A jingle writer or a sound track artist is basically creating something 'on spec.' Also, you can bet that good jingle writers charge a lot more money than bad

A jingle writer or a sound track artist is basically creating something 'on spec.' Also, you can bet that good jingle writers charge a lot more money than bad jingle writers. Recording artists (who incidentally are 'musicians', although some rather loosely) contract with the label to promote and distribute their record. The record company pays them an advance on future earnings as a way to sweeten the deal to get the artist to sign with them instead of another label. They aren't paying them to make the music, but rather just paying upfront some of the money from the sales of the album. Most artists do not make money off of album sales (even big-name artists). They make money off of ticket sales, merchandise (e.g., t-shirts), and licensing their songs for commercials, movies, etc. After they have become very successful, they are in a position with more power to negotiate better contracts (I struggle not to say fairer). Or, sometimes they create their own label and release their music themselves. Usually, though, when an artist has their own label it's really a "vanity" label that is under the major label. I think big artists (and little ones) have every right to complain about a system where they can sell ~200mm albums and come out of the process bankrupt (the article mentions TLC and Toni Braxton as examples of this). They created ~$2 billion of gross value and probably netted upwards of $1 billion for the record label. The label certainly took a risk on them and should be compensated for that, but shouldn't the artist as well? I'm not arguing that the artist wasn't naive or poorly informed when signing the contract, but they have every right to complain that the contract terms were onerous and others should think carefully before negotiating. Even Apple re-negotiated their deal with AT&T once they had a hit. Also, you are completely wrong that no upstart artist can afford to sell 2+ million albums for a debut hit (I realize you say 'make', but contract terms aren't changing because it suddenly became cheaper to sell albums digitally). One example of the top of my head is the band Train. They created their first album on their own for very little money and it was certified platinum. With advances in recording software and digital distribution, record labels are starting to look very obsolete. Especially when they charge you for the actual expenses of their promotional campaigns out of your royalties.