’Successful’ but skint: a sign of the times? Or evidence that record labels make musicians forfeit financial stability and autonomy for exposure?

It seems surreal to see a band describe themselves as broke right after stepping off a European arena run. When Witch Fever said they were skint despite two relentless months of playing to tens of thousands, it revealed a truth that has been bubbling beneath the surface for well over a decade. The industry celebrates success through spectacle. Big stages, big lights, and big cosigns. Yet the numbers behind the curtain tell a colder story. It is a story built on withheld tax, opaque deals, vanishing margins, and musicians trapped between two equally painful choices. Do you remain independent and scrape by on the goodwill of fans, keeping your autonomy intact? Or do you sign to a label and gain access to the support slots, marketing power, and recording budgets your career needs, only to find out that your financial well-being has been placed last in line? The internet loves to take swipes at Witch Fever’s aesthetic. Too theatrical, too ‘woke’, too try-hard, too intense, too genre-hopping, too this and too that. Yet the fixation on their image glosses over a far more urgent issue. The wolves appear when an artist reaches a certain level of visibility. The noise gets […]

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