"There’s a lot of money in music, it’s creating billionaires. But it doesn't pay fairly." The Black Keys on the "insane racket" that is the music industry in 2025

Last year, The Black Keys were forced to scrap every date on a scheduled North American arena tour, which raised eyebrows throughout the music industry, given that every album the Ohio two-piece released from 2008's Attack & Release through to 2022's Dropout Boogie penetrating the top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart, and that the band are regularly nominated for major industry awards.

The fall-out from this saw the band sack their managers, industry veterans Irving Azoff and Steve Moir, last June. The following week, drummer Patrick Carney tweeted, "We got fucked. I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned."

In a new interview with The Independent newspaper, Carney offers some insights into the inner workings of the modern day music industry, and without getting into the specific nuts and bolts of his own band's situation, the drummer is pretty scathing in his helicopter view of the business climate.

"The game has changed over here in the United States," he says. "We just don’t connect the dots."

Carney's assertion is that hugely successful live promotion companies have financial links with major players throughout the music industry, causing conflicts of interest which have the potential to leave artists disadvantaged.
"You see, like, ‘Jay-Z started a management company with Live Nation’, [but] no one really understands what that actually means," he says. "So the people that you’re supposed to be working with to negotiate with your promoter are in the pocket of the promoter. So how the fuck are you supposed to work? It’s everywhere… it’s insidious. It’s fucked up."

In addition, Carney says that artists take on all the risks, and the majority of expenses, when on tour.

"Each time you’re playing a show," he reveals, "someone’s slapping these service fees on, they’re taking 25 per cent of your merch off the top, it’s a fucking racket, man. You would think over the course of 65, 75 years of rock’n’roll, someone would have stepped in and be like, ‘Fuck all this shit. This is insane,’ and I think most managers would, but they’ve all been compromised."

And don't get him started on streaming services...

There’s a lot of money in music," he acknowledges, "it’s creating billionaires. It’s just, we’ve been saying since 2010, that this shit just doesn’t pay fairly. It’s insane."

For the full interview, go here.