Ayo Jay stopped over on Toolz‘s show and it was a revealing interview about the music industry, abroad. See the interesting highlights below and check out/download the interview clip below.

The United States and Europe accepted his music better than the African audience, so he had to move to the States

He is very lyrical and Nigerians don’t seem to like lyrical artistes, so that’s one reason why they didn’t really accept his music

There was no music video for the remix of his song, Your Number, with Fetty Wap because they didn’t go through the label, they went through someone they knew, who knew Fetty Wap. So, when they went to get clearance for the video from the label, the label said Ayo Jay should come and sign with them but RCA records have Ayo a better deal, so he turned down 300’s offer.

Interscope, Columbia, Atlantic and a few other major record labels approached Ayo Jay but he ended up with RCA because they believed in his sound.

RCA Records is home to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Aretha Franklin, Chris Brown, Usher, R Kelly, Monica, D’Angelo, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Sia, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and some others.

Ayo Jay will feature on Chris Brown’s next album, is writing for Akon and working with Bryson Tiller.

Songwriters, in the US, sit and write thousands of songs and then send to the A&R who sends to the artiste to choose which it is, they want to sing.

If a song costs $5, 25% of that goes to the producer, 25% to the song writer and from the 50%, the artiste and record label take whatever their due is.

Just as it is here, artiste, abroad,  makes most of their money from shows.

In terms of royalties, record labels take about 80% or thereabout.

He has met a lot of big time artistes and sells out shows but doesn’t really post stuff on Instagram and social media because he isn’t a social media person…

His album will be released under ECA Records and he will be released on his birthday, August 9th.

He has recorded over 20 songs, wants to record about 15 more and pick the best 15 for the album.

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