Let's fix our content creation and revenue flow in 2016

The New Year is in, and the traditional welcoming festivities have begun in earnest. Nigeria is mildly a party nation, and the music is ringing loudly from all corners of the country.

The Nigerian music industry which supplies all of these awesome sounds and tunes which aid this happiness hasn’t achieved best practice yet. Idealism in business systems exists for a reason. It is a structure to aspire to, which would ensure free flow of resources, and the realization of gain. We lack that.

The industry as we have it now is in a state of flux, with different facets of the whole afflicted by a variety of ills. Many of which can be fixed at the micro levels, and others needing global-scale intervention to get right. From songwriters, to the artistes, to the licensing firms, the publishers, and the merchandisers, down to the consumers, there’s need for a holistic fix. These problems have been identified, discussed and immensely documented, but the solutions are still lacking.

In 2016, a lot of these need to be corrected, with lasting solutions executed to create the beginning of a power industry. We can start from the creators of the content, and move up the food chain, until we get to the consumers. This new year provides another opportunity for respective industry players to kickback and draft plans for a better industry.

I will be highlighting two core areas of the music industry. The content creation upon which the industry rests, to the revenue generation which would keep it profitable as a business devoid of all the pretences and ego trips.

Artistes need a redefinition of their sounds

The first point of these fixes need to be targeted at level zero; the content creators. Nigerian music lacks a defining sound. The South Africans have the House and Hip-hop, the Ghanaians can hold on to their Hip-life and scream at the world. Soukous and Makossa are still the life-blood of Francophone countries.

Music makers in Nigeria are sponges. We soak everything from Africa, the West, and many cultures, completely refine and refix it, and throw it out. Our super funding power enables us to market these creative sounds to the world on many levels, and that has powered us to the fore of African music. Another contributory factor to our growth is the wanderlust that is peculiar to Nigerians. We make up a great percentage of every country on earth due to our travels, business and hustling interests. These travellers export our music, which slowly infiltrate the sounds of many countries, and in many ways hinder theirs. In 2015, Kenyan musicians protested bitterly about a lack of airplay for their locally generated content. Turns out the Nigerians have kicked their asses out of their local radio and TV stations. How impressive.

READ: 12 Nigerian artistes ruling the airwaves in Cameroon

This model has sustained us for long. Refixing and tweaking of music, has obliterated our music signature sounds, consequently our taste for individual sounds have been blurred. Genre specification is dying, and in its place we have, Afro-Pop, which in itself lacks a signature. We throw on the heavy drums, and use vocal back-flips to create that popular music. Sometimes live percussion finds its way in, with Saxophones and 6-string guitars aiding that process.

But it won’t last forever. Already we can see signs of our failings in our local Hip-hop culture which is flawed. The South Africans are kicking our butt in Hip-hop across the continent. Fans of the genre have failed to translate passion into action, with many Hip-hop shows receiving poor attendance and publicity.

This quest for popular music, has made hordes of beautiful and individualistic talents abandon the joy in originality, and embrace the pursuit of Afro-Pop. Our melodic landscape can only boast of two genres: Afro-Pop, and others.

How about the leaders of our music? The A-List artistes which by the responsibility of their powers and influence form the Avant-Garde?

READ: Why Rock music can’t survive in Nigeria

These people failed us in this context last year. When Ice Prince could in all honesty create the song ‘Boss’, Olamide gave us massive crooning on his promoted singles, only to cram in his rap on an album, and Phyno is currently dining out on a Highlife tune ‘Connect’.

We need definition, and 2016 gives us that chance to gain perspective on everything. Let genre-specificity guide our talents this year.

Revenue Generation should move from Alaba to digital systems

Everyone complains of the depleted revenue streams of music in Nigeria. These complaints are valid. A typical Nigerian artiste’s dream is to get shows and receive performance fees. The other major revenue would come from brand endorsements and sponsorships from corporate Nigeria.

How sad.

Theoretically, musicians, songwriters and composers who personally administer their business, or run it through record labels and publishing companies are meant to make money from the exploitation of their composition (song) and sound recordings. Royalties (i.e payment for use of compositions), in ideal industries are meant to flow from the consumers, or users of a composition under strict statutory mechanical licenses to the artistes or their representatives.

Nigeria is different. The entire record sales are run by the hustlers and pirates in Alaba, in a system that is flawed, anaemic and vulnerable. Physical record sales figures are inaccessible, and the pirates lurk at every corner, bleeding the artiste of his lifeblood.

For licenses and enforcement of royalty payment, collection and distribution, we have the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) as our only Performing Rights Organisation (PRO) whose fundamental job it is to keep track of every single performance or broadcast of all works protected under copyright.

That task is too great for them. We need more PROs in this country. That need is already being fixed, with the entrance of new players in this department. Last year, the company 5Music has been created, and it is exciting to see how their work contributes in this industry building process.

Down here, the record labels are heavily reliant on show money, with return for investment almost untraceable. This is not sustainable. 2016 needs to also fix this.

For Alaba, I have never been a protagonist of their distribution. A great day it will be in the industry when a huge chunk of the music sales business will move from those shops, to the digital platforms. Already we have seen that shift happening, but it is too slow. Thankfully, the cost of data plans are drastically reducing, with almost 100% drop in internet costs between 2014 and 2015. This drop will continue through 2016, with huge advantages to the music industry. By 2020, Alaba’s hold will be in total remission, and out of the ashes of their fall, will rise a more efficient digital system.

Here’s to a great 2016 for the music industry.