Line #3 ScrewedByTheNetwork/Music


1	* Music/TheyMightBeGiants had the full support of the executives for their first three albums on Creator/ElektraRecords (''Music/{{Flood\|TheyMightBeGiants}}'', ''Apollo 18'', and ''John Henry''). But there was a massive shakeup right before the release of ''John Henry'' that saw Elektra's parent company firing all the executives. The replacements didn't care for TMBG. Their next album, ''Factory Showroom'', received almost no promotion when it was released, and the band asked to be released from their contract shortly after that.
2	** It happened again when the band moved to Restless Records, a former Enigma sublabel that previously distributed the band's albums in their Bar/None days, though this time it wasn't due to ExecutiveMeddling and moreso due to unfortunate circumstances. The band's eighth album, ''Mink Car'', was released on September 11, 2001, a time that also saw their label struggling hard enough to eventually be sold off and absorbed into Creator/{{Rykodisc}}. This ensured that the album wouldn't sell well, and it quickly went out of print. As a result of this, the band went indie and formed their own label.
3	* Happened ''twice'' to Music/RedHousePainters. The band was always at risk of being thrown off of Creator/FourADRecords because Mark Kozelek and Ivo Watts had clashing personalities (one of the most notorious in the industry). They were finally thrown off in 1996 over a quarrel over two guitar solos. Then they were picked up by Island Records who, caught in the merging of different labels, decided to drop the band and refuse to release their final album ''Old Ramon''. That album didn't see release until 2001 when Creator/SubPop records finally picked it up.
4	* This happens a great deal with many recording artists who find that, either because of cost-cutting measures or a perception of the general public's lost interest in them by the higher ups, their new releases aren't being promoted, then the albums aren't being distributed properly, then they're cut from their recording contract. [[Creator/{{EMI}} EMI Records]] sent a huge percentage of their talent roster packing in the late 1990s - early 2000s because it was hemorrhaging money at the time, so a lot of artists who before found a lot of support from EMI ended up signing with considerably less supportive record companies, who screwed them over.
5	* One of the most notorious and tragic musical examples was Music/BigStar. They might have actually been big stars if their albums hadn't been distributed by the crumbling [[Creator/StaxRecords Stax label]].
6	* After Splashdown's EP ''Redshift'' rapidly sold out, the band made a new album called ''Blueshift''. For reasons that remain mysterious, Capitol Records refused to release the album, but also retained copyright so that Splashdown could not release the album with another record company. Years later, the only way to hear those songs is through illegal downloading thanks to an internal leak. Splashdown split up due to fears that Capitol Records would retain copyright of any of their future songs.
7	* CountryMusic artist Darryl Worley has been screwed over by having ''four'' different labels close unexpectedly on him. First [[Creator/DreamWorksSKG DreamWorks]] Records in 2005 (the abrupt closure of which also killed off the careers of nearly every artist on their roster, with Music/TobyKeith and Emerson Drive being notable exceptions), 903 Music (owned by Music/NealMcCoy) in 2007, Stroudavarious in 2010, and Tenacity Records in 2012. The latter two closures resulted in [[MissingEpisode two unreleased albums]].
8	* Similarly, Bigger Picture Music Group closed in May 2014 with Craig Campbell's "Keep Them Kisses Comin'" on the verge of top 10 at ''Billboard'' Country Airplay. The song lingered for a couple months after the label's closure and eventually came to an end at #8, giving the label its only Top 10 hit ''after'' it had gone out of business (thanks in no small part to Campbell himself phoning stations with requests). Similarly, Ryan Kinder's "Kiss Me When I'm Down" didn't chart until after the label had closed.
9	* Roadrunner Records abruptly dumped practically every DeathMetal band on the label starting the instant Music/TypeONegative produced the label's first Gold-seller. Most of the bands coming off the label ended up slamming Roadrunner for giving their final albums there little or no promotion, and Music/{{Suffocation}} actually got hit with massive cuts to the budget for their second album, ''Breeding the Spawn'', which resulted in the weakest production of any release by the band to date, before being formally dumped right after their next album, ''Pierced from Within'', hit stores. Music/{{Obituary}} managed to hold on with the label for a few years longer than most of their contemporaries, but most believe that the SoOkayItsAverage nature of 1997's ''Back from the Dead'', as well as the band's breakup the next year, was caused by [[ExecutiveMeddling interference from the label]], and when Obituary reformed in 2005, they immediately went to a different label.
10	* Music/DavidBowie's 1993 album ''Black Tie White Noise'' (his first solo effort in four years) did well in Europe, hitting Number One on the U.K. charts. But it flopped in North America -- in part because U.S. distributor Savage Records went belly-up shortly after it hit shelves.
