For sometime now cameroonians have been seeing what is happening to Tenor, Locko and other Artistes who sign signed Deals with Major record labels. Truth is we still have many people who want to do this, they think their own fate might be different but we have six solid Reasons to tell you why You should never sign a Major Record Deal .
Artistes Do get intentionally Shelved. Most of the artists that sign major record deals always drop without their contract being fulfilled. Weeks ago I was with one of camroons most informed showbiz Guru @Baba samba and one of Cameroon’s Most informed and Award winning Blogger Ndicho Boris.
We were talking on why a Record label will sign and artiste and shelve them. Baba Samba said “ Most of this Record labels do this intentionally, they don’t want unnecessary competition “. Let us break this down. Once you start making waves, clocking millions of views on the internet, Dej Jam is watching, Universal Music is watching, they already have artists that do what you do and they have great projects for the artiste and the artiste brings in Millions. Once they see you being a threat to the artiste, they can offer you money you’ve not seen in 5 Year’s just to bench you.
Let’s say Dadju is under UMG, locko has been doing well and they think he can be a threat to Dadju, they sign Locko and bench him like they did to avoid competition. If Tenor will be a threat to Niska they sign Tenor and bench him so Niska can have his shine. They always bring a 10 years Contract well crafted, they fly you to USA and France and make you feel you are the next Big thing but immediately you sign, Game over for you.
What you don’t know is they have been working on some great projects and just saw you as a threat and that’s the simplest way of dealing with you. They shelve you .
FAILURE: Truth is many Artistes who sign under major Record labels never get to release even an Album or Ep .Tenor has more than 200 unreleased songs but no way to release an Album. What many of you don’t know is many of the great Major record labels are into partnership with many people and once some decide to step out, it frustrates the plans of the major and many projects put on stand by .Many projects fail to be completed and you are left hanging and you still don’t have a Right to go anyway .
They Kill Creativity. Tenor is almost lost and has no sound as of now since he joined UMG.
Majors encourage Genericized sounds. Let me break this down. Most Marketers always want to have a unique product for a particular market. Jovi has a unique product and knows his market reasons why he is winning. A major record deal doesn’t need this. Their hunger for fame and excess success can not be termed. They are ready to kill creativity to get you do something that will trend then boom you are no where to be found. Majors don’t want to Target a particular market. They want to change you to suit the Global market and that’s where they kill creativity .You become a shadow of yourself .
Strips you from all ways that you can make money. Once you sign with a major, you don’t have any right over your name, music, merchandise etc. You become their product. Listen, Major Record labels go by this, for every $1000 sold, you get just $23 .The most funniest thing is these things are always in the contract you read but you just fly over it .Do you even know what’s worst? Your pay is calculated on the profits you make, if shit bounds back somehow you will be owing the label millions. So your pay is calculated after all expenditures have been made.
You don’t really have that much say .If they even tell you that you need a song writer, you are getting one even if you know how to write. That’s how the expenses goes up .
It is not always what it seems, Be extremely careful when signing Record deals .
The internet won’t give you this info. Cherish and read it .Tag your favorite artiste to read it. Avoid making mistakes. Tenor is going through hell now cus of this. Where he is, he might only be free in 10 years and end up even owing the label. At times the only way out of it is death. Artists have commited suicide cus of this..
