With the recent wave caused by Nigerian Pop sensation “Kiss Daniel” and his former Record label “G-worldwide Entertainment”, we feel as a company concerned with the face of the music industry in Nigeria, we should try as much as we can to expose Artists to the Music industry from their mobile devices
Welcome to our 2nd #OutsideTheStudio piece and here are some things you should know about the battle between artists and labels.

1. THE CONTRACT IS VERY IMPORTANT
Currently in Nigeria there are over 27 million upcoming artists and close to only a 200 well structured record labels, in the beginning either the label is in search of an artist to offer a contract or an artist is in need of a record deal either way the one who should be very careful at this stage is always the artist.
Regardless of how innocent you are and how honest you are, you have to accept the fact that when contracts are involved it becomes a business and in business there is are the good, the bad and the ugly.
When you sign a contract, it becomes valid and you have to uphold what ever you pen your signature to, you have to be careful to make sure you go through the record deal before you sign. During our conversation with most artists, they pen deals within 2 hours of meeting with the record label (wrong move), if possible ask for a copy of the contract before meeting with the label or ask for 24 hours after meeting the label to carefully scrutinize the contract.
The Nigerian music industry hasn’t developed to the stage where artists can thrive without labels, while we are working to help fix that, you have to accept the fact that you really don’t have much of a choice when offered a record deal, record labels are few and artists are in abundance, it is highly unwise to turn down a record deal currently, the best you can do is to negotiate the terms or ask for a clause that can enable you to renegotiate the contract or make changes within the time frame of your contract.

2. RECORD LABELS HAVE A LOT OF RESPONSIBILITIES OUTSIDE PAYING YOU.
Yes, it might look like we are taking sides with the Record labels but that is just the honest truth.
For every artist you see at the top, there are lots of deals surrounding that artists with different functions, the record labels practically absorb these deals and make them their own responsibility and as such Record labels are partners with other organizations and companies outside you and as such might not really be gaining that much as you presume.
Take for example you go on a tour and you make 100 million naira from ticket sales, the company in charge of promotions might take 10%,the company in charge of events and venue will take another 10%, the company in charge of security will 5%, the legal firm that helps the label in negotiating all these deals will take another 5%, the record label needs to save some money in the reserve account, they save 10% and keep another 30% for operational uses such as studio sessions, mini publicity and even signing new artists, they give you 30% and you presume you have been cheated because to you its (70-30%).
You have to understand the various cogs the record labels need to oil to make your wheel move, otherwise you will end up being bitter all through your stay in the label.

3. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY RECORD LABELS.
Despite the fact that labels have a lot of responsibilities there are still labels that offer you a fair value of 30% for your hard work and talent and there are some that offer you lesser and they are labels that input very outrageous clauses in contract deals such as inability to perform with other artists outside the label or lifetime contracts with them, we have even had a case where the artist will be bought clothes, cars and houses but no money, you should be very careful when filtering them out, if offered a deal by an ugly record label with these type of clauses, we suggest that you run away for your dear life and bank on DTF (direct to fans) processes while searching or waiting for another label, if offered by a label with fair terms but not much money as you expect, take the initial offer but request for a renegotiation clause to be added to your contract.

4. DON’T BE QUICK TO LEAVE YOUR LABEL.
Because Wizkid left his label to become independent doesn’t mean you should think it is that easy these days, just after releasing one album or 3 hit tracks, you then feel it is time to break out and go on your own by breaching the contract is a wrong move, the labels will definitely fight you legally and no other or company will be willing to go into contract with an embattled artist to prevent losing money.
Also if your record label has been good enough for you and yet you feel like you want to own your own label, there is nothing wrong with having a Sub-label which can benefit from the label you are signed under, Most times those Sub-labels are totally independent (financially) of pioneer labels but enter into partnership deals with these pioneer labels and gain a lot while paying for their services, typical example is Jcole who is signer under Rock Nation but has his own Dreamville Record label or Drake who has OVO sound but is still signed under YMCMB.
That’s the mistake most new artists make and after exiting their previous labels they find it extremely difficult to stay consistent and eventually become a “have been”.

5. EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT IN NIGERIA.
Many Upcoming artists in Nigeria tend to take cues from international artists who they see without labels but are doing extremely well (chance the rapper to be precise) but fail to understand that we in are a different setting entirely.
American artists are backed by a high streaming population of about 100 million people and 40 million people who are constantly paying upto $9 per month ( about 2700 Naira) for music and as such their artists gain immensely from streaming platforms but in Nigeria we have a low streaming population of only about 9 million and paying consumers of 1.2 million out of over 200 million people in Nigeria.
The Top artists in Nigeria bank majorly on deals from top brands and most of these deals are secured by Record labels. Once again buttressing the importance of record labels in Nigeria.

Well.. Thanks for joining us on this long ride, we hope you have learnt a lot from it and we hope to see you soon.

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Cc lalasticlala Airmark Farano Rocktation

correct talk. ive really learnt from this. thanks Sir,Ma. itzsupaslim on IG

nice post... can I copy this pls?

Bigdiddo:
nice post... can I copy this pls?

Yes you can but pls you can mention our company's name in the blog post (ULTRA SOUND)