Ishawna’s new deal is a big deal – industry professionals

Yesterday, Equal Rights artiste Ishawna had the entire dancehall community talking when she announced on Instagram that she had signed her first major international record deal with New York-based Payday Records.

The label's principal is dance music executive Patrick Moxey, who in March announced details of a new label group signing a worldwide deal with Warner Recorded Music.

Over the past five years, several dancehall entertainers have landed deals with record labels and distribution companies. But the enduring challenge has been selling songs, albums and achieving market dominance. Meanwhile, there is speculation about what the deal entails.

According to Dale Virgo, producer and founder of DZL Records, Ishawna's signing is "a big deal" although the details of the actual contract have yet to be revealed.

"I am looking forward to more tunes and more sync opportunities, that meaning, collaborations to get her music and herself into movies and advertisements," he said.

Virgo disclosed that the deal could potentially span multiple creative lanes and revenue streams and that any Jamaican artiste who receives an opportunity to sign with an international record label will have more prospects to work with world-class industry personnel, public relations teams with bigger budgets, and are opened to expanding into other markets or crossing over.

"Let's face it, locally, in Jamaica the music industry and its practitioners are not getting funding and that's one of the biggest problems we experience here. The key after signing any deal is for the managers of the artistes to pay keen attention to the terms and conditions of the contract and that it be executed at the right lengths," Virgo told THE STAR.

"People can't sign and expect for everything to snap happen. You have to make sure you work the deal and network, network, network, because it will only build the artiste. We have seen where a lot of Jamaican artistes in the past have failed having signed deal with ego and then falling out with the label when they start to think the artiste is difficult and decide not to invest further in the industry or urban music, then gradually give up on the artistes," he added.

Andrew 'Anju Blaxx' Myrie, Blackstate label owner, said that Ishawna's recent accomplishment impresses on the talent of the island's female artistes and brings more recognition to Jamaica and the music.

"It's a really good look for Ishawna and the dancehall genre especially for our female artistes. Jamaica doesn't have a stable music industry for musicians and artistes to make serious moves with their careers. So when a major label from overseas is willing to sign an act from here, it is always special. Now we can expect proper management, promotion and marketing and a massive machine behind her music to take the dancehall sound all over the world," Anju Blaxx said.

At press time, Ishawna's team shared that it would be able to reveal more details soon.