It’s a real struggle to survive as an alternative artist in Nigeria

One of the problems of the Nigerian music industry is that pop music controls such a huge part of the market.

The Nigerian music industry is home to every genre imaginable on earth. There’s Hip hop, Rock, Salsa, EDM, Soca, Dancehall, House, Soul, Funk, R&B, Highlife, and just about everything else. These genres are either drawn from to make records, or are constantly being fused together by artists to present the best elements to fans.

But somehow, every genre finds their way into the pop market, and only then do they get truly profitable for new generation artists. Except you get on radio, in the clubs, and go viral with your music, you hardly do find artists smiling to the bank and making money directly from their hustle.

If they aren’t pop acts, they are suffering. All of the other acts who operate in other more specialized genres aren’t making money. They are scraping through financially, hoping their dreams will carry them to safety and rescue them from the rat race. These artists walk around with a smile, and perform the most artistically beautiful sets. But converting all of that to cash is a huge problem.

And you, the fan, you don’t notice. When asked how they make money, I have heard many fans and consumers of alternative music bring up a lot of options that cannot be backed with numbers. They say, ‘the artists sell their songs’, which is a huge misconception.

The dearth of record sales in Nigeria is a big problem that is yet to be addressed and fixed. And although in recent years, local distribution platforms have held them down, there is still a gaping hole in their pockets.

They say the artists leverage on live performances to make money. This is another lie. Most of these alternative acts are booked to perform at very low fees, if they do get paid. They accept it because they need outlets to build their live performance skills, and also throw their music in front of more people.

The above reasons are damaging, but they are not the chief killers. The main problem is the assumption that they these artists who have not been recognized on a popular level, have ‘their crowd’.

‘Their crowd’. What does that even mean?

In Nigeria, data has shown that there is hardly any other genre that gets the people as much as pop music. The alternative acts are subject to scraping the bottom of the ladder and have to work twice as hard with very little resources to keep whatever crowd they have.

This ‘crowd’ is mostly made up of personal acquaintances, friends, and a small niche group of people who look beyond what radio and TV serves them. These people have very little numbers. They are not enough in Nigeria to sustain the career of a great alternative artist.

That’s why it is an exercise of hope. Hope is the driving force of every alternative artist. The streets are cold for them, the money is unreliable, and the crowds are very thin. It’s a soul-draining struggle to be an alternative artist in Nigeria.