#DearArtiste™

1. CREATE A GAME PLAN: It is important that you as an artiste, know what you want to achieve and what your plans are, to achieve that goal. Make sure you write down your goals.

2. KEEP YOUR PLAN IN A JOURNAL: Create a system for keeping your thoughts organized. What is important is the paper trail of ideas.

For a while now, I have labored over this subject of paying for airplay otherwise known as payola, but I had to take a hard critical look at it from all angles before deciding to write about it.
The Nigerian music industry is growing and there is increased competition for audience and radio airplay. It’s a survival of the fittest, dog eat dog situation here, such that, artistes are forced to bribe or tip their way into getting regular radio airplay.

Many talented emerging artistes are confused by the issue of an image and don't have a sense of their own style. So, they either copy things from other people, or are just bland. Few artistes actually have a true, distinct style. In today's entertainment environment, the first impression is as important as ever. However, style is only one aspect of an artist's first impression.

Every day there are thousands of young people jumping head first into the music industry with high levels of enthusiasm but very little experience. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these wanna-be artistes do not end up with a career in music because they either do not know how the music industry works or do not know how to use the information they learn to quickly advance their music career.

In order to build and sustain a career in music it is important to seek out the training of a mentor who has already achieved a high level of success in the music industry. By finding someone who has already accomplished what you want to achieve in music (and is willing to guide you along), you will drastically increase your chances for success.

Before you sign a record deal and commit the next few years or next few albums to a record label there are a few things you need to know. Actually, categories of record labels you need to watch out for.

They are: The jugglers and the gamblers. unfortunately, a large number of record labels in the country fall into one of the two categories.

I had a conversation with a colleague in the industry at an event last night and he said something quite striking. He said: "there's a reason this enterprise is called show business. It's a SHOW, but it's also a BUSINESS". He then went ahead to say that a lot of artistes concentrate on the show, rather than the business.

Ignorant, mis-informed artistes are a menace to themselves.

Everywhere in the Nigerian Music Industry, there have been countless stories of artistes who were ripped off by their record labels and management companies. Why? Exploitation is the name of the game.

Dear esteemed artistes, it is no doubt very evident that you are much loved and appreciated by the management and staff of #DearArtiste ™ Management and PR and also the team members at www.dearartiste.com

Working with you all has been an amazing and fulfilling experience and we look forward to doing really great things this new year and beyond.

As usual, we are greatly committed to helping you attain your full potential as an artiste and also creating a platform where your materials can be accessed via our online music portal.

Because we believe in professionalism and we are committed to doing our best to instill that same degree of professionalism in you an emerging artiste, we have put together the basic standard list that all music entries must attain in order to be uploaded on our playlist.

As said in one of our previous articles:  "As an upcoming artiste, the ability to promote and push yourself to get heard is the most important skill you can have. If you don't have money to hire PR people to run media campaigns

1. DON'T GET CAUGHT SPEEDING: Listen to the advice already given above. Focusing first on who you need to become is more important to your long term success than focusing on What actions you should take'. Don't get caught speeding through step 1 in order to get to step 2 faster. Who you will become will dramatically influence the results you receive when you are busy doing things in the future.