Promotion of music in politics

The promotion of music is politics. It's way more complicated than what people think. You have to worry about image, artistic direction, demographic considerations, marketing, censorship, courting radio and music networks through legal or non-legal means, and paying close attention to trends.

Artists have to be not just musicians, but also lawyers, accountants and managers. If not they're likely to get taken advantage of by corrupt corporate executives who mess them out of royalties and rights to their music because they were ignorant to the business side of the industry. Not to mention being stuck with a terrible unfair contract that more or less makes them slaves to the label. Young upcoming artists are more prone to becoming victims of these types of shady record deals. Rappers of the late 80's and early 90's were also victims of these deals.

Examples of politics in the music industry are when Kelly Clarkson’s album My December was a victim of a trope. She publicly battled with BMG honcho Clive Davis over creative control of her album, and then suffered a vengeful smear campaign by her own label. My December only sold 800,000 copies, which was a disappointment compared to her previous success. She canceled her tour and fired her management after the My December debacle.