"I guess I've learned that there's really no such thing as a bad label, there is only a bad contract"
About this Quote
Steele’s line lands like a veteran’s shrug: the villain isn’t “the label,” it’s the paperwork. Coming from a musician who lived through the era when major labels could turbocharge your reach and quietly siphon off your future, the quote punctures a favorite rock myth. Fans love the clean morality play of pure artists versus evil corporations. Steele replaces it with something more boring and more accurate: leverage, clauses, and who had a lawyer in the room.
The specific intent reads as both warning and absolution. Warning, because it reframes success as something you can be contractually tricked out of even when the music connects. Absolution, because it declines to demonize the entire industry. A label is a tool - distribution, marketing, radio muscle, tour support. The “bad” doesn’t live in the logo; it lives in the deal terms that decide ownership, recoupment, royalties, creative control, and how long you’re tethered to a machine that profits even when you don’t.
Subtext: maturity earned the hard way. Steele’s “I guess” signals reluctant wisdom, not a manifesto. It also smuggles in a kind of working-class pragmatism: don’t rage at abstractions; read the fine print. In the ‘90s and 2000s, as artists started publicly battling labels and later pivoted to DIY dreams, Steele’s take anticipates the modern reality. Independence isn’t automatically freedom; majors aren’t automatically cages. The contract is the moral document. Everything else is branding.
The specific intent reads as both warning and absolution. Warning, because it reframes success as something you can be contractually tricked out of even when the music connects. Absolution, because it declines to demonize the entire industry. A label is a tool - distribution, marketing, radio muscle, tour support. The “bad” doesn’t live in the logo; it lives in the deal terms that decide ownership, recoupment, royalties, creative control, and how long you’re tethered to a machine that profits even when you don’t.
Subtext: maturity earned the hard way. Steele’s “I guess” signals reluctant wisdom, not a manifesto. It also smuggles in a kind of working-class pragmatism: don’t rage at abstractions; read the fine print. In the ‘90s and 2000s, as artists started publicly battling labels and later pivoted to DIY dreams, Steele’s take anticipates the modern reality. Independence isn’t automatically freedom; majors aren’t automatically cages. The contract is the moral document. Everything else is branding.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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