PS: For the purpose of this post, I would use the word; blog and website interchangeably, hopefully, you won’t get confused along the line.

Many upcoming Nigeria artist bank on luck to gain popularity, many pray and fast, many would do all sort of unimaginable thing in an attempt to reach stardom. Most people think they need just a single opportunity, and if luck shine on them, they would be noticed by big labels and get a record deal.

While music and luck has a lot in common, it should be noted that, you can also make yourself lucky by doing what needs to be done appropriately.

A larger percentage of big names in Nigeria music industry have active online account on various social media, they update pictures and status on daily basis and this makes the internet a common place for both the made and the upcoming.

Heck! Jon Cassar (He produced and Directed the first three seasons of the TV series 24) once gave a reply to my question on twitter.

The idea here is to bring your music to everybody online, rather than waiting for people to find your music. This post gives idea on how to promote your music, get in contact with record labels in Nigeria, getting music websites to promote your music and breaking into Nigeria music industry

Here are the reasons why upcoming Nigeria artist should have a blog/website.

Brand:

It’s a common practice for strangers to buy off domain name of upcoming artist before the artist himself think of starting a website. While this may not look bad to average Joe, for a super smart individual, this situation poses a threat to your brand.

When you’re not in charge of your name on the internet, then it becomes a problem, when you gain the popularity you’ve always wanted.

Domain names such as (justinbieber.com, usher.com) are not owned by the celebrity, but when a fan enters the name on Google, the first thing that comes up is the website with this keyword in its root domain name.

You would agree with me that whatever is posted on the website would reach your fans faster because it’s the first page that comes up online.

So before you become a music super star, buy you own domain with your real name. Develop a brand around the name by creating a logo, and simple tag line. This will go a long way in preventing smart geek from hijacking your name for profit purpose when you become popular.

Promotion:


Most upcoming artist rely on air play on local radio station to get notice, the question is why should an upcoming artist promote his/her music to local listeners in a particular state when you can promote it to millions of Nigerians online with little effort.

Having your own website gives you the opportunity to promote your music online without relying on any third-party platform like mp3.com or notjustok.com (Which are also good alternatives after you must have uploaded your music on your own personal site of course).

Few years ago, Myspace.com was a good website for music lovers and musicians, many upcoming artist would upload their music covers on the website to gain popularity. Few years down the lane, myspace became less popular as facebook took over, ultimately the fans migrated to fans book.

That’s the danger of relying on their party website to promote your music. When they’re down, your music would be down, when they’re shutting down, you would eventually lose numerous fans as well.

To avoid this, start your own website and upload you music on it, while you can also make use of third-party platform, but ensure you point a link back to the music on your website as well.

You can make covers of popular music, create a video in your living room and upload it on your YouTube channel. Tag popular musicians and point a link back to your website where they can see more of your work.

Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube (you’re welcome if you don’t know that before now),
Rumor going around is that Reekado Banks of Mavin records was also discovered on twitter. Bunch of other artists have been discovered on Instagram and other social media platform.

Don’t you think it’s time you started promoting your music online as well?

Analytics:

Analytics? That may sound complex I agree, but in the real sense it’s not.

How valuable will it be for upcoming artist to know the age range, location, sex and other important information about his/her fans?

Data like this would go a long way in shaping your music career. It will give you insights into making better music to satisfy your client.

When you know where you have huge fan base, you can always organize a show for yourself over there etc. The possibility of what could be done with this type of data is almost inexhaustible.

When you have your own website, getting this data is very simple.

Once you installed Google Analytics on your website homepage, you get to know who visited your website, how long they stayed and where they came from.

This information is invaluable. It’s golden to say the least.

Personal Relationship:

I am a big fan of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Ed Sheeran and Nicki Minaj. As a fan, I’d like to know what a typical day in their lives look like. I would love to read a piece of them, personally written about their daily life on their website.

I know most fan would love to read about their life on daily basis as well. When celebrities share this information online, it does not only increase their fan base, it gives their fans a sense of personal relationship.

Check out social media profiles of celebrities that post often on Instagram and twitter, you will discover that the fan base is always huge (Check the likes of Justin Bieber, Kate Perry and Kim Kardasian).

They have millions of fan because the fan want more. They want more pictures, more story etc.

Having a blog section on your website where you share personal story, probably once a week or once a month, depending on the availability of time, would not only give your fan the chance of knowing what a typical day in your life looks like, it will always make them appreciate your struggle towards stardom.

In Conclusion let’s have a deep insight on how the internet is changing the music and entertainment industry as a whole.

There is this guy on vine.com, his name his KingBach (you can Google it up), he basically posts videos of comedy skit, and he became popular by sharing them online. CrazeClown and Teega are also popular Nigerian comedians on Instagram, they have thousands of followers, and they now roll with big celebrities like Davido, Basket Mouth, and Bovi etc.

This guys weren’t popular as at last year, as a matter of fact, they rose to stardom when they posted the ‘Who off light” video (I still can’t stop laughing at that skit).

The same tactics can be channeled towards your music career. All you have to do is make good music and upload it on your website and on other popular social network.

In the nearest future, I intend to write a post on how to promote your music through social media, and hopefully, it would be compliment this post.

Whats your view? Do you think blogging is not necessary for upcoming artist?

- Source: http://www.oksprout.com/2015/09/upcoming-artist-music-website.html

Owning a website is important no matter the trade.
Nice writeup