Music Promotion In Nigeria, The Harsh Reality in 2023
This might come as a shocker but I hate seeing people waste money so I want to make you understand why blogs are unreliable for music promotion in Nigeria.
80% of the time I record an upcoming Musician, this question always pops up. ” Do you have connection to any top blog where I can promote this track to make everyone listen to my banger “. And my answer always almost remains the same.. ” Currently.. You don’t need blogs to promote your music, else you’ll end up wasting money believing you’re investing in your career “
Now that might sound a bit too extreme but believe me, it’s the painful truth. Anyways.. I’m gonna explain how you can still use blogs to promote your music in a different blog post.
Look fam.. Gone are the days when all you needed to ” be heard ” was radio, tv, Alaba mix, blogs etc. The process has changed vigorously and you almost no longer need half of the above to ” be heard “. So what then do you have to do to ” be heard? “
In reality.. Currently.. You just need one thing.. ” the internet “. And that doesn’t include ” blogs ” in the normal way you use them to just upload tracks and hope for thousands of downloads and possibly ” fame “. Because blogs don’t get the job done! I know a lot of entertainment bloggers will haunt me for this write up. But hey! Someone has got to educate upcoming acts about the new trend or rather, ” the working trend “.
So Why Blogs Are Unreliable For Music Promotion In Nigeria?
Check out this scenario.. When a music lover visits an entertainment blog, they visit the blog to get the latest release / track from their favorite singer / rapper. They don’t visit the blog to download the track of an artist they ain’t heard of before. So 90% of the time they skip the unknowns and move to the known like ” wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage etc. I’m guilty of this and so are the rest of us! Because we as Nigerians are ” data conscious “.
We can’t spill our 5mb for some singer we don’t know all for the sake of ” music ” or ” supporting good music “. As a matter of fact, the only time I download tracks of an unknown is if he / she probably sent me a Broadcast message ( BC ) or I happen to know the musician on the track. Uhm.. We all do this. Don’t we? Cool.
I know a lot of good singers / rappers who upload tracks on a regular on top blogs but till now they haven’t made any proper wave! I’m sure you know some of them too.
If you get my drive then you’ll come to understand that uploading tracks on blogs only does one thing… ” DISTRIBUTION “. That’s all!! Nothing else.
Distributing Tracks Without Blogs.
Now that you know why blogs are unreliable for music promotion in Nigeria, I’m sure you want to know how you can distribute your new banger without blogs. In truth, Nothing is new here because I’m sure you probably know all these platforms. I just gotta put them back in your head so you can save some valuable money!
- Making Use Of Music Sharing Platforms : This might sound a bit too basic but it’s the best way to ” be heard “. Why? That’s because people who are hungry for good music are cliche on platforms like this, so you’re likely to be heard 10x a lot more times than you would be on a regular entertainment blog. Just so you know, all Nigerian A-list musicians make use of these platforms. Another killer reason is.. It’s 100% free to have your tracks uploaded on these platforms. Just sign up and upload! Then share to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. they get your download link and download! That’s all! No stress. Popular Music Sharing Platforms are, Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Hulkshare, Soundclick, etc.
- Making Use Of File Sharing Platforms : This one gets the distribution done, but with a lot more work on your end because they aren’t traditional music sharing websites. So you have to share your download link manually on social media platforms. In other words. If you don’t share, you won’t get downloads. Uhm.. A lot of bloggers with free blogs out there use this file sharing platforms to upload your tracks and then link it to their website with the ” download ” anchor text. Fooling you into thinking that your downloaders will download from their website directly. ( You can share your music videos with this method too ) So. Harness these free file sharing platforms and distribute good music today! Datafilehost, 4Shared, Dropbox, etc.
- Making Use Of YouTube ( For Music Videos ) : Just like you know, YouTube is free and is the goto website for video sharing / uploads. If you got a really cool music video, I strongly advice you upload the music video on YouTube. Then in the video description, you include a download link to the file sharing website where you uploaded the video file to. So your viewers who are data conscious can get a direct download link without having to stream the video online. Another popular video sharing platform is ” Vimeo “
If you harness those platforms well for your music promotion in Nigeria. Believe me you’ll never need to run to an entertainment blogger for music upload again in your life! Except you need something like a press release of your new track, album, etc. ( I’ll cover these when I wanna talk about music promotion in Nigeria in a new blog post ) But at least.. Now you know why blogs are unreliable for music promotion in Nigeria.
If you got any question to ask leave me a comment. And I’ll respond ASAP. Thanks for reading!
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Great perspective Sonar, but we have to agree that monetizing on blogs may not actually be the main reason artistes use the medium. At best, they gain a lot of impressions. The next time you see that name you halt in your tracks! You’ve seen it somewhere before and you begin to pay attention.
Very soon, you’re actually checking them out! I’ve had that experience with Oxlade lately and dude is not bad at all. And I just came across Khaye when I was browsing your site.
So you have a unique perspective, but I have an equally unique experience when I’m looking for new music online. Keep up the great work!
I get where you’re coming from, on the internet and brand growth “footprint” side of things. But from an “expectancy” point of view. Artistes almost never get what they pay for when dealing with blogs these days.