Nigerian artistes should take merchandising seriously

Today while doing my usual early morning rounds on the Internet, I stumbled on a story about the comedian Bovi on a site. In the post Bovi spoke about how he met a fan of the Nigerian pop star Wizkid in far away Melbourne, Australia.

This of course is no surprise. Wizkid has a sizeable following outside Africa. What caught my attention were two things, the Australian fan was wearing a black Star Boy t-shirt. The other thing is really interesting. The Australian fan said he tried to buy the Star Boy t-shirt on e-Bay bought he could not find. He had to print one for himself at the end of the day.

I read this story and shook my head twice. Why do Nigerian artistes keep ignoring gold mines and chase after coins? Let me explain. Imagine if this Australian fan found, and bought a Star Boy T Shirt on e-Bay for $5. Give or take, at least $1 would have gone to Wizkid's account. That's N220 that Wizkid would have gained without shedding a sweat on stage. Unfortunately, the fan all the way in Australia had to print the shirt instead. That's a loss in revenue for Wizzy.

In this day and age of low album sales, it is borderline suicidal for an artiste, group or band not to have multiple streams of income. One of avenue of generating income way from album sales or performances is by merchandising. Artistes are brands. A successful artiste has millions of fans that are ready to invest in that artiste's career directly or indirectly. Many people will drop good money to rock a Davido t-shirt or an Ice Prince baseball jersey. Instead of waiting for a promoter's phone call, Nigeria's biggest acts can strike a deal with a designer to use their image or trademark on their clothes. In exchange they get a cut from each item sold.

Nigerian artistes are myopic when it comes to showbusiness. They are trained to only eat from performance fees and endorsements that only come once in a while. Merchandising will make an artiste financially dependable and won't have to pigeon hole him or herself into a creating a commercial tune that will fade away in the next three months.

Diddy and Jay Z are not the biggest personalities in Hip-Hop because of their impressive catalogue. They are multi-millionaires because they have been able to use their images and infuse it in their respective clothing lines. Both Sean John and Rocawear are worth $700m. With that kind of money Jigga and Puff are made with or without a hit song.

Rapper Phyno tapped into something huge with his Alobam t-shirts. The line of shirts quickly became a statement, a cultural statement, a phenomenon that had not been seen since Terry Tha Rapman's (T.R) Boyz Are Not Smiling T-shirts. Both line of shirts from the rappers have stopped.

Olamide has a Baddo T-shirt line too. Even though the t-shirts up for sale aren't exactly dope, at least its an effort. Wizzy also has a range of exclusive snapbacks. And Falz's 'Ello Bae' shirts are up for sale.

These signs are encouraging but more needs to be done by all parties involved. It doesn't have to be T-shirts alone. Artistes should look into sneakers, boxers, energy drinks, stickers, pens, etc. Things like this can be achieved but our artistes have to hire people who are competent and knowledgeable to handle their affairs, instead of their friends who they drink and smoke with.

With a population of over 150 million people, the likes of Psquare, 2face, D'banj and others can make at least N50 million from merchandising. Add that figure to the sum they make from endorsements and performance fees, and it won't be hard for a Nigerian star to become a billionaire in five years.

Artistes today have to think outside the box to survive. Merchandising is a sure way to help an artiste grow his business and brand. Many artistes in Nigeria today are just one-dimensional to survive in these modern times.