Whenever a performer appears on another artist's track -- like Justin Bieber with Ed Sheeran on "I Don't Care" or Maroon 5 and Cardi B on "Girls Like You" -- the stars and their labels inevitably haggle over royalties. Then comes another discussion that's often more contentious: how the track affects the market share of the labels involved.
On the surface, at least, what's at stake has less to do with finances than bragging rights -- even when the labels involved are owned by the same company. At least some executives have a personal interest, though. "There are bonuses tied to this stuff," says, an attorney at Rothenberg Mohr & Binder who represents Kendrick Lamar, Marshmello, Daddy Yankee and others.
These days, feature tracks dominate the music business: The Billboard Hot 100 now includes six collaborations in the top 10, from Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road" to Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's "Señorita." At a time when Spotify's Today's Top Hits playlist has nearly 24 million followers, even one hit collaboration can swing a label's market share.
Only when that's done do the business-affairs departments at the artists' respective labels start their own negotiations -- over fees and artist royalty splits, plus the shares of revenue, market share and chart share allocated to each company. Any fees and deals the artists agreed to can complicate matters. Unsurprisingly, how to divide profit is usually the most contentious issue. "All of those things can be calculated independently or correspondingly," says the source.
Is that Kanye and Gaga?
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