Good Leadership
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
@Woodclef
+2348080725479
+2348080725479; +2348071111923+2348071111923
+2348080725479; +2348071111923+2348071111923
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