Universal Music Africa Announce the appointment of Mr. Guillaume Ngoumou at the position of Director of label and publishing.
So, Universal Music in a recent outing on their Social media pages officially announced the appointment of Guillaume Ngoumou aka Pit Baccardi as their new Director of label and publishing.
Pit is taking over a position previously held by Franck Alcide Kacou aka Black Kent who is now Managing Director of the company. Of course, this means Pit is one step close to managing Universal Music Africa.
Publishing is about administration of copyrights and collecting royalty on behalf of song writers and composers. Pit Baccardi will primarily be responsible for ensuring that all songwriters and composers linked to Universal Music received the payment they deserve when their compositions are used commercially.
Following up from the title of this article, I am looking to first publish the good news and then do a little patriotic work by analysing the various advantages of the new appointment to Cameroonian music and Cameroonian artistes.
So, will the appointment of Pit Baccardi at the top ranks of Universal Music impact the Cameroonian music industry? Will it have a positive impact? Should we be excited? YES and NO.
Why YES?
On the yes side, it’s always good to see a Cameroonian at the top of such a corporation holding a big position. Locally, we call this “Putting Cameroon on the Map”.
Again, Pit Baccardi may look to get more talented Cameroonian artistes signed into Universal Music and also protect the interest of the artistes already signed to the label like Tenor and Locko, as well as the other artistes from his label, Empire who have a special partnership with Universal Music.
Another “Yes” reason is that Pit Baccardi will gain a wide range of experience dealing with African Music specialists and the world in general and with this knowledge, he can return home for workshops and seminars organized locally. Many Cameroonian artistes, both established and upcoming do not yet understand music publishing and somebody with that knowledge and experience will help a great deal.
Why NO?
On the other side, Universal Music has in the past worked only with artistes that are signed under them. If you are not signed or linked to Universal Music in any way, you won’t enjoy any of the advantages that they have to offer. Universal Music has never been known to do publishing administration with artist that are not sign to their label.
Also, Universal Music do not have any physical structure in Cameroon now. Pit Baccardi will surely be working from their Cote D’ivoire based office with the other members of the team and so without that physical structure and follow-up, it’s hard to believe that there could be any serious impact of the corporation on Cameroon.
What is the way forward?
Now, the good news is that towards the end of last year 2019, we saw Pit Baccardi already making serious moves via his partnership with the Universal Music as he got some Cameroonian artistes including Mimie, Minks, Charlotte Dipanda all sign special distribution deals with Universal music though not officially signed to the label. This opens the possibility of the label creating a special division that could provide publishing services to other artistes not signed with them.
Also, Pit Baccardi now has a chance to redeem himself to the Cameroonian music audience. Except you are new to Cameroonian music and the vibes that usually moves around, there have always been rumours and complains about how Pit Baccardi negatively uses his influence or connections with Trace Africa on Cameroonian artistes. While holding this top position at Universal Music, he may have to be lenient a little and help push more Cameroonian artistes to the lamplight.
There is a lot that can be done, a lot of new changes could come up within Universal Music Africa given they are currently under new management. For the moment, we only must sit and watch the changes and developments that come with a new team in place. Good luck to Pit and Universal Music Africa.
Read Also: Franck Kacou replaces Moussa Soumbounou to become Managing Director of Universal Music Africa
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