7 Times Musicians Battled Their Record Labels

Musicians have been talking about defying “the man” since the dawn of time — it’s the rock ’n’ roll ethos, right? It seems to some bands that “man” was their record label, and “defying” them actually resulted in a few lengthy court battles to fight over ownership of music, fulfilment of contracts, album prices and much more.

Rather than battle of the bands, the music industry has had far too many battles with the labels. We’ve selected some of the more intense or notable battles artists have undertaken against their label that have made headlines or history, with some even changing the interworking of the industry and how labels operate with musicians, ultimately setting a precedent for the rest of the music industry.