Ciara has shown what true artistic control looks like after gaining ownership of her master recordings.
In a sit-down with Forbes, the singer opened up about her road to independence, revealing it all started during a “transitional period” at her major label, when leadership was constantly shifting.
She recalled a pivotal meeting with a new CEO who had “inherited” her from the previous regime. Walking in eager to pitch her vision for her 2018 single “Level Up” and its video, Ciara quickly realized the executive wasn’t invested in her music, her project, or her direction. What could have been a crushing moment instead became a turning point.
“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,” Ciara explained.
She went on to credit Monti Olson, her A&R at the time, for believing in her when few others did. “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.”
That moment of dismissal ultimately set Ciara on the path to owning her masters — and calling the shots in her own career.
Ciara revealed that she and Monti Olson weighed the risks of her going independent — something she had already been dreaming about.
“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 shared.
The success of “Level Up” became the launchpad for her independent label, Beauty Marks Entertainment, which she founded in 2017. The hit — sparked by her viral tweet — was the company’s first release. The label’s guiding philosophy, drawn from 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.”
