The term artists contracts may refer to a wide variety of different kinds of contracts, from record deals to management contracts. Recording artist contracts, also known as record deals, are contracts between musical artists and the record label which has agreed to distribute their album. Generally, especially in the case of large record labels owned my corporations, the record label owns the copyright to the records made by artists on their label under the terms of their recording contracts. They also usually own the master copies of the records as well. Many artists have argued that this is unfair, and that the creators of unique work should be allowed to own their work, including copyright rights and the master copies of the music they record. Historically, however, record labels have used their power and financial resources to continue to retain many rights that perhaps should go to the artists themselves.