The Nigerian music scene has changed so much since its early years, becoming international and virtually unrecognizable to those who pioneered it. As of 2021, it has never been easier for artists to attract public attention.
Budding artists seem to turn into global superstars overnight with massive industry backing. From 18-year-old Ayra Starr to 23-year-old Joeboy, Fireboy, Tems, BNXN, Ruger, these young and vibrant music stars have settled in as household names in just few years. Omah Lay started performing internationally under two years since he released his first single. But it wasn’t always this easy before now…
Today, eelive.ng’s Big Story looks into an artist’s journey to fame in the earlier years of the Nigerian music industry and how much easier it is in the 21st century.
Starting out
There used to be a longer trajectory to making it as a musical act back in the 1960s and 1980s; you had to find instrumentalists, play gigs at a club and build a fanbase so that when you make records, people will buy them. Now, all you need is a couple of good songs, great videos, and aggressive marketing and you can build an artiste that will become a household name in a matter of months. Of course, there are personal journeys that aspiring artists have to go on; finding the right sound and record label. But ultimately, it is a cakewalk compared to what artists in the earlier years had to do.
As much as artists now face new challenges like exploitation from record labels and fierce competition, according to legendary juju singer King Sunny Ade, in the earlier stages of the Nigerian music industry, you had to be particularly determined to make it in that very rough terrain.
On why there are so many young musicians sprouting up in the industry, KSA said in a joint interview with fellow singer Onyeka Onwenu on Pulse, “I think young people now are more involved in music than they were then because parents now see it as a viable career path. In those days, parents did not. When we were trying to form an association, we had to go around the country looking for musicians to join. It was so hard and all we wanted was to form a community where we could speak with one voice.”
But now, given the commercial success of many young artists, pursuing a career as a musical act has never been more achievable. The glamourous lifestyles of celebrities are a major incentive to wanting to join the music industry and social media has made so much accessible.
New technologies
Speaking further on the ease of making music in the 21st century, KSA continued, “Artists can record a hit song in 4 hours. In our days, making a hit record would take up to three months. For you to select and record and for them to tell you, ‘this is okay, let’s release it’, it takes a while. There’s always one thing or the other to add and it was not so easy to do then. You release that one, you hope people like it and then that’s when you can focus on making another one.”
Also, in KSA’s time, studios were few and far between and also very selective. It was not as it is now that you can record music at home or in time-shared studios and release it on the internet.
From the decades he has spent in the Nigerian music industry, King Sunny Ade believes it has never been easier to be an artist in Nigeria. The music legend attributed the success of new artists to technology and development; what he referred to as “the computer age”. “The whole world has gone into the computer age. Before, the studios we had in Africa were standard quality studios. When I went on tour in America, I would use the opportunity to record some songs because our studios were not as good. When you do things now, you can pass it through different effects to make it more suitable to the ears and make it more marketable than before.”
This was how singer-songwriter Joeboy started out. The 24-year-old singer rose to fame after being discovered by Afropop star Mr Eazi through his emPawa programme. Joeboy, who had been releasing covers on YouTube and Instagram, said, “social media is the easiest and least expensive way to put yourself out there. If you have good content, promote it well and it’s just a matter of time before you get somewhere.”
Joeboy continued, “When I first started making music, I used to think it was such a big deal to put my songs on DSPs. Now I can do this all through my phone. I’ve learned a lot about the music business too, and I’m still learning. Me two years ago is different from me right now”. And just under two years since Joeboy’s emPawa debut, he built the foundation of his legacy with his first 14 track LP, Somewhere Between Beauty and Magic.
Rema has a similar story, as Mavin boss Don Jazzy discovered him via Instagram. The CEO of Mavin Records stated that, “It’s simple, we found him on Instagram, the Prince put out a song, Gucci Gang featuring myself and David, and the young man did a freestyle to it and tagged us. That’s how everybody finds every artiste. That’s where anybody that signed any artiste finds them. On Instagram. Tag any artiste, if the person is feeling you… you’ll blow straight up”
For BNXN, who was formerly referred to as Buju, his launchpad to fame came when Burna Boy heard his song in a night club. “Burna heard my song ‘Lenu’ in the club and ‘vibed’ with it and signed me in 2020,” he told HipTV. BNXN went on to sign a one-year contract with Burna’s Spaceship Collective and went on to become an indie act in 2021 after the contract elapsed. He’s currently one of the biggest music stars in Nigeria in 2022 and even won the coveted 2022 Headies Next Rated Award.
Many alte artistes like singer-songwriter Tay Iwar and rapper Cruel Santino also started out producing their own music using computer programs like Fruity Loops and releasing it for free on YouTube and SoundCloud before they were able to build a fanbase and monetize their talents.
In an interview with Okay Africa, Tay Iwar, who released his debut album at 16, said, “The reason why I started making my own music was because I got a laptop and I got Fruity Loops. And I didn’t know that was possible. I was completely oblivious. I thought to make a song, you have to have a big studio with a mixer and stuff.”
“And when I was making beats with my laptop, I was like yeah, this is what I’m clearly going to do for the rest of my life because it’s like a game. I don’t know if you’ve seen Fruity Loops but it looks like a video game. Imagine a 13-year-old seeing that. It blew my mind, so I just kept doing that. It became my hobby, then it became my passion and now it’s my job.”
