First of all let me to introduce myself, My name is Gilbert Bani a.k.a A-Q. I am a rapper, script writer and entrepreneur. I usually don’t write articles, infact I have never written one in my life. So forgive me if this doesn’t turn out to be one of the best articles you have read. I don’t know how else to tackle this situation that affects me and a whole lot of artistes adversely other than writing this. I have witnessed the Nigerian music industry grow from the late 90′s to what it has become today and I ask one question, what has changed? Yes! music videos are now better. Is the music better? Truth is, I don’t know so I would leave that and stick to what I know but what do I know? I know the system or structure of music distribution in the Nigerian music industry has remained the same.
The most important part of any organization is the marketing department, how is music marketed in Nigeria?
You can sell your music online, which I think is still unreliable due to inadequate availability of internet facilities in this part of the world. I have tried selling two materials online, one in 2006 and the other in 2010. I made more in 2006 than in 2010, Is there any artiste that has made a fortune from selling music online? I wouldn’t know, but I don’t think so. If you have, kindly reveal your numbers and prove me wrong. Matter of fact most Nigerian websites that used to sell Nigerian music online have stopped, what could be the reason? Could it be that it was not profitable, or they did not know how to go about it – I wouldn’t know, but I’m sure it is either of the two. ‘Till someone provides adequate numbers showing success in online distribution of his/her music, I would skip this and go over to what I am really sure of, which is the sale of hard copy CDs, the second way an artiste can sell his music.
How are hard copy CDs marketed in Nigeria? The answer is one word and 3 syllables, ALABA. For as long as I have been aware music distribution in Nigeria has been marketed through this outlet. Has it been profitable? If yes, to what extent. If no, why do we still market music via that source? What ever your answer is, hold on to that, but allow me to take you through my own analysis.
I think the way music is distributed in an industry directly affects the kind of music produced, M.I does not seem to agree, we have had a couple of conversation and argument about this and he seems to think its only the consumer that is responsible for the kind of music produced. I totally agree with him, but why are our CDs marketed in paper backs, and who is responsible for tagging the price of CDs. Did I hear you right?, your answer is as good as mine but I am not here to argue about how our CDs should be packaged or how much it should be sold, I’m here to argue that Alaba has served its purpose and its time to move on.
Move on to what? Many would ask, I would play the typical Nigerian mentality and answer a question with a question, why are we so afraid of change?
There was once a time where alaba could blow an artiste, take Timaya for example, his CD made it iN the market without any promo and boom! he became a star – is that not good marketing? Taking a product you know is good and pushing it to the face of the consumers ’til it spreads like a contagious disease, but has this happened to any artiste since 2010, yet again your answer is as good as mine.
Right now the market only wants to market artistes that are in high rotation, what happens to the other artiste who don’t have very high rotation but have a very good fan base. What would happen to RUBY, ARAMIDE, BEZ, ESE PETERS, TIMI DAKOLO, A-Q, YUNG6IX, SHOW DEM CAMP, etc. Can Alaba market these artistes.
Let me break it down for you for those that don’t really know what is going on:
An artiste makes between 5 naira to 15 naira on one CD depending on the cost price at which the marketer has chosen to tag the album, an average artiste gets 7 naira from one album. It’s funny because you even get more off caller tunes for just one song. This artiste has to go platinum to make 7 million naira, yet 7 million doesn’t even cover what the artiste spent on promotion, then if the aritse is signed to a label, the label gets 60/70, or 80 percent of that as the case maybe and this calculation is based on if the artiste goes platinum of which the chances are very slim. I once read in a foreign magazine that the most important artiste on a label where the b-list artiste, because their promotional budget was not as much as the A-list and the numbers they did were steady, artiste like Jill Scott, Mos Def, MusiQ soulchild, Common etc who do 500,000 and above steadily. I know Nigeria is not America but still, we can’t say this does not apply to us because we have not genuinely marketed albums over here.
