When the music industry makes a move, don’t be left behind

The music industry is a funny place. Things change at the twist of a button, a shift happens and while new talents are constantly raised, the old guard fall from the pecking order and slowly begin to be less relevant.

This is normal. It’s a pure circle of life. Industry experts refer to it as a ‘shift in the culture’. This shift, which just about happens every five years in the Nigerian music industry is slow, gradual, and sometimes can be hard to track.

These shifts are caused by triggers, great actions of artistes and the market structure, which go on to create a new phase in the industry.

M.I Abaga’s debut album “Talk About It”, was a trigger that moved Nigerian Hip-hop from aping the Western game to the development of democratized rap, in which everyone can connect at the local level via pidgin and the fusion with pop sounds.

The emergence and success of Dagrin who popularized the indigenous rap, opened up the way for Olamide, who finally made it cool for everyone to do it. Phyno’s Eastern success was a result of this move, and it has birthed a generation of ‘local rappers’.

The advent of the internet was another trigger, which changed the face of entertainment, and the music business as we know it. Alaba has slowly lost their distribution market, many of the industry gate-keepers have been made obsolete, and fan-interaction has become more direct and organic. The internet also gradually opened new streams of income, and globalized our industry.

Terry G’s ‘Free madness’ triggered the increase in tempo of our dance music, while Kiss Daniel’s ‘Woju’ triggered the opposite and dropped the tempo, which Tekno and Mr Eazi are currently riding on to success.

For the business end, MTN Music Plus, opened the eyes of investors, who began to understand that the local market for streaming can be built for profit.

These triggers are an integral part of the culture, and they continue to happen at various times. Wise artistes who have successfully looked out for it, and adapted their game to it, have maintained their relevance, while those who are stiff to change will always be left behind.

Artistes have to change with the culture. They don’t need to alter the essence of their craft and the inspiration behind the music. But what they need to do is adapt their amazing music to fit in, and stay ahead with the times. To stand still in the face of changes is to fall behind. Psquare owe their longevity to it.

The art shouldn’t be the only thing to change. Artistes need to drive their business models and operations to adapt to the changes in the structure. The internet penetration created a new system of music release, which has been the most trusted. You tweet a link, send it to the blogs, upload on cloud services, and you good to go. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and more platforms are now a direct open link to the fans, and should be used for interaction.

But the moral of the story still remains: Move with the times, and adapt your business to become great.