Nigeria Gospel Music: Past, Present, and Future By Kayode Olusoji
Hello friends, I am honored to be
a part of this twitter conference #Audacity2Lead. The major plus to
a nation, an organization, a society or a home is the presence of good and
great leaders. When great leaders are absent in a society, then crisis,
corruption, and backwardness is imminent and inevitable. Show me a nation with
great leaders and I will show you a nation that has the potential to thrive
well.
My strong believe is that,
leaders are not naturally born, they are made. You and I can be leaders in our
own domain and make positive changes as much as we can, for a better society
and a brighter future. I therefore salute the courage of the organizers of this
twitter conference #Audacity2Lead
Music in Nigeria
Let us narrow it down to music in
Nigeria, which is the area I am supposed to speak on. Music is a very powerful
tool that can be used to shape our nation and address the ills of the society.
We can use music to curb corruption, promote love and peaceful coexistence and
it can also be used to teach morals in our society. As musicians, our musical
talent is a powerful gift from God which can bring outstanding results, if it
is well utilized.
I am a Performing Artist, a Song
Writer and a Music Business Consultant. I am also a Christian. I sing songs
that glorify God, edify souls and transform lives. I am an advocate of edifying
music. Our talents are special gifts from God and He will call us to give an
account one day, just like that Master told those three servants to come and
give accounts of their stewardship about how well they used their talents. It
is pathetic that one of the servants hid his talent and got an unpleasant
reward.
Today, I am sure that many are
not maximizing their musical potentials just like that unprofitable servant,
while some are busy using their talent wrongly by engaging in music that is
causing more havoc to the society. Even though, the challenges are numerous,
but there is a great prospect that we will soon overcome these challenges.
Nigeria Gospel Music is
improving but…
Gospel music in Nigeria today is
growing at a fast pace compared to the past. Presently, we have many Christian
TV stations; many great Music Producers, many highly talented Video Directors
and the quality of productions of both audios and videos have improved over the
years. Artists are getting more creative day in day out and there are
several platforms been created by people for artists to express themselves. We
have some good internet radio stations and we have many Christian bloggers.
However, we still have a long way
to go if the future of Nigeria Gospel Music will be brighter. This is one of
the reasons in Woodclef, we developed some innovative ideas and services that
will better enlighten music professionals, particularly those in the Gospel
Music Industry. We are rolling out these ideas and innovations one after the
other. One of our innovative ideas is the Music Business Intelligence (#MBI).
…Are we taking advantage of
the Music Business opportunities?
We need to understand the trend
in Music Business and we therefore need some level of education in that line.
For instance, today, we don’t have many well structured Record Labels for
gospel music today. We are not taking good advantage of the music business
opportunities in our environment. We have various gospel artists out there with
individual efforts and who have good skills but talents is not enough. We need
good Record Labels to manage these talents and these are areas where the church
and Christians who are buoyant enough can think of investing in these talents
so that they will not stray away. It is very clear that we are not taking
advantage of the music business opportunities in our environment.
How many of us in the music
business can write a good Music Business Plan, good Promotional Plan, or
Marketing Plan . Many of the artists don’t have good Talent managers and the
big question is how many well trained or good Talent Managers are out there? Truly
we have great talents and we are just growing in numbers on daily basis but we
don’t know how to turn our passion into profits. For instance, do we
readily get good sponsors for our gospel events? Do we have adequate Concert
Promoters in the system? How many Gospel Artists are Brand Ambassadors of Blue
Chips Companies?
We can collectively look
for a way out and take over the air waves. I am sure a quite number of us are
tired of this unwholesome music that has flooded our air waves today. Can Christians
try and key in into every aspect of music business and make it work well?
Sound Engineering and Music
Training
Today in many churches, we build
structures without considering the input of professional Sound Engineers. In
like manner, many churches don’t have residents professional Sound Engineers.
There is no formal music training for the choir members and many don’t even
appreciate the importance of training their musical workforce for such an
essential task. If gospel music is going to improve in the future, we need to
curiously look into all these aspects.
Music Distribution Channels
We also have the challenge of
distribution channels for our music. Even if the price of musical CDs in
Nigeria is not commensurate to the level of investment that goes into the music
like we have in some advanced countries, what can we do to at least proffer
some solutions to the distribution challenges? Actually, globally now,
online sales is leading the trend with ITunes in the fore front. We thank God
that recently; PayPal lifted the ban on their operations in Nigeria. I believe
that will bring a great succor to artists in Nigeria, because the challenge of
online distribution of our music will be solved to an appreciable extent.
However, more awareness still needs to be created in Nigeria about online
purchase of music.
Have we realized that putting our
music on online stores is not enough? We need to draw the attention of our fans
to the stores via good promotion both online and offline. Social Media, Print
Media and Electronic Media will be very useful in this regards.
If the future of Nigeria Gospel
Music will be brighter than the past or the present, then Christian
and churches need to invest more in music and business of music. Thank you.
Kayode Olusoji
A Performing Artist & Music
Business Consultant