Music, Musician and the Music Industry in Nigeria

Music, Musician and the Music Industry in Nigeria

A good thinker has asked about how many of us ever stop to think of music as a wondrous link with God; taking sometimes the place of prayer, when words have failed us. Indeed music knows no country, race or creed, but gives to each according to his need. Music is the best of all art forms and luckily the easiest to acquire. It is only the musician who can talk to the whole world at once and be understood by all. Like all other societies, music is an essential part of the Nigerian society. Nigerians are therefore justifiably addicted to music. They make good music and have over the centuries had a positive influence over the music genre and style of other parts of the world. Look at how American popular music forms like Blues, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Hip Hop or the Caribbean reggae and calypso bear the distinctive mark of the drum that originated in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. From India to the Latinos and from Brazil to Cuba the pervasive influence of the drum in their music is unmistakable. There is hardly any popular music in the world today that is not hot on the drums. But like anything indigenous to Nigeria, Nigerian music has had several shifts and tendencies due to its receptiveness and dynamism.

 All generations of Nigerians have had music of their generation. Yesterday’s reigning music is today’s oldies and our contemporary music would surely be old school to our children. Although the various nationalities in the country have retained their specific rhythms and melodies that we call traditional music, much of the popular or commercial music in the country today is a fusion or assemblage of American, Western, Caribbean or other world styles and Nigerian and other African beats. Nigerian musicians are understandably an integral part of the world music. Most young musicians in Nigeria today brand their kind of music as Afro Hip Hop, meaning that despite the western or foreign influences, Nigerian or African beats still form the benchmark of their music. Even though some of them merely mimic established American musicians, the majority of them justify their claim with their lyrics, beats and dance styles. If all other aspects of our lives have been adulterated by foreign pressures, there is no reason for us to expect our music to be insulated from foreign influences. In between this however, is the awareness that music is the most singular preserver of culture. To   abandon the job of preserving the ‘Nigerian’ in the Nigerian music to the market place is like leaving mice in the custody of a cat.Techonological and scientific advantages of the music from the west enhances its all conquering nature and the unfortunate complex that our elites have for foreign music makes it imperative for all those who should be concerned to give a fillip to those who are putting out themselves to preserve the Nigerian element in our music.

The fear of the colonizing nature of foreign music especially that from America is legitimate and real. The Americans and Britons are making all the billions with their music and this fact gives the impression that theirs is the real Mc Coy. But those who know, know that there is something more than music in their music. We shall return to this issue later. The good news is that the strong patriotic and cultural pride of the average Nigerian has helped to keep Nigerian musicians in check in their capitulation to the strapping of foreign influences. Most Nigerian musicians that have been able to earn a living from music do so because they have the wisdom of striking a good balance between the media imported music and specific Nigerian beats. Although Nigeria has lost most of her good producers to America and Europe, some of them around have been doing a good job. Those of them that have a clear world view understand the influence of African beats to the monumental successes of contemporary American and European musicians. This gives them confidence and encourage them to incorporate considerable African beats in their productions. This is partly the reason for the distinctiveness of the Nigerian music and why it is easily recognizable anywhere in the world. Executive producers or music labels have also been making sacrifices of moderating the profit motive and the duty to promote the Nigerian cause.

Beyond the efforts of average Nigerians, Musicians, Music promoters and Producers is the need for the authorities to realize that music is not only an effective colonizing tool but also a multi billion dollar business. Apart from oil, and perhaps the movie industry, there is no other industry or sector that has the potential of earning easy but well earned money for this country than music. Like the movie industry, the music industry is environment friendly and its raw materials are the millions of talented men and women that abound the nation. The average annual market of music worldwide is in the excess of $40 billion. The annual income of the big four record companies in the world(Universal Music Group,Snoy BMG Entertainment, EMI Group and Warner Music Group) is much more than Nigeria’s annual earnings. Whereas some countries can boast of musicians that have sold hundreds of millions of records (ABBA/Sweden, The Beatles/UK, Bing Crosby/US, Led Zeppelin/UK, Madonna/US, Nana Mouskouri/Greece, Michael Jackson/US, Elvis Presley/US, Alla Pugacheva/Russia, Cliff Richard/UK and Frank Sinatra/US have all been said to have sold in excess of 350 million copies)Nigeria can hardly boast of a musician or musical group that have sold up to ten million copies for the  whole of their career. This is in spite of the exceptionally talented musicians that the country is endowed with. America, Britain, Germany and France dominate the hit lists for obvious reasons: they own the big record companies. Their governments put a heavy premium in music and therefore protect the music industry like they protect their tax base. The bad guys know that f..king with the works of musicians is like playing with fire.

