Of managers and music labels

There is funny sense to our music management that we have artists in the country who either do not know what managers are supposed to do or they have managers because they have heard elsewhere that musicians are supposed to have them.

Look at the haphazard way of selling music, for example. Piracy thrive because our artists do not produce enough copies to satisfy demand because of lack proper management.

Managers of our musicians have come and gone, some through the so-called musical labels while others through the equally so-called record companies. 

You see, weighing football against music sounds practically impossible, but I like comparing the two, more so when it comes to signing contracts and other related issues.

More than once, music labels in Malawi emerge and disappear leaving lives of musician still the same, if not worse, while the signed and sealed contracts remained locked up gathering dust somewhere.

This is where the urge to compare music and football and music comes in. You hear a footballer has signed a contract with such and such club and you know how much money he will be carting home. But with music you find that the story is different.

I will mention but a few music labels that have hogged the headlines in the country. Let us help one another to trace where they now are, what they are doing and how many artists are singing Hallelujah! because they are beneficiaries of such music labels.

“Rush Records is a Malawian-owned music company that offers music production, artist management and music project management,” screams the introductory remarks of this label on its website.

It claims to have produced and managed Goodson Gomonda, Fugie Kasipa and Basement. Kenny ' Shawishe ' Klips, Desert Eagle and Young Kay are also among many others under the label.

Then there is J & D Record Company which recorded Limbani Banda’s “Umodzi ndi Mphamvu” album in 2008 besides producing other albums like George Mkandawire’s 'Pemphero' and Sally Nyundo’s 'Usadandaule Malawi'.

J & D’s website says it is currently working on albums for Agorosso, Rudo Mkukupa, Evans Mereka and Zebron Kankhunda as well as Sweeny Chimkango, I am not sure when the website was last updated.

As if these labels are not enough, there is also Black Rhyno Entertainment Company whose CEO is local hip-hop mogul himself Tay Grin. Like the rest this label came on the scene with a bang claiming it had come to work with Malawian musicians that are determined to further their career and promote country’s music industry abroad.

One of its objectives was to push more Malawian musicians to feature on international music channels like Channel O, MTV Base and Trace.

I do not want to out rightly laugh off their efforts but I would like us to agree if we can say, without fear or favour, that Malawian musicians have made it big since we started hearing about these record labels and music companies.

At least Zembani Music Company of ‘Soldier’ Lucius Banda and Peter Mawanga’s Rhythm of Life have something to write home about.

Long before all these émigré music labels Zembani Music Company has been there discovering and promoting raw talent. Most of the current local super stars, talk of MacDonald Mlaka Maliro, Dan Lufani and Billy Kaunda, trace their roots to Balaka.

And, a credit to him, the self-styled ‘Soldier of the Poor Man’ runs Zembani Music Company as a proper business with a number of ‘subsidiaries’ like Zembani Lodge in Balaka and the Summit in Lilongwe which feeds into the main music business.

As for Mawanga, he is a super star in his own right who hogged the limelight as Peter Paine before he started fusing indigenous Malawian music with international standard recordings to create a unique Malawian genre.

Through his label, Mawanga found what he calls Talents of Malawian Child (TMC) where he is now teaching music to orphans. The label is supposed to record, produce their work, market their albums and organise performances for them, typical of a record label. The proceeds of the albums are supposed to pay the orphans’ school fees besides clothing them.

My point is, it is clear that Malawian musicians are in the dark when it comes to issues of managers and labels. There is no planed tours for musicians for the year, no plans or budgets for new products. Most musicians just wait to perform as supporting artists and allow to be exploited in the process.

In short, are our Malawian music labels and managers for the musicians doing what they are supposed to?

 Feedback: drummingpen@columinist.com

Mobile:0882233220