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Nigerian Artists Need to Better Understand The Music Business
On Wednesday evening last week, fast-rising popstar Fido ignited an acerbic conversation when he posted a series of slapdash tweets undermining the role of music marketing executives. One of the tweets reads “Marketing company go make you feel like na them Dey help your life, whereas na you Dey make money for them, dem go […]
On Wednesday evening last week, fast-rising popstar Fido ignited an acerbic conversation when he posted a series of slapdash tweets undermining the role of music marketing executives. One of the tweets reads “Marketing company go make you feel like na them Dey help your life, whereas na you Dey make money for them, dem go still make you feel like say without them you no go fit make am. My brothers and sisters open your eyes and be wise, the day you show to them that you know what you’re doing they turn your enemies and they paint you bad out there. #shineyoureyes.” Disregarding a maelstrom of critiques—from both marketing executives and casual music fans appalled by his caprice—he doubled down with another tweet claiming no one discovered him and that “Na me discover myself.” If the optics of the situation—an artist on the rise, possibly high off his first brush with fame, undermining the efforts of an entire industry of professionals—weren’t so jarring, the situation would be hilarious.
By Thursday morning, the conversation had further intensified, with industry experts and artists jockeying over the validity of Fido’s position. Mxjib of NSG joined the fray, tweeting “Marketing teams are starting to claim artist music success? Complete madness.” Soon after, Caleb Oyolola, the marketing executive stewarding over Fido’s efforts and the main target of Fido’s diatribe, came forward with tweets explaining his side of the story. He denied any wrongdoing, posting screenshots proving his discovery of the artist as well as evidence of profit splits. Meanwhile, Shallipopi, who recently publicly fell out with his former management—Dapper Music—posted a cryptic tweet that possibly chimes in on the conversation. “They nor love u bro at all. facts!” He wrote.
Following Oloyola’s tweets, and mounting criticism from virtually every corner, Fido started to gradually capitulate on his original position, adjusting his stance from being opposed to marketing executives as a whole to being cross with his former marketing team in particular. He has claimed that Oloyola’s marketing company, Inner Circle Entertainment, collects 70 percent of his earnings—from music revenue to booking fees from shows. He has also accused Oloyola of deliberately holding important accounting information from him.
Outside of the huge conversation they have sparked over the past few days, Fido’s diatribes are especially concerning when one considers that they arrived in the wake of other high-profile splits between artists and their management. Shallipopi, Seyi Vibez, Muyeez, and a bevy of other artists recently parted ways with Dapper, accusing him of unscrupulous business practices. More notably, Asake recently enacted a sweeping severance with his former management, ending his professional relationship with everyone from his former label boss Olamide to his former associate, Tunde Phoenix. While Asake has been quiet about his reasons for ending his professional relationships with them, Tunde Phoenix has enacted a fierce smear campaign against the artist, leveling accusations of homophobia, misogyny, and bad work ethics against Asake.
This conversation is multi-layered but it suggests a schism in the working relationship between Nigerian artists and their management. Perhaps owing to ignorance or the informal relationship between artists and their management in these parts, these artists generally seem gleefully unaware of the immense role these backroom staff—management, marketing, and distribution professionals—play in their careers. Music marketing is a difficult undertaking in every part of the world. The rise of streaming platforms and social media platforms like TikTok and Twitch has rendered age-old strategies obsolete, completely rewriting the rules of the game in a few years. But it’s especially difficult in the Nigerian music market. It’s so difficult that foreign labels, with the trove of capital, experience, and world-class professionals they have in their arsenal, struggle to gain traction in the country without partnering with local experts. This is because the Nigerian music industry is only an industry in the figurative sense. In reality, it’s so disorganized and convoluted that the only way to navigate processes within it is by leveraging personal relationships.
In an interview with With an S, Chocolate City CEO, Abuchi Peter Ugwu, explains with incisive clarity that the average Nigerian artist goes through three stages in their relationship with their management. The first stage finds them deferential, almost servile. This is the period where artists spin effusive paeans to their management, openly thanking them for discovering and investing in them. They also tend to accept whatever deals or directions foisted on them without complaints. In the second stage, the relationship with their management starts to fray, artists start to pick unnecessary battles with their management—perhaps to assert themselves or as a show of dissatisfaction with their current deal. In the third stage, according to Ugwu, the relationship between both parties unravels completely.
The lesson to be gleaned from Ugwu’s illustration is that artists must be more thoughtful when signing deals in the early stages of their careers. It’s easy to be swayed by a juicy advance or promises of a quick route to success, but artists need to carefully consider their options, run them by trusted professionals or well-informed people in their corner, before agreeing to deals. Backroom professionals—label executives, marketing and distribution partners, and managers—also need to understand the shortsightedness of trying to trap artists in predatory deals. In the long term, those deals tend to hurt all parties involved. Fido’s tirade on Wednesday evening discredited the role of marketing experts. But after a salvo of critiques against his uninformed take, he changed his tenor. If there’s any takeaway from this, it’s that the average Nigerian artist is disconnected from the immense background work that goes into keeping the machine of stardom churning.
