The Million-Dollar-Per-Hour Museum: How Major Labels Are Trading Tomorrow's Artists for Yesterday's Hits

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Did you know that major record labels are now making over $1 million per hour from their back catalogs alone?

This staggering figure isn't just a random statistic - it's a stark revelation of where the music industry's priorities truly lie.

In my recent analysis published Thursday, I exposed how the major labels are systematically dismantling their frontline operations and artist development departments in favor of exploiting their existing catalogs.

And then, as if on cue to prove my point, Universal Music Group announced on Friday that they're using AI to clone Brenda Lee's voice for a Spanish version of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" - a 66-year-old recording.

Let that sink in for a moment.

This could have been an opportunity to find an up and coming Latino artist to kick start their career with a new version of an old hit.

Imagine that.

But that would cost too much time and effort for the big machine, when the easy option just waiting to be picked up, is to use AI instead of a real artist.

This is the start of an extremely worrying trend.

One of the world's largest music companies, with virtually unlimited resources at their disposal, is choosing to invest in recreating a Christmas song from 1958.

They're framing it as an "ethical" use of AI because they have the artist's permission.

But they're missing the point entirely.

Or perhaps they're deliberately distracting from it.

Every marketing dollar poured into promoting voices from the past is a dollar not invested in today's artists who are trying to make a real impact.

Every playlist spot given to an AI-generated version of a decades-old song is a spot denied to a living artist trying to share their art with the world.

This isn't about whether the technology is ethical.

It's about whether our industry's obsession with monetizing the past at the expense of music's future is ethical.

The major labels have become curators of a musical museum rather than cultivators of new talent.

They're more interested in preserving and repackaging the past than investing in the future.

But here's the truth: the world needs new voices, new perspectives, and new art more than it needs another version of a Christmas song from the 1950s.

We need artists who can speak to today's challenges, who can inspire change, and who can help solve the world's problems through their art.

This is why I'm more convinced than ever that the time for change in the music industry isn't just coming - it's already here.

The future of music doesn't lie in AI-generated recreations of the past.

It lies in supporting and developing new artists who have something meaningful to say.

And that's exactly why I am launching the ArtistOS on November 18th as the founding to my mission of building the biggest and fairest music company in the world - to create a future where artists don't just survive, they thrive.

Because while the major labels are busy looking backward, we're focused firmly on the future.

-The Baker

Solving The World's Problems Through Art | #thetimetodoisnow