An artist development deal is often the first of a recording artist's contracts with a major record label. In lieu of high royalties or other desirable rights, the label will promise to develop the skills and public profile of the artist. These types of deals are sometimes most helpful to the artist, but the label often takes control of the artist's management and publishing rights (dubious practices that have been compared to having a mini-monopoly with respect to the artist). Historically, such deals have been abused by both record labels and managers. Motown records made extensive use of this type of contract, and many argue that it was the sole reason for the massive success of the label in the 1960s. Berry Gordy, Motown founder, likened his approach to digging for oil and discovering a field full of gushers. Later, Motown was accused by some of its artists of practicing professional extortion.
After departing Motown's roster in less-than-favorable circumstances, Florence Ballard was unable to refer to her reputation as part of the Supremes in any future professional ventures.
Famous quotes containing the words artist, development and/or deal:
“If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day; to paint the man, in short, as well as his features.”
—James Mcneill Whistler (1834–1903)
“... work is only part of a man’s life; play, family, church, individual and group contacts, educational opportunities, the intelligent exercise of citizenship, all play a part in a well-rounded life. Workers are men and women with potentialities for mental and spiritual development as well as for physical health. We are paying the price today of having too long sidestepped all that this means to the mental, moral, and spiritual health of our nation.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Dear to us are those who love us, the swift moments we spend with them are a compensation for a great deal of misery; they enlarge our life;Mbut dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life: they build a heaven before us, whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)