Kip Moore’s Refreshing Take on Money, Music Business

Kip Moore‘s approach to free agency would make an NFL agent cringe. During an interview with Taste of Country, he explained what he’s hoping to get out of this next chapter of his career.

Spoiler alert: It’s not a truckload of money.

• Last month, Kip Moore released his Solitary Tracks album on Virgin Music Group.
• The new project comes after five full-length albums on MCA Nashville.
• “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck,” “Hey Pretty Girl” and “More Girls Like You” are Moore’s biggest radio hits to date.

Related: Kip Moore Makes a Great Point About How Ridiculous Social Media Is

“In the new contract, the only thing I cared about was owning my music. I just wanted to own my masters,” Moore says.

Very few artists signed to one of Nashville’s major record labels own their masters, and because of this, they always need to check in before placing a song here or recording a song when.

Absolutely zero Kip Moore fans will be surprised to hear that he doesn’t like asking for permission.

“All along this journey, I didn’t take tour advances,” he reveals. “I didn’t take big advances with upping contracts. Because the way that works is it might be, ‘Show me the money,’ but it’s just a loan.”

Often an artist or songwriter is required to pay back an advance once a hit song comes. Moore chose to bet on himself instead, and that put him in a good spot once disaster (i.e. COVID) struck.

“Greed is a thing that can eat you from the inside. You see it constantly, especially in this business,” he tells Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul. “I saw how quickly so many people were jumping ship from keeping guys on salary and stuff, and I understand at the same time.”

A conversation with his business manager convinced Moore that he, too, would eventually run his account dry. Six months into the pandemic when most artists had quit paying staff salaries, Moore doubled down.

“If you would have told me in 2010 when I was living in that garage apartment — 28 or 29 years old and I’ve been living in that tiny little thing, container for awhile and sleeping on that little twin mattress on the floor and just trying to hustle and working odd jobs and writing for a publishing company … if you would have told me that this — let’s just say $50 would have been in that piggy bank — I would have been ecstatic.”

“The fact that I had $70 in that piggy bank, I was like, ‘OK, if I bleed out for a year I’m back to that $50, I’m still blessed.'”

“I had to make up my mind, ‘Am I gonna let money be my God?’ and I just refused to do that.”

Those sound like the words of an independent artist, but Moore says he didn’t want to go that route because he didn’t feel like dealing with distribution on his own. Plus, Virgin was eager to amplify what he was doing overseas and had the platform to do it.

The core of this new album came before he signed, however. Over the span of a week, he wrote “High Hopes,” “Livin’ Side” and “Solitary Tracks.”

“And it was in that moment I knew I was in a record cycle. I knew I was saying something,” he says.

This part of our interview with Kip Moore is not included in the above video. That part of the conversation focuses on his fresh approach to country awards shows, changes in his personal life and more.

Listen to the full conversation on the Taste of Country Nights: On Demand podcast.