11	* Brazilian singer Tim Maia had just recorded a new album for EMI, when he saw the estimated marketing costs matched the money spent recording. He raged, and caused the marketing executive to ask for a dismissal... which the label owner rejected, firing Maia instead. And dumping the record (ironically named ''Reencontro'', "reunion") on stores with InvisibleAdvertising to guarantee it didn't go anywhere.
12	* [[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/23/business/king-of-pop-faces-us-market-with-subdued-promotion-effort.html Zig-zagged]] with Music/MichaelJackson's ''Blood on the Dance Floor: [=HIStory=] in the Mix'' (1997) -- Creator/EpicRecords gave it a heavy international push, resulting in #1 chart showings in Europe, but very little North American promotion, so it never reached higher than #24 on the U.S. charts. Perhaps justified on Epic's part, given that ''[=HIStory=]'' had a '''huge''' push two years prior but quickly faded in the U.S. (so an album that consisted mostly of remixes wasn't a guaranteed hit) and Jackson never brought the ''[=HIStory=]'' tour to the continental U.S. or Canada. Also, Jackson may have sabotaged himself with the ''[[Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts Ghosts]]'' ShortFilm, the most elaborate of the album's tie-in efforts, by making it a huge allegory for the child molestation allegations of 1993 -- the primary reason for his drop in stature in the U.S. to begin with. Rather than trying to get it [=MTV=] airplay, Sony ran it for a week in some Los Angeles theaters (attached to the film ''Thinner'') before shuttling it off to the international market; reporter Diane Dimond wonders if it wasn't out of embarassment with the content. (Indeed, it's still a case of KeepCirculatingTheTapes after all these years in Region 1.)
13	* Sort of zigzagged with Music/DreamTheater at Elektra. After Falling Into Infinity flopped despite heavy ExecutiveMeddling to make it more commercial, the label essentially gave the band free reign to run out their contract, but didn't promote them at all, essentially deciding that signing the group to a long-term deal was a mistake. The upshot was that after their contract with Elektra ran out, DT was able to sign with Roadrunner, who allowed them the same freedom but did a much better job promoting the band. They were able to demand the same freedoms they had previously been allowed while also making sure to sign a label that actually wanted them. Their last album for Elektra, ''Octivarium'' reached #36 on the charts (already their highest peak since ''Awake'', largely due to changing industry standards), while ''Systematic Chaos'', their first for Roadrunner, reached #19 and their next three albums have all hit the top 10.
14	* Singer/songwriter Music/NicoleAtkins was hit hard by this trope. Her 2007 debut ''Neptune City'' was highly acclaimed by music critics, with some even predicting she would become the "next big thing." Unfortunately, her then-label Columbia Records unexpectedly [[ScheduleSlip delayed the album's release]] from July of that year to late October in order to give it further remastering. By which time any promotion she had gotten during the summer had long faded. The album, thus, failed to chart on the Billboard 200 and sold less than 50,000 copies overall. Needless to say, not long after, she left Columbia Records and jumped through several indie labels before finally creating her very own label (Oh Mercy Records) for her 2014 album ''Slow Phaser''.
15	* Music/{{Jojo}} wasn't able to release an album for nine years between 2006 and 2015 due to her label Blackground being massively mismanaged and keeping her in a contract even as the company fell apart; she had to sue to finally end her deal and could only record single songs and [=EPs=] in the interim.
16	* Swedish DJ Avicii is a very unique example of an artist being so AdoredByTheNetwork that he gets screwed over for that reason. In the summer of 2013, he released a song called "Wake Me Up!" Feedback of the song was overwhelmingly positive, and it quickly became the biggest EDM crossover hit of all time. After the song finished its run, it was time for Avicii to release his follow-up single, "Hey Brother." The song was destined to be another smash-hit for him...had it not been for stubborn radio executives who refused to move on to the next single. This practically crippled any momentum the song had off the back of its predecessor, and instead the song slowly limped to #16 before plummeting down the charts. Nowadays, Avicii's non-"Wake Me Up!" discography has been practically blacklisted from American radio stations, all out of adoration for his one monster hit. Sadly, these same radio executives might have killed him--he ended up retiring in 2016 and killing himself two years later, the enforced one-hit wonder stigma being alleged to have sent him to his death.
17	* The only reason Music/{{Psy}}'s "Gangnam Style" was unable to dethrone Music/Maroon5's "One More Night" on the Hot 100 was because radio executives wouldn't play the song on high rotation out of the assumption that a pop rap song sung in a foreign language would be perceived as a novelty and not resonate well with radio listeners. "One More Night" was the top radio song during its reign at #1. Rumor has it that "One More Night" was deliberately overplayed to ensure "Gangnam Style" wouldn't ascend to the top.
