The Nigerian music industry is probably one of the most interesting yet difficult businesses in the world. It has always been competitive, and these days, income is becoming harder and harder to find. Music as a whole is one of those vocations that gets in your blood and keeps you dreaming throughout most of your life, unless you do something about it. A person with great dreams can achieve great things. Making a little money playing music on the side isn’t so hard, but in order to turn a passion into a career, you have to want it more than anything else. Though there is a ton of luck involved, many factors can be influenced to put you in a position to launch a musical career.

BE EXCEPTIONAL

You can’t make it in this business unless the music you make is EXCEPTIONALLY good. ‘Good’ means that it has a market (beyond your loyal friends and family) and that you can create a standard substantially higher than average.

It’s a harsh reality to face but, looking at the law of averages, it stands to reason that not everyone will be above the center line. If enough unbiased people are telling you that what you do is impressive, do everything you can to become even better. Devote time, effort and – yes – money to fueling your dream. If nothing is ventured then nothing is gained.



QUALITY AUDIO

When people hear your joint for the first time they will be expecting a certain level of audio quality. You need to ensure that your productions are well recorded, mixed and present the musical content in the best possible way for that all important first impression. Did you get your track mastered? Why not? Mastering is as important as mixing. Even if your music is presented as a low quality MP3, it still needs to be well mixed/mastered and arranged to capture the listeners attention the first time it is heard. A weak mix without impact will not be able to do your melodic work justice.



PROMOTION

Never assume that your music will have so much appeal that it will sell itself. Quality alone is no guarantee of success – we all know of music that we think deserves a wider audience while, conversely, we also hear music whose success seems inexplicable. These successes and failures can be explained by a single word – PROMOTION.

People who don’t know your music exists can’t buy it and that’s true even if it’s the best song ever written. Like the Warri adage; “na who buy form dey win Miss World”.

Any and all ways of letting potential fans know of your existence must be explored. Ignoring promotion in favour of churning out new material will guarantee that your fan base won’t expand beyond your friends and family.



HIRE PROFESSIONALS

As your profile grows, it might be time to bring in specialist marketing/promotional personnel. Generally, such people are hired to raise the awareness of your product.

Specialists like this spend their lives keeping in touch with people you’ll find it hard to reach yourself, such as newspaper and radio journalists, pluggers, music bloggers, gig bookers and other essential Nigerian industry contacts. You’ll effectively employ them to take your product to market and work as hard as possible to ensure that awareness of your record moves a few crucial rungs up the ladder. Often, the momentum generated by a few months of carefully planned marketing can be sustained by you thereafter.



CREATE A CATCHY IMAGE

Most musicians in Nigeria severely underestimate the importance of their image. Yes, music is about ‘music’, but music business success is about a total package that includes music, image and visual during live performances, among other things that need to be fully developed and integrated in a congruent way.

It is undeniable that image plays a dominant role in the Nigerian music industry. Once you enter the realm of the music industry, you instantly have to consider perception; how are you perceived, and what are you transmitting. I would almost go as far as saying that image is just as important, if not more than the music itself. This is because certain bands (going back to Psquare, Flavour and D’banj) have proved that once you get the imagery right, the music does not have to be that good anymore. Image is an aspect of the music industry that is often overlooked by many musicians, and it could be argued that a strong image is what separates commercially successful musicians from others.


Continue reading here