Why I've Still Not Signed to Any Label - Lojay

For most upcoming artistes, their dream is to be discovered by a major record label who will give them the support and backing to fund and propel their career to great heights. However, there are a lot of people who also choose to do their own thing independently. The battle of staying independent vs signing a record deal is a conversation that has been happening for a very long time.

One Afrobeats artiste who is currently still an independent artiste is singer Lojay most popular for his song "Mona Lisa". During an interview with Cool FM, Lojay finally opened up about why he is still independent and hasn't signed to any label. Here is what the singer had to say.

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During the interview, Lojay was asked "The music industry is a tough business because in Nigeria, we are not loyal fans. We listen to everybody and you are only as good as your last hit" to which he responded:

LOJAY: It's good, because everybody gets a chance to be listened to. Everybody gets a chance to have their music be heard. But at the same time, ah! Especially when you're maneuvering this industry independently. Like I'm independent at the moment. I think the only person right now on this train with me is probably Buju (BNXN).

"It's not many people who go independent. Some people feel like it's a good thing. Do you think sometimes you need help?"

LOJAY: So the thing about it is you need to know what you need, what you're looking for, and what you're actually trying to get out of independence. Like if you're just being independent because you're stubborn or because of your ego, or you feel like you want to do it on your own and do it by yourself, it's like I don't see value in that. If you can have a structured team to help you, then why not go for a structured team to help you. Some people will say "oh labels will take your streams, blah blah blah", and it's like bro, how many streams are you doing on your own independently? How much are you really making on your own independently? And if there is a situation where you can like probably work with a label to like increase the money you make as revenue, probably take 10 or 20 percent, but that 20 percent is even more than you were making independently. I don't mind striking that kind of deal. If it works for me, it works for me.

The main reason why I choose to be independent is 1) to build leverage. I don't want to just sign based on someone telling me this is what I want you to do and this is the situation. And even as at where I am now, just 2 projects in, the conversation has changed from we are this and this is what we want to do for you, to like how can we help you on this your journey? Because they've already seen that this guy can do it on his own. If we give him enough time and he keeps getting revenue, at some point, he won't even need us. So more than anything, that's it. That's my main goal for like independence. It's to build leverage so that by the time I'm having conversations to sign, I'm having conversations that fall within what I actually want to do. Something I can control. That's it for me.

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