RAYE calls out “evil” music industry practises, claims “songwriters are being manipulated”

RAYE has spoken out against “evil” practises within the music industry, claiming that “songwriters are being manipulated”.

• READ MORE: RAYE: “I became a ‘rent-a-verse’. People knew my songs, but they didn’t know me”

The musician made the comments backstage at Coachella, where she spoke with Rolling Stone. “We’re all here at Coachella essentially to watch songs we love, hear the lyrics and the melodies that we love,” she began. “And there are some incredibly, stupidly, ridiculously talented people who can’t pay their rent who are writing the songs. And it’s incorrect, and it’s wrong. It is just evil if I’m going to be transparent.”

She went on to demand that “artists with big platforms and big songwriters” should “help take a stand,” adding: “Songwriters are being manipulated.”

One common industry practise, she alleged, was record labels forcing songwriters to approve a 10 per cent split and no master royalty points. They did this by threatening to withhold their songs: “If you don’t sign this agreement right now — the songs not going to come out. We’re not going to use it. All your hard work will go to waste.”

RAYE claimed that the lack of fair payment resulted in working-class songwriters being at a disadvantage in the industry: “Are we saying now that if you’re rich and you come from wealth and from money that you can be a songwriter because you can keep yourself afloat? You can do it for passion for the love?” she asked.

“But I’m saying some of the best songwriters we have come from real life, real working-class backgrounds. And that’s where some of the best stories are. We’re listening to music is a commentary on the human experience. That’s where the songs are. And you’re going to treat those people like expendable parts? Evil, manipulative, nasty things happening.”

RAYE finally finished by saying: “There’s a really bad problem going on — but songwriters needs to be correctly paid and respected. Full stop.”

The singer-songwriter has spoken out about the underpayment of songwriters previously. In March, for instance, she criticised music industry execs who underpaid writers whilst taking huge profits themselves. 

“You got these CEOs and big label execs living in their fat huge Chelsea mansions, living a beautiful life, meanwhile songwriters you are profiting off are broke, can’t afford rent and fighting over scraps of publishing that is sat in bank accounts for two years before they receive a penny, because publishers have kept it in there so they can collect interest and make a whole separate business,” she said.

She also condemned the current allocation of master royalty points to songwriters, saying: “The label will take, say, 80 points. The artist, in a good deal, will take maybe 20, 15, or maybe 12 and then producers get four points, but it has to come out of the artist’s points.

“And the songwriter doesn’t even get one point. It’s disgusting, the whole industry is disgusting. That’s one little example of what goes on behind closed doors where there is no accountability.”

The multi-BRIT winner also spoke to NME in 2022 about her label struggles, saying: “When you sign with a record label, technically they work for you: you’re signing to a company for them to work for your career and take you to that next level.

“But as a woman, it just doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you’re working for them. And you know, some of the things I had to put my body through to even be able to that… it’s really quite sad.”

After calling out her former label Polydor for preventing her from releasing her debut album in 2021, RAYE parted ways with the label weeks later. She released her debut album ‘My 21st Century Blues‘ independently in 2023, with NME calling it “bold, brilliant and unapologetically her own.”

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