![Jon Bellion]()
Hearing a raging success like Jon Bellion describe how much of an uphill battle it is to maintain position at the highest levels of the music industry — never mind making it in the first place — is quite the eye-opener. While you may look at
an artist like Oliver Anthony sideways for turning down a gazillion dollars and not selling out in the traditional sense, the picture Bellion paints for writers, producers and artists is like some kind of Dorian Gray dystopia.
Whether it's keeping up with the hamster wheel of touring, dealing with the daily grind and chops it takes to crank out hit songs, or the massive disparity between the cut chief creators get from any given song versus what chief executives get, Bellion spilled all the tea on
The George Janko Show.
And of course, in light of the
lawsuit filed against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, this conversation is just a layer or two of onion that is the gigantic corporate structure of the music industry.
The clip below served as a mere snapshot introduction to all that Bellion had to say over the course of two and a half hours, where he alludes to plans for his first solo studio album since 2018. But for purposes of this article, we'll focus on what Bellion said about how little of the larger pie artists get for all the work they do. You hear some of it in the clip below, but the lengthy passage is
clipped from the 1:29:27 mark of the podcast.
https://twitter.com/GeorgeJankoShow/status/1793723624400253213
"A label giving a producer six points out of 100 is the equivalent of them sitting on a cow, and a UFC fight is happening, and they go drop one steak in the middle of the ring, and they tell the six producers who worked on the song — the six writers who worked on the song — ‘Go fight for it and figure it out.’ And everyone's like, ‘I get the little fatty piece on the end because I made most of the song!’ And these guys are like, ‘Look at these idiots! We have 97 points and they're fighting for three. And they think that they should be grateful if we give them seven instead of six! What a bunch of morons!’
That's literally what they're all thinking. Laughing hysterically, while we're in the basement like, ‘My soul and I'm just trying to express myself, and…how to change culture!’ These guys are like, great job. Keep doing it, and give us more so we can get 97% of it.
F*****g insane. That is insane just for…someone to be a producer…sitting at that chair and your back’s hunched over because you've done it for so many hours. For then you to finally get an opportunity to work with a big artist, and the label tells you you're lucky to be working with them, here's two points? Go flying f**k yourself."
For those unfamiliar with Bellion or his work, the man is nothing if not as real as it gets. A capital-A Artist in every sense of the word. While putting his solo music career on pause due to his disenchantment with how his contracts were structured and myriad other factors, he's produced and written hits for big names like Halsey, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, The Jonas Brothers, Tori Kelly, Selena Gomez, and the list goes on and on.
Suffice it to say, he's doing very well for himself. That said, Bellion is probably thriving at the top 1% of the top 1% of producers in the industry. Although his three to six percent cut on a song's streaming revenue might be just fine for him given where he's achieved his way to, that imbalance doesn't go over so well for the many thousands of others who
aren't in league with big-time artists and record labels.
Without any terribly intricate knowledge of how the process Bellion describes works, it's still easy to grasp his explanation of how producers, even at the highest level, are getting screwed over by the labels. Maybe it's the last stand those labels have as they become less relevant due to how much easier it is to release music independently these days. It says a lot about Bellion to speak out on these issues, because he's more than well-off financially and could just coast on the current power structure without raising any hay. Instead, he's calling out the problems in his industry as he sees them.
All of this feels eerily similar to what triggered the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that put movies, TV and streaming on pause until the writers and actors were more fairly compensated. Not to get too into the weeds or create confusion between what a
music producer does and what a
movie/TV producer does, but I think you catch my drift.
If you've never heard Jon Bellion before, or don't really know who he is, the behind-the-scenes making of his song "Stupid Deep" is a great place to start. Here's
a link to the song itself. The opening line on its own figuratively knocked me on my a** the first time I heard it. Profundity and universality abound in its simplicity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuvVC2i4saw&pp=ygUXam9uIGJlbGxpb24gc3R1cGlkIGRlZXA%3D
You see the raw passion and emotion with which he creates his music. That energy has been harnessed and channeled to help countless artists evolve in recent years. In the not so distant future, Bellion will finally be back with music wholly of his own, and I for one can't wait for it.
Check out the full podcast episode below, as what I'm covering here is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. There's quite a lot of discussion between Janko and Bellion about their shared Christian faith. Even if that's not really your speed, there are a lot of other illuminating nuggets in there worth listening for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdvOnco1u2Q
