Kesha says she has a “ten year plan to upend the music industry” - adding that the music business “should be fucking terrified of me” - in a new interview with Elle, where she discusses finally being in control of her new recordings following nearly two decades signed to Dr Luke’s Kemosabe Records label.
“I’m about to make some major moves and shift this shit”, she tells the magazine. “I really want to dismantle it piece by piece and shine light into every corner”. Her aim is to ensure that young artists don’t have the same experiences of the industry as she did. “I hope my legacy”, she adds, “is making sure it never happens to anybody ever again”.
Kesha spent much of her second decade working with Kemosabe locked in a legal battle with Luke, who she accused of rape. He strongly denied that allegation and sued Kesha for defamation. The legal dispute was multi-layered and fought in multiple US states, with Luke’s defamation action lasting the longest, until it was finally settled out of court last year.
The legal dispute was exacerbated by Kesha being locked into a six album deal with Luke’s Sony Music allied label, a long-term traditional record contract that the musician signed in 2005 when she was just eighteen. That deal completed last year allowing Kesha to release her recent single ‘Joyride’ via her own label Kesha Records, working with Warner Music’s label services division ADA.
Kesha seemingly wants to bring about change in the industry via her own label, by reaching out to and supporting young artists, and by speaking out in public against industry practices that she sees as being wrong. And that includes long-term deals where business partners have control of the rights in an artist’s output in perpetuity, for life of copyright.
“I don’t believe in ownership in perpetuity of anyone, anything, on any level, in any business”, she tells Elle. “That should not be something a human being can commit to. I feel like people want to own a beautiful thing. And it sucks for them, but you just can’t!”
There have already been some significant shifts in the music industry since Kesha did her original Kemosabe deal, of course, with record deals - certainly in the US and UK - usually covering fewer records and seeing rights return to the artist after a time. Or artists can keep control of the rights upfront and work with labels or distributors on a different basis. Although, life of copyright record deals are still signed.
Kesha acknowledges that artists have more choice now. “We live in a time that’s more democratic”, she says. “People can share whatever they want on all these different platforms. I’m excited to see what that means for the future of music - what the future of the world sounds like”.
Though artists need to know what to do with the choices that are now available, which leads to Kesha’s other stated ambition, established artists supporting new artists.
“When I was coming up, I wished there was some woman in pop music that I could have reached out to and talked to about stuff I was going through”, she tells Elle. “I found more support from the rock boys - Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear and Alice Cooper were very real, and helped me talk through things. So now I try to reach out to artists, girls and women, and just offer my services of life experience”.
Kesha also reveals that she is working on a new digital platform where “artist’s safety is prioritised, instead of being sacrificed for the commercial gain of others”. She then concludes, “I don’t believe you can create if you’re not feeling safe. The old guard, they’re falling. The old way of doing everything with secrecy - there’s no future there. So, like, those of you with deep, dark secrets, you better fucking run”.