The 2 Essential Keys To Success In Nigerian Music Industry.

If your dream is to join the Nigerian music industry and make a career there, then read this article, as I will be exposing the 2 essential keys to success in the Nigerian music industry.

If you study and implement these keys, you will be able to achieve notable success in no time in the Nigerian music industry.

Chances are there are lots of opportunities these days that can aid an upcoming artist in becoming very successful in the music industry.

Before we delve into this article properly, let us look at a short overview of the Nigerian music industry.

A short overview of the Nigerian music industry.

There is no denying the fact that the Nigerian music industry has grown tremendously over the years.

I can’t forget in a hurry that in the early 2000s the Nigerian music industry was still very immature. In fact, trying to choose music as a career back then was considered taboo by so many parents.

Personally, I can relate back to my parents urging me to focus on my studies and come out with a degree that will help me secure a better job in a government parastatal.

The reasons they were giving were that musicians are unsuccessful and people are seeing them as touts who do not have a future but drink and smoke all in the name of music.

Back then I couldn’t prove anything to them because the music industry in Nigeria was not yet anything to write home about.

I remember it was Ajegunle artists like African China, Baba Fryo, Daddy Showkey, and the like that were making waves.

But still, the music industry was very limited because they all had one style of music.

But today the case is different because even though AfroBeats is the reigning music in the country, every successful artist is doing it their own way.

And the peak of it all is the unstoppable featuring of foreign artists by Nigerian musicians as well as selling out of shows across the world.

Recently, Davido sold out at the 02 Arena while Burna Boy sold out at the Madison Square Garden.

All these achievements then make it very worthwhile to pursue a career in music in Nigeria.

But before you think about doing so, better read this article to discover the 2 essential keys to success in Nigeria’s music industry.

The 2 essential keys to success in Nigeria’s music industry.

Having seen how sporadic the growth of the Nigerian music industry has been, let us immediately move on to discover the 2 essential keys to success in the Nigerian music industry.

The 2 essential keys to success in Nigeria’s music industry are:

1. Financial ability
2. The technological know-how of the music business.

Now let’s move on to explain these 2 essential keys to success in Nigeria’s music industry.

1. Financial ability.

Financial ability is simply having the money that will help you fund your musical career.

It’s rather so unfortunate that the majority of the upcoming artists in Nigeria are trying to escape spending money when it comes to their music careers.

Some are even thinking there is anything like luck in the Nigerian music industry. That is, there is a way they are going to be spotted by a record label that will develop an interest in their musical talents and skills and sign them.

But dear friend, I want you to forget the cock and bull story that so so and so record label executive found so so and so artist online via a freestyle video and signed him.

It is always a cook-up story that is meant to motivate another upcoming artist not to give up because they can jam their luck anytime soon.

I wish you know and understand that all the artist you see becoming top shots spent so much money before they could get to where you see them today.

So my advice is always for upcoming artists to hustle and make money first before they try to get into the Nigerian music industry.

Now let’s briefly see some of the ways you can raise money to fund your music career.

How to raise money to fund your musical career.

Below are some of the ways you can raise money to fund your musical career:

1. Get a paid job or daily hustle.
2. Find a sponsor.
3. Reach out to family members and friends.

1. Get a paid job or daily hustle.

Depending on whether you are out of school with a degree, you can target how to settle for a paid job or if not find a daily hustle that will help you to make money.

From the daily hustle, you can even raise some money to establish a little business that will generate much more income to help you invest in your music business.

Some of the daily hustle can be opening a car wash or laundry on a budget. Whatever hustle you know will help fetch you money, and above all is legit; just get on with it.

2. Find a sponsor.

There are wealthy people who are in love with music and will not lose any chance to sponsor an upcoming artist.

The only problem is how to go searching and find them.

The easiest way is to create musical content and post it regularly with a caption that calls out for sponsorship.

This way you can easily find a sponsor for your music career.

3. Reach out to family members and friends.

These are your own flesh and blood, and those whom you share one thing or another with.

One of the tricks you can use to get funds from them is to arrange for a low-key launching of your demo tape, EP, or single.

All you have to do is to get a venue, fix a date, print envelopes and share, and on that d-day put up a little performance that will move them to tender their financial support.

2. Technological know-how of the music business.

If you have the financial ability but lack the technological know-how of how to use that money to achieve success in the music industry; you will never be able to make it as an artist in Nigeria’s music industry.

Technological know-how is simply learning about the guidelines on the things you need to do in order to become successful in the music industry.

You need to learn about the following very important aspects.

1. How to compose your songs.
2. Quality music production.
3. Music promotion.

Now let’s briefly look at the explanations for the above points.

1. How to compose your songs.

Making good music begins right from the composition itself. And for that reason, you must know how to compose the kind of music that is going to attract the right listeners.

You can learn how to write AfroBeats if you really want to make the kind of music that is currently trending in Nigeria.

You can however skip this aspect if you are financially buoyant and opt for buying a song instead.

There are professional music composers who have sold songs to popular artists and help them to blow. Look out for these kinds and buy the song that will turn into a hit and help you blow up fast into the Nigerian music industry.

2. Quality music production.

The only way you can get quality music production is to get a popular music producer to produce your songs.

This is someone who has produced songs that have become hits in the country. And for that reason, he has all the experience as well as knows what music consumers in Nigeria are looking for.

Though this is going to be very expensive, it is the one surefire way you can become successful in the music industry.

3. Music promotion.

After making that music that has a selling point, the next challenge is going to be how to get people to engage with that music. And that is where music promotion comes in.

Guidelines on music promotion are endless as there are various ways you can achieve this. But the current means of getting effective music promotion is online.

This will involve uploading your songs to music blogs, and creating snippets that will help you create awareness for your music, especially on YouTube and Instagram.

This way you will definitely get big as an artist in Nigeria’s music industry.

Good luck!