Music InduSTREET: How Renowned Music Business Player Conned Creative Agency

This is Music InduSTREET, a weekly feature where I also speak to music business players or associates on a range of music business scoops, dynamism etc. Unlike other series, you’re not always sure who to expect as some interviewees will remain anonymous but be assured that whatever turn a story takes, it’s definitely one worth being aware of.

What’s your company known for?

We’re creatives that specialize in rollouts or creative ad services for artists, labels etc. People reach out to us from time to time to inquire our charges and all. It could be the artist, label, manager or sometimes a middleman doing the inquiry. 

How did the conning come about?

I met this person a while back and we spoke briefly about potential projects together. It was an opportunity I was fascinated about and really anticipated as this person is a RENOWED music business player. He was someone I respect and really looked forward to having a great relationship with. 

Until…

One day, he reached out about wanting to work on a project for an artist and I thought that was cool. My only reservation then was that the song is dropping that same night, which is quite impromptu as we needed to plan something - usually we’d need some lead time to plan effectively. He egged us on to just work around it and we budged. After the music had been sent and we were sure it’s something we could work with, he asked for our fee per his tailored service and I offered to run it at no cost because we don’t exactly charge emerging talents. We understand most of them run on very limited resources anyway. He insisted on not wanting free work and I honestly reckoned that an act of kindness. After some back and forth, we mentioned the amount due and he budged immediately, without negotiating. He requested our account details but we don’t accept payment until we deliver on a particular job. He insisted on making payments but we were adamant about delivering the job first. We did minimal work on the song that night and moved on because we were expecting some assets about the artist which we didn’t receive. 

So, how did things take a different turn?

About two days later, a friend reached out to me, saying he heard how we charged his artist-friend in the millions for just social media promo. Like what? it didn’t make any sense to me. I did my findings, connected dots and realized the said friend is the same artist we’d recently worked on. Three of us (myself, the artist and our mutual friend) then connected via a conference call where the artist narrated everything, even rebuffing being related to the middleman as claimed. The artist disclosed that an initial discussion was about a full-on rollout until the middleman told him our agency alone is demanding that amount in the millions and that he’s only leveraging his relationship with us to get what he got as it is typically higher.

At that point, how did it go with the artist in question?

First, I told him that the middleman in question doesn’t have anything to do with us, we didn’t get any part of the payment and in fact, we’re not interested in continuing with that project or release. This has been a recurring topic amongst diaspora creatives on Clubhouse. There is an issue with connecting back home hence many get ripped off because they seemingly have thousands of dollars to invest. They barely know who to trust and who is who. The artist in question is US-based, so it was easy to make him believe anything. It's whatever a respected person tells him that he would heed. Now, we’re friends and converse often. 

…and the middleman?

Interestingly, he did try to trivialize the severity of his actions; blatantly sounding like it was nothing. 

Did you confront him?

I think the artist did. I didn’t want to be involved, I’m just out of it. He called me a while later, going on and on about the need to not let money cause an issue between us. It's unreasonable because how do you commit fraud in the name of a company I work so hard to build and still attempt to gaslight me? It’s really one of those situations where you’re tempted to resort to checking them on social media but I’m just not that person. He still went on about how there are projects we can work on together. Personally, we can have some mutual respect, be cordial from a distance and not have to ever do any serious business. Like, do people have shame? You should be ashamed to talk about certain things with someone after such a stunt. It shouldn’t be that easy for you to just move on to the next.

I guess because its been normalized in the industry, so it probably doesn't count as much 

Exactly. I responded lightly to everything he said and afterwards, severed every possible means of connection between us. He’s tried inviting me to his artist’s concerts, and sent people to come talk to me etc. It’s a lot to take in.

Was the larger team aware of all these?

Sure, from the jump. I also had to record some of the conversations with my friend and the artist, for reference just in case. This thing could’ve taken some turn if I wasn’t a transparent person; my team could assume I’m making money and not carrying them along. They might assume I normally charge artists so much and report a smaller figure. That’s another potential issue that could’ve emanated from the situation - all which this guy downplayed.

What really was your exact feeling while this happened?

Honestly, I’m still pissed because it was a large sum of money and mere thought that this is what someone made for doing nothing - just off of my own sweat. Even if everything worked and I got paid for the service, I still have an issue because if you’re comfortable with paying me an amount while you charged 650% more, using my name and sweat, that shows you have no respect for what I do and you should stop pretending to care about me. It’s different if I’m aware and it's fine if you find someone that can pay a lot but what makes it fraudulent is keeping both parties blind. It’s worrying how people are not straightforward and lacking integrity in the music industry. What’s even more disheartening is attempting to sweep it under the carpet. I don’t joke with money issues especially when it's interpersonal. That's why on projects, I’m skeptical about upfront payment until I deliver. If it's something I can do for free, I’ll let you know. Another twist to this is, what if I and the artist didn’t have a mutual friend or he’s the type to come on social media to say stuff, how would we have explained especially in a place like Twitter where people only pay attention to the first person that goes public. Nobody cares about the actual account of events.

Has this experience affected the way you now approach the business?

It has. For one, we’ve become more particular about who we chose to work with. We have now zeroed in on fully supporting emerging talents for free or just working with known artists. Also, more skepticism of purported ‘music business players’, especially the ones on Twitter always saying “the industry needs structure, let’s collaborate”. I know you can’t really eliminate the middle-person as their value remains in connecting both parties, which of course adds a markup on the actual cost of service but there’s an issue when the markup is about 7 times over the actual amount while keeping the company blind.

We hate to see it!

Verily. It's been normalized so much even at labels, intermediaries do this. An ex-employee at one of the majors in Nigeria mentioned they can request about $3000 from the company for something and go ahead to pay the person about N100,000 and still hit you with “this is what we can afford”.

With this experience, has the company taken any precautions yet?

We got a lawyer on retainer, so it's beyond me now. There are some level of assuredness that if anything like this happens again, we have an actual legal counsel. It does feel different.

Did this experience specifically trigger this move?

Actually, that and some other experiences unrelated but are also integral in the larger conversation of building a brand.