While Travis Scott performed a three-song medley at the Grammys earlier this month, the teams of some of the producers and songwriters who helped make his hit album Utopia they were furious – they still didn't have the signed documents to pay them for their work on the project.
At the time, at least four of the producers and writers involved in the album had yet to finalize production deals or releases, according to four sources close to the project, meaning they cannot be fully compensated for their work. Some of Utopia'small contributors have completed their agreements: Ted AnastasiouScott's representative said in a statement that “the vast majority of the payments to the contributors on this album have been paid and that any outstanding payments are almost complete.”
Artist managers and entertainment lawyers say it's increasingly common for acts to release an album first and figure out all the cancellations later. (Utopia was released more than six months ago, on July 28, 2023, and became one of the biggest releases of the year.) “The amount of paperwork that might be required to clear a track has become so overwhelming that I think some music industry executives they may have been desensitized to the importance of having everything in place before release,” says the entertainment lawyer Ghadar Savur.
Although artists often enjoy income streams outside of recorded music – mainly touring and merchandise – the same is not true for most songwriters and producers. Writers are usually financially dependent on publishing royalties from the songs they work on. Producers usually depend on a combination of basic royalties (often just an advance, unless an album makes back its budget, which is rare) and publishing royalties (but only if they contributed to the songwriting).
This means that all but the most famous writers and producers are already in a precarious financial situation. In addition, massively successful artists are often slow to finalize agreements that dictate the percentage of royalties owed to writers and producers and what remuneration is paid to producers. As the months pass, the partners' frustration grows.
Anastasiou, a spokesman for Scott, said in his statement that “the challenge with royalty payments on multi-track albums is that negotiations and issues often occur before and after an album is released, as terms must be agreed upon. and they are all interdependent. This becomes even more complicated when some participants, such as those mentioned in the story, are relatively unknown and their minor contributions only came to our attention afterwards.”
Anastasiou continued, “these challenges are not unique to Travis or any particular artist. Attributing any responsibility to Travis or his team for this joint issue is wrong and short-sighted, especially when Travis' team has been more than proactive every step of the way and is working hard to complete the last remaining payments.”
The Utopia contributors who spoke with Advertising sign about their experience would almost certainly dispute that they are “relatively unknown.” But, as Anastassiou noted, the collaborative nature of much contemporary pop music means there are mountains of paperwork and negotiations for an artist's team to complete surrounding each album release.
“It used to be that a band could put out a record and basically have a producer deal, maybe a mixer deal and some session musicians, and probably not much else,” Savur explains. “Today, commercial pop tracks can have multiple producers, outside people contributing beats or music beds, samples and jams, one or two featured artists or minor artists who each need their own deals and also waivers from their labels, and sometimes a dozen or more co-authors who are all signed to different publishing companies.”
“I don't know of any law firm that represents producers and songwriters that isn't completely underwater right now, trying to get all the deals done,” he adds. Dan Petel, founder of This Is Noise MGMT, another writer-producer management company. He says the problem is exacerbated by artists releasing music more frequently to keep their fans engaged.
To make things even more complicated: Artists' groups are usually responsible for all clearances on their albums, but the money paid to producers usually comes from a record label. For the producers “the lack of a direct contractual relationship [with the label] it creates an uncomfortable disconnect between who creates the music and who pays for it,” he says Matt Basserentertainment lawyer.
And once an album is released, artists often hit the road, which means their attention — and that of their team — is focused elsewhere. However, “labels are insisting that producer agreements be finalized and signed by both parties [producers and artist] for the producers to be paid in full,” he explains Maytav Koter, founder of Good Company MGMT, which works with songwriters and producers. But one of these parties can bounce from city to city on tour.
Most writers and producers have little recourse to ensure that approvals are made in a timely manner. “I haven't gotten a coherent answer as to what the f—” is going on, says a source close to a person involved in the making Utopia who is still waiting for the papers. “Why is it so hard to ask people to do good business?” one member of another asks in frustration Utopia group of producers.
Savur says extensive email back-and-forths are routine for post-launch clearances. The only other option is to try to remove the track or sue the artist who put it out — without a signed producer agreement, for example, the artist has released the producer's work without permission. However, writers and producers almost never go this route. They probably want to stay in the good graces of the artists they're working with—especially if they're stars—and costumes are expensive and time-consuming.
This means that all that's left for partners is to monitor the artist's team each week and make personal appeals. As a resource that the client is waiting for to complete Utopia Bureaucracy says, “don't you want to make the people who write your songs happy?”
