Rachel Platten couldn’t figure out where all the money went. It was 2015, and the then-34-year-old singer was in the midst of a major-label breakout thanks to the success of “Fight Song,” her single that charted in the top ten in nine countries. It was a long time coming for Platten, who had spent 15 years selling CDs out of suitcases and sleeping in vans between gigs. “Fight Song” alone took two years to write. She’d reworked its perseverance-themed lyrics endlessly and recorded nearly 20 versions on her own dime. Even then, it wasn’t until the song achieved organic radio buzz that Columbia Records entered the picture and scooped up the rights. After all that, she found herself squinting at her royalty checks and wondering why they looked a little light. The deal she’d signed with Columbia had left her with only 17 percent ownership of the song’s master recording. Unbeknownst to her, the label was raking back recording and marketing expenses she’d thought they would cover. “I said yes to the $1,000-a-day studio. I said yes to the $5,000 dress,” she says. “I just want to hold that girl and be like, ‘Girl, you don’t need those shoes. You’re paying for it.’”
That sort of lament is not uncommon among artists who get swept up in the major-label system: They’re so eager to capitalize on their moment when offers start arriving that they don’t take time to haggle over, or sometimes even understand, the finer points of their contracts. “I certainly could have structured a better deal if I had believed in myself just a little bit more,” Platten says, “and been a little bit less scared to lose what I had worked for 15 years to get a chance to do.” Even so, “Fight Song” was a big-enough hit that the deal was a win-win: Columbia recouped its investment “many times over,” while Platten says she made enough money from her stake (not to mention her 65 percent ownership of the song’s publishing rights) to transform her life. But the song was also intensely personal, and she occasionally wonders what might’ve happened if she’d never signed a deal.
