Challenges For Upcoming Artists In The Nigerian Music Industry.

In this article, we are going to see what are the challenges for upcoming artists in the Nigerian music industry.

You will agree with me that the Nigerian music industry is not an easy place to get into.

There are lots of protocols to be broken and tasks to be accomplished before you can ever see the way into the Nigerian music industry.

This then poses lots of challenges for upcoming artists who wants to succeed in the Nigerian music industry.

In this article, therefore, we are going to look at some of those challenges you will definitely face, especially as an upcoming artist in the Nigerian music industry.

The challenges for an artist in the Nigerian music industry.

There are lots of challenges for an artist in the Nigerian music industry and some of them are:

High level of competition.
Choosing musical genres.
Your mental attitude towards success.
Music promotion.
Knowing the right social platforms to join.
Networking and connections.
Lack of funds.

1. HIGH LEVEL OF COMPETITION.

Nigeria is the largest populated black country in the world and currently occupies the 7th position in the whole world.

The Nigerian population is currently estimated at about 250 million plus.

For this reason, it is certain that a good number of this population will choose and pursue music as a career.

Among this lot, the majority will try to go into the industry for monetary gain, while others will go in because it is their call or destiny.

So before you attempt to enter the Nigerian music industry, think about the number of artists you are going to contend with.

Let’s not even mention those who are already making waves in the industry, rather, you need to think of beating those other upcoming artists to get yourself noticed.

And this simple way of doing this is to work hard on developing and improving your musical skills.

One of the things I like to advise upcoming artists who want to blow is to try and learn a musical instrument; or even how to produce music by themselves.

This is because lots of artists are not doing this, and it will help you to stand out easily and be noticed in the Nigerian music industry.

2. CHOOSING MUSICAL GENRES.

Choosing a musical genre is another biggest challenge for upcoming artists in Nigeria.

This really affects those artists who think they can be active in more than one genre.

Just because you can sing and rap does not mean you should pick on both genres.

This is because music fans will find it very hard to identify where you really belong musically.

Another point is that you are going to give so many music lovers a reason to abandon you because you are combining a genre they do not live with the one they love.

This then is the very reason why you should stick to a particular genre if you want to become a successful artist in Nigeria.

The genre that is currently selling the most is AfroBeats or AfroPop. Two Nigerian rappers, Olamide and Phyno have even abandoned the rap genre to stick to it.

So if you can sing, I think this is the genre you should settle for.

3. YOUR MENTAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS SUCCESS.

Your mental attitude toward success is another challenge for artists in the Nigerian music industry.

There are people who easily give up when it seems what they are trying to achieve is not coming easily.

And to be very honest with you, the music industry is never a place you will get into that easily. It requires so much effort and above all time for things to start manifesting the way you anticipate.

Therefore, if you are someone that gives up easily when the goals you pursue do not unfold easily, you are never going to be successful as an artist.

But if you possess the positive mindset of keeping on keeping on, no matter how tough and long it takes; you are definitely going to secure a place for yourself in the Nigerian music industry.

4. MUSIC PROMOTION.

Lots of upcoming artists in Nigeria’s music industry are getting the issue of music promotion very wrong.

They think uploading their music to Audiomack and sharing the links on their social platforms is the means by which they are going to achieve their music promotion strategy.

One thing they want to do is skip the process of spending money when it comes to music promotion.

But dear friend, free music promotion will never take you anywhere, as far as the Nigerian music industry is concerned.

Your music has to be everywhere on the internet; music blogs, streaming or digital stores, social platforms, etc. And you can only achieve this when you invest a good amount of money.

Another name for music promotion is music marketing. And marketing involves advertising goods and services which requires a whole lot of money.

Ways or means of achieving music promotion online are running Ads, paying social media influencers to post your music on their pages, etc.

5. KNOWING THE RIGHT SOCIAL PLATFORMS TO JOIN.

It is not every social media platform that works well for musicians, considering the fact that most of them will not even allow you to upload your songs on their platforms.

And even those that allow you to post your links have algorithms that work against those links reaching a wider audience.

To me, the best social media platforms for artists are YouTube and Instagram.

Though both platforms work best with video content, if you can create short and viral videos you post often on these platforms, it will help you achieve a wider audience that will always listen, stream and download your music whenever you drop it.

6. NETWORKING AND CONNECTIONS.

No matter how talented and rich you are, if you are not connecting with and to the right sources in the Nigerian music industry, you will never be able to take your music career that far.

It’s funny how some upcoming artists in Nigeria think they will make it on their own. But I don’t think there is anything like self-made in the music industry. Especially here in Nigeria where man-know-man is the order of the day.

And for that reason, you must ensure to network, and build the right connections, that will help you easily make it in the Nigerian music industry.