For anyone following Ye vs Major Labels and is confused... these deals exist from an old model before social media etc. If you are an artist with a team around you, or are willing to do much of the promo work yourself, you can comfortably own your masters.

A major label offers an advance a bit like a show of intent. If your advance is 100k, they are basically saying “here’s 100k up front - it’s a figure we are comfortable believing we can earn you”. When your music comes out, it needs to earn 100k back first - like a loan.

In return for this loan, the artist can carry on working on music. The label will do the promo legwork and the artist usually has to contractually oblige to do any public appearances / radio / gigs agreed to push sales. Sometimes labels take a cut of gig fees as well

In return for the label putting up the costs and doing this work they take a percentage of future royalties after the advance is earnt back. Apparently this can be as much as 70% in the case of some very large labels. Most independent labels will take 50%.

The term masters refers to the actual recording of the song. So the file that gets played on streaming sites. The lyrics / sheet music inside your songs is what publishers seek to take ownership of and is a separate deal from the one you make for the recordings usually.

Labels need to retain exclusive ownership of that recording to be able to sell it and distribute it to the platforms we hear them on. They then collect the money and account back every 6-12 months usually.

So, to summarise. Everyone can own their masters. People who don’t usually sell them for the advance and the promise of a huge team at a big label doing the stuff they are good at to make it pop. Short term this can be great if you don’t want to do the work.

Long term though, that 100k odd advance might take a while to earn back. U spend that dough on a car and it’s likely u may not see any income from that music for a couple of years or ever unless you smash the charts.

If you have money in the bank, a 100k advance doing the work yourself can often equate to less than 20k spending the money yourself working with independent pr companies and radio pluggers. And then after that 20k is spent you will own 100% of your royalties forever.

Education is everything. There are a lot of snake managers scooping up anyone showing a bit of promise, and majors throwing money at an artist already smashing social media - these artists are already selling to their audience. That engagement is all the foundation you need.