Learnt this shit in music college.
Exact what he saying. But it went deeper, told us examples of things they put in the contracts and how they finesse you in the contracts.
They showed us examples of fairly 'reasonable' and very common recording contracts.
Trust me, if you even understood/knew what goes into normal recording contracts... you'd be like 'fuuuuck I don't ever want a record deal!'
And especially if you knew the sneaky ways they straight up finesse you in contracts, like the ones they'll give you off the bat that 'if you don't know better' types, like what Rampage is talking about, 'cause believe me, they'll present you with that shit first off. If you knew the shit that goes in that, you'd be fucking shocked, and then you'd realise why they first person you'll want to get. is a music lawyer.
Believe me, there's so many clever, complex ways the contract can weave back into itself to trip you up. They'll even flat out put obvious shit in their for you to pay for that you shouldn't pay for. But "your stupid ass" just gonna sign it. If you or your lawyer saw it and said 'yo wtf? take that out' they'd take it out no problem.
There are even rights you pretty much need to give up so that the record label can do what they need to. But it still sounds mad.
Even uploading to YouTube or SoundCloud or Beatstars you probably need to be careful about.
Mfers always out here talking about Beatstars and selling their beats. Have zero clue about songshare agreements etc.
There's so much shit to know and learn, that probably about 99% of music makers don't even know exists! Let alone know about it.
Go wise up.