Distribution
Discovering a passion for music and recording songs is one thing. But then making sure the music reaches the audience is a different ball game. The distribution landscape has massively changed since the start of the Nigerian music industry. In the 70s, listening to music was relatively expensive. You had to have a radio, go to a nightclub or own a record player.
But as income increased, radio sets and record players became more accessible and clubs became more populated. However, distribution did not have nearly as many channels as it has today. Expensive vinyl records transformed into cheap tapes, then CDs. And now streaming services have all but removed the barrier to music and has lowered the cost drastically.
Artists who had to secure recording deals before releasing their projects on vinyl, or find a way to make records independently could now release them into the world. There are so many streaming services on the internet that compensate artists for the music they make and also present them on the platform. Thousands of projects are released by amateur artists across SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, BoomPlay, and AudioMac monthly. It seems like new streaming services spring up every month.
But the real success comes when young artists get signed under a big record label like YBNL or Mavin. With the structure that record labels offer, marketing and distribution of music is a seamless process. And in a world that is run by audiovisual entertainment, record labels pay for quality music videos whose views translate into income for the artiste. Rema’s meteoric rise to fame and Ayra Starr’s budding stardom can both be attributed to Don Jazzy and his hands-on approach to his artists’ careers.
Instead of struggling for visibility over time, 18-year-old Ayra Starr was propelled into instant stardom when Don Jazzy used his platform to introduce her to the world. The producer broke down his reasons for signing Ayra Starr with an introductory video. According to him, he met the singer in 2020, and described her as not just an amazing artist, but also an all-around superstar.
From shooting music videos to booking spots on TV or web shows to placing upcoming artists as opening acts at the concerts of their more established artists, the work of record labels cannot be underestimated. More recently, some artists even seek better representation by signing under foreign record labels, who are penetrating the Nigerian music industry to tap into that Afrobeats gold.
Censorship
Things have also changed the censorship. Nigerian artists are freer now with speech due to the democratization of leadership. The voice of entertainment had always been censored when the military held power in Nigeria like in the case of Fela and Onyeka Onwenu who were picked up by the SSS and interrogated for her song The Squandering of Riches which tackled the exploitation and pollution of the Niger Delta. Fela was repeatedly threatened, arrested, and persecuted for his intrepid criticism of the Nigerian government in his music countless times, with the army raiding his household and causing destruction.
However, about forty years later, rumours of music being banned will be met with fierce dragging by the Nigerian populace as in Falz and Ric Hassani’s case. The internet and its attendant social media have decentralized the distribution of information. Songs cannot be banned for too long and artists can still make money through streaming sites and other platforms. With fewer threats from the government and more freedom of expression, artists can comfortably be themselves and make their music
Piracy
Despite the freedom of expression and technology available to Nigerian musicians today, one problem still eats away at their earnings – piracy. King Sunny Ade said about piracy, “You know when you record an album, it takes a lot of money. Then you shoot a video and that’s a lot of money too. And before you have the chance to release it, they’re already hawking it to you on the street. It was the same thing with the film industry. Although copyright laws are stricter, proper security for artists is still a cause for concern.
The problem of piracy still pervades the Nigerian music industry today. Pirated music on blogs, the illegal sale of CDs on the streets, and the legal structure around contracts and records are big issues. There is still no end in sight as the invention of digital downloads has made piracy even smoother and faster. Artists lose millions of naira as a result of the illegal distribution of CDs.
Speaking on the menace of piracy, Akinyemi Ayinoluwa, an entertainment lawyer, feels the arrival of international record labels might be just the thing to help fight piracy in Nigeria. “I believe they can bring global best practices down to Nigeria. It is a smaller world in 2018. The biggest acts/talents are global, traversing far-flung parts of the world, forging ties with different business executives and companies,” he told the BBC.
Foreign labels and International Recognition
Ezegozie Eze Jr, General Manager at Universal Music Nigeria, agrees that Nigerian artists today will do well with foreign record labels. Eze says there is “no better time to invest” in the West African state. “The talent on ground is burgeoning and blooming and the international market is yearning for more,” he told eelive.ng. “Our presence in the market also means that the doors are now open for partnerships, collaborations, and opportunities for our talent, both in Nigeria and across all other markets we operate in,” Mr Eze says. So far Universal Music has signed Nigerian artists Tiwa Savage, WurlD, Odunsi the Engine, Tay Iwar, and award-winning Ghanaian artist Stonebwoy. Empire Music Distribution has an ongoing contract with Olamide’s YBNL record label and its acts that include Fireboy DML.
Nigerian music is rocking playlists across the world, and its stars have a huge fan base. Burna Boy and Wizkid both won Grammy awards and Davido has bagged his second gold certificate from the RIAA, as well as performed at the premiere of Coming 2 America. Nigerian artists have concerts and tours abroad.
The revenue generated from Nigerian music in 2016 was $39m (£30m), a 9% increase from the previous year, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report. It also suggested that the industry should expect an annual growth rate of 13.4% in 2021 to reach $73m. Nigerian artists are enjoying what can be referred to as a golden age and it seems like it is here to stay.