De La Soul has won a victory that few artists do. Their industry colleague, Talib Kweli, took to Instagram to announce that the group finally gained ownership of its masters.
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“Ladies and gentlemen I spoke to @djmaseo from the legendary @wearedelasoul today and it’s official. After years of being taken advantage by the recording industry in the worst possible ways, De La Soul now owns all the rights to their masters and is in full control of the amazing music they have created,” Kweli wrote.
Two months ago, Tommy Boy Music was acquired by Reservoir Media. With that acquisition, Reservoir Media got Tommy Boy’s catalog. As the label was founded in 1981, one can imagine that Reservoir inherited quite the collection. Part of that collection was six of the group’s albums.
After the acquisition, executives announced that they wanted to place the De La Soul catalog on streaming platforms and were speaking with the group to make it happen.
Masters are important for an artist to own because ownership gives them the legal right to do whatever they want with the music. That usually translates into making more money off of their art.
Many artists have found that the vast music industry is business first and have lost money because their label owned their masters. Eager artists often sign their masters away.
Initially, there was some confusion about Kweli’s announcement, as the group had not officially posted their own announcement. However, on the group’s Instagram, they posted that they would be doing a live event to make it official.
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The trio experienced some technical difficulties before making the announcement but did finally get it out.
De La Soul member Trugoy The Dove, born Dave Joliceur told viewers on Instagram, “We’re thrilled. We have come to a deal between ourselves and Reservoir to release our music in 2021 — our catalog will be released this year, we are working diligently with the good folks at Reservoir, and we sat down with them and got it done pretty quickly actually. Our music will be released in 2021 on all streaming platforms — we’re trying to get the whole catalog out there. It’ll take a minute… a little minute… November.”
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De La Soul is best known for hits such as “Me Myself and I,” and “Breakadawn.”
Congrats!
