Is This Possible Or Would This Be Too Much Like Slavery?

[Sakushika]

Okay, this might sound quite weird, but it's really just something I'm wondering.

It's a secret to nobody, thriving in the music industry is not just about having talent, it's also about image. And image is about both behavior and looks.

With that said, if you're a musician who can't sing and doesn't look pretty enough (according to society's subjective standards of course), is it possible to have somebody willingly sign a contract to represent you and your music?

That would mean that you create songs and have somebody else sing them (the way you want them to be sung) and appear in the video of the song (which, too, is made the way you want it, not them).

During interviews, that person speaks on your behalf and during every public event, they act the way you tell them to, wear what you tell them to wear, if you want them to fake a romance with some superstar because it will attract tabloid attention and thus make them (and your music) more famous, they have to do it, etc.

After signing, that person is basically yours and they are informed of this when signing. Can this be done?

Can you sue that person if they try to break free from your grasp by disobeying you after having signed?

Or would such a contract be against that person's fundamental rights and so, despite them willingly and conscientiously accepting such a contract, if they change their mind afterwards, nothing can be done about it?

[Prometheus]

Okay, this might sound quite weird, but it's really just something I'm wondering.

It's a secret to nobody, thriving in the music industry is not just about having talent, it's also about image. And image is about both behavior and looks.

With that said, if you're a musician who can't sing and doesn't look pretty enough (according to society's subjective standards of course), is it possible to have somebody willingly sign a contract to represent you and your music?

That would mean that you create songs and have somebody else sing them (the way you want them to be sung) and appear in the video of the song (which, too, is made the way you want it, not them).

During interviews, that person speaks on your behalf and during every public event, they act the way you tell them to, wear what you tell them to wear, if you want them to fake a romance with some superstar because it will attract tabloid attention and thus make them (and your music) more famous, they have to do it, etc.

After signing, that person is basically yours and they are informed of this when signing. Can this be done?

Can you sue that person if they try to break free from your grasp by disobeying you after having signed?

Or would such a contract be against that person's fundamental rights and so, despite them willingly and conscientiously accepting such a contract, if they change their mind afterwards, nothing can be done about it?

It's not just possible, it's actually the norm these days. Very few of the people you see in the charts write their own songs. They're faces for a record producer or entrepreneur.

I don't know anything much about the ins and outs of how you would set up such a contract, but it can certainly be done.

[LilOrange]

I realize this is a norm nowadays, but why would you wanna do that? Why do you want everything to be your way?

[Prometheus]

I realize this is a norm nowadays, but why would you wanna do that? Why do you want everything to be your way?

I would not. Let the musicial coves produce the damned music and let the entrepreneurs go off and figure out how to make money out of it, but the two should be bound to a covenant where one party does not encroach on the methods and practices of the other.

When the two blur together as they do at the moment, you end up with an anti artistic and anti intellectual industry that has little credibility or relevance to the consumer because the only imperative is to release one dimensional, dross, mass appeal nonsense that can maximize short term profit and minimize outlay. It's myopic and it's sad because the reality is that you can make as much money from one Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin as you can from a thousand Girls Alouds or One Directions.

Let's be honest, most A & R guys these days are more at home with a really f*ck off spreadsheet and a copy of the Financial Times than a piece of well produced and imaginative music. They have apoplexy if you suggest they listen to a piece of music for more than thirty seconds. Imagine how they would keel over and pass out as the blood rushed away from their heads if they tried to get up from behind their desks and go scouting for talented bands and musicians as they did in the old days.