Lady Gaga's ex-manager, Troy Carter, stated that her label, Universal Music, cheated the singer out of streaming royalties during her most popular period of recording and music sales. Carter specifically mentioned royalties from Spotify, which he says did not properly pay Gaga.
Lady Gaga is most certainly one of the most successful performers and recording artists of this millennium. She topped the charts upon her debut with hit songs like "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" and continued her remarkable success with the "Born This Way" album, which included the hit song of the same name. Her latest solo album, "Artpop," may not have met sales expectations but spawned huge hit singles in "Applause," along with her popular R. Kelly collaboration, "Do What U Want."
After the disappointing sales of Artpop and a bit of media and consumer backlash, Gaga reinvented herself as a jazz chanteuse, recording a hit duet album and embarking on tour with the legendary Tony Bennett. Her career is now revitalized, and we should be expecting a new solo project from her in the near future.
It's her past hits, however, that are currently on the radar due to some explosive comments made by Gaga's ex-manager Troy Carter. Carter states that Gaga's label, Universal Music, cheated the artist out of streaming royalties due to her from Spotify and other streaming services during the height of her pop popularity.
Carter, who is no longer handling Gaga's career but is active as a music and technology entrepreneur and investor, said, "We've always gotten screwed from record royalties ... So when you look at it, the live business and the merchandise business have always been the bigger piece of the pie. And with record labels, I think it's more of just chickens coming home to roost. Well, let's rephrase that: labels made a significant amount of money off of Spotify that didn't match up to the artist royalty statements ..."
Carter went on to claim, "... Spotify is paying out a lot of money, it's just not finding its way into the hands of the artists."
Top Apple Music executive and Beats founder Jimmy Iovine was chief of Gaga's label, Interscope, during her string of top hits.
