Personal branding, distribution, promotion, engagement with fans, patience and consistency have been identified as tools independent artistes require to navigate the music industry. This was part of the discussion by stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry who gathered at the Livespot Entertainment, Lekki, Lagos for this year’s Entertainment Week Lagos (EWL).

With its second edition held from December 13 to 20, 2023, organisers attracted 15,000 attendees, reaching over 100 million people, and training more than 1,000 individuals with over 3000 workforce for the event.
The African entertainment industry is on a rapid growth trajectory, with projections indicating an over 100 per cent increase in total revenue by 2026, as per PwC’s Entertainment and Media Outlook.

While the industry future is bright, independent artistes despite their talent continue to falter, with many droppings after years of struggling without making it to the limelight.
Discussing how independent artistes can breakthrough, Deji Awokoya, Dare Art Alade, Steve Stout and others advocated independent artistes must persevere and stick to their crafts in order to grow. The panel query why young artistes are in pursuit to capture the world stage instead of perfecting their craft and conquering their environment first.

Deji Awokoya, who is the General Manager, Megaelectrics, said: “Wherever there is any event highlighting the potential of the Nigeria Music Industry. Adding to our capacity is a great thing Dare, Deola and others for putting this together. Some time it’s a thankless service but we have given our time to support because we all see the value in initiative like this to grow the industry.”

On the benefit to the music industry, he said: “It doesn’t have to be in Naira and Kobo. There are lots of upcoming artistes, DJs and others that have learnt a lot. Artistes must learn to go through contracts before they sign, have a lawyer before they sign agreement, they have learnt about tools on how to grow their followership so, in term of the benefit, there are benefits that will come out of this.”

Advising independent artiste on how to grow, he said: “they must have good music because that is what will stand them out of the crowd.
“The second thing is to build a community, and the way to do so is by being consistent, putting themselves out. They must be known on their streets before going out. The idea of being known is seeing in Portable so, they should also take a cue from it.”
Speaking on the section, CEO, United Master, Steve Stout said: “Transparency is needed to grow the Nigerian Music Industry. Partnership is needed for artiste to earn their living beyond streaming.”
Speaking on what it takes to put EWL together, veteran artiste, Dare Art Alade said: “It takes a community to organize this. Everybody came together to support, give their time and united to grow the creative industry.

“The discussion on independent artiste is insightful. It’s tough to be an independent artiste in Nigeria, nonetheless, you are in control of your own time, resources as an independent artiste, however, some basic things must be adhered to whether independent or under a lady. There must be a structure. “To grow, independent artiste must be consistent and work hard.” Speaking on the challenges of the industry, he said: “Infrastructure is one of the biggest things we should have in place in Nigeria. It will take time and it will take efforts but we have to be deliberate, intentional about it. We need to build infrastructures that will benefit everybody, not just the creative industry but the entire economy. We need these things that will create jobs. We have almost 300 people that worked on EWL.”