![Major label hopes ‘Artists Forward’ program will “prioritiz[e] transparency with creators in all aspects of their development”](https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/sony-music.jpg "Sony Music Is Wiping Out the Old Debts of Catalog Artists - Rolling Stone")
Sony Music Is Wiping Out the Old Debts of Catalog Artists - Rolling Stone
Major label hopes ‘Artists Forward’ program will “prioritiz[e] transparency with creators in all aspects of their development”
Last June, protests broke out across the music industry as record executives questioned the business’ long history of racial inequity. Ron Sweeney, a veteran music attorney, offered one proposal that he believed could help labels begin to atone for their past injustices: “With respect to Black artists signed to you prior to 2000,” he wrote, “…zero out their unrecouped royalty balances and let their royalties flow to them so they can support themselves.”
Sony Music Entertainment appeared to take a step in this direction for all its legacy artists on Thursday. In a letter sent to the company’s partners obtained by Rolling Stone, Sony said it “will no longer apply existing unrecouped balances to artists and participant earnings generated on or after January 1, 2021 for eligible artists and participants.”
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