Krista Henry, Staff Reporter
Baby Cham on the set of his music video shoot for the remix of 'Ghetto Story' with Alicia Keyes. - PHOTO BY ANTHONY MINOTT
MUSIC VIDEOS are filled with images of bling, extravagance and high living, or not. Whatever the case it is more often than not the artiste who pays to get those images on screen.
Patrick Roberts, manager for Beenie Man, explains some of the elements involved in making the video. "Most artistes opt for doing their own music videos, it's a means of promotion. Artistes have to find a way to sell themselves and videos, the visual, is a good means of doing that. First-time producers had to go to TVJ and CVM for airplay but not now. There are so many ways of exposing oneself through the cable networks. Sometimes Beenie spends on the video, other times they do and sometimes it's a partnership."
Joel Chin, director of Artistes and Repertoire at VP Records, explains, "Basically, some of it is the job of the artiste's management and the record label to pay for music videos. Sometimes the artiste can't wait for the record company to do it. So they do it with money in hand. Locally and internationally is a different story. For Sean Paul's videos we pay for them. On a local level artistes take the money or the producer takes it and invests it into the video. The record label now services the video giving it to a lot of different media houses."
Jeremy Harding, manager of Sean Paul, agrees that the record companies initially pay for the videos. However, he explains that through a process of 'recouping', the artistes eventually bears some of the burden of the cost. He states "50 per cent of the cost is recouped from the artistes. Half the cost is taken out of their profit, their royalties. It doesn't suit the artiste to spend lots of money on a video 'cause half of it comes from record sales."
LABELS CAREFUL WITH SPENDING
He continues "Labels are often hesitant in spending money to shoot videos. They are careful with expenditures on spending. When you spend a lot on the video and record sales are declining due to pirating then a real profit is not made. In a way, record contracts are like high interest loans where 50 per cent of the cost comes from the artiste. A number of persons think when you get a contract is a lot of money spending and receiving but it's not like that. Sean's videos are usually US$250,000 (J$16,375,000), we've never spent more than that."
However, Clyde McKenzie, director of Shocking Vibes, explains that in Jamaica the situation is a bit different. He states "What is supposed to happen is that the record label deals with a standard 50 per cent and the artistes stands the other 50 per cent out of royalties. The Jamaican situation is slightly different because the artiste doesn't sell records as such. The cost is recovered in various ways. Record companies advance some of the money. Not all the time an artiste does a song that is for the record label. So then the producer and the artiste will finance the cost."
Artiste Baby Cham, who just finished filming a new video for the remix of Ghetto Story with Alicia Keyes, concurs. "The studios help you for promotions and such. In the beginning when you 'bussing' dem help you from point A to point B. When the money start recouping from C to D then they take it back. It comes from your pocket. No matter when you 'buss' or not, they will help but at the end of the day all the money comes from the artiste's pocket."
Though Cham would not disclose the cost of the shoot, he says the cost for filming the video, directed by Sanaa Hamri, is coming from his own pocket.
