ECONOMY - How Nigerian Music Did It: Why Nigeria's Economy Needs To Follow The Music Model

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The night MI, one of Nigeria’s foremost rappers, released ‘MI2’ in 2010, he received a cheque for about 12 million naira from the marketers of the album. Similarly, in 2013, Burna Boy received close to 10 million naira for L.I.F.E within a month after its release. These kinds of cheques are not the norm, but indicate the kind of money that accrues to some of our contemporary music acts. But the question remains- how?

Nigerian music has become quite successful, both culturally and economically. But many stakeholders and critics opine that the industry could be more successful. According to Adekunle Ayeni, convener of the Nigerian Entertainment Conference and CEO of Nigerian Entertainment Today, we do not have a music industry; what we have is a make or mar phase. He explains that entertainers do not need handouts from telecommunications companies and the government because they can make a lot of money. However, the absence of a structure to harness this potential shortchanges the industry, putting it at the mercy of benefactors.

In difference with Mr. Ayeni’s school of thought, this industry has not just been a receptacle for the funds of benefactors or hand downs from government. It has been a producer of value, ditto its contribution to Nigeria’s GDP. These benefactors have not invested these funds in branding and ambassadorships simply as a CSR initiative in the name of ‘giving back’ for the sake of rectitude. Rather, money has come into the industry as the result of business decisions made in the interest of profit. Investing in Nigeria’s entertainment makes a good business case. Perhaps, it is best described as social entrepreneurship. But this was not the case a few years ago.

When Audu Maikori, Paul Okeugo and Yahaya Maikori launched Chocolate City in 2003 Nigeria’s music space was just opening up. The economics were understated. Most musicians were popular but not rich. It seemed that they thrived on passion with very little economic success. The tide of music activism, which prioritized music as a tool for social justice over music as an economic endeavor was ebbing. Fela, Abacha and Abiola, icons of the passing time had died and the military government had just stepped aside. The country was in a state of dénouement.

This was the context in which Audu Maikori, with his compatriots, often referred to as the ‘Choc Boys’, decided to relegate his law degree and start a career in the arts, not as a performer, but an entrepreneur trying to build a 360 degree media enterprise to enable artists to build the business aspect of their careers, while giving Nigeria what it needed- a full-fledged music industry. His boss at the time asked him why, with such prospects, at a time when private enterprise had seen the light of day, he would ditch a more apparent path to success for a relatively remote one.

But the Choc Boys saw something. Nollywood was growing- Amaka Igwe’s Checkmate, the most popular soap of the 1990’s had seen tremendous success and was closing shop. Films such as ‘Diamond Ring’ and ‘Out of Bondage’ had generated a huge buzz pushing the actors into stardom. This indicated what was to come.

It’s difficult to put an exact date to what Audu Maikori likens to the oil boom of the mid 50’s in Nigerian music, but the 2004-2006 period saw Nigerian music explode on the African stage. This period saw hits such as “African Queen”, “Tongolo”, and “Na Ba Ka” by Chocolate City’s Jeremiah Gyang among others. It seemed that Nigeria had just woken up to its own sound and Africa would follow suit.

The proliferation of these songs and the culture that follows them is a force that is irresistible. If you disagree, then you are part of an increasing minority that gets a strange look when these songs come on and fail to assume a dance stance even though you never quite understand the meaning of “Shoki”, “Alingo”, “Sekem”, “Skelewu”, “Skelemba”, and the litany of expletives that encapsulate our sound these days.

In spite of its more obvious shortcomings, such as jaded content, the dismal collection and administration of royalties and piracy it is undeniable that Nigerian music has scaled to heights that were only imagined by prominent acts of the former decade.

Though not apparent, certain factors which lie fallow in the Nigerian economy have been responsible for this success. In Outliers: the Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell writes, “Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities.” The success of Nigerian music is not magic. Previously as an artist one only made money from record sales and live shows. Now the revenue channels have expanded. On Audu Maikori’s list are social media and popularity, endorsements, sync licensing and call ring back tones (CRBT), which is relatively novel and one of the biggest sources of revenue these days. Innovation in technology is largely responsible for this phenomenon.

Living in a digital world

“Technology has changed the entire structure,” says Yahaya Maikori, co-founder of Chocolate City “you cannot have selling records as your business model any more, if you do you are bound to fail. Music has become a promotional too; you do the music and get it out there with the intention to build a brand and then make money from related sectors like acting, brand endorsements and ambassadorships.”

Emphasizing the effect of technological innovation, Audu Maikori says “Music is not the end anymore, it’s more or less the means to the end. Previously, when you sold records that was the end. Presently, the strategy is to put the music out, if it catches, you leverage on the popularity to cross sell. So if the people love your music, they will probably love your shoes or patronize the service provider you endorse. Music is no longer property but a service.”

However, on the back of technological innovation is the issue of regulation. Until quite recently, buttressed by the 2014 rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP, where the entertainment sector’s 1.2 percent contribution to the GDP was revealed, the sector was relegated in economic considerations making regulation sparse. After all, one gives regulatory priority to valuable sectors. Fortunately, left to its devices, the entertainment sector took off. Now, just like other sectors affected by tech innovation, the sector benefits and suffers from regulation that is playing catch up with the industry.

The government’s light handedness on the music industry has culminated in a nimble and thrusting industry. Stakeholders enter into interesting contractual relationships with no hounding regulatory presence. This allows for testing practical commercial arrangements and if one doesn’t work, one can remodel at almost no cost. For instance, when Chocolate City saw the challenge of competing in distribution with the Alaba marketers, it relinquished its reproduction and distribution rights for a premium, via a blanket license and relied on Alaba distribution for popularity, which has translated to more shows, endorsements and income from other streams. Unlike the oil and gas sector, these assignments did not require the consent of a Minister or the payment of an application fee.

