The New Face Of Music Distribution In Nigeria

The music industry in Nigeria has no doubt come a long. But a lot still needs to be done before we can finally say a structure has been put in place. Until our artistes start earning royalties accordingly from their album sales and the laws of music publishing are rightfully enforced, we will continue to have a music market like we have now and the dream of a well structured industry will continue to elude us.
What exactly is he ranting about this time around you might ask? In your own verdict, you may believe that our artistes are doing very well probably because a handful of them are building or buying houses, driving exotic cars and enjoying other good things of life. But in case you don’t know, they are at the mercy of the corporate bodies and other promoters. They are not maximizing their potentials and invariably not making the right amount of money they ought to from their profession as artistes. When four of the most successful musicians in Nigeria pool resources they might not be able to withstand a Jay-Z or 50 Cent in terms of wealth or material acquisition. This is the genesis of my ranting and the underlying will make you see reasons.
I went out last week to purchase some music albums. I checked through my music library and I realized that most of the people that borrowed the albums from my library hadn’t returned them. I got all the albums that I intended to buy including Plantashun Boiz’s debut album. To my amazement, most of the albums were recently printed because they looked so mint fresh. From Faze’s debut album, P-Square’s Busy Body, D’Banj, Jazzman Olofin and many others who had released their albums a couple of years ago, most of the jackets were still looking very fresh. After buying the albums, I wondered for long if any of the artistes of the over 50 albums I bought will have their fair share of the money I had just spent. Let us even assume that some had sold all the rights to the cabals in Alaba International Market, what about the ones that were properly signed unto a record label as at the time the album was released and the label was the sole marketer of the album? This is gross injustice, I reasoned. These artistes are entitled to a percentage on every CD sold but it is very unfortunate that most of the artistes do not even know their rights.
There is the need to create a scientific entertainment distribution template towards giving a structure to the music industry in Nigeria . Some of the objectives should be to reduce the scourge of piracy to the barest minimum, maximize unit sales of entertainment products, enthrone the tradition of royalties as a norm in the industry, to ease customer purchase process through the use of technology and reduce the current chain in the distribution network, thereby increasing returns on investment to the stakeholders.
I’m fully in support of the rally that was staged in Lagos on September 1st, 2009 against piracy. It attracted the attention of ailing President Umaru Ya’adua and he wrote a letter to Alaba Market warning them to desist from piracy or else face the full wrath of the government but it is quite unfortunate that that was the end of the threat or so it seems. Few months after the rally, the widely acclaimed king of pirates in Alaba International Market, was arrested. He was caught with thousands of pirated copies of various Nigerian artistes. He was arraigned at Federal High Court in Ikoyi on February 1st, 2010. The hearing is expected to be on February 18th and 23rd. Until then, he has been remanded in police custody.
The business of music has three components: production, marketing and distribution. Each of these components is susceptible to technological changes that threaten to destabilize the established mechanisms of the music industry. It is difficult to have a discussion about music distribution without discussing music marketing because the distribution parameters are dependent (in part, at least) upon the success of the marketing plan. Furthermore, these dual aspects of the music business are becoming increasingly intertwined where both can occur in the same place and at the same time.
Distributors get records into retail stores, and record labels get customers into retail stores through promotion and marketing tactics. An artiste must make sure that there is a market for his style of music and prove it to distributors by showing them how many records he had sold through live sales (performance in shows and concerts), internet sales, and any other alternative methods.
Distributors will only be as good as your marketing plans to sell the record. No artiste should expect the entire work to be done on his behalf, remember all that the distribution firm does, is to get records into the stores. An artiste or the label must work on the product relentlessly on as many fronts as possible with commercial and non commercial airplay, internet airplay and sales campaigns, on and offline publicity ideas and touring…eternally touring; everything necessary to create the much needed demand.
The label/artiste must keep the distributor updated on any and all promotion and marketing plans and results, as they develop. Trying to work with distributors without a realistic budget to participate in promotional opportunities would be a big mistake.
You must make sure that your distributor has the ability to help you setup various retail promotions such as: coop advertising (where you must be prepared to pay the costs of media ads for select retailers), in-store artist appearances, in-store listening station programs, and furnishing POP’s (point of purchase posters and other graphics).
I want to believe that it is clear up to this level. Most of us can now understand the difference between marketing and distribution. I hear many artistes every day including the established ones saying they are still looking for a marketer. In my humble judgment, you or your record label should be the marketer of your album because the much market you are able to create for your product will determine the success of the distribution. We are getting so many things wrong. Alaba market should not be the alpha and omega i.e the major determinant of what happens in the distribution market. These guys are mere wholesalers and retailers (and vendors if you like) but the industry has decided to turn them into demi-gods. All that most artistes think about now is how to give their albums out completely to one Alaba so called marketer who in return gives them a paltry amount of money in exchange for their intellectual properties which in the actual sense should put food on their table forever. They even praise them now. “We go to Alaba and make some money”. This much Weird MC reiterated in the lyrics of one of the verses on her song; Riranwo.
Granted, we can’t completely rule out Alaba for we still need to thank these guys for their assistance in getting out the albums on the street, but it is time to move on to the next level. T-Joe and Happy Boiz Entertainment were quick to understand the need for proper distribution networks but they still haven’t gotten the entire concept correctly. It’s still the same old style. The only company that has gotten it right for now is Soforte. Without sentiments, these guys deserve to be applauded. We need more of the likes of Soforte in the Nigerian music industry now.
Soforte is the first automated entertainment distribution company registered under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So far, they have created the largest distribution network comprising of both locations and supply chain distribution with outlets in over 60 key locations nationwide and well over 800 Wholesalers and Retailers spread across several business districts all across the country.
They have formed several strategic alliances with key organizations in Nigeria , amongst which are TNT/IAS Courier Company (TNT) and Maevva Solutions. TNT handles the entire back-end logistics service for Soforte; ensuring products are delivered to all distribution outlets nationwide
Another first in the music and movie industry from the stable of SoForte is the provision of holograms for CDs. This security code helps to further protect the product from piracy and also helps to distinguish between original and pirated works, thereby making for easy prosecution of offenders.
Finally, they have also pioneered the use of barcodes for music works in Nigeria . This barcode is recognized in any store or mall worldwide and more importantly by Nielson Soundscan, the largest marketing and media information company in the world. The barcode is product specific and it’s used to trace sales anywhere in the world through a barcode scanner. Nigeria ’s music industry is growing so fast that our products are beginning to sell in millions of copies outside the shores of this country and it is very important, for the sake of the IP owners and stakeholders and investors to be able to capture sales no matter where it is effected in the world.
Soforte Entertainment Distribution presently works with the following licensed Artists; Lara George and 9ice while they are in talks with other acts. It is now clear that we need another Soforte like figure in the industry without necessarily destroying Alaba. They can continue to be organized and licensed wholesalers or retailers while the activities of the market are greatly monitored. Whether the leader of Nigeria Copyright Commision- Adewopo should be sacked or retained is another story for another day. Does NCC even exist for the purpose of its creation? There is a serious vacuum in that office and it appears they have misguided priorities.
More importantly, our artistes and some record labels need to be tutored about marketing of their albums online. They should ask 9ice how much he has made on the internet from his new album. So far, he has raked in more than a million naira. There is a huge market online and yet they can’t see it. It is not actually something I can discuss in detail with very few lines on my page. I will advise they see the professionals. There are so many sites online you can sell your songs.
Leave comments at seunapara1.blogspot.com.