What does it mean when people say that Louis is āblack listedā? Sorry I donāt know much about the music industryā¦
Hi darling. Being blacklisted isnāt a term specific to the music industry.
Itās just pretty suspicious that even with all the contacts Louis has made over the years, with how many people seem to be on his side, personally, and even with how strong his built-in fan base is, his music still never makes it on to the radio.
Weāve seen evidence of his music being pulled off the radio as soon as it started to climb the charts (Back to You). And evidence that his singles arenāt even sent to radio stations to play (pretty sure that one was Miss You). And even the fact that a show like Late, Late which was run by people he was close to, didnāt have him on to promote Walls was super suspicious.
All of that happened when he was still tied to Syco/Sony and it seemed pretty obvious there was a personal vendetta of sorts coming from Simon (and possibly Sony) most likely because Louis was the fly in the ointment when it came to being able to manipulate both 1D and Harry, specifically.
A label can put pressure on outlets about running articles/playing music/featuring certain artists by using the threat of not allowing those outlets access to other artists if the donāt do as the label wishes. Itās underhanded and I donāt know that itās even a threat thatās spoken out loud so much as implied, but it happens.
But blacklisting isnāt the only reason Louis isnāt on the radio, on the cover of Rolling Stone etc. Labels have a fixed amount of money they want to spend on promotion across all of their artists. They make a determination about who they think is going to have the biggest return. There has to be more than just a personal vendetta against him that had Sony putting him lower down on their list than fans think he deserved. TV shows, magazines etc. have the same thought processāwhatās going to give us the biggest return?
And now that Louis isnāt signed to a label, and Syco is gone and Simon is barely even in the music industry, how much does what they wanted even affect Louisā career? Thatās hard to say. But while promoting FITF, Louis did allude to still not being played on the radio. And since getting placed on streaming playlists costs money and since he no longer has a labelās money to do that with, does that holds him back? How much of it is affected by all the years of sabotage Simon/Sony wreaked on his confidence, reputation, and career?
I do think thereās a level of blacklisting, but I think thereās more to it. There are plenty of artists who are never played on the radio who still grow their audiences and win awards and continue to put out music and tour successfully. Too many fans use the idea of him being blacklisted as the sole reason heās not a household name instead of considering the idea that there are likely quite a few reasons (some of which have to do with the way heās marketed and the genre heās in).
Anywayā¦ thatās a really long answer to your simple question and itās still a pretty open ended answer. Sorry about that.
