Before the music label’s 30th anniversary and the release of his own record, Sean “Diddy” Combs is reassigning the publishing rights to the songs’ authors and composers. This is a significant move as Combs has long been criticised for not treating artists fairly.
Diddy, the creator of Bad Boy Records, has chosen to give the musicians and composers who contributed to the success of the label, new publication rights.
The music industry has always had a certain manner of operating in terms of generating revenue. As is common knowledge, record labels typically retain the publishing rights to songs written by their roster of artists. Although this is a popular practise, it has come under fire over the years due to the imbalance it may potentially cause as record labels benefit greatly financially from the labour of musicians.
Combs continues to be disruptive and challenge the current quo, and he believes that his ground-breaking action will encourage the music industry to do the same. He hopes that by helping more creators succeed and make as much money as they can from their work, the industry will change how it will pay creators in the future.
Combs is moving things along significantly. Companies have approached him with offers of hundreds of millions of dollars to buy Bad Boy Records’ publishing, but instead of accepting these offers, he’s chosen to reassign them to the artists who are represented by them. The estate of Biggie, The LOX, 112, Faith Evans, Ma$e, and other prominent Bad Boy artists and writers are among the authors and artists who now control their publishing from the recording label.
Bad Boy Records was founded in 1993 as a joint venture between Combs and Arista Records. The Notorious B.I.G.‘s ‘Juicy’ and ‘Big Poppa’, Combs and Evans’ ‘I’ll Be Missing You’, and Faith Evans’ ‘Love Like This’ and ‘Soon As I Get Home’ are just a few examples of the multi-platinum singles that Bad Boy Records is credited with producing. Mase, who called Combs out for reportedly rejecting Mase’s $2 million offer to purchase back his rights, called the music executive out for the alleged behaviour, according to Complex. Combs has come under fire for allegedly defrauding some of his artists of the rights to their work.
According to Combs, this is a part of a bigger discussion about increasing Black artists’ and culture’s economic empowerment. Only time will tell if this action accomplishes that goal. But for the time being, Combs wants to reward the culture and create a new legacy for Black musicians to be compensated and recognised for creating the music that we all love in a sector of the music industry that has historically been about earning profits off the backs of creators.
