for people confused by kanye’s tweets

“masters” in music are the master record that is used to create copies of a record/album/single

owning the master record means that you have the right to produce, distribute, and collect profits off of the music that is on that master

having a master record is an important tool in wealth creation as it can give someone’s family the rights to their ancestors work for generations

not to mention that master records can be used as collateral in order to obtain business loans etc

the way most record deals are structured, artists don’t have possession of their masters and cannot reap those benefits, but the record label can

in a situation where an artist dies, the masters stay with the record label and the family usually has no rights to royalties

picture this, an upcoming artist signs a record deal, gets huge, racks up a bunch of streams and sales, and is using the money from that to support their family

but if the artist dies and has no control of the masters, then the money stops flowing to their family

so even though the artist may have made money, they lose out on generational wealth through the master records

think of classic songs that will be played long past the artists deaths, and often the phenomenon of artists gaining immense popularity post mortem

now, this is a concept that we see all over society not just in the music industry

A simple example is if you work a 9 to 5 job, you usually own no part of the business that you help grow

“owning your masters” here would be to start a business, or at least get equity

another example here is renting versus buying a house,

Now I’m not really fond of mortgages,

imagine paying rent for 30 years and not owning the underlying asset versus paying a mortgage for 30 years and then owning the underlying asset (the house)

“owning your masters” is more than just music, it’s about sacrificing the short term to create generational wealth and OWN assets that generate money not just seek the money itself