Awesome Limited

HIGHWAY RECORDS PRESS RELEASE

“This job doesn’t come with a pension plan. This is our pension – our royalties.”

Pensions may be set up for future needs but what they represent is security that is psychological as much as it is an actual dollar figure.

Chromatics (Richard Raj-kumar on his birth certificate), co-founder with Stuart Fortuné of Highway Records, is thinking about his pension plan. Arguably the country’s most successful hip-hop artiste, he’s also thinking about other things that most of the workforce, whether private or public sector; blue collar, white collar or shirt-jack, tend to take for granted. Like whether or not they’re going to be paid for the work they have done in the past month.

On 23 July, The Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association (TTPBA) decided that the services of the performer were no longer necessary. At least, they weren’t necessary if they had to be paid for.

While the Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) remains the largest and most familiar of copyright agencies for local artistes, there are others. Awesome, headed by Sherwin Fortune is another. After discussions with both agencies, Highway Records chose the smaller outfit. One of Awesome’s significant advantages is its superior media tracking capabilities and accounting practices. Every time a song from Awesome’s playlist – any song, any artiste - hits the airwaves, it’s digitally logged. When it’s royalty pay-up time, the logs are squared with a given station’s own records.