Borrowdale Barron

grand master
I know clout means being popular with the masses and all that but what exactly does clout really mean specifically in the context of the music industry?
 

Goldmidi

The Goldmidi
Staff member
The best way to fully comprehend what clout means in the music industry is to follow the money. That way you will get all your questions answered in the right context.
 

Black Panther

grand master
What? I don't understand.

He is saying forget about what you commonly see but if you follow who funds and controls the record companies you will then know where the real power lies.

Just like in politics you have politicians going back and forth with each other but the real deal happens behind the scenes and if you have the time and ability to follow the paper trail you will know who are the head honchos.
 

Numero Uno

grand master
He is saying forget about what you commonly see but if you follow who funds and controls the record companies you will then know were the real power lies.

I thought the general convention is associating the word clout in reference to A-list musicians, B-list, C-list etc instead of record executives.
 

Black Panther

grand master
I thought the general convention is associating the word clout in reference to A-list musicians, B-list, C-list, etc instead of record executives.

Yeah, but his question is referring to the music industry as a whole. You can't compare an A-list artist to a major shareholder of huge corporate music publishing company in terms of clout.

That will be a complete joke and it doesn't matter who it is and how many records they sold.

Nevertheless, it's obvious artists are the ones who put in work which then makes music publishing companies and records labels to have the current market valuation they have.

No artists mean no music unless the music industry replaces humans with robots.
 

Scorpio

grand master
Nevertheless, it's obvious artists are the ones who put in work which then makes music publishing companies and records labels to have the current market valuation they have...

To play the devil's advocate, the counter-argument is how record labels invest millions of dollars to artists on their roster so it's not like record companies are utilizing cheap labor (songwriters and music producers) to generate profits from music publishing royalties, online music stream royalties, etc.
 

Queen

grand master
To play the devil's advocate, the counter-argument is how record labels invest millions of dollars to artists on their roster...

It's not just about music publishing advance money they give to songwriters because some songwriters come into the music industry not from a poor background. The same is true for the film business.

So what it means is these long established multinational record companies in the music industry have connections throughout the world spanning decades, and even more connections in other high places to promote any artist they want.

A single artist on his or her own will never have that amount of clout. It's a special type of clout reserved to the corporate world only.
 

Numero Uno

grand master
A single artist on his or her own will never have that amount of clout. It's a special type of clout reserved to the corporate world only.

And what makes you think A-list artists can't reach that corporate clout status when they earn millions of dollars every year?
 

Queen

grand master
And what makes you think A-list artists can't reach that corporate clout status when they earn millions of dollars every year?

It's not as easy as you are making it to be. Possibly the only good example of an A-list artist who at least managed to have a sense of corporate clout is Michael Jackson when he bought that music publishing catalog with a whole bunch of profitable hit songs.

Now that's what you call corporate clout, and not the modern day ways of running around on social media acting a fool while giving away your time of the day to respond to internet trolls.
 
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