Artistes chart paths to boosting music economy 

Artists have called on government to put sustainable structures and regulations in place to boost the evolving digital music economy. 

According to them, until the basic societal structures are in place, there is little or nothing artistes can do to remain relevant after the usual few years of fame. 

Speaking during the Social Media Week (SMW) music conference on the new music economy: A collaborative team approach’, the artistes advised upcoming creatives to leverage on digital prowess and give stronger value proposition for brands to maintain a lasting revenue years after the fame.

A performing artiste under the Show Dem Camp (SDC)/Fatherland Media, Wale Davies, projected that for Nigeria’s creative economy unaided by good structure to have made it this far, it will beat the oil and gas industry in the nearest future if government takes deliberate actions to support creatives. 

Davies added that government regulations and policies geared towards boosting the industry will go a long way to keep artistes in business even after they stop singing or their death.

“One of the structures we need is the support for musical tours. Artistes are not able to make it big because of the few tour centres. There are no venues for fan base of musicians and they resort to using stadiums that are usually not safe enough. 

“Where structures to support are lacking, it becomes almost impossible to leverage and the music economy,” he said. 

Davies noted that the nation’s economy is a challenge too because there is no guarantee aside Lagos and Abuja that an artistes will get fans to watch shows. 

“Really, the biggest revenue for musicians are shows or tours and if it limited to one part of the country, it narrows down what they can earn. It doesn’t add up for people to wait till December before they can attend shows,” he added. 

He however, noted that Nigerian artistes are making it digitally because there are people in diaspora that could afford to buy music online but left to Nigerians.

In his words: “If people don’t have the buying power there’s no way they can harness market on the digital space. Musicians should invest in other business and avoid extravagant spending to achieve lifetime survival.”

Channels Developer, Wapic Insurance, Solomon Balogun, said many musicians make money but because of weak financial planning they lavish the money on irrelevancies. 

Balogun said music business should be taken seriously as any other business that keeps financial goals in perspective.

“The digital space is providing lot of opportunities for young artistes. You can monetise your online stream. A lot of musicians are yet to explore the use of social media. Also, there should be structured educational plans for people to understand the music economy,” he added.