The contracts nobody explains. The money you don't know you're missing. The clauses designed to keep you broke while you're charting.
This is arguably the most predatory clause in a standard label deal. Cross-collateralization allows a label to take money from one revenue source to pay off debt from another. Your touring income could be used to recoup against your recording advance. Your publishing royalties could offset losses from an album that flopped.
You could be charting, selling tickets, and generating real revenue - and still see zero royalty checks because the label is cross-collateralizing across all your revenue streams simultaneously.
Labels advance money upfront against future royalties. You don't see a single cent of royalties until every dollar of the advance (and often marketing spend) has been "recouped." What most artists don't understand: the label charges full retail royalty rates against your recoupment account, but only pays you a fraction of that rate.
Example: A sale generates $1.00 in royalties. The label applies the full $1.00 against your recoupment debt. But they only pay you $0.15 of that dollar once you're recouped. The math is designed to take a long time.