The big names in Alaba were T-Joe and Obinno, they made a lot of money from music distribution back then, T.Joe made so much that he even started his own label, signing the plantashun boiz and 2shotZ, but for some reason these big Alaba marketers are not so kin on marketing music anymore, could it be that something has gone wrong? Are albums no longer selling? Am I the only one that have noticed that those new marketers that came in and splashed millions on A-list artistes for the rights to market their albums no longer exist? I may be wrong, they may have made so much money and have gone to chill with all their riches in the Bahamas. SomeONE should please enlightening me.
Alaba now only want to market artiste in demand, the marketers now go online, watch DSTV and listen to radio to find out for themselves what is in high demand, because to them high media rotation is equal to high demand, then they reach out to the artiste. I have one question for those artistes in so-called high demand, how much have you really made in the last 4 years from Alaba? Let’s look at albums released in the last 4 years: BURNA BOY – L.I.F.E., SEAN TIZZLE – THE JOURNEY, WAJE – W.A.J.E. (words are not just enough), TIWA SAVAGE- ONCE UPON A TIME. I can’t touch on all the albums but I picked this 4 albums because I feel they were very good albums and deserved to be marketed better. Are these artistes satisfied with the outcome of their albums? I wouldn’t know but I know WAJE released a single ONYE off her self titled album and a whole lot of people thought it was a new song. This simply means a whole lot of people did not listen to the album. Many would tell you that it is the fault of the internet and the bloggers, that people would rather just download a leaked version of the album than go out to actually buy but lets do the math – to buy an album is just 150 naira. How much megabite would you exhaust to download a 74min album? I’m sure it would cost way more than 150naira, so is the internet really the reason people are not buying albums anymore? If you ask me, I would say ‘No!’ I would only say the way the albums are marketed is not attractive enough, this leads me to the next part of this article. Solutions, what is the solution to this problem?
Let me start by explaining what I mean by the marketing of albums is not attractive enough, let me illustrate with an example, take Shoprite for instance, they sell food stuff and other groceries that you can buy at the local market close to your house, still a lot of people would prefer to shop at Shoprite, because shopping there is attractive, a couple years ago people would have told you cinemas would never work in this country, ’cause the pen cinema and the other local ones were not functioning but Ben Bruce came in and made the cinemas attractive and it has become one of the best things that has happened to this country as regards entertainment, the excuse for selling our hard copy CDs through the alaba network is to make it available for everyone to buy, well I have seen the least people I expected to see in Shoprite and in the cinemas. Simply, make buying of hard copy CDs attractive and every body would follow but then again should the music be for everybody? I beg to differ, I think the music should me made available for people who can afford it and want to buy it.
A hard copy CD in the States cost between 10 to 18 dollars, I am sure not everybody can afford to spend that on a CD. As a rap fan, I had some original hard copy CDs of rappers I idolized in the past, I bought them for 3 thousand naira back then when L.O.P (LAND OF PLENTY) still sold CDs. I bought them because not only did I love the the artiste, but because having original CDs of the trending rappers that time meant you were trendy and knew what was en vogue, there are alot of people that would love to buy CDs of their favorite Nigerian artistes but don’t want to be seen where CDs are sold or even seen buying things in traffic, why can’t we sell our music in decent places. Outlets like Nu metro, Jazzhole and others have since shut down because they were not given the right environment to thrive, they did not have enough branches and could not compete with the prices of the CDs on the streets.
Who is a music marketer? just anyone that opens up a shop in Alaba and sells CDs?, shouldn’t there be some sort of license, or some authorization body that would approve a marketer after he provides proof that he or she is able to market music in this country, should the fate of our music be left in the hands of people who know nothing about the dynamics of music marketing?
