It's not for these reasons that Congolese bandleaders are mostly independent, otherwise they have already produced their albums in the 90s and 2000s by himself like Tabu Ley, Franco & Zaiko Langa Langa who had their own recordlabels in the 70s & 80s (Not talking about Quartier Latin-albums who were produced by Koffi Olomide himself, but distributed by Sonodisc/Sono/Next Music). They are independent, because real musiclabels don't exist anymore in Congolese music, the few who exist aren't able to give proper money to artists to pay all those studiofees, promotion for television, etc. That's why you had often those problems in the last years before the combattans-phenomenon about fans and people often complaining about albums not being well promoted. In the last years 2004-2012, it were mostly the Congolese artists for a big part paying the studiofees themselves and using guys like Diego Music, Sonima Nadim for distribution. Also Congolese music isn't really lucrative, because there is huge piracy in Africa (In DR Congo those criminals are protected by the police and ministers) which makes Congolese artists themselves doing piracy in Kinshasa to gain money (recordlabel Next Music "former Sonodisc" used to fire Papa Wemba & Koffi Olomide for that in 2003 and Papa Wemba himself revealed that back in 2009 which made Koffi furious). Artists like Kanda Bongo Man, Koffi Olomide, Wenge Musica 4x4, General Defao, etc. saw 800.000 copies of piracy version from their albums being sold in Africa (Ivory Coasy, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon). That's why from the late 90s most label were only promoting the music in Europe, but the Congolese diaspora itself doesn't really buy music, mostly copying it or borrow it from relatives, friends and buying cheap piracy cd's in Matonge & Chateaux Rouge. Piracy became with the years so strong in the Congolese community of Europe that it demotivated the few who were producing music and those who were recording movies (which Congolese people call theatre). Somina Nadim until this day complains about the money he lost in producing Temoignage, Monde Arabe and Danger de Mort and not getting the money back he invested (he even sued Koffi Olomide when he heard that he signed with Ndiaye for Skol SWI). When Congolese music was on his peak in Europe (1995-2002), labels used to sell more than 50.000 copies in Europe (mostly declaring 10.000 of the fabricated cds to recordcompanies to avoid taxes), but from 2003 many labels weren't to sell more than 10.000 copies.
