I remember back in the days before the advent of the internet in Nigeria it used to be radio cassettes and diskettes. They used to be the main and probably medium of storage for music. It was the ‘in thing’ at that point in time. I remember the pride artistes used to feel to have their songs on tape. I had a large library of cassettes as it was a thing of pride for me amidst my friend as I was perceived as the most musically inclined and I always wanted to keep the standard. From Eedris Abdulkareem’s album, Tony Tetuila, Dele Taiwo, Sir Shina Peters, King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Maintain, a couple Fuji and the then famous Apala Music, it was indeed a large library as I often stole a couple from my dad’s car too.
Gradually, we moved from the days of cassettes to Compact Disk otherwise known as CD. I remember clearly it was a luxury at some point. I remember walking into the first CD store to cop Craig David’s album for a couple thousands. I felt so proud of myself. It was indeed a big deal to own a couple of them back in the days.
Sooner than we thought, all thanks to privacy, the prices dropped. The introduction of CDs made music distribution, promotion and storage faster and easier as many tracks could be stored on a single plate and the mobility of these plates is high. They instantly became the best and most reliable medium of music ‘transportation’ as Djs, O.A.Ps and presenters found them better and more durable than cassettes and diskettes.
Now we have the internet.
This is currently the fastest, cheapest and most reliable medium of information. At advent, the internet was for the elite and the very privileged. At a point in time, it was very luxurious.
Having moved past the days of cassettes, CDs when talking music promotions and circulation, the internet has become the ‘in thing’. We are now in an era when the whole world is online. A chunk of the information that moves around these days can be sourced to the online media. Now this brings us to the issue of online promotion and music circulation.
I remember back in the days when Djs used to be the messiahs. This sentence doesn’t reduce the value that Djs have or what they mean o music promotions, but it only means that there was a time that music promotion was solely or majorly by Djs, but now things are changing all thanks to the internet.
I write to stress the need for online promotion and online relevance which are two different things without neglecting other forms of music promotions such as Alaba Mixes, Radio, Print, and other media.
Before I go on I want to ask a couple questions. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU BOUGHT A MUSIC MIX? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU STEPPED UP TO A VENDOR TO PURCHASE A NEWSPAPER? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU TUNED ON YOUR RADIO FOR 3 DAYS IN A ROW? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE ONLINE?
These questions have answers which vary in frequencies. From a general point of view, 6 of 10 average youths are on the internet for as long as they are awake. It can be said that the last time you were online is this moment while you read this epistle, this goes to give you an insight into the importance of the internet to information circulation.
Although the impact of other media cannot be neglected, but truth be told, the world now lives online. To further buttress my point, most of the smart phones and tabs come without a radio.
For music promotion and circulation, the use of the internet goes beyond having your song on a couple websites or even having it on all websites and blogs. It is indeed deeper than the obvious. There is a term ONLINE RELEVANCE only experts can guaranty.
There are many artistes today whose roots can be traced to the internet. They got or sustain their relevance in the music scene via the internet.
Online promotions is deep, and sadly we have an over-crowded music scene without a regulatory body which hereby allows maximum number of new music every day, so what makes people download or want to download your song from the lot is the difference you put into yours.
It must also be understood that every website or blog has its audience and none should ever be overlooked. While some serve in the purpose of reasonable number of downloads, others work in the area of fame.
It takes a very good PR to understand what suites a song and when. Several things can be achieved with a proper and adequate online music promotion such as record deals, radio airplay, relevance in the music scene and many more.
It goes beyond sending your song to a long list of websites. It’s highly technical. It must be appealing. With the new restriction to download by service providers, you need to give the audience a good reason to download your song because only when the song is downloaded will people find it appealing, so the first task is getting the audience to download.