With this model Chocolate City has harnessed the Alaba Boys’ market penetration, who understand the Nigerian music consumer and have set up a distribution mechanism, which is the best yet at maximizing the commercial benefits of a large population such as Nigeria’s.

“You could produce a song today and it will be all over the place within 24 hours” says Yahaya Maikori.

In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, Harrysong said “I don’t know how they do their thing, but it works for us”. This statement shows a clear resignation to the Alaba distribution mechanism. It makes for bad business to take down such an elaborate and effective structure with the justification that it is illegal, especially when there isn’t a viable alternative. According to Obie Drakes, Director at Amazon Studios, an integrated media company in Lagos, some of these “Alaba boys” even helped with arrangement and mastering of albums.

The downside to this ‘hustle’ is that a viable copyright framework suffers. And for an industry that needs one, our creative institutions remain weak limiting the chances of becoming competitive to the extent of growing into global companies such as Universal or Interscope. As such, the success from the present unregulated and ‘pragmatic’ model when considered in the light of the potential of the industry may be said to be a spoke in the wheel of sustainable success of Nigerian music.

Going global

The talk of sustainable success is often triggered by the conversation on globalisation, crossing cultures and the influx of capital, which are the underlying themes of the ‘Africa Rising’ concept. The crucial question however is how commensurate to the influx of capital is the development of local capacity to sustain the activities that are being invested in? This underscores the relevance of any discussion on foreign investment and its answer determines the real value of such investment to the local economy. But Nigerian music is a step ahead of such discussions because it gets the gist of globalisation.

It has shown that when approaching the world, to benefit wholesomely from the interaction, a country must have more to give than it needs. Otherwise, that country will find itself with the shorter end of the stick. Globalisation can be of great economic benefit but it can also be the poison pill that puts a nation and its culture to death. Hence it is critical that Nigeria gets its approach to globalisation right and takes a cue from Nigerian music.

Consider Nigerian music as a product to be exported. The density of Nigerian songs in the local music space leaves little room for foreign content because local music has saturated our earways to the extent that the only logical place to go is international. This is the preferred approach to global trade. It is the organic approach; satisfy your local market then reach out to satisfy the world. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many of the other sectors. The benefits and prestige of the organic approach is sufficiently illustrated by PSquare.

As far back as 2009, P Square, the very successful singing duo told CNN that they made as much as $ 100,000 per concert in countries outside Nigeria but within Africa. Fast forward to the 2010’s, P Square is filling halls in Moscow and stadiums in Ghana, Rwanda among other countries. In these cities, the promotion of the Nigerian culture is pronounced, as the foreign crowd sings along word by word.

This has also culminated in a new wave of cultural awareness and positive identification by Nigerians with Nigeria locally and in the diaspora. These days, people even speak “Nigerian”, which was not always the case. But there is a resuscitated pride in a Nigerian identity.

In 2014, CNN conducted a worldwide poll on the sexiest accents and the Nigerian accent ranked 6th. Quoting CNN “Dignified, with just a hint of willful naiveté, the deep, rich “oh’s” and “eh’s” of Naija bend the English language without breaking it, arousing tremors in places other languages can’t reach”.

These factors cannot relegate the urgent need to improve our processes and launder the bad aspects of our image as a people- as well as address the defects in the present model, which undermine our potential. However, the conversation on preservation implies that there is something worth preserving. “It’s like the oil boom, what we need to do now is set structures in place that maximize and preserve this success” says Audu Maikori. We must preserve the genius of Nigerian music. 

Talking of preserving genius, Otis Redding, the King of Soul died in 1967 after a very brief but successful stint in music. Till date his catalogue is worth almost 10 million dollars. Can that be said of any late Nigerian musician? As such a point must be made to the revolution that these factors have brought to Nigerian music. They have lowered the threshold for success, giving young people with moderate or no training the opportunity to have a life different from their parents. Should their offspring have to fight out of the same dreary conditions only after a few years out of their active careers? Endorsements have an expiry date, so do the ancillary products that the artists sell. Only the music remains and even though the present business model relegates direct proceeds from the music, the truth is that this is the only lasting revenue stream in this 

The ‘Music Model’

Other sectors of the economy can tap into these factors, even though they must find ways to adapt the factors to suit the nuances of each sector. The scale to which a boom might be experienced in such sectors can only be witnessed, however, it is undeniable that if similar success and dynamism in revenue streams is experienced elsewhere in the Nigerian economy as has been the case in the music industry, we will be singing a very different song.

Consider how counteractive regulatory compliance notoriously stifles the aviation sector; operators are bogged down by complex, repetitive and out of touch regulation, excessive taxation, huge capital requirement and a very high entry threshold. Given Nigeria’s ‘rhetorical’ position in the vanguard of African political economics, healthier airlines servicing the whole of West Africa is the least one could expect.

Perhaps, if government tackled multilayered regulation and devoted resources to monitoring the activities of the airline operators to prevent vice and excessiveness; reduces the duties and taxes to be paid by airline operators and, in turn, the cost of flying, more people will be able to afford travel by air.

The ‘music model’ though not perfect, is perhaps the best suggestion to answer the raging question of how best to revitalize the Nigerian economy, in light of the fallen oil prices. If we wake up to this fact early, with sufficient government oversight, a diverse, lean and thrusting Nigerian economy can emerge. This, is the ideal.

SOURCE - Ventures Africa. By Niyi Immanuel.

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