Why is Billie Piper still in debt to her record label, 20 years on?

It has been a long time since Billie Piper was a chart-topping singer, having abandoned music in the early noughties to pursue acting. The change of career has worked out well for her but she's still in debt to the record label she was contracted to decades ago.

Piper revealed this week that she still owes money to Virgin Records. This is despite it being more than 20 years since she officially called time on her music career.

"I’m still in debt to Virgin," she said on Jessie Ware's podcast Table Manners. "If I ever release an album, which I won’t, I’d probably have to pay off that debt. It’s like a university debt."

Piper was a pop sensation, becoming one of the UK's youngest singers of a number-one single when she topped the charts in 1998 with Because We Want To at the age of 15. Her follow-up single went to the summit too, but her success fell off in subsequent years.

She revealed in 2003 that she would be focusing on acting instead of music, subsequently scoring the role of companion Rose Tyler in the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who.

Why is Billie Piper still in debt to a record label 20 years on?

The answer could lie in the unusual way these organisations work. When an artist signs to a label, they are typically paid an advance — essentially taking on initial debt as part of their contract. This is usually paid off before the singer can earn any royalties.

There can be other expenses too, as R&B group TLC found out to their cost. Despite their enormous chart success, they filed for bankruptcy in 1995 after admitting to $3.5m (£2.8m) in debt.

The group's members claimed their debt actually increased the more successful they were, having been charged for expenses including hotels, travel, and music videos.

Young artists have often struggled with these deals. Sony Music cancelled the debts of thousands of artists in 2021, enabling them to earn streaming royalties for the music they made years earlier.

Piper signed a multiple-album deal with Virgin subsidiary Innocent Records as a teenager, but ultimately only released two LPs: Honey to the B in 1998 and Walk of Life in 2000.

Part of her debt could be a result of not making the agreed number of albums. Reports at the time suggested Piper had been due to make a third album before she quit the music business.

So, as Piper stated in the interview, if she were to release another album, royalties would likely have to go into paying off the deal she signed back in the days of Because We Want To.

Watch: Music video for Billie Piper's hit song Because We Want To

Piper described the music industry of the 90s as "lawless", confessing that she "enjoyed it for a while, then I burned out" and hated the promotional side of things. She said she has never worked as hard as she did as a teenager.

"I don't regret it, but I think that I could probably have waited a bit longer," she said. "And I wouldn't recommend any child get into the music industry. I don't think success and teenage years are a good marriage."

Piper's acting career, meanwhile, is going from strength to strength, with her latest role coming in the Netflix drama Scoop. She plays TV producer Sam McAlister, who worked to secure the infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

She has also reprised her role as Rose Tyler recently as part of several Doctor Who audio adventures, having last played a version of the part on screen in the 50th anniversary special back in 2013.

Scoop is available to stream on Netflix from Friday 5 April.

Read more:

• Billie Piper admits she was 'insanely jealous' of Britney Spears during pop star fame

• Netflix’s Scoop crew mistook Billie Piper for BBC Newsnight producer

• Critics label Scoop 'self-admiring' but celebrate Billie Piper and Rufus Sewell