In view of the potential and immense growth the music and by large the entertainment industry have encountered in the last ten years, it has been viewed as the new oil, aptly put the creative sector is in for an upward swing as the core players, Nigerian musicians, Nollywood actors, comedians, fashion designers, sportsmen and others in arts cum creative subsector who are largely made up of youths, have and are putting Nigeria on the global map
Abay Esho, celebrated musician, movie director and member of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP) and others who spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP noted that a lot of things needed to put in place to fully harness our potentials in this dynamic sector.
Looking at how to support young musicians which applies to other fields, Abay, famous for the ‘one day one day e go better’ hit song released more than ten years ago, said, “The lure of good life as being portrayed in music videos and social media are most times misleading.
Young men and women, mostly without talent, found themselves trapped in the endless dream of wanting to celebrities. I dare say that there’s no better time to be a musical artiste than now. They don’t need expensive studios to record songs as it could be done on a laptop. Phones are used these days to shoot videos and you don’t expensive promotional budget to “blow” as there are several social media platforms like Instagram, tiktok, Facebook etc to promote their works.”
“Record label owners are businessmen and will only invest in talents that will guarantee return on investment. It’s the reason why the artiste must first invest in his own talent. So if an artiste is talented enough, he will eventually get noticed by the big labels.
That is even if he decided to work with one as he can decide to go it alone. I believe government has done its bit by putting some structures in place,maybe it could be better, the Copyright Commission is one those. There should be continuous modification of the act establishing these structures as it is being elsewhere.”
Mike Nliam, producer who co-composed the ‘one day’ song with Esho urged young musicians to be focused and keep their eyes on the goal. Nliam who released ‘ Just like Fela’ in 2021 said, “Young talented acts coming into the music business have to be creative, focused, hardworking and disciplined.
They must be patient by taking out time to hone, develope their God given skills because the competition out there is stiff….only the gifted and strong willed will survive! Music like any other business requires money which mostly spent by d label or management company of the act for only adequately promotion of talents repertoire but also branding of d talent.
“It is a fact that Nigerian music popularly known as Afrobeat music has not only grown but had garnered global acceptability with the success of many chat topping and award winning acts….it’s indeed unprecedented. The success of many Nigerian talents on d global music stage will serves ass a source of encouragement to not only new music talents but potential investors in the music business too.”
