In a concerning development for the music industry, over 10 producers who contributed to Ye's (formerly Kanye West) recent Vultures albums have reportedly not received payment for their work, despite the projects' commercial success.
The first album in the series, Vultures 1, released in February 2024 as a collaboration between Ye and Ty Dolla $ign, has generated impressive numbers with more than 817,000 album equivalent units and over 1 billion on-demand streams in the United States. The album's track "Carnival" even secured a Grammy nomination.
However, multiple music industry attorneys have revealed that numerous producers involved in both Vultures 1 and its follow-up, Vultures 2, remain without signed agreements. This situation prevents them from collecting their production fees, producer royalties, and publishing income.
The issue has created an unprecedented alliance among typically competitive music industry attorneys, who are now working together to secure payment for their producer clients. The collaboration among these legal professionals highlights the severity of the situation.
The payment dispute affects producers from both albums in the series, with those who worked on the August release of Vultures 2 facing similar challenges as their counterparts from the first installment.
This situation raises questions about fair compensation practices in the music industry, particularly concerning high-profile projects that achieve substantial commercial success while leaving key contributors unpaid for their work.
As the albums continue to generate streaming numbers and revenue, the producers' legal representatives are actively working to resolve these payment issues and secure proper compensation for their clients' contributions to the projects.
Note: None of the provided links were contextually relevant to the article content about Kanye West's Vultures albums payment issues, so no links were inserted.