19 Times Artists Took a Stand Against the Music Industry

“The ‘music industry’ is not a term I use,” Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits said to Rolling Stone in 2015. “I tend to concentrate on music, and the music business is something different.”

In other words: there is a line between the artists who make music and the people who distribute, market and sell it. The former party is typically concerned with the authenticity of their work and the creative control they have over it, while the latter is, unfortunately, often profit-driven. In the best of scenarios, these two sides come together to craft a shared vision for the art, one in which everyone is justly compensated for the work they do, artistic or otherwise.

It should come as a surprise to no one that because the music business involves plenty of money, ego and fame, it’s the prime environment for things like lawsuits and other such discrepancies. This usually has very little to do with any actual artistic merit, and can be made even more ugly when elements of racism and/or misogyny are present.

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“I heard someone from the music business saying they are no longer looking for talent,” Joni Mitchell said to the Los Angeles Times in 2004, “they want people with a certain look and a willingness to cooperate.”

In the chronological gallery below, we’re examining over a dozen times artists put their foot down and stood up to the powers that be in the music industry — lawyers, label heads, etc. — in the name of their own art.