Artist exploitation refers to the phenomenon of artists being exploited by the commercial interests involved in publishing their work and denied their appropriate financial share of the profits engendered via their work.

This is a common phenomenon among naive young rock and roll musicians, where the record labels will have the artist sign deceptive and complex contracts and then 'creatively' adjust their financial accounting to justify minimal royalty payments to the artist. It is also the reason many rock musicians make most of their money via touring, where they are more directly in control of the profits.

Examples of artist exploitation

Winston Groom, the author of the novel Forrest Gump, claimed the movie studio Paramount denied him his fair share of the profits by using accounting tricks to claim the film was a failure.

Aston "Familyman" Barrett of the group Bob Marley and the Wailers sued Island Records for royalty payments.

See also

Artist exploitation is a special case of exploitation in general.

Marxism theorizes that exploitation is not an accidental phenomenon in capitalism, but rather a necessary corollary, where capitalist owners are 'forced' by the structure of the capitalist system to exploit all forms of labor upon which they depend, in order to maximize profit.

The owner class typically form support organizations, such as the RIAA, in order to better coordinate their exploitive practices. The labor class, or artists in this case, generally are not as effective in forming their own counter-organizations, due to lack of leisure time and resources.

Related links

• Boycott Riaa
• How to prevent exploitation