I watched the video where Wizkid announced the signing of new acts to his newly formed record label Starboy Entertainment Worldwide, and also saw his disclosure of a few more facts on social media. I think it is great news when a business expands and grows. So, congratulations to Wizkid. Nevertheless, since I watched the video this past weekend, I have been waiting for more information from Wizkid’s camp that fully addresses the nature of the signing. None seems forthcoming.
My conclusion? I really don’t like the way our artists in general make important announcements about their music businesses. It was the same way Davido made his announcement when he signed with Sony until Sony of course released an official statement that helped inform and shape the narrative for the media, blogs and the public at large.
As an industry, our artists have always made flyby type announcements from the D’Banj/Don Jazzy Mohits & Kanye West G.O.O.D music days to present.
In Wizkid’s case, he made the announcement of his new label, Starboy Entertainment Worldwide, and the signing of popular Ghanaian acts Efya, Mr. Eazi and R2Bees during his performance at the 2016 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards at the Accra International Conference Centre this past weekend.
The next day, he followed up with less than 140 character tweets on social media of his signings and also tweeted, “New president Starboy worldwide Omar Sterling @Paedeezy !!” Faisal Hakeem aka Paedae is one of the band members that makes up R2bees.
Wizkid’s announcements, like his predecessors, puts a flyby image to how he manages and operates his record label. He needs to release a statement that tells the media/blogs the following:
1. What happened to his record label Starboy Records?
2. How is Starboy Entertainment Worldwide different from Starboy Records? His move mirrors Davido’s and even Davido provided some of these basics to the press.
3. What happens to artists currently signed to Starboy Records? Will Starboy Records be consolidated with Starboy Worldwide?
4. What happens to his management team in the UK, Disturbing London?
5. what happens to his management team in Nigeria?
6. Since he has more of a presence in L.A., will he be consolidating all of his companies efforts and having a U.S. representative handle his affairs?
7. Who is his main contact for all press relations involving Starboy?
8. Why did he name a fellow artist out of Ghana in a local secondary music market as the President of his company?
9. Why did he sign the top Ghanaian acts he chose?
10. What is the music reach of the artists he has signed in the international market, or his plans to take them there? So far so good, Nigerian artists are dominating the continental and international music space. While Ghana has made some strong strides, why these Ghanaian acts and why sign them now?
Also, there needs to be a centralized hub for all things Starboy Entertainment Worldwide and Starboy online. To date, there is none, not even a basic website. His business dealings appear jagajaga (all over the place) and both him, some members of the industry and the public confuse calls for him to perform live, or booking gigs to mean he has a thriving and successful music business. This is not necessarily the case. As most of you artists know or should know, visibility, live performance gigs and even appearing as a featured artists on songs of top artists like Drake does not translate to economic success. We have seen this in the global music market with too numerous artists to count. This is true whether you are with a large record label or you are an artist-entrepreneur.
Hope our artists rethink how they disseminate important business news to the media and public, in general.
-Ms. Uduak
Wizkid with a prior R2Bees Collabo
The acts he chose to “sign” to his laptop are all as talented (if not more so) as Wizkid. The question is “Are they aware that they signed to a laptop ‘label’?”
Maybe they were promised an introduction to Drake. That’s the only reason I can come up with for why these acts made this move. Ayo has been living on hype for years now. I challeneg anyone to name a Wizkid song from the past 3 years that was actually jamming. Which Wizkid song can you throw on right now that will set a party ablaze? I’ll wait for your response.
I know this question has been raised before in the press, but I’ll ask it again right here: “Does Wizkid even have a website?” All these so-called companies, yet no way for anybody to contact their business line, or send them a business-related e-mail. I guess if you want to do business with Ayo and Co., you have to slide into their DMs.
No. Not to my knowledge.