Nigeria used to host local affiliates or subsidiaries of world class record labels but the pirates have been suffocated out of business. Piracy has supplanted legit business in the music industry. Piracy has not only knocked out the essential backbone of the music industry but has also destroyed the careers of musicians that could have made a respected contribution to the global music phenomenon. The pirates have dismantled all the structures of the music industry (the activity of companies and individuals that share the aim of promoting performers and selling legitimate recorded music) and erected in their place crude and primitive structures of the one man one shop business. The Music industry is now populated with people who do not have the professionalism and interest to make good musicians or good music. People now run labels when they have no idea about music or the making of music. Anybody that can open a beer parlour or a spare parts shop can now run a record label. It is heart rendering and awfully pathetic.

 In places where the menace of pirates is curtailed, the record labels dominate the industry. The record labels employ the best hands in the land to produce world class musicians and music. They own first class studios and a ring of distribution marketing and retail outlets that promote sales and enhance the economic stature and of course the capability of the musician to compete with the very best in the world. The record labels also work with a chain of professionals whose expertise is indispensable. To begin with, there are music agents (the Americans called them Artists and Repertoire (A & R) representatives) whose business is to recommend artists to labels after assessing them either in terms of their demos or performance in concerts. These agents can smell a good and talented musician from afar that is why their judgments are relied upon by labels. The agents also work with scouts who hop from place to place or stationed in a particular place. On their part, musicians know that the bottom line of their career is commerce and as such they need to package themselves or be packaged like any other brand in the market place. To enhance their profile and chances of being noticed by scouts or agents or signed by labels, Musicians employ managers who are knowledgeable about the workings of the industry and have links and contacts that they can tap to impact favourably on the musician. The fee of the manager is mostly standardized and may not be beyond 20 per cent of the musicians earnings. Since the remuneration of the manager is dependent on the earnings of the musician, it becomes very important for him to work hard enough to swell the purse of the musician.

Whereas the agents and managers are busy about the quality of recording and sales of the musician’s music, the musician would need to seek the services of professional or statutory bodies for the publication of the songs he has recorded or has written. The copyright in the songs may inhere in the musician and the label in a predetermined proportion and royalties for the broadcast or public performance of those songs are also shared between the label and the musician in the agreed proportion. The publishing company is assigned the right to administer the copyright and the granting of licenses for all uses of the song and the collection of income from the users of the songs. Most big labels have their publishing companies to administer the copyrights of musicians under their labels. Musicians and music labels are not only supposed to earn incomes from the sale of their records or performances at concerts. Each time a song is broadcast or performed in public, the composer and publisher should receive payment called performing royalty. This money is collected by a collecting society (there is generally one for each country which collects on performances.Similarly, there is a fee payable each time a recording is released (the mechanical royalty) and this is also collected by an authorized society within the country that is different from the collecting society. This income is also divided in the agreed proportion between the composer and the publishing company.

The musician is not left alone in the recording of his songs. The label or the agent see to it that the musician gets the appropriate producer that can adequately complement the efforts he has put in composing the song. Some labels buy or write songs for their musicians in which case the musician only performs the songs. Also down the line are professionals whose business it is to launder the images of musicians. In this category are Press Officers whose business it is to get favourable publicity and commentaries from the media. The media is at the heart of the music industry. The success or careers of musicians as well as the labels are largely dependent on their media image. Some labels employ separate professionals to liaise with the print and electronic media. The favour of radio and television presenters as well as Disc Jockeys is indispensable to both the labels and musicians.

All these professionals are as important as the marketing, distributing or retail companies. But the case is different in Nigeria. The pirate has robbed the industry of all of these professionals. The pirate has hijacked the industry. With little investment he reaps many times more than the legitimate investors in the industry. The Pirate is not interested in the musician or the sweat of the labels. He waits for the finished work, picks up a copy, mass dub and rushes to the market to sell it at a price often below the production cost price. Often he goes to the market before the label and authorized marketer or distributor. With no overhead cost beyond the mass dubbing of the finished work, he bears no other cost. That is why the foreign pirated works sell more and faster in Nigeria.  Beyond that the foreign pirated works compete better than the locally produced Compact Discs. Like I have said without the duty to pay royalty to the musicians or the payment to the line professionals and workers that participated in the making and production of the pirated works, the pirate gets the best from all worlds.

