Singer signs deal with world's largest music company

jonathan

April 15, 2015 7:32 AM

The Nigerian artiste is one of the most celebrated in the country with incredible artistry has finally sealed a deal with Universal Music with the signing of an ‘Exclusive Songwriter Agreement’.

Burna Boy has signed a new deal with the with the largest music corporation in the world – Universal Music.

The Nigerian artiste is one of the most celebrated in the country with incredible artistry which has seen him experiment with a plethora of unfamiliar sounds and vocal textures to good effect.

Recently the Spaceship Entertainment artiste released the smooth song, ‘Soke’, a construction of polished keyboard chords, guitar lines and sprouting horns. Now he has finally sealed a deal with Universal Music with the signing of an ‘Exclusive Songwriter Agreement’ (ESWA).

ESWA or "staff writer" contract, is a legal contract in which the song writer generally grants all of the publisher’s (Unviversal Music) share of the income to the music publisher. The writer’s (Burna Boy) services are exclusive to the music publishers for a specified period of time. Thus, any compositions written within that period belong to the music publisher. These deals are usually offered to writers with some degree of success. Because the writer has a track record of writing hits, the publisher feels confident that it will recoup its investment. In return for signing away exclusive rights to some or all the writer’s songs, the writer gets paid by the publisher a negotiated advance against future royalties.

The fine details of the deal are unrevealed at the time of this report, but the star took to Instagram to share a snapshot of the agreement, and a very conspicuous signature by him.

The former Aristokrat Records front-runner had been independent since he parted ways with the label sometime last year.

Burna Boy is not the first Nigerian act to have sealed a deal with Universal Music. In March 2014, Chocolate City rapper, Ice Prince entered an exclusive deal with the record powerhouse.

Ice Prince who revealed this exclusively to Pulse.ng during an interview, stated that Universal music will be licensing 'I Swear', one of his hit songs from his hugely successful ‘Fire Of Zamani’ album. The song also features US rap star, French Montana.

The deal with Universal Music was beneficial to Ice Prince’s music, giving him distribution all over international channels, expanding his fan base and reach immensely.

Universal Music Group (UMG) is An American-based, French-owned multinational music corporation, it currently operates as a subsidiary of Paris-based media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG also owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world.

Universal Music Group's global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California.

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jonathan