Ciara has demonstrated what it means to be an artist in control by gaining ownership of her master recordings.
During a conversation with Forbes, the singer explained the journey to independence and owning her masters began during a “transitional period” in her career, marked by frequent leadership changes at her major record label.
Ciara recounted a pivotal meeting with a new CEO, who had “inherited” her from the previous leadership. She went into the meeting excited to present her vision for her 2018 song, “Level Up,” along with its video. However, it proved to be “one of the most disappointing meetings” of her career, as she quickly realized the CEO was not invested in her music, project, or direction. Despite the initial disappointment, she explained, this meeting served as a powerful catalyst.
“It was also one of my greatest meetings because that propelled me to become independent, because literally he did not see the vision of what ‘Level Up’ was,” said Ciara. “I remember going downstairs to the person that was my A&R at that time his name was Monti Olson […] I’m forever grateful for him because he also believed in me when I was like eight months pregnant to sign a deal with me. He was one of the executives that were actually still at the company when the old CEO went out.”
Ciara said she and Olson discussed the possibility and risks of her becoming independent, a dream she had already been contemplating.
“I asked for my masters and they gave it back to me for free, so let you know how much they didn’t believe, and now ‘Level Up’ is almost three times platinum,” she said.
The success of “Level Up” was the origin of her independent label, Beauty Marks Entertainment, which she founded in 2017, with the hit track (inspired by the singer’s viral tweet) as the company’s first release. The label’s philosophy, inspired by her song and album of the same name, is that “all the scars you get from the obstacles you face in life are your beauty marks.”
