https://musically.com/2020/07/20/steve-stoute-if-drake-goes-...
The sales figures are quite exaggerated... 99% of artists never sell anywhere near the volume that Drake does.
I think it's important for artists to call out and quit pushing the mostly false profit models that the industry keeps pushing to put artists on a pedestal and to keep artists worshiping the big music industry machine.
If Russ was making $1m a week, he would not be doing self-produced promotional videos and tiktok posts about how to succeed in music. Even $1m a week for a well known music artist is not realistic in a good economy when Spotify only pays a fraction of a penny per play.
but also independent labels have much less negotiating power and human power to check for infringements or unauthorized reproduction, let alone legal authority.
All in all a good deal for them it's peanuts for a mainstream label.
(I have co-founded a small independent label)