Nigerian Music Industry: lessons from America to our raising superstars in Nigeria

The Nigerian Music Industry has witness a huge success stories, artistes in the Nigerian music industry are no longer just artist but are all brands names, From musicians like D-Banj, Wiz-Kids, Tuface, Psquare, Davido, Patoranking, wande Coal, sasha p, waje, timaya, flavor, banky w, and a lot more, these artist are not just names but global brands names because these names are associated with consumer products over the country and overseas.

These artists have gone from selling multimillion albums to global endorsement and brand ambassadors of products all over the world. The Nigeria music industry is certainly the envy of many African countries in African and even some western countries.

Now the question is: are all these artists are smiling to the bank and raking in Cash from all over the world, learning from their counter-parts from the United States of America?!

We all have heard about how American super stars go broke and declare bankrupt after a shot success story, some of these American artist go broke and go into hiding after a huge career success, the question we should ask is why are all these talent and success stories always almost certain to go broke after raking in huge cash from their success! Why are all these young and talented stories end up with the same way, always going broke?

The answer is not farfetched, these artist and so called super stars blow away their riches on fast life, such as drugs, women, fast cars, luxurious lifestyle that they cannot sustain and a lot of extravagant lifestyle of a billionaire when they are only making millions. They spend too much more than they make, these artist party- hard and sometimes they life in and out of hotels in fancy cities around the world.

Some of these American artists buys multimillion dollar houses and they will not even spent a night in these houses because they are busy partying and flexing with women all over the US and in European fancy cities.

Now I am not trying to compare our Nigerian Musicians or Nollywood artist with their American counterparts but the truth is that, there are some imitations, some traces of such life style are being noticed by Nigerians, but the question here is that, can Nigerian artists afford to make such huge mistakes? Knowing fully well that most of these musicians and artists are from poor background like you and I! Can they afford to blow all the money they have been struggling to make over the years in some made believe fallacy that they will always be famous? 

In any music industry or entertainment all over the world, it is a very competitive industry that musicians can be famous today and tomorrow nobody will play or mention their names, regardless of how successful an artist maybe today, tomorrow, he or she may become irrelevant and nobody will care about their career.

There is so much talent in Nigeria today that any wise young man or woman should plan for the future as soon as he or she gets famous and start raking in the cash.

Now here is the a million dollar question a lot of people are waiting to ask; are these successful artist in Nigeria planning for the rainy days?  Are these young artists investing their monies now that their careers are in demand? Preparing them for when the entertainment industry are no longer needed? Because the truth is that nobody no matter how talented stays on top forever, a young and more talented guy will come and knock you out of the game and if you are not prepared, you may regret your actions of not investing forever, somebody somewhere is working hard and preparing for that opportunity to come his way so as to take you out of the game, some will say it’s a negative perspective, but that is the bitter truth, it’s just a matter of when.  Some young dude out there will come up and nobody will remember the dude that is getting all the airplays now and raking in all the huge cash from numerous endorsements now, and all the shows and appearances will stop coming your way and if you are the type that has not invested your money when you were still in the game, you may end up broke and start begging for shows.

My advice to the artist who is on top today is to start investing in lucrative businesses now, it may be in real estates or in stocks, try and start investing your monies now before its too late, do not be like those dudes who once upon a time were on top and now, there are no longer in relevance in terms of cash and in music as well.

There are stories of Nigerian Musicians that once had a hit and after a short success, these dudes travel abroad to wanna establish their base overseas forgetting that, their primary market is in Africa, they forgot to ask themselves the question about how many Oyinbos will go out of their ways to Buy a Nigeria song in Broken English! Perhaps with exceptions of a few, the major markets are in Africa here. My advice to these set of players in the game is to stay back home and make your money here, spend it here on investments and remain relevant in the entertainment industry. Do not make the mistake of relocating to the US, Europe or anywhere else because the truth is that no oyinbo will buy a record made out of Nigeria Pidgin English, Don’t get me wrong people, they may enjoy the Nigeria Afro-pop in their night club but it will be one in a million that will actually go and buy it and listen to it in their car or home.

Please invest your income here at home, invest now that you are still very relevant in the game, because nobody stays at the top forever, forget about drugs and fast cars, women and the rest, invest now so you will not lack tomorrow, there are so many ways to be cool in the game other than buying fast cars and having twenty babes across all the major cities in Nigeria. All these things cost money and my advice is to invest in more lucrative business. Always spend less and save more for the rainy days will surely come.

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