‘Gongo Aso’ crooner, Abolore Akande better known as 9ice has revealed why he never signed any artiste to his record label .
9ice, who doubles as the CEO of House of Ancestors, a label imprint he founded in 2008, made this known in a chat with Hip TV.
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The 40-year-old singer said he will rather engage talented singers, promote their brands in projects, and let them leave on their own.
In his words: “When veterans take up new artistes, there’s always issues like arguments which cause the artiste to leave, willingly or unwillingly. That’s the reason why I never officially signed any artist,” 9ice said.
“What I did with them was, ‘I have a label, come under this platform. If you have a song that I feel is good enough, I ‘ll support you, we’ll shoot the video and get it promoted.’ I mean, do your thing!
“When you feel you’re ripe enough to stand alone, I let you go. Signing artistes take a lot. They can claim their own right saying, ‘I’ve been under this label for long and they ‘re doing nothing for me.’
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“But, in the end, both parties have their wrongs. The record label will tell you something like, ‘We’ve invested N40 million and haven’t even gotten back N30 million and he said he wants to go.’
“And the artsiete would defend himself saying ‘You invested 40 million but we signed two years. Whether you make your N40 million or not, it’s my time to go.’ So, both parties have their rights.
“So, to avoid these issues, I think it’s better one gets investors and record companies on a larger scale, that can invest money and spread it in the long term, so it won’t be just from the music scales.
“Maybe also merchandise and all that but, if you don’t have enough funds, you can’t do all these. If you’re not making money from the record sales, you can tap into merchandise and other areas.”
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