The case of the labels and the musicians is different. The pirates do not only deny the musicians and labels legitimate earnings for their works but also force them to sell their works at ridiculous prices. The Pirates also discourage the involvement of professionals that would have lent their expertise to the industry. The sum total of this is that charlatans have taken over the industry and the result is the country’s international musical image is dwindling. The quality of musical works has been adversely affected by the low investment in the industry. The low capital base of the industry has made the country to lag behind other countries in the continent in the quality of music produced by its musicians. The low ratio of Nigerian musical videos aired on MTV Base and Channel O is indicative of the poor quality of musical videos produced in Nigeria. This is indeed a shame considering the pioneering feats of Nigeria in musical video production on the continent.

Another sad effect of the bastardization of the industry by the pirates is that the musicians are no longer the center point of the industry. Labels and concert promoters do not respect musicians any longer. They treat them the same way they treat their dependants. In many occasions, I marvel at how musicians cope with the crudity of some malicious concert or show producers who treat them with disdain and utter disrespect. Instead of the idols they are supposed to be, they now have to grovel at disgusting characters that have no business with the industry. This is not in any absolving the musicians themselves of blame. Most of them have not packaged themselves in a way that would earn them respect. Many of them believe that being a musician begins and ends with the recording and mastering of songs for an album. They never try to raise themselves or their profiles beyond mediocrity. To many of them, being a recorded musician is a license for impunity. They indulge in drugs and some other wanton life. Instead of maintaining the profiles or images of role models, they reduced themselves to objects of spite and scorn.

Many musicians and labels complain about unsatisfactory experiences in the hands of corporate bodies but the truth is that these bodies are overwhelmed as they have had to shoulder the entire burden of organizing meaningful shows and concerts in the country. From my own assessment they deserve commendation and understanding. My hope is that very soon they would only employ the services of good hands to produce their shows. The very few professionals like Edi Lawani should be empowered to stay on. It is also to the profound credit of the corporate bodies that they are able to balance the duty to return profits to their shareholders and their social responsibility. But for them, it is not only the music industry but the entire entertainment industry would have been dead.

The media is also doing it utmost best, but media houses owners should institutionalize policies that are geared towards raising the level of the Nigerian music. More programmes should be dedicated to African and Nigerian made music. It is truly a disservice to this nation for imported music to populate our airwaves at the expense of made in Nigeria music that can be exported and earn foreign exchange for this country. The Government can also encourage them by offering incentives for media house that have a high made in Nigeria content in the music programming. The media also stands to gain from a rejuvenated music industry in Nigeria. There is hardly any other programme that builds up committed audiences than music. Ghana and South Africa for example have demonstrated the profitability of centering their entertainment on local artists and indigenous products. The musicians are better respected and are reciprocally becoming better and more productive.

For the government, the most singular responsibility is to get the pirates off the industry and make music business profitable. It is unacceptable and truly irresponsible for the Government to abandon the music industry to the elements. Incentives should be given with a view to attracting foreign capital; and scientific and technological know-how in the industry. The industry requires a lot of funding and attention from specialists. It is a highly competitive industry and the cultural colonization by fanciful and youth oriented cultures from the West puts the Nigerian music in a disadvantage position. Like any other made in Nigeria product, the Government would need to subsidize its production by whatever means to enable it compete in the global market. Like the movie industry, the music industry is capable of employing or making busy millions of youths that are roaming the streets. If the Government can invest so much in petroleum that is determinable, there is every sense in it investing in music

and the entertainment industry as a whole. If the government is expending so much energy in foisting made in Nigeria products on Nigerians it makes better reasoning for it to encourage the music industry.

The elites that occupy influential positions in the society and economy also need some orientation that is favourable to the music industry. They should know that the same efforts that they putting in wining public and international appeal for the products and services are equally needed by the music industry. Beyond moralizing, the elites have crucial roles to play in turning around the fortunes of the music industry. If they buy and play made in Nigeria music at home, there is every tendency for their children and wards to listen and identify with it. It is heretical to say that all made in Nigeria music is not good. There are bundle of talents and music in the country that one cannot be ashamed to play and listened to anywhere under the sun.

One message I want to pass to all and sundry is that an award wining musician is a pride to the nation. The day a made in Nigeria music wins a Grammy would be the day the big labels would start forcing their way into the industry. If one imagines what the winning of the gold medal by the Eaglets did to Nigerian football and invariably economy, then one can conjecture about the possibilities that a Grammy can do for Nigeria. The good news is that Nigeria has thousands of Grammy potentials, what is denying them their prizes is the lack of opportunity. That is why I am praying that we all should rise up to the occasion and avail them with the opportunity. Truly, the Nigerian music industry is in desperate need of a leg up.