Hi Guys, how was your weekend? Hope y'all got some rest, and feel rejuvenated enough to face the new week? Good.
According to a lot of Nigerians, they hate the ruling Party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), yet they keep winning elections; the latest being last Saturday's election in Ondo State. So, who keeps voting for their candidates?? Anyway, congratulations to the winner, Rotimi Akeredolu, I hope he does well for his people.
Today, I'm going to write about something close to my heart; Music! I love love love music, all sorts and all genres will be found on my iPod. People that know me well know that I cannot be anywhere and you won't hear music playing in the background, from my office, to my car, jogging or at home. Suffice it to say that whatever affects the music industry affects me, indirectly, lol. It is not uncommon to see Artists leave their record labels, either to float their own, or join another record label. What I do not like is when they go on an interview-granting spree castigating their former label, claiming they did this and they did that. Harrysong of the 'raggae and blues' hit is the latest Artist to dump his record label, 'Five Star Music', and float his own label, 'Alter Plate'. Now he's claiming this and that. I just hope he will not be like other artists who left to float their own label didn't succeed. We have seen quite a number of them whose careers took a nosedive after leaving their record labels. From D'Banj, to Wande Coal, to 9ice, to Jesse Jagz and co. These are Artists who in my own opinion, caught the 'I am a star and should be on my own' bug, left their labels, and their erstwhile flourishing career took a turn for the worse. Now they drop one mediocre song once in a red moon.
I'm not saying they should remain with their labels if they feel they must leave; but they should not jeopardize their careers if they know they're not mature enough to stand on their own. Looking at their counterparts in other parts of the world, they also have issues with their record labels; from Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mariah Carey, etc., but most of them stuck with the labels until they made it big. Mariah Carey was with Sony for decades, left and returned last year, which shows that it is not always rosy between the Artist and the Record Label, however, the focus should be the music. Contracts which are not favourable can be reviewed and re-drawn to suit both parties. Inyanya left MMG with the intention of floating his own label; he was dry and about to go into oblivion before he quickly ran and joined the Mavins. Footballers fallout with coaches, but they don't always quit the clubs whenever they do, instead they try to resolve their differences, knowing that what will suffer in the aftermath is their careers. Why won't our Artists swallow their pride and do the needful?? They can still part peacefully like Olamide and Lil' Kesh when the latter left the former's YBNL. I am saying this because it hurts me when pride gets in the way of producing good music for me.
The record labels on their own part should understand that as an Artist grows under your label, the right thing to do is to re-negotiate the contract terms. I mean, you can't have the same deal you started with when the artist was unknown. It is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship between artists and record labels, not the cat-fight we see and read about, with each party claiming to have 'made' the other party. Well, what do I know sef? LOL. I just hate to see great potential go to waste because of lack of understanding. I wish Harrysong well in his new endeavour. Nigerian music industry has come a long way and I'd hate for it to be dragged backwards as a result of disagreements between artists and record labels.
Have a fabulous week everyone. May God bless the works of our hands in accordance with His will.
Hugs...
No comments:
Post a Comment