18	* Creator/BifNaked's self-titled first album was released on Plum Records in 1995. The label folded shortly thereafter without telling anybody, and the singer disappeared for a while. She came back strong after taking back the rights and re-releasing the album on her own label, Her Royal Majesty's Records.
19	* Conducting from the Grave's slide from touring machine to barely-active local headliner can largely be blamed on Sumerian Records pushing them towards a more "bro"-oriented sound (their original sound was roughly akin to early The Black Dahlia Murder with some deathcore elements); while they did acquiesce somewhat on ''Revenants'' (which had a noticeably more prominent deathcore undercurrent), they were pushed to simplify their approach even more, refused to do so, and watched as their tour support dried up before vanishing altogether, which was followed by the label unceremoniously dropping them. After a Kickstarter campaign to finance their third album, they have done virtually nothing since then and announced a breakup in 2015.
20	* The release of ''Music/{{Queen}}'s Greatest Hits, Pix and Flix'', a multimedia project intended to celebrate the band's 10th anniversary, was badly botched in the United States by WEA (Creator/{{Warner\|Bros}} - Creator/{{Elektra\|Records}} - Creator/{{Atlantic\|Records}}), with Warner Books passing on ''Greatest Pix'' and Warner Home Video attempting to make ''Greatest Flix'' a rental-only release against Queen's explicit wishes. Only ''Greatest Hits'' would see release under WEA through Elektra Records; ''Greatest Pix'' was ultimately published by Quartet Books the next spring, while ''Greatest Flix'' was released the same year as ''Greatest Hits'', as part of [[Creator/{{EMI}} Thorn EMI Video's]] North American launch slate. Amazingly, Queen didn't consider parting ways with WEA immediately; the last straw came with how Elektra handled their subsequent album, ''Hot Space''. Freddie Mercury was reportedly so incensed, he spent the next year buying out the band's contract with Elektra.
21	-->'''Jim Beach''': It's a pity these three divisions of Warner Communications couldn't have joined forces for the common good of Warner Communications; now we're in a position where two ostensibly competing companies are going to have to get together to market this piece of product.
22	* Music/{{Kesha}}'s song "Die Young" was yanked from several radio stations after the Sandy Hook massacre, as the title evoked the image of the 20 children being shot to death in the school. This, even though the song had nothing to do with actually dying young - the lyrics were about partying while you're still alive to enjoy it.
23	* Music/TaylorSwift fulfilled her contract (for six albums plus a year after the last album) with her original record label, Big Machine Records, in November 2018. She had been trying to buy her master recordings from them for years and wanted to purchase them when she left Big Machine. There were negotiations to re-sign her at Big Machine but she was only given the option to get her old masters for each new album she produced. Creator/RepublicRecords (a subdivision of Creator/UniversalMusicGroup) was willing to give her the masters with no strings attached so she signed with them. Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta [[https://twitter.com/scottborchetta/status/1145504248697958402 has even admitted that she was never given the opportunity]] to purchase her masters. It's something that's fairly common for artists to do when they leave record labels, as Music/{{Rihanna}} did in 2016. Swift said she had made peace with leaving her masters with Big Machine knowing that the label would be sold without her (she was bringing in about half their entire revenue) but had an issue with the buyer of the label in summer 2019. It was sold to Scooter Braun's company Ithaca Holding. Braun has never liked her and she doesn't like him and now owns her life's work. Borchetta texted her the night before to tell her it was being sold to Braun and she learned the news the day of on the news since she was in London and was asleep when he sent the text. Her father, Scott, owned 4% of Big Machine prior to its sale and was invited to participate in a conference call announcing the news the week before but declined (he had one of her lawyers on the call) because he would have to sign a non disclosure agreement and didn't want to put himself in the situation of having to keep a secret from her.
24	* Japanese metalcore act Earthists made it very clear they were NOT happy with how their former label Tragic Hero Records treated them. Despite an early push from the label when they dropped their first LP, ''Dreamscape'' in 2017, afterwards Tragic Hero lost interest in them. They did nothing to promote their follow up ''Lifebinder'' and didn't pay them for any royalties or production costs. Adding to this, ex-guitarist Yuta Tanaka revealed in a Facebook post that they were promised a North American djent themed tour (more than likely with fellow Tragic Hero band The Afterimage, who also got hosed by the label) but Tragic Hero stopped that from happening (both bands did tour together in Japan during 2018). Earthists split from Tragic Hero in 2019 and have been continuing as an unsigned band.
