Why Do Musicians Need A Record Label?
Every upcoming musician needs a Record Label deal. But if it not forthcoming, then you needs to calm down and stop going to inboxes of Davido, Flavor N’Abania, Anyidons, P-square, 2face Idibia, Olamide,etc begging them to sign you. Some of you go as far as telling them that you are ready to bring whatever they requested from you even if it warrants bringing your mother’s hêãd. That shows your desperation for fame. Some of you even pleads with them to initiate you into illuminati, thereby indirectly telling the artist that himself too is a member of illuminati.
It is expected that every artist under a Record Label must do far better than an independent artist. But you can’t get signed into a Record Label by being desperate.
What do you stand to gain when signed by a Record Label?
▪️You will not bother yourself on how to raise money to pay for studio sessions. The Record Label bears such a cost and many other responsibilities.
▪️ Publicity: they will shoulder the responsibility to announce you to the world through various medium such as print media, electronic media and social media. If you watched African Voices on CNN today, you would have seen where Asake was being interviewed. If it is a paid media stunt, YBNL headed by Olamide paid the bill just for Asake to be more globally recognized.
▪️ Collaboration: the Record Label you were signed into has the responsibility to source for an international or local artist whom you will collaborate with. The bill is on their head. Rema charges $300,000 from any artist that wanted to collaborate with him. Davido is very considerate. So if your Record Label wanted to feature Davido or Rema in your song, they will pay for it.
▪️ Video: I hope you know how much it cost to shoot a standard music video? Davido spent #3million to shoot his first music video years ago and also paid a huge amount of money to place his music video on digital TV. As an artist under a Record Label, it is their responsibility to do all these things for you.
▪️Concerts: it takes a great deal of efforts to organize a concert. The Record Label shoulders the responsibility to organize concerts and tours for you and they are likely to contract it to event organizers. Advertising your concerts on various media platforms is the sole responsibility of your Record Label. But before they would ever think of organizing a concerts for you, they must make sure that they have marketed and promoted you enough to attract your fans to buy tickets to your concerts.
There are a lot of other things your Record Label will do to make you popular because your talent will generate money for them only when you are popular.
The investment a Record Label usually put into the promotion of their signee is always huge. This is the reason why you must calm down when you see the Record Label making millions out of your talents. Your talent is not actually what is bringing in the money, it is the massive marketing, promotion and packaging of your talents is what brings in the money. When you signed a 10yr deal with a Record Label, they may not start making money from your talent until the sixth year.
Sometimes it is at the expiration point of your contract they will start making money but not up to 40% of the total money they have invested on you. Sometimes they would like to renew your contract but some artists would reject the offer. To me, you are not being fair to the Record Label and this is always a bone of contention. A reasonable artist would renew his contract with them at least for the next three years to allow them recoup the investment they made on you and also make some profits.
You hardly see an artist in Nigeria who peacefully ended his/her contract with the Record Label he/she was signed into. It is just lack of understanding mainly on the part of the artists who thinks the Record Label is using him to make millions forgetting the huge amount they invested to market and promotes him/her.
If you are a greedy and impatient type, stay away from being signed into a Record Label.
