Radio Edits

Depends on the artist and the deal he has with his label. I know some labels have made changes to songs w/o artist approval. They'll get the producer to make the changes. Some artists actually record radio versions. They don't like when a song is edited for time. Language is one thing, but not length. Artists are trying to get more control over how their music gets used on radio. I've actually heard from an artist about an early fade we did on their song.

The company I worked for supplied music to radio stations. They had us edit the cuss words out, if they hadn't already been edited by the record company.

Consideration for the artist's feelings over such edits were the last thing on the programmers' minds.

No editing of cuss words = no airplay. The editing works to the artist's benefit.

A lot of artists record clean versions to avoid extensive editing which can ruin a song. This is especially true for songs that have more expletives.

If a rap artist is smart, he records a clean version for release to radio. If he's stupid, he doesn't, the stations edit him, and he ends up angry about it when he should be looking in the mirror to find the responsible party.

It's not just rap, though: I remember doing a custom edit on Prince's "Housequake" (back in the days of razor blades and splicing tape) to edit out "bullsh*t" the two times he said it during the song. That's one that His Purple Majesty missed the boat on, because if he'd released that, minus those, I can practically guarantee he would have had another hit single with it.