It’s has become an everyday occurence seeing record labels having a fallout with their artistes. We’ve seen so many cases where artistes and record labels have legal battles because of some misconception in the contract signed by both parties. We’ve also seen so many instances where record labels fold up or a just barely managing to survive and have become a skeletal structure trying to be relevant in an industry that is so tough that only the strong can pull through.
There are so much to talk about the dwindling state of our poorly run record labels, that 4 critically dissected reasons wont make up for it all. But I would try and cover all the necessary and important points that would drive home a clear and precise solutions to these problems killing our music industry little by little.
I hope this article would be of help to someone out there who is either a record label owner or about to start one and also an artiste who is on the verge of signing that lucrative record deal without thoroughly thinking it through before putting pen to paper. Enjoying reading and feel free to drop your comments.
1 Poor Orientation of Starting a Record Label
Most people go into starting a record label business with the mindset that they would start raking in a lot of money within a short period of time. They believe music business is a fat cow where they can sign one artiste and starting milking from it. Record label is not a get rich quick kind of business, it entails patience, perseverance and commitment. Yes there are some record label who are making a lot of money from it but they have all paid their dues.
Lets examine some record labels like Sony, Mavin and Chocolate City. These record labels are renowned labels with proven track records to back their claim. Sony Music is one of the biggest record label in the world. They have managed the biggest pop stars in the world and they are still managing top musicians all over world. They were able to achieve this because they started from nothing but they had a well orientated goal and mindset of what they wanted to achieve from day one. Today they are the biggest players in the industry all over the world. Thesame can be said to our own record labels like Chocolate City and Mavin Record. We all known their stories of how they started and where they are today. One thing that made them stand out from the rest is their set out goals, their orientation before starting their labels. They knew it wasn’t just all about the money but nuturing talents the right way that would eventually lead to income creation in the long run.
2 Poor Structure And Infrastructure
Starting a record label involves more than one person, it requires the services of several people working for the common goal of the organisation. What most Nigerian record labels are lacking is a well cordinated and structured framework that leaves just making good music for the artiste. The major structures for a record label to be successful must have these in place:
Talent Development
Artist Product Marketing
Music Production
A & R
Handling the legal aspect of producing music
Sales and distribution
Marketing and promotion
3 Legal Loopholes
As a record label the first and very important thing you must have is a very good legal backing or representative. Many record labels have fallen victim to this problem because most times their artistes usually outsmart them with some loopholes in their contracts. In other not to be in such predicament it is only wise to prepare a fair contract that would favour both the artiste and the label.
Artistes get to leave their record label when they feel cheated that their record label is making too much money off them while they are left with very little. This sometimes leads to artistes looking for loopholes in the contract to pull out and start a record label of their own. And this is how the circle continues with one artiste leaving his record label to start his or her own, creating shabby and unstructured record label. There are so many instances in Nigeria that I can’t begin to mention names but I”m sure we know them.
4 Failing To Sign Good Talents
Most record label are at fault here. There are plenty of good talented artistes everywhere who just need a little boost and they would really do well and become a success story but most record label are looking for established artiste who they wont spend much money to start reaping from them. This is very wrong because they are killing the system. A proper record label is meant to have scouts whose job is to search for raw talents who can bring something new to the industry. There are very few discovered upcoming artistes these days because no one is paying attention to them anymore. We are carried away with the swag, glamour and razzmattas of Wizkid, Davido, 2face and others that we forget that there are many 2faces out there who can even do bigger things than these artistes we know have done.
If our Nigerian record labels can be like the Universal, Sony Music of this world by now our musicians should be in thesame pedastal with other top international artistes. Lets put away our sentiments and sign only raw, good talents, not for their financial capability or popularity but for the potential these new talents can offer. When we get our priorities right, then can we begin to move forward.
All Credits: VIDEOWHEELS
the problems are, no vision, no passion, no professionals, no funds, just propaganda.
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