I worked at labels for years… that’s not the way it works

If an artist is enough of a dummy to blow their entire advance unwisely quitting their job, spend months in the studio, and get an elaborate tour bus: the label will pay for it but those expenditures are weighed against your royalties. Scummy labels exist, sure, but often the artist went on a spending spree with what anointed to a loan the label was paying them.

Spotify also pays absolute garbage and fucks bands harder than most labels were ever able to