Music Industry Question

[manic_depressive13]

Just a question I haven't been able to find the answer to, so I'm hoping someone here would know. Do pop stars have a lot of power over who they collaborate with? Or is it the sort of thing their label decides for them? Occasionally some artist I thought was okay will collaborate with someone gross and terrible. Just wondering if it's fair to judge them, or if it's something they could conceivably have been pushed into.

 

[Antari]

There is no identifiable standard for it. Nearly every collaboration is different. Sometimes its the artists that meet up at a party. Other times it can be a producer who knows a producer getting teams together. There are other cases where labels push popular artists together for a song or two to see what happens. You'd have to take it on a case by case basis as nearly every reason you can think of has been used at some point. As for judging the song ... that's personal taste. What you will love someone else will hate. If you love it, cool. If you don't, hit the next button.

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

Very often, they don't have anything to do with their music.
They're just handed the lyrics which they must learn and perform to a microphone and that's where their input ends.
Also, when labels want to promote certain people, they will cram them into other people's albums.

It all really depends what was in the contract.
If you're persuasive and have a good lawyer, you can get a deal where you actually have something to say (it also helps if you actually write your own music).
Most of the time however, the artist is just a puppet.

Once your initial contract expires and you're still of value to the label, you can get a better deal and even make some demands (such as the people you collaborate with).