Rihanna is proving, once again, she is a boss to be reckoned with. According to a Vogue interview dated back in April of this year, the singer reportedly acquired the masters to all of her previous albums. In most cases, the record labels own the masters to their artists’ albums, but Rihanna was one step ahead when she moved from her previous label to RocNation.
When artists fail to own their own masters, they often only get a small piece of the pie when it comes to royalties and music streaming. Over the course of time, an artist that owns their own masters can accumulate millions of dollars in revenue according to how successful of a musician they are.
Ray Charles is a prime example of a successful, business savvy musician. When he signed to ABC Records back in 1962, he made a deal that made him one of the few African-American artists at that time to purchase the masters to all of his recordings. All of the songs he had written, co-written, or arranged from that point forward were owned by his own publishing companies. He was ahead of his time, especially since his recordings were worth $25 million in 2008 and continue to grow in capital to this day.
After the success Rihanna had with her number one hits and huge numbers of streams, she is sure to increase her revenue in a big way years down the line.
