Seeing how so many young Nigerians are making a living from music and living large, is more than enough to motivate anyone who has musical talent to do everything possible to get into the Nigerian music industry.
In this article therefore, I am going to show you how to get into the Nigerian music industry, so I will advise you to read this article to the very end.
How to get into the Nigerian music industry.
If you want to get into the Nigerian music industry, you must ensure that you are musically talented and after that follow the steps I am going to list and explain below:
- Discover your musical talent and skills.
- Choose and stick to a particular music genre.
- Create your own brand.
- Record and promote freestyle and viral videos.
- Make good music.
- Promote your music.
- Network with top shots in the music industry.
- Build and grow a dedicated fan base.
Let’s get an of the above points after the other.
1. Discover your musical talent and skills.
The number one thing that will help you get into the Nigerian music industry is your musical talent.
There is no way you can aim to pursue a career in the Nigerian music industry if you do not have the talent.
But then, you must not depend on talent alone; rather you need to work on improving it.
No matter how talented you are naturally, there are certain things you will never know unless you undergo the training.
If you are a singer, the most important thing you should know is how to control your voice when you are singing.
This is to prevent you from falling out of notes or having that rise-and-sink issue in your music.
Another thing you also have to discover is your musical skills. This could be an instrument you know how to play or even to produce music by yourself.
Lots of Nigerian artists are producers, and becoming one will really help you to understand the art of music-making more.
Moreover, it will help you dedicate more time to perfecting your music production, especially if you have your own small recording studio.
2. Choose and stick to a particular musical genre.
One of the mistakes upcoming artists are making is trying to mix up musical genres.
Some think it will help them amass more fans, not knowing it is going to make them lose the fans they would have gathered.
Music lovers have their own kind of music they love to listen to. And if you switch between genres it might make them stop listening to you.
So instead of trying to win over every music lover and lose them, why not choose and settle for a particular genre that will enable you to gain a portion of dedicated fans?
3. Create your own brand.
If you want to get into the Nigerian music industry you must ensure you create your own brand because your brand is something that will set you apart from other artists in the music industry.
You can think of a brand as the name people will identify you with within the music industry.
Aside from your musical name, you can also invent a word or words that might act as a nickname.
For example, Davido is known by so many people as OBO. A nickname he earned from the title of one of his early tracks.
OBO means Omo Baba Olowo, a Yoruba phrase interpreted as the son of a very rich man.
Now imagine people who chose to call Davido OBO instead of Davido, because that’s the name that appeals to them the most.
4. Record and promote freestyle and viral videos.
The key is to consistently keep your fans engaged by posting multiple pieces of content.
So many upcoming musicians publish posts on their social accounts whenever they drop a new song.
But you need to get off this bandwagon and create content every now and then to keep your fans engaged.
Why do you think established artists and producers like Don Jazzy will always appear on comedy skits?
He does this to engage his fans and in so doing stay relevant as an artist in the Nigerian music industry.
The point is that new artists are emerging every day, and your fans will soon put you out of their minds if they are not hearing from or seeing much of you.
5. Make good music.
Your music is your selling point. In fact, it is the product and service that is going to fetch you a source of livelihood.
And for that reason, you must concentrate more on making good music.
And as usual, my candid advice is that you settle for a popular music producer if you want to get high-quality music production.
Think about the fact that a popular music producer has had so much experience in making music that has made waves in the country.
And for that reason, he is going to give you a production that will meet up the music standard in the country.
6. Promote your music.
Promoting your music is one of the ways that will help you get into the Nigerian music industry.
Music promotion is simply the process where you make your music available in several mediums for people to consume.
In this digital age, online music promotion is one of the ways you can get your music out there from the comfort of your home.
There are so many ways of doing so, and some of them are:
- Uploading your songs on music blogs.
- Sharing the links to your music on your social media accounts.
- Use paid adverts to make your music reach a wider audience.
- Use content marketing on your official website to attract lots of traffic to your music.
7. Network with top shots in the Nigerian music industry.
Networking with top shots is another way you can get into the Nigerian music industry as an artist.
Aside from established artists, there are other industry men and women who command so much respect in the Nigerian music industry.
You, therefore, have to look for and connect with these kinds.
Be mindful of the fact that your music is going to be your contact point. That is to say, you have to get them to listen to your music and from there bud the needed connection.
But this will never be a problem if you are able to promote yourself well because they will be the ones reaching out to you.
The simplest way to find these kinds is to go to social media accounts, and when you get there look for their means of contact and reach out to them immediately.
8. Build and grow a dedicated fan base.
Dedicated fans are those who will stop at nothing to listen, download and stream your music whenever it drops.
Moreover, these kinds make use of every slightest opportunity to make others become aware of you and your music.
They are the ones who comment, like, and share your new content on their social media platforms.
The result of this is getting more and more converted fans by the day.
The simplest method of finding these fans is by creating those kinds of content or making the kind of music that coincides with their passion or zeal.
That is something they can relate directly to in their lives.
For instance, you are going to win someone who is experiencing or going through a lot of relationship problems.
Once people find something in your music they can relate to, they will definitely become emotionally and psychologically attached to it.
Good luck!
