Controversial contracts: Diamond’s manager, Babu Tale, defends Wasafi’s 10-year deals
Diamond Platnumz’ manager Babu Tale has again defended the Wasafi record label’s policy of signing artiste to longer contracts.
All artistes on the label, established in 2016, both current and those who have left, have signed contracts of no less than 10 years.
In addition to signing longer contracts, WCB also takes up to 40 percent of any income the artistes generate, whether from streaming revenue, endorsement deals or shows.
Due to the nature of these contracts, there has been constant criticism of the long contracts, with many entertainment stakeholders in the Tanzanian music industry describing them as unhealthy.
But Tale maintains that the deals they offer artists are the best in the market, and only once they make sense both for the label as a business and for the edification of the artist.
“Our deals are always 10 years plus, those of five years depend on a lot of factors, but they are rare. People need to understand that in the music business, the growth of an artist is not fast, it’s gradual and as a label you don’t start to see a return on investment until the 10th year and that’s why our contracts are 10 years,” says Tale.
Also read: Diamond’s manager Babu Tale explains why he would never leave Wasafi
Regarding percentages, the label versus the artist, Tale insisted that what WCB offers is far better than what established labels in the world offer.
“Beyonce only takes 30 per cent of her contract with the label she is signed to and she is the biggest star in the world of music. So when you see us take what we take, it’s a better offer,” Tale added.
Harmonize, who was forced to leave the label in August 2019 with six years left on his contract, was forced to pay Sh24 million to buy out the notice of his contract.
It was only then that WCB released his YouTube channel subscriptions to him and the intellectual property rights of the songs he made during his time under the label.
The Single Again hitmaker later revealed that he had to sell three houses in order to raise the necessary buyout sum and described his WCB contract as exploitative.
Rayvanny terminated his 10-year contract in July last year, revealing that he paid WCB more than Sh68 million to leave.
He had four years left on his contract.
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