He is asked about his group La Team Wata and he says he and his group are working on starting to pay his musicians through bank accounts. He says he could claim that at Maison Mere he was not being paid and it would be difficult to dispute. So he will encourage everyone of his musicians to open bank accounts. He says this is to avoid a situation were when a musician leaves the group then they start claiming that they were not being paid and as a group it would be difficult to prove otherwise since there would be no payment records. Further says each musician once they have a bank account they can then go to the embassy with their own documents and bank records whereupon they can be granted the visa for poto or Europe.

Wow, finally Congolese music is starting to change, anyway I really doubt that Heritier wasn't paid in his time in Maison Mere, cone in dude stop bitching.

Wow, finally Congolese music is starting to change, anyway I really doubt that Heritier wasn't paid in his time in Maison Mere, cone in dude stop bitching.

No he didnt say he was not being paid. He was giving an example to say he could claim that he wasnt being paid and because there is no proof of payment people can believe it because most musicians except leaders do not have bank accounts.

Wazekwa, Karmapa and Koffi have been doing this (Direct deposit) for a while now guys. WMM’s notorious reputation is likely what pushed him to publicize this change

Wazekwa, Karmapa and Koffi have been doing this (Direct deposit) for a while now guys. WMM’s notorious reputation is likely what pushed him to publicize this change

Hopefully this will make guys like Ferre, Fally  et al to follow suit. And the ripple effect will be that musicians will have some level of a dignified lifestyle and hopefully give us the fans quality music.

How do these guys even make money in 2018 other than donors? Do those shows in Angola and Kenya really pay that well that it can be split 36 ways? Its a great idea and I commend him for that but that was needed in 1998 when artists were selling our shows and selling CDs and VHS. Now other than youtube money and donors I really wonder where else they earn the money from. Because I dont know if thats enough money to be split but what would I know.

How do these guys even make money in 2018 other than donors? Do those shows in Angola and Kenya really pay that well that it can be split 36 ways? Its a great idea and I commend him for that but that was needed in 1998 when artists were selling our shows and selling CDs and VHS. Now other than youtube money and donors I really wonder where else they earn the money from. Because I dont know if thats enough money to be split but what would I know.

Usually, taking Ferre's example which easily can sell 250000 copies of CD's it gives you a very good pay even if you are a musician, because in Kinshasa the life cost for living a king life and eat well is 200$ so imagine how Ferre, Fally, Werra, Koffi, etc. live.
Let's make that Jeritier does a 10$ concert in a "rich" country like Angola or In Côte d'Ivoire where people loves Congolese music 2000 people join and 20000 dollars are made let's share 5000 for the organization, manager etc. And split those 15000 tooling 5000 away for heritier into his musicians 10000:36 it is 277 dollars moltiplicate those tour for 10,20, 30 times and you will see that even musicians have a good amount of money, did you ever asked why even though Eboa, Deplick, Kabose etc. aren't the most known singers they always get quality video? Even Robinio when he just started fresh out of Wenge had already 2,3 good videos.
Add the CD money for example Ferre's 250000 sold discs for 10 dollars add tours and so on you will see that they are a lot of money, even Bill who doesn't produce quality material is a milionaire, because after all the CDs and tours there are commercials and donors money so it is a win win if you have got a big name and for musician if they do get paid

Ndeko @Manzambi almost nobody is selling 100k, 250k albums anymore (Now most American artists are now even struggle to 50k CD sales). Streaming has completely changed the game... and the problem with streaming as we discussed a while back is that until you hit a million streams, revenue is not that much.

The flip side it, is our Artists are making more money than in the past with the African tours they do multiple times a year. Many of their contracts are more than what Zenith level concerts brought in the past.

Also, you'd be shocked how little of the concert money musicians get. I always remeber when Baby Ndombe said that Werra got a $250k bonus from the Obiang family in 2002... he gave 10 WMM member $100 each as their cut. To this day Baby hates Werra for stuff like that he did to WMM employees

Lol @manzambi as I mentioned before this is not 1998 any more bud. Ferre selling 250,000 copies? Lol bro. Any leader in this day and age would be LUCKY to sell physical 10,000 copies. The streaming is good but the algorithm for how they pay is fucking twisted, when you hit a million views on youtube you get like $5000 lol but thank you for your input you did kinda put things in perspective other than the 250,000. Did LOI even sell that much lol

Actually, I remember hearing Loi & V12 sold at least 500k copies each by late 1999 according to Koffi when he had a RFI interview right before before Attentat came. Koffi also said that cassette sales were more that a million,  though they didn’t keep close count because it doesn’t count for gold disc requirements.

