By Seun Oremade, exclusive to Nigerian Entertainment Today
Sometime last week, I had a discussion about starting a record label with one of my friends in the entertainment industry. He is someone who has done fantastically well for himself over the years and I have grown to respect his opinions.
Sadly enough, he convinced me against the idea. He gave some valid reasons ranging from issues of distribution, lack of respect for contracts, lack of proper structures, amongst other reasons. I was almost convinced but a part of me still had questions. Questions maybe not for him but for myself and some other people. Questions I might need to ask publicly and hope that someone, somewhere, might be able to help me answer.
The first thought that crossed my mind was, despite the success and growth experienced in the Nigerian music industry, how come there are no big record labels in Nigeria? Gone are the days when Storm Records, Kennis Music, Westside, Question Mark and Trybe Records were the big players in the game. These record labels had a good roster of artistes and seemed to be heading the industry in the right direction. Only Kennis Music has managed to survive among them all. ~What went wrong?
Today, arguably, the biggest record label presently in Nigeria based on its artiste roster is Chocolate City. Even at that, Choc City is striving to become a major label with the unveiling of two sub labels Jagz Nation and Super Cool Cats owned by Jesse Jagz and Ice Prince respectively. Only time would tell if the move was a strategic expansion calculation or simply a way of still keeping the label’s prized acts within its fold.
Some other record labels worthy of note are Steve Babaeko’s X3M Music, Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records, Clarence Peters’ Capital Hill, EME and Edge Records.
However, the major trend now is that record labels are owned by artistes who at one point or the other feel they are big enough to stand alone and do what their record labels were doing for them, so they decided to go and run their own shows.
Almost all Nigerian stars are record label owners! Square Records owned by P Square, 2face Idibia’s Hypertek, Alapomeji Records owned by 9ice, Triple MG owned by Iyanya and Ubi Franklin, Timaya’s Dem Mama Record, Davido’s HKN Gang and Star Boy owned by Wizkid. Let us not forget DB Records, 5 Star Music, TGP Entertainment, YBNL, Black Diamond, Naija Ninja and newly formed YAGI.
While it is not a terrible thing to be ambitious, one also needs to consider that most of these labels are paper labels that do not have structures and merely exist to push the founder’s career. Most of them cannot be taken seriously.
According to Wikipedia, ‘A record label is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Often, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos; conducts talent scouting and development of new artistes (‘artistes and repertoire’ or ‘A&R’); and maintains contracts with recording artists and their managers.
Of all the functions of a record label listed above, most of the record labels in Nigeria presently only coordinate productions and do promotions of music recordings and music videos. Manufacturing, distribution and marketing of the records are handed over to the ‘big boys’ at Alaba, who end up giving sales figures that cannot be verified.
As regards the development of new artistes, very few labels have a clear developmental plan for their artistes. Most of them drop singles and leave them to chance, hoping the songs would pick up and blow. A label is supposed to successfully chart a course for their acts. At the end, not all the acts would be commercially successful but a level of awareness and development would have been seen in them.
While the present situation seems to be working well so far, there is a possibility that proper structures can be developed and more money can be made if the stakeholders are willing to do things better.
We can force the industry systems and structure to evolve if professionals are recognized and paid their dues. Let the songwriters write songs with meaningful lyrics, let the PR people handle publicity, let the marketing team develop creative ideas to sell the artists and the records, let the sales team come up with unique distribution ideas and templates that are workable. Let the professionals in every field do their jobs.
If more money is involved and more hands are on deck, record labels or investors would be forced to create new avenues of recouping their funds.
With CD sales plummeting in recent years, record labels need to change their strategies and the way they work with artistes. The record label should do more than just produce albums. Labels should offer more robust deals which encompasses all the areas of an artist’s career.
These type of deals are called ‘360 deals’ or ‘multiple rights deal’. This kind of deal would require the record label to make a good financial commitment upfront and it would involve them making money from the artist’s album sales, performances and tours, endorsements and merchandising. Such a deal would force the labels to get more involved in the development and progress of the artistes on their roster.
For investors who are scared of artistes not respecting the terms of their contracts, you are covered. Our judicial system would ensure that. Kindly refer to the Chocolate City vs Brymo case or the more recent HF Music vs DJ Zeez case for more assurances.
Read: ‘Why I didn’t win the case against Chocolate City’ – Brymo
In conclusion, there are two questions I would really love answers to:
- Is this present situation sustainable on a long term?
- What would happen if record labels were told to have a capital base of XYZ millions of naira to do business on a national scale? Indie labels would still be allowed as regional labels though.
If you’re willing to further this discussion, you can reach me via my email address Seunoremade@yahoo.com