Nobody is forcing artists to sign bad deals with record companies though. I am no way defending record companies here but it seems kind of silly to make a deal

Nobody is forcing artists to sign bad deals with record companies though. I am no way defending record companies here but it seems kind of silly to make a deal with the devil and then complain about the terms afterwards. Anyone is free to try to negotiate for things like reversions and there is no such thing as a standard record deal. Artists such as REM, Metallica and Prince have all famously done negotiated reversions way before the 35 years. The US is actually unique in that reversion is non-assignable, so an artist can't give up the right to receiving their music back even if they wanted to give it up. The UK isn't nearly as kind in this regard. Duran Duran were recently prohibited by an English court from claiming their reversions in the US. See: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/02/reflex-action-duran-duran-lose-court-battle-over-song-rights https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/02/reflex-action-...