[News] YBNL VS. YAGI: FIXING THE LEAKY DAM THAT IS OUR BROKEN MUSIC INDUSTRY

The details of Lil Kesh’s exit from YBNL are sketchy at best.

Both parties have come forward to speak on the separation but managed to leave many unanswered questions. The first being, why Olamide let his most successful act go so soon, under the guise of granting him independence?

The second is why Lil Kesh convinced himself this is a great career move? and the third; what comes next for  Lil Kesh?

These are important questions that may not necessarily get a definitive answer anytime soon, but succeed at hinting at an industry trend both label owners and artistes have failed to address adequately over the years.

To be fair, Olamide’s parting with Lil Kesh has been a far cry from the drama many high profile splits of such calibre are characterized by, but the timing remains as confusing as any we have witnessed. From 2baba leaving Kennis Music in 2007 to Wizkid leaving EME in 2013, these splits almost always turn out to be the result of clashing egos and flouted contracts. In Olamide’s case, the rapper/budding mogul only appears to have anticipated this possibility and passed on renewing Lil Kesh’s contract.

So where do the chips fall?

Musicians leave labels all the time. However switching labels or starting an independent one in a country with the right legal framework is not only more organised, the process often passes with little more than a perfunctory press release. Here, revenues come from record sales and contracts are not only taken very seriously, they are also well negotiated to give artistes and labels more control over their mutual responsibilities to each other without sacrificing one party’s interests for the other’s.

This is in direct contrast to Nigeria where record labels mostly run at a loss because no one pays for music and because neither songwriters nor producers are hired by the label to work with the artiste for creative control which would have earned them royalties for contribution and production credits.

Even worse, contracts are often weightlessly signed on a padi padi basis and promoters consequently bypass record labels to book artistes for shows and endorsement deals.

Record labels are rendered powerless in the face of artistes who want to keep all the profits from all of their performances, endorsements and other revenue streams for themselves. And with the artiste able to make money with or without their labels, breaking all that binds them with the company also becomes a possibility. This is why as technology provides even more, streams of revenue, Nigerian record labels have been forced to only offer 360 record deals that will see them take a cut from everything that happens to the artiste career wise. This has been where the problem lies.

All over the world, artistes often avoid signing 360 deals because they can completely get screwed over by the label. Granting access to other revenue streams will mean less income and multiple layers of bureaucracy that make negotiations and career decision making cumbersome. But many a time, desperation for exposure and the need to get any form of financial backing to achieve this often forces musicians to overlook the flaws of their contract. The foolhardiness of this is that eventually all the rubbish swept under the rug comes back to bite everybody in the arse. Artistes cry foul when they start making major income on paper without any reflection in their bank accounts because a bulk of it is chunked out by the record labels. This is why everyone leaves eventually and many records have been forced to close shop.

Until record labels figure out a way to sell music and get more involved in the creative process and management of the artiste, they will always run at a loss if they offer artistes only recording deals.

Sadly the 360 alternative to that is like a ticking bomb that will most probably short change the artiste if poorly negotiated. In a coda, free music leaks must be plugged for labels to rake revenue from sales without meddling into other pocket deep artiste revenue points. Artistes will, in turn, have more responsibilities to t