But Loi came out during the best time for CD sales, so I don’t think it’s a good example for this discussion

Fally’s Arsenal de Belle melodies was the last album to officially sell 100,000 physical copies

Thats pretty good actually. That was the best time but also the era of dub tapes lol if it wasnt for piracy LOI woulda probably sold a good 4-5 mill. You think thats the best selling album of the 90s?

Ndeko @Manzambi almost nobody is selling 100k, 250k albums anymore (Now most American artists are now even struggle to 50k CD sales). Streaming has completely changed the game... and the problem with streaming as we discussed a while back is that until you hit a million streams, revenue is not that much.

The flip side it, is our Artists are making more money than in the past with the African tours they do multiple times a year. Many of their contracts are more than what Zenith level concerts brought in the past.

Also, you'd be shocked how little of the concert money musicians get. I always remeber when Baby Ndombe said that Werra got a $250k bonus from the Obiang family in 2002... he gave 10 WMM member $100 each as their cut. To this day Baby hates Werra for stuff like that he did to WMM employees

Yes but many times money enter always in Boss's homes especially Werra, Bill, Celeo, Koffi and JB, but their musician status depends on how much good they are, you will rarely hear musicians complaining about JB or Kpffi's payments while is well known that Werra, Bill, Fabregas (almost all Ex-Wenge) are waaay stingy especially Bill who is a millionaire but split way little money with his employees.

Ndeko @Manzambi almost nobody is selling 100k, 250k albums anymore (Now most American artists are now even struggle to 50k CD sales). Streaming has completely changed the game... and the problem with streaming as we discussed a while back is that until you hit a million streams, revenue is not that much.

The flip side it, is our Artists are making more money than in the past with the African tours they do multiple times a year. Many of their contracts are more than what Zenith level concerts brought in the past.

Also, you'd be shocked how little of the concert money musicians get. I always remeber when Baby Ndombe said that Werra got a $250k bonus from the Obiang family in 2002... he gave 10 WMM member $100 each as their cut. To this day Baby hates Werra for stuff like that he did to WMM employees

Yes but many times money enter always in Boss's homes especially Werra, Bill, Celeo, Koffi and JB, but their musician status depends on how much good they are, you will rarely hear musicians complaining about JB or Kpffi's payments while is well known that Werra, Bill, Fabregas (almost all Ex-Wenge) are waaay stingy especially Bill who is a millionaire but split way little money with his employees.

That's why i think that most musicians are willing to stay at BCBG even though they are not active because financially they are not as bad as the other groups were money rarely reaches the lower guys.

Coming to Heritier, i remember him being asked about what his solo career has taught him so far and he said he has learnt to not only think about himself. Because he now has musicians who are also his responsibility in terms of their well being apart from his family.

exactly and the thing with heritier is that he does the opposite of most artists,he is bloooodyy rude with people of the staff fires them for fun,is not afraid to humiliate some in front of musicians but then treats the group as his friends he does not like to be called president and stuff like that,what he should also try to do now is limit the number of musicians,he has easily 80 already it will help him to pay them thats what wazekwa for example  did he decided that cultura will never go above 40 45 musicians musicians and dancers included

Actually, I remember hearing Loi & V12 sold at least 500k copies each by late 1999 according to Koffi when he had a RFI interview right before before Attentat came. Koffi also said that cassette sales were more that a million,  though they didn’t keep close count because it doesn’t count for gold disc requirements.

But Loi came out during the best time for CD sales, so I don’t think it’s a good example for this discussion

Fally’s Arsenal de Belle melodies was the last album to officially sell 100,000 physical copies

Koffi never tells the truth..he is a very big liar and a shameless crook.He can say whatever you head him say about sales just to blow up his boastful status but it can just be untrue.We know him very well from long long way back. azalaka neti ba lobaka que..ndaku oyo ovandaka na kati te,oko lula yango kaka na libanda.Kota na kati okokuta ezanga ba kiti.wana liloba ya ye moko Mopao..alobaki lisusu ete nzinzi ata ako pimbua likolo azali ndeke te.