From Mac Miller to Amy Winehouse, record labels, eventually being overtaken by their addiction, many have fallen to the “27 club”. The amount of responsibility on record labels for their artists' well being has been debated since Elvis, when the king of rock died in his battle with addiction, the whole world turned to point fingers in every direction. A reliable direction to point the blame is often the record label tied to the artist, because a record label is responsible for keeping their artist safe and recording/performing music. After the veil has been pierced; the veil hiding the lucrative, inhumane, and addiction fueling practices of record labels, a hole too big to hide will be in it. As time has gone on, and the music industry has grown, there has been more money and competition involved in music, leading to more pressure to record on the artist’s from labels. While artists are recording, there is a lot of alone time, or thought involved, with immense amount of pressure to sound better as they get bigger, so when artists fall into addictions there is no questioning why. But the fuel of these addictions is far too often an artist’s own record label, and though the argument is made that it is safer than the street’s, it goes against what any professional record label’s priority should be, to keep their artist safe, and recording.

In the case of Lil Peep, his mother recently (February 2023) settled the lawsuit against his record label First Access Entertainment for wrongful death after her son’s overdose in late 2017. According to music magazine Pitchfork's writer Marc Hogan, Lil peeps mother, Liza Womack, presented text messages between Peep’s manager and him in court. The texts went along the lines of Peep feeling anxious about the show in El Paso, so his manager told him to take as many drugs as he could, offering to supply them so the venue could be canceled without liability. His own manager offering to feed his addiction to the point of near overdose just goes against what record labels should be aiming for. Often people believe that the record label makes the artist, while it is arguable that venues, promotion, and production in general would be much lower in value without a record label, an artist’s art is what people actually pay for. But what makes the music industry unique is that the artists can put beauty into the world from the comfort of their own bedroom, artists like Post Malone and even Lil peep for example. Time and time again we’ve seen that the success of the label depends on the success of the artist, and any artist can outgrow their label with good enough music. From the second I listened to other artists from First Access Entertainment, I knew Lil Peep was an artist that made his label, he was, and still is, the biggest name to have signed to the label, yet while he was alive, the label booked as many shows in as little time possible. The profit from his 10 billion streams on Spotify now going to his mother is an example from our own legal system that a record label is responsible for keeping their artist/s safe.

Record labels have the priority of getting an artist's music out and selling, whether that be by booking tours, or promoting music, record labels want to make money. What many record labels do is focus on short term profit, in aim of making as much money as possible in as little amount of time as possible. For example, Helienne Lindvall, a writer and editor for The Guardian, released an article speaking on the responsibility record labels hold when it comes to their artist’s health. The article covered Amy Winehouse’s death, that happened while on tour, much like Peep, except she had just come out of rehab, surely not in the best mental state, yet still she had a tour booked back to back just a month after. In 7th grade I performed in a play, the lead role, feeling the anxiety of being the only voice over the speakers, hearing every off note I sang, was nerve wracking. To be made to do that almost every night, whilst still being able to keep my mental health in shape, would be impossible, knowing just a part of the anxiety artists go through, even I, a high-schooler, realize that record labels are responsible for their artist’s health. From realistic concert bookings to providing access to therapy and support, record labels have the ability to keep their artist’s safe, it’s up to lawmakers and individual cases to enforce the act of protecting artist’s.