HOW CONTRACTS LIMIT SOME ARTISTS

Some artists have signed contracts without considering their implications and content, which has resulted in their development being halted or they have faced legal problems, losses, and even a loss of freedom.

Here's how these contracts have affected artists:

1. Lack of Freedom to Create and Collaborate with Others

Some artists have signed contracts with music labels or sponsors and various companies, the contracts they signed have prevented them from doing many different things including:

-Inability to collaborate with other artists.

Contracts based on the inability to collaborate with others easily help an artist pursue their dreams because they are bound by the terms of the contract that they did not pay attention to when signing it.

-Making new songs without first requesting permission, not being able to attend concerts organized by other artists who are not working with their label or company, and many other things that hinder artists based on the contracts they signed. These are also serious issues that have affected some, preventing them from being able to properly present themselves in the music market and some even disappearing.

2. Not Getting Profit from Their Work

Some artists, when you talk to them, seem to have signed different contracts. They will sometimes tell you that the contracts they signed sometimes stipulated that:

-The copyright of all the songs they will collaborate on belongs to the company or label they signed with.

There are those who did not pay attention to this, but they learned about it later because they did not pay attention to various articles in the Agreement, which they say caused some people to find it difficult when the Agreement was terminated, and they lost the rights to their works, so much so that some of them lost them forever. Here

Some Rwandan artists, when you talk to them, will tell you that the artist receives very little money from the profits from their songs, because contracts often include the following:

The label is the one who decides how the money should be spent. If an artist finds himself here and says nothing because he signed the contract without thinking carefully and without consulting the board, he is being cheated. However, this is not the case everywhere.

In these contracts, the burden is often placed on the artist, sometimes even if the song becomes a hit in the music market and has (views, streams, etc.), the artist himself does not get anything because those who make the contract say that they have invested more in the artist than what the artist has earned in a given period. All this happens so that the artist has a hit and a big name, but his wallet and life are ruined.

3. Stopping the Music for a Long Time

Some artists have signed contracts that bind them to a long term (5-10 years or more), but you also find that the people they signed with are unable to honor their agreements:

Here you will often find that artists are not satisfied with

They are not given songs as agreed upon by their collaborators, they are not featured in the media as agreed upon in terms of promotions, they are not prepared for concerts and other things, which leaves the artist feeling like he has been punished, and he has no other power on his own, and sometimes he is not even released because he is still bound by the contracts he signed.

4. Lack of Legal Defense

Many artists do not have lawyers or professional advisors when they sign contracts. This has led to some artists signing things they do not fully understand.

Often, there are those who are given a copy of the agreement and sign it, sometimes they themselves are not even given a copy and they sign it themselves. This results in them being held accountable for things they did not know and thus finding themselves having agreed to things they did not know.

All of this, as we will return to in this story, has led to some artists who have encountered problems based on ignorance and disregard for the contents of the Agreements, losing in court or incurring heavy losses.

5. Bad Breakups with Labels or Sponsors

Some artists will tell you that in their experiences, there are cases where the contract did not provide for a peaceful termination of the contract. When an artist sees a contract that is detrimental to them, they want to get out of it.

His works are confiscated, put on display in public, and some are even severely criticized, while some are left with no other choice but to continue their music and choose to give it up. In other cases, there are those whose contracts prohibit them from continuing their music for a certain period of time.

The artist even finds that this is a clause in the contract that he has never considered.

On this topic, there is an example of artist Mike Kayihura who brought it up on his social media, citing the contract he signed that prevented him from producing and releasing songs for a long time, and that it had an impact on his album project.

However, let's end this article by providing tips that can help artists avoid conflicts and misunderstandings in the contracts they sign.

1. Don't sign a contract without fully understanding it.

2. Seek advice from lawyers and people who have studied social interaction.

3. Check if the contract clearly stipulates:

• How long will it last?
• Artist's interests
• Copyright
• Freedom to work with others