Researching how record labels control artists - Arman

Record labels have the power to end an artists career depending on how much money they decide to invest in the artist, or if they even want to continue to invest in them, they can ruin their career in an instant.

I've found these facts on new millennium realities:

"Throughout the 20th century, record labels were the dominant force behind the most successful artists.

Record labels had the power to make or break artists, depending on the amount of money they invested in promoting their music. The Internet has freed artists from dependence on record labels, and through social media, many artists market and distribute their music independently at a much lower cost. To stay in business given the reality of the digital age, record labels now offer so-called "360 deals" to artists that give them a cut of all the artist's work, including album sales, media appearances and product endorsements."

This shows that todays artists have to rely more on social media and the internet to distribute their own work rather than label's which could potentially backfire at them and ruin their careers at any given moment, so to secure themselves a future they use youtube, facebook and twitter to distribute their works and gain revenue through the sites through deals.