Nigerian singer, Banky W, has announced the dissolution of the record label arm of Empire Mates Entertainment (EME), which he co-founded with his best friend Tunde Demuren, in 2002, while they were at the university in New York.
He made the announcement on Instagram on Tuesday, 20th February 2018.
According to the talented singer and actor, EME's business venture will now be marketing, advertising, public relations, branding, shooting of television commercials and documentaries.
"Essentially we have restructured our business and instead of operating just as a record label, we have expanded and changed our focus a bit," he said.
Banki said the label has been dissolved since January 2017, owing to the structuring of EME.
The singer said, it became imperative to shut down the label, after nine years of assisting many Nigerian artists discover/boost their careers.
Banky named DJ Xclusive, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Tolu 'Toolz' Oniru, and Adesua Etomi as the first set of clients of the rebranded company.
"We are now a full fledged media agency that focuses on creative marketing, advertising, PR, brand events/activations and a talent management firm."
"This switch in focus has been amazing and fulfilling. Behind the scenes, we have been able to impact the launching and marketing of a number of brands and companies the way we did artists but even in the talent management side, we are no longer restricted to working with just music artistes. We still work with musicians, but we also work with OAPs, actors and are evaluating sports management as well."
"The goal was always to find talents and brands we believe in, and partner with them to help them become more successful. Now we have expanded to do that for more than just the music business. We are excited about our client portfolio: the corporate brands we rep, as well as the talents."
The label was instrumental in projecting stars to limelight including; Wizkid, Skales, Niyola and Shaydee.
Wizkid reportedly parted ways with the label in February 2013, to manage his own label "Starboy".
Several reports at the time revealed that Wizkid was raking in about N24 million monthly for the label but got only 25 percent from each show, while Banky W and Demuren shared 50 percent and Osagie, Wizkid's former manager, got the remaining 25 percent.
This was believed to be among the reasons the pop star exited the label.
The subsequent year, Skales also moved on from EME following the expiration of his contract.