25	** A similar story happened to fellow Japanese band Music/CrystalLake, who signed on to Artery Records to promote the album True North. Then Artery did nothing but sat on the band and prevented them from touring America. Thankfully, strong support from the local Japanese metal/hardcore scene, several European appearances, and their song [[SignatureSong Apollo]] going viral, prompted Sharptone Records [[NetworkToTheRescue to sign Crystal Lake and heavily promote them.]]
26	* Zigzagged with Slaughter to Prevail and Sumerian. Singer Alex Terrible revealed in an Instragram livestream that Slaughter to Prevail had several new songs written by mid 2019, but Sumerian thought the band was punching below their weight. Sumerian did release the nu-metal tinged song "Agony" in 2019 and it quickly got over one million views. While touring 2019 and 2020, Slaughter premiered a new song "Demolisher" live and had a video made, but Sumerian apparently didn't have too much faith in the song, but was still promoting their merch and their previous album ''Misery Sermon''. Alex uploaded the video for "Demolisher" to his personal Youtube and it gained over a million views ''very fast.'' Sumerian eventually released the song on streaming platforms and started promoting the band again.
27	* [[https://old.reddit.com/r/Metalcore/comments/iz0gy0/the_browning_and_earache_records/ Outright stated from Johnny McBee of The Browning fame.]] Long story short, Earache has been going through and removing a lot of back catalogs of music from streaming services, all while not paying their roster royalties for the music they made. This isn't unique to The Browning, as several other artists, such as Music/{{Decapitated}}, have had their music removed from streaming services. Earache Records hasn't responded to any of the criticisms against them and have been blocking anyone on social media who has been vocal about their poor treatment of their musicians.
28	* Music/{{Chicago}} was hit pretty badly by this from Creator/ColumbiaRecords. After the release of the well-received ''Chicago XI'', which continued the band's winning streak throughout UsefulNotes/TheSeventies, their manager convinced CBS to sign them to a massive contract extension where the label agreed to give them a million dollars for each album produced. However, it came at the worst possible moment, as co-lead Terry Kath accidentally shot and killed himself not long after the extension was signed. CBS then started to have second thoughts when ''Hot Streets'' and ''Chicago 13'' failed to impress. They subsequently screwed ''Chicago XIV'' with InvisibleAdvertising, with no concert tour or singles to promote it. Its failure cost CBS more than they expected, so they opted to buy out Chicago from their contract. A [[ContractualObligationProject contractually obligated]] GreatestHitsAlbum, the second volume after their best-selling first, was dumped to the holiday season of 1981, where it had Music/{{Queen}}[='=]s Greatest Hits album to compete with. Thankfully for Chicago, their misfortune wouldn't last long as they would sign with Creator/WarnerBrosRecords for ''Chicago 16''.
29	* Semisonic, one of the definitive OneHitWonder bands of TheNineties, was dogged by this all throughout their career, as related by drummer Jacob Slichter in his entertaining memoir ''So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star''.
30	** Originally named Pleasure, the band initially got caught in a bidding war between Creator/ElektraRecords and Creator/{{MCA}}, choosing to go with Elektra. Then as Slichter memorably summed it up, they started recording their debut album as Elektra band Pleasure, but finished it as MCA band Semisonic. They had to change names because they found another band called Pleasure. Then the Elektra exec shake-up mentioned above with They Might Be Giants also affected them, since they lost the label rep who signed them. Semisonic begged Elektra to release them from their contract, but the label dragged their feet for a while, forcing a pause in the recording sessions.
31	** When the album (''Great Divide'') finally came out, MCA chose "Down in Flames" as the lead single, even though none of the band members thought it was single-worthy. Radio passed on the song, and the video ran into problems with Creator/{{MTV}} because it depicted fire.
32	** After MCA basically gave up on the album (an AcclaimedFlop), "F.N.T.", the song that the band had ''wanted'' to be the lead single, was included on the soundtrack of ''Film/TheLongKissGoodnight'' and started getting some radio play, but MCA didn't care to support it.
33	** Then they got some unexpected AdoredByTheNetwork treatment for their second album ''Feeling Strangely Fine'' when label execs jumped on "Closing Time" as a potential smash hit, promoting it early and often. While it worked beyond everyone's expectations, it was a ToughActToFollow for the follow-up singles, and, disappointed that they weren't matching the pace set by "Closing Time", MCA suddenly pulled both "Singing in My Sleep" and "Secret Smile" from radio even though they were gaining momentum ("Singing in My Sleep" was on the verge of making the Alternative Rock Top 10). "Secret Smile" later [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff became a surprise hit in the UK]].

Context ScrewedByTheNetwork / Music