By Nana Ama Gyapong
Music producer Joshua Raphaelson, also known as JMJ, is one of the most highly respected faces in the country’s music industry. He has worked with and recorded most of the big names in Ghanaian music and has explained how sad it feels when most people have an opinion about artiste managers when there is a breakup between the artiste and record label without finding out what went wrong.
He made this assertion on GTV‘s ‘Spectacle Show’.
According to JMJ, “my name, Jahmasterjay, could pave the way for any artiste because of the value attached to my name. When I sign my artistes, I sign a publicist and a social media manager who creates the artiste’s social media page. We pay for sponsored ads and pay to engage the fans.”
He went on to say, “We have artistes who don’t know much about social media, and it will be silly on our part to expose them to that handle and be posting anything that they feel, and that will dent the record’s brand.”
“After 5 years, when the account has gained a lot of followers, people tend to paint the label black because they feel they haven’t been fair to the artiste. The ignorance is so huge, and that’s why I don’t want to come out and speak on these issues because people don’t understand what you’re actually dealing with.”
This whole situation started when some Ghanaian musicians lost access to their social media accounts after leaving their record labels. It seems that if a contract was signed, the artiste may not have the right to fight for the accounts. And if there was no contract, they may not have the right either because the label made the investment. It’s definitely a complex issue; artists need to be careful of what they get themselves involved in to avoid future problems.
