This dissertation examines whether contract and copyright law adequately protect recording artists in their relationships with record labels in the modern streaming era. Adopting a primarily doctrinal methodology, supplemented by economic, theoretical and limited comparative analysis, it assesses the effectiveness of existing legal protections against the commercial realities of digital music distribution. It argues that, although English law affords artists a range of contractual and copyright protections, these mechanisms remain fragmented and insufficiently responsive to structural inequality in bargaining power and the pressures intensified by streaming. Contract law intervenes only selectively, while copyright protections may be assigned, waived or prove difficult to exercise effectively in practice. The dissertation therefore identifies a persistent gap between formal legal rights and meaningful protection. It concludes that reform should extend equitable remuneration to streaming and recognise the relational nature of long-term recording contracts in order to provide more effective protection throughout the artist-label relationship.