Killing the World Wide Web

Killing the World Wide WebJaleel signs to an international publishing house Don't tell him anything about limitations; he doesn't want to hear that. Just watch, listen and learn. Ever since releasing his first musical offering Dreams to Reality in 2013, singer Jaleel has been a force to be reckoned with. Fast forward to 2019 and the award-winning artist announced to tjil that he just signed management and publishing deals with music manager Claude Schmidt and Gema Publishing House, respectively.

Gema Publishing House is a government-mandated collecting society and performance rights organisation based in Germany, with administrative offices in Berlin and Munich. Gema represents the usage rights stemming from authors for the musical works of composers, lyricists, and publishers who are members in the organisation.

Outlining his new deals, the singer said a music publishing deal is an agreement between an artist and publishing company. The company can claim your work, in exchange for promoting it. “On the other hand, a management deal is a contract you sign with an individual who sees the vision of your music and someone you can have a close working relationship with,” said Jaleel, adding that a music manager is also someone that would sit down and build you as a package and who you split a certain percentage with from the gigs they would get you.

On what these contracts mean for his career, Jaleel mentioned that he now has the right support he needs to expose his music to the global market. He revealed that when he signed the publishing deal, the contract stated his music would be registered and published the whole of Europe, United States of America (USA), Japan and Africa. “In the contract we changed the usual template so it now says Gema Publishing/Nascam because I am a Namibian artist first and foremost.”

“A lot of artists want to do it independently; I get that, but who would have thought that I would get the opportunity to sign a management and publishing deal with an international agency,” he posited.

He mentioned that throughout his career, his parents never fully accepted his idea of pursuing a music career, but with these advancements they are beginning to render their support. “I left for Europe last year and came back with all these options and it was something convincing for them.

“On a personal level these agreements mean a lot to me because I now totally have the support of my family. Going out there without your family support is not easy so I am grateful I now have the actual backbone in the form of my family's blessings,” he said.

Jaleel admitted that these career advancements come with pressure. But he maintains that it is subtly a good thing because he works under pressure. He said that never expecting these opportunities and getting them now motivates him to work harder. “I am under pressure but at the same time grateful and that is why I am going to be dropping a lot of music starting with In Tune, an EP I am currently working on,” he announced.

He also announced that he will be going to Europe for a month in August with pupils from Waldorf school. “What adds to the blessing of meeting with my management is that I will again be a part of Waldorf's Hit the Beat tour in Europe. This year's tour will be special because it is jubilee tour for Waldorf schools around the world,” he shared. Jaleel works closely with pupils at Waldorf giving them vocal and writing lessons.

His mission now is to help develop and sustain the genre of R&B in Namibia and share with the world what Namibia has to offer as far as R&B is concerned. “I want this genre to be big to a point where we can have R&B concerts and I believe I am doing my part.”

“I am currently the highest streamed artist in Namibia on sound cloud with 71 000 streams. That's a win for the R&B community,” he said.

MICHAEL KAYUNDE