The Lola Young Effect – How the Music Industry Systematically Exploits Artists

Like oil prospectors looking for fertile land, the billionaires’ A&R scouts scour the internet for promising young talent. They’re looking for marketable artists who have traction.

For these artists, their dreams seemingly come true when the industry comes knocking. And then they get to make the choice…

Which billionaire-funded conglomerate would you like to work for?

Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment or Warner Music Group?

Which evil corporation would you like to sell your tickets? Live Nation or Ticket Master?

Where would you like to play? Capital One Arena or Capital One Hall? 

Lola Young is the latest star to quickly burn out in this corporatized environment. 

It’s a familiar story. A sensitive, young artist attracts a following, they want to keep growing so they enter the industry. A century-old industry full of multinational conglomerates and lawyers and managers and agents and contracts and all these adults telling them how it is and what they should do. Meanwhile millions of people are looking up to them and scrutinizing their every move. 

I can barely imagine the pressure a 24-year old feels when thrust into press tours and photo shoots while trying to write and perform from the heart. 

It must be hard to be true to yourself when you have a trillion dollar company pressuring you to meet a quota while you’re being rushed from city to city with dozens of people who you barely know who also work for you.

What does it feel like to be paraded in front of thousands of people every night to dance and sing like a trained monkey? And what does it feel like to want to stop but know that many people will lose their income if you do.  

No wonder artists burn out so quickly after getting discovered.

Their well eventually runs dry and everyone moves on. It’s just numbers at the end of the day to the faceless corporate entities that monopolize the industry. When an artist stops producing, they no longer have value. They’re simply a brand the label developed and invested in. They extract as much profit as they can before moving on to the next one.

It’s weird that people don’t talk about the music industry with the same language as they talk about the oil and gas industry. Probably because

1. The exploitation in the music industry is covered up with Hunger Games-level glamour and fanfare.
2. Capitalism commoditizing music to the point that even the most privileged musicians are dehumanized is a pill to swallow.   

When the billionaires own your music, the platforms it lives on and the venues you play in, expression will be limited and sensitive, young artists like Lola Young will burn out.

But every artist I know aspires to be in that position because the billionaires have created a system where a few get millions and millions get a few. We vie for one of those privileged spots in this Squid Game-style competition where winning is the only way out.

We celebrate the winners as they speak out for indigenous people and against capitalism right before performing on the T-Mobile stage and selling $50 t-shirts made in sweatshops.

I have no beef with any artists. Who wouldn’t take millions if offered it? I’m just tired of rhetoric alone. It’s proven to be largely ineffective. Where’s the action? 

Is it possible to have a prosperous music career outside of the billionaire’s grasp without the forever grind of being an indie artist?

I think so. But it will take a long time and it’s something indie artists have to do collectively. We need to step away and do our own thing, completely outside the domain of the billionaires. We need our own venues and our own online platforms.

Nothing will change while companies like Live Nation, Sony Music Group and Apple are in charge. 

Success shouldn’t look like Bad Bunny paying $150,000 a month to rent a Chelsea penthouse. It should look like 100 artists being able to pay $1,500 a month from income they make from music. Collective success is preferable to individual success and collective effort is the way we’ll get there. 

We can’t expect artists to flourish when they’re isolated from other artists (plucked away from their scene and thrust into the spotlight).

We can’t expect artists to flourish when they’re subjected to global pressure from all sides.

Just like the oil barons from a century ago, the oligarchs who run the music industry extract valuable material from artists and don’t stop until the artist is used up.

Lola Young is not the first victim and won’t be the last. I think the problem is most people don’t see her as a victim because she’s rich and famous, but fame is inherently isolating and money doesn’t solve all problems. Thinking it does is what keeps the moneyed interests running the show. 

The ownership class uses money to keep us divided. Let’s strive instead to make music for a living through a collective, community-driven project.