Kanye West says he wants to 'rip apart' music industry in new in-depth interview

In a recent interview with Billboard magazine, Kanye West said he wanted to "rip apart" the ways in which people in the music industry get paid.

The candid interview saw the rapper describe the music industry as a "broken system that needs to be fixed". He also said he believes the "balance of power" between artists and record labels is "too wide" and that he will "work to re-think the design of the entire way we move in this space."

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Kanye continued:

"You have to adapt. You can’t have old rules for new games. No other business in the world would suggest you don’t adapt to a completely new supply chain and income sources. And yet we are tied to a contract formula for vinyl. We can be nostalgic and respectful of those times but we must look at how we create in this new world, and how we make money in this world.

"How do you think a young artist stays creative when he or she can’t eat? Or he or she feels completely frustrated or confused about the business? How does this help the Artist? Do they care? No, they have other Artists. Artists have one career. Majors have millions. No disrespect -- multimillions. The thought has to flip to the individual."

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The 43-year-old said he hoped that ultimately artists would own the copyright to their recordings.

And despite the long-held feud between himself and Taylor Swift, Kanye told Billboard magazine he wanted to help Taylor Swift get her masters back from Scooter Braun, who bought her earlier albums in addition to her former record label Big Machine Label Group.

"All artists need to be free and own their rights," he said. "Taylor Swift deserves that, just like everyone else. As I mentioned before, Scooter Braun is a friend and we’ll be having that discussion."

Remember the pro-Trump speech Kanye gave after performing on SNL:

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Soon after the interview was published,  Kanye tweeted that he was giving back to all the artists signed to his label, GOOD Music, the 50 percent share he has of their masters.

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Amongst others, this decision will affect artists such as John Legend, Pusha T, and Big Sean. Big Sean responded to the gesture, writing: "Thank you! This would help so much."

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