April 2018

The Spark | Ignite/Connect/Achieve www.thesparkng.com www.thesparkng.com The Spark | Ignite/Connect/Achieve
Building A Solid
Music Career
Godwin Tom is the founder of Godwin Tom Company and iManage Africa,
a talent management and events company. In this interview, Godwin
shares a career roadmap every game player in the industry can follow.
- By Godwin Tom
“
When I started in the industry as a
manager in 2008, I would have
achieved more in less time if I
had people telling me about their
challenges and mistakes.
“
1. Prepare For the Industry Through Learning
The first thing to do is learn. Learn about the business and the
industry. Understand the peculiarity of the Nigerian and African
market and then the global market. Then practice. You will make
mistakes. That is inevitable but make sure you are taking notes and
learning from them. For a newbie, this should be the focus. By doing
these things well, networking will happen and people will notice you
for the work you do not just for randomly being at every event.
2. Tap Into Overlooked Jobs/Opportunities
I cannot mention everything here; there are a lot of overlooked jobs.
Apart from being the artist, there is the A&R, the manager, the label
executive, the promoter, the PR person or publicist, the music plugger,
the content aggregator and distributor and many others. Then there
is the opportunity for entertainment lawyers, accountants, auditors,
event organisers among others. The music industry can be one of the
biggest employers of labour if or when run properly.
3. Build The Right Structure
It really depends on the direction and start up budget of the label. An
ideal situation is to get lawyers, accountants, PR, A&R and Artist
development, marketing and brand management team. If you do not
have distribution solution, a label will struggle as the entire purpose
of setting up a label and signing artist is to distribute and sell.
4. Acquire Needed Professional Knowledge
You don’t necessarily need a professional certification to run a music
label. However, an understanding of Business Management would
help. Business is Business. Application may vary but the principles
apply across industries. Running a label is like running any business.
There are several moving parts and it is important that the people
running the business are prepared mentally to the task. An education
will help but most people end up learning on the job, especially in a
peculiar market like Nigeria’s. However, no matter how unstructured
the industry is, one must know how business works as the goal is to
be global and it would be a shame if you get to the point where your
growth is dependent on an understanding of business management
principles and leadership has no clue what to do.
5. Get A Mentor
Having a mentor is imperative. It would help you make fewer mistakes.
When I started in the industry as a manager in 2008, I would have
achieved more in less time if I had people telling me about their
challenges and mistakes. That is why I do workshops, training
programs and internships. Intern with such a mentor or work with
a company you see doing what you are trying to do. I am currently
writing a book called “10 Years a Learner” and producing a podcast
series. The industry will grow faster when we empower the people
coming after us. The true test of power is in its distribution.
6. Stay Grounded
Improve yourself and stay consistent. Travel and learn cultures and
other ways of life; it expands your view of life and humbles you. Take
artist development seriously and understand that you are a business
and most importantly, if you do not take yourself seriously, no one
will.
7. Let Your Audience Validate You
There is no one way to do it. What is important is to understand
where you are in the artiste life cycle. Validation is important. Just
because you get feedback from family members and friends does
not make you “a star with the next big hit”. Validation is when people
you do not know confirm that you can sing. This happens when the
artist takes time to perform at locations to develop him/her self.
While labels can provide funding, most artistes forget it is a loan. The
internet has provided all the tools to create and distribute content.
So, if you do not find a label willing to take a gamble on you, take
that gamble on yourself. Either way, it is in the artiste’s hands really.
A fan base will help you make money. Do not put the cart in front of
the horse. Build an audience and a following and you will have an
audience to sell music to.
8. Prepare For Challenges Ahead
Like every start up business, there are the following stages; Start up,
Struggle, Success and Growth. The excitement of starting something
new is usually quickly destroyed by the reality of the cost of running
a business with the bills, competition and change in policies that
were not considered during the set up stage. You quickly learn that
the audience is not as predictable and people do not really have a
buying culture. The industry and lifestyle is expensive and because
the market is very visual and bases most of its assumptions on
perception, the artiste who does not show the lifestyle are seen as
broke or lacking money.
You will also learn that success can also drown you. The more
successful you get, the harder it is to do things you sometimes enjoy
doing like going to the movies, etc. While you can do it once in a
while, it would have to be properly planned.
Another issue is that there is too much dependence on show money
because people are yet to understand the importance of publishing
revenue among other things. There are broke producers in the
country that do not realise that they have a lot of money scattered
across the globe.
You would also have to prove yourself so it is okay if people do not
respond to you when you start. People only want to associate with
success. Stay consistent and create good quality content.
9. Tread Carefully with Family and Friends
Family should support. However, unless a family member has the
needed skills for the role the artiste wants them to do; it is advisable
not to involve family in the business. While it is understandable that
some artistes may not have help when they start, so a family member
fills the void of a manager or PR consultant, it is important for the
artist to be honest with self and identify when growth has occurred
and when the family may not be able to operate in the scale that is
now required. There are a few instances where family members have
done great work, but I would advise that if family members working
with the artistes do not deliver on KPIs, the talent or artiste should
let them go and get professionals.
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