To be honest I'm not really familiar with Lorde's catalog enough to recognize what most of her hit songs are when I hear it, but ever since I saw her on SNL one night years ago I've been in love with her! - But that's besides the point, I do know she's big and it's interesting that she recently opted to go compleatly independent (at least for the time being):
Lorde Leaves Universal Music Group
https://pitchfork.com/news/lorde-leaves-universal-music-group/
Lorde is now a fully independent artist. In a series of voice memos sent to fans on Wednesday (March 18), the New Zealand singer revealed the deal she first signed with Universal Music Group when she was 12 years old ended in December. .... .... “But the truth is that a 12-year-old girl pre-signed and pre-sold her creative output before she knew what it would be like and before she knew what she was signing away.” .... ... “When I see an opportunity for a clean slate I take it,” she added. “And it does feel different. It sounds like it wouldn’t but it really does. I feel a feeling of openness and possibility and am inspired.” ...
I'd never heard of her/him (she describes herself/himself as gender fluid) so I took a listen to a few songs.
Not to my taste, but good for her/him to take control of her career.
This is sort of off topic, but not really. I wonder how independent artists negotiate their music rights. Do indvidual users of their songs have to go directly to the artist herself/himself, or are there copyright bodies that handle independent artists?
Yipes. It was really hard to compose that last post while attempting to consider the gender fluidity (sic?) of the individual involved. We're still not there in language and thinking.
@artisan-radio Yeah she's known for saying weird things, in a Rolling Stone interview, she said "I’m a woman except for the days when I’m man". Yeah she's kind of weird but maybe that's just how Swedish women are, I don't know but I like her. She's been back in the news lately over her current tour and because she just donated two hundred thousand dollars to some anti-ICE campaign, and her for he activity in previous humanitarian campaigns.
I don't know how independents negotiate their music rights, I'd think you'd know more about that then me, but I guess her lawyers handle it.
@artisan-radio Here's how it works or did. I used to play guitar and in the mid seventies had some songs I composed and went to a publisher. Play them the song recorded on tape. It is the publisher that will take a song, if they like it and think they can get other artists to record my song. A contract is signed with me and the publisher and the rights of my song are signed over to them and the contract stipulates my royalties if there is any success of getting it recorded by other artists and how much I would receive for copies sold, airplay, and me as the writer would have to be on the record. There's the publisher and the writer. It's the publisher that does all the work to try to promote it and if after a year there is no success the rights are returned to me. Back then, the two main performing rights organizations in Canada was Capac(I think) and BMI. I was responsible for registering my song with one of them so if anyone stole my song or a recording of my song that was claimed as someone else's I have the proof that I had this registered as mine from a certain date. To register the song I have to have the tape or in this day and age the digital copy on a USB drive or anything(I would assume). Back then I had a reel to reel tape recorder and recorded myself. They also need the song title. The publisher took 2 of my songs and I signed the song contract but never did anything with them and they were just returned to me after a year. Maple Creek Music was the publisher I went to and he(the agent I dealt with) showed me they had success and showed me a Tony Orlando and Dawn album and a few songs that were Maple Creek Music as publishers. So they weren't nobody's.
But it may be different if I am the performer of my own song but you will on a record always see a publisher and writer. Even if you are Carol King and write, record, and perform your own songs.
Lorde? Never heard of her till today just now.
Yeah, I don't generally know who current day pop stars are either, but she made an impression on me a few years ago when she had been the musical artist on Saturday Night Live, I never forgot her after that. You'd probably recognize her song "Royals" that topped charts across the entire gammit and spent months on the Billboard Hot 100. It sold 10 million worldwide, making it amongst the best-selling singles of all time. She also curated the soundtrack of the Hunger Games movie.
When it comes to the present era stars * have no idea who they are unless something brings them to my attention, I wouldn't even know who Taylor Swift was if she wasn't totally saturating the media, I certainly don't know her music though I would probably recognize it if it was pointed out.