The Artiste
He/She (as the case may be) is the subject of
concern here. They’re held responsible for the
successes and failures in their career, regardless
other possible factors I’d be mentioning below.
The artiste is responsible for the genre of music
they embark on whether or not they have the
talents to handle that genre. They decide what
song(s) to write record or perform depending on
what they’re inspired or forced to do. The artiste
decides on success or failure with or without
knowing it.
The artiste is the first person to lie to his or herself,
they start the Lying Chain. They lie to themselves
on how awesome their music is; therefore
expecting everybody to adhere to these lies and
just say anything to please their egos and
emotions. This, my people is the basic problem
most artistes find themselves today.
The Funds
Money plays a major role in the music industry
today. Artistes need money for production,
promotion, tours and the likes. It’s only mandatory
that an artiste has enough money to kick start a
music career. Nobody cares if you’re just an
unsigned act anymore, you’ve got to have that
paper to be able to breeze pass many obstacles.
Funds may come in from the artiste’s pocket,
sponsors or even record labels. Without money,
efforts may be wasted and honestly, time waits for
no man.
The Producers
They are everywhere today. I mean, anybody with a
fair knowledge of Fruity loops and the likes, has a
computer, good enough headphones, a mixer and a
Mic can pass for a producer today. These producers
tell the artiste to bring some small change for a
song. Forget the terrible music quality, the
producer would never tell the artiste that his music
is sub-standard or “wack“, after all that’s what the
artiste can afford. Everybody is hustling right? The
producer doesn’t care about their feelings or
reputations enough to tell them that their songs
are sub-standard. So long as they’re ready to pay,
he’ll lie to them!
Friends and Family
They’re supposed to be the people artistes trust.
Even if the producer can’t tell them the truth, they
rely on family and friends to listen to their music
and be sincere with feedbacks.
Unfortunately, very few artistes get to be told the
truth about what friends and families think of their
music. They feel they might hurt their egos and
emotions, hence they tell the artistes their songs
are going to make hits; which is what the artistes
want to hear anyway.
The artiste is satisfied with what his “personal
people” think of his song or songs and heads on to
make promotional plans.
Managers
Managers ought to be the ones who take the wheel
of the artiste’s career, guide them through
decisions and make sure they are always on track.
So long as it’s official, the manager is supposed to
be with the artiste. These days, the concept of
artistes’ management is an apology.
Managers are supposed to be people who
command a degree of respect from the artistes
they manage and also have a say in what they do.
These days, a manager is just a friend, cousin or an
elder brother who fronts for the artiste who also fall
under the category of people who fail to correct the
artiste. Managers cannot tell their artistes what
they really think about the music because he/she is
really like a Personal Assistant and is not being
paid for “opinions”.
The most successful artistes have people who they
respect sitting over them and telling them,
constructively, what they think about the music,
the business and personality. There is always
mutual respect. Regular reality checks help good
artistes grow.
Record Labels
These days, setting up a record label is almost no
big deal. There’s so much record labels scattered
around the country and the world in general today.
Artistes set up record labels, producers set up their
record labels, publicists and even bloggers have
record labels you know. I’ve seen some of them!
Even those who are lucky to be signed under good
record labels still find themselves at risk of failing
because most record labels these days do not
employ the services of personnel needed to run a
record label professionally. One of such personnel
are the A&R reps who are responsible for the
contents artistes send out. They review every song
or songs an artiste brings to the table and give
advices. Unfortunately, most record labels don’t
have them present.
Publicists
There’s a whole bunch of them out there today,
thanks to the lack of job opportunities and the
laziness present in our today youth. Everybody
wants to earn a living by just sitting in front of
their computers these days; hence the
struggle to get artistes to promote is
very real.
Most publicists would never give true
criticisms on artistes’ material(s)
because their comments may chase the
artiste right out to the nest of another
publicist. So they go ahead to accept the
material(s), make efforts at distributing
and promoting the sometimes “sub-
standard” material. He “kisses ass” to
get the songs on every blog possible
and he’s on to the next client and really
doesn’t care if people actually respond
positively to the materials.
Bloggers
This set of people can make or mar your
music career. They are a very important
factor to your career because they ought
to be the critics, not just download links
providers. Unfortunately, most bloggers
don’t criticize music. They just copy and
paste whatever the publicist mailed
them, drag the download links to their
webpage and they’re on to the next
post! What’s worse? Some of them don’t
even listen to whatever music they’re
posting nor encourage their readers to
leave comments, hence no atom of
feedback is left for the artiste.
OAPs
Everybody wants to be on an On-air
personality’s good side because we
want air plays and possibly, massive
rotations. Artistes and managers buy
them gifts and pay them handsomely to
get songs playing at least 3 times daily.
Do not forget OAPs are humans too, like
the others, they got bills to pay. They
don’t tell you that your song won’t be
played for long because of it’s poor
quality or that fans do not request for
your song(s), they keep collecting gifts
from you and manage to play your
songs maybe once a day before they
eventually stop. They may tell you to
record something new for your fans just
to get that song out of the way. Well yea,
you “once” had that song playing on-air.
Same goes to videos too.
Networking
I stated this on my last article right,
networking is very important for
artistes. They need to connect to a large
number of people. Being an artiste
doesn’t make you a king! You’ve got to
take your listeners, critics and fans
seriously, communicate with them and
get to know what they think about your
music. Quit winning them over with
recharge cards, truth is they’ll only stick
around as long as you keep giving out
free tickets and recharge cards to them.
Quit buying fake views/fans/followers,
because honestly, it takes you no where.
Who’d watch your videos, download
your songs or Retweet your tweets?
Dummy accounts? I guess not.
Dear artiste, endeavor to network with
other artistes, producers and the likes. It
helps a great deal and exposes you to a
lot of things your team members may
never tell you.
All that being said, managers, record
labels & publicists need take control of
the artistes career and show them how
it can be done. Speak confidently to your
artiste and make them understand all
you’re doing is for their benefits.
As a musician, to earn the benefits of
being a successful artiste you have to
become successful. Give your time,
resources and energy to create music
people love and want to hear and then
focus on ensuring that the supply is
consistent.
Good luck!!
Written & compiled by Joyce
Imiegha (Media Agent/Consultant)

Yea, well said. Nice 1

NONSENSE

^^^
Is that your middle name