deal where the rapper maintains ownership of all his material while also garnering a high percentage of the revenues from sales. According to the Los Angeles Times, Universal awarded Drake a $2-million advance, the control of his publishing rights, and 75% of his sales revenue. Clearly, Drake and his team have managed to manipulate the music industry to create a situation where both the old and new industry styles come together to put the artist first. For a new artist, Drake's deal is probably the best anyone has ever had.
To conclude, The Game is trapped in a world where corporate and label allegiances are manufactured to maintain the illusion of competition, while Drake is set to flourish through brand synergy and unconventional product distribution. The conclusions that should be drawn from this comparison is that there is still a lot of money to be made in the music industry, but the business model has changed. And although people have been saying that for years, Drake's ascension to stardom and his savvy management is proof that the new model can work.
Hopefully he doesn't flop.
- David Sutherland for SarcasticDBag.Blogspot.com
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