08/04/2024
I made this post a year ago about the Gasha vs Eddy Kenzo saga and it is very much relevant today. Please read through for a valid overview about the possible outcomes.
It is worth noting by artists that a good song is worth nothing without distribution and distribution requires fees. Eddy Kenzo s argument is that they both had separate distribution deals over the same song which was master produced by his producer. As complex as the case is, the most likely place where a solution could be gotten is in court.
A popular sad example is that of American rapper Mase who trusting his friend puff Daddy offered his publishing rights for a loan of $20,000. This meant any song or creative products produced under his name was owned by puff Daddy. When he realised the implications of the deal he offered 2 million dollars to buy it back and his friend refused and kept making millions from all mases products. Mase was forced to quit music and became a pastor for a while due to the frustrations from this deal. It goes to show easily an artist can be taken advantage of when they don't realise what contracts or deals they are getting into before signing.
Azi media.
MUSIC ROYALTIES AND EXPLOITATION OF NAIVE ARTISTS
The Case of Gasha Vs Eddy Kenzo
The music industry could be ruthless to artists, and many artists have fallen prey, or been completely stripped from royalty rights due to bad business decisions or ignorance. This usually leaves creators of viral hit records struggling to survive while their records are making serious money with royalties collected by publishing institutions.
The case of Gasha is a call for concern as bad business decisions probably ruined her career leaving her a long route to catch up in an industry that is quick to move onto whatever new artists are trending.
Gasha recently came out to explain how Eddy Kenzo the Ugandan artist with whom she had a wonderful collaboration in 2017 had taken advantage of her by registering the song (Chill) in his catalogue where he had been receiving royalties for all this while, with some sites up to 450,000 dollars. Gasha claimed to have been requested 2000 dollars by Eddy Kenzo for the rights to his voice and also indicated both artists paid in something to the production crews and possibly bore travelling costs. However she goes ahead to say since the song was released she hasn't received any royalties and only realized years later when she was trying to put together a team and rebuild her career professionally on digital platforms that the song was registered under Eddy Kenzo's catalogue and she wasn't even included as part of the track meaning she wasn't entitled to any share of the royalties.
The unfortunate part about this story is that Gasha was probably the originator and writer of the song. But this is a clear case of ignorance in the music business which has led to misery and depression of many artists, some who have decided to abandon the art completely after learning of the business and politics involved in the industry. It is important first of all for aspiring artists to have an understanding of copyright rules and royalties as this is key to getting paid in the musical industry and there are several ways or roles for which someone can be paid provided they understand what they are doing.
The first thing to understand about record rights is that the idea behind a song is separate from the final recording and along the way several participants could have different royalties or rights to different percentages. The recorded studio version of a song includes writing, lyrics and publishing rights. A song may have different people who played small roles in the beat making, production, mixing and mastery, and song writing roles, they all have rights under this category and most important is the publishing entity that is responsible for putting the final product into the market. The final recorded product is known as the master record and this has its own rights and royalties associated to how you distribute and market it. An artist who covers your song may pay you if you so desire and using your master record for other opportunities like movies, games etc could bring in further revenue. Down the line other parties like distribution, sync parties could contribute to increasing the revenue and would further need their own royalties.
It is common for artists to hear sales numbers and think the artist gets the money in their pocket. However it is worth noting there are established companies with executives and different agents responsible for getting the music from the artist to the listeners and they usually require huge cuts. Sometimes publishing companies make a downpayment to artists in the name of signing artists to the label. However this could be masked in different contract terms which restrict the artist to pay for their recording and production with in house production thus returning the money to the production company. Sometimes an artist might be the producer and retain rights to the master but publishing will require some kind of split. Marketing is also crucial in getting a song in front of an audience and may incur high costs.
For these reasons it might be quite difficult for Gasha to reclaim the rights to her song although she deserves to be at least included to get royalty fees from the revenue generated. Hopefully she does get something from the song because it was a proud moment for Cameroon to witness one of our blossoming artists get a collaboration with another renowned blooming African artist.
Azinui Ngwa-Bisi
Azi Media Services.