Not to take anything away from Alaba, for more than 12 years they have used their network to market the biggest artistes successfully, artistes like P-square, the now defunct Mo’hits, Modenine, Timaya, Banky W, Duncan Mighty, Wizkid, M.I., Faze, 2Face, Rugged man etc are some of the artiste that enjoyed the benefits of the Alaba network. This was possible because the industry was still growing and there were few artiste and less competition for the talented ones that stood out, however things have changed;
For every Banky W, there is a Praiz, an Ese Peters, a Sojay. For every Wizkid, there is a Davido, a May-D, an Orezi. For every Tiwa Savage, there is a Yemi Alade, a Niyola, a Seyi Shay, for every M.I, there is a Vector, an Ice Prince etc, and now every body has a claim to this market, how many Alaba marketers do we have? and how many artiste can they provide adequate distribution for in a year?
Someone told me that if music distribution in Nigeria was good business, a lot of people/organizations would have invested in it already, it’s funny ’cause the same person told me the Nigerian music industry is worth billions of dollars. MTN made a billion naira of ringtones last year, prompting them to invest more in ringtones this year. I can imagine how much they would make this year. A lot of these companies use artistes to sell their brand, has anyone thought of using this companies to sell your own music? JAY-Z ‘used’ Samsung to sell a million copies of his album. Is anyone here not thinking like him? How I wish I was in a position of power, even though I know this would happen soon, I can’t wait till I get there. I challenge two artistes that I have a lot of respect for – M.I and BANKY W, to do something about music distribution in this country, or at least start something that would spark the process of change in music distribution, because unless we change the way music is distributed for the better, the artiste would never fully enjoy the fruits of his/her labour.
Because artist get very little from the sale of their albums, they have thrown themselves at corporations for endorsement deals and corporate shows. I thought it was the corporations that needed the artiste, and it was them who approached the artiste and not vice versa. Endorsement deals used to be very profitable, but now due the sudden rise of a lot of new artistes it has become less profitable and less attractive. It used to be a big deal for an artiste to get an endorsement deal before, I don’t think it is anymore. how many artiste can MTN or GLO pay? How many artiste can be on the list for their shows? The sale of hard copy CDs still remains the number one source of income for an artist and if we do not do something about our distribution, it won’t be long before the industry crashes.
Some individuals have tried independent distribution in the past, I myself have tired it on a small scale with a compilation CD I did in the past and made awesome profit from it. DON JAZZY tried it with the Mo’hits’ ‘curriculum vitae’ album using MR BIGGS as the buying outlet, 2face also have tried it, Lara George and her hubby also started a company SOFORTE for the distribution of hard copy CDs, to the best of my knowledge all these failed, just because they failed does not mean we should stop trying, but why did they fail? Many would say you can’t compete with Alaba and yes, they are right, you can’t compete with the price and their distribution network, you would need tones of money and a lot of time to compete with them, but why are you trying to compete with them? why do most think we have to eradicate Alaba before things can go right in the distribution of music?
This is what I am proposing, I am only saying that there has to be music distribution companies licensed by the government for the distribution of music in Nigeria, this companies would be in charge of tagging the price of a hard copy albums in Nigeria, producing and packaging the albums and distributing to other wholesale buyers, these companies would also have their own retail outlets spread all over the country and if possible all over Africa and if Alaba wants to be a part of this, they can buy from any of the licensed distribution companies and market, however any hard copy CD being marketed by a marketer in Nigeria that is not from any of these licensed companies would be seen as a pirated copy and the marketer will face the full wrath of the law. The number of CDs sold can now be monitored accurately and the artiste can be rewarded based on his/her sales. I know it will take some time to build but in the end it would be worth it, a new government would be sworn in come 2015 let this be one of the projects it should execute. Some massive albums are going to be put out this year: WIZKID, P-SQUARE, MI, WANDE COAL to name but a few, are these heavy weight artiste going to sell a lot hard copy CDs?, let us wait and see.
After much thought this is what I could come up with, if anyone else have a better idea kindly share it with us. It is our career, it is our music, let’s all help to take it to the next level. God bless everyone that has helped preserve this industry without selfish gains, and if we don’t get to enjoy our fruits, let’s make sure the next generation would, our kids might turn out to be better than us.