Letter to upcoming musicians – Hit songs are good, but it doesn’t end there
“When the hit songs are ot coming, what you gonna do? They’re going to live on their hit songs they made in the past like Daddy Lumba, Amakye Dede and Kojo Antwi are doing now. Churning out hit songs is the ultimate way to stay relevant in our industry as it stands now.“
This comment caught my eye as a chanced on My Facebook post on the riskiness of building a brand on hits songs. The quoted statement above is an open truth and a covered lie. Why? Follow me.
It is obviously a musician’s dream to make music and catch the attention of many. The joy of hearing your song being played on rotation on radio, in pubs, clubs, parties and other places can’t be explained.
An artiste knows he/she is half way through when his music is being sang by both the young and old, mothers and fathers, boys & girls and all kinds of people.
It is that hope which keeps spurring most of our upcoming musicians on. Simply put, hit songs are extremely important in the growth of an artiste especially in this part of our world where an artiste’s currency and relevance is as good as how banging his/her songs are.
But like I succinctly put it in his post – “Our systems and structures are so bad so every young act wakes up and think relevance in the industry is about hit songs.
The rush to blow with hit records are pushing a lot of new musicians to release DISPOSABLE MUSIC.”
These insanely talented young musicians have been brainwashed to believe the notion that, “make a hit and all the lines will fall in pleasant places”.
This is a half baked truth being served cheaply at the expense of budding music careers. I can name a lot of Ghanaian musicians who have made monsterous hits and their careers are still waiting to take off.
Yes the obvious excuse will be that, there were no investors to help which is partly true but we can’t excuse the artistes off blame either.
Building a good music career and brand goes beyond a hit song. In the absence of an investor, what is the artiste doing to help him/herself?
It is sad that a young act will want to pay GH₵ 200.00 payola to a DJ to rotate the song once a while than to pay same for a distributor to market the music online.
Today’s music has become a global business where artistes should be looking at building good business brands from the scratch.
Our upcoming acts must be first encouraged to learn and understand the new terrain and the ever evolving nature of the music industry before trying to make hits.
How many young acts know what a music contract even look like? Have they tried to research about how the new world of streaming is all about?
Do they understand the monitization concepts of the online stores they keep sharing their music on? This is the basic knowledge they should equip themselves with before thinking of hits.
In that case, our young acts won’t just go to studios to record songs with a three months life span. Songs that enters the left ear and exits through the right after just one listening session.
They will take time to make timeless music. So yes!!! Hit songs are good, but don’t think that’s the ultimate road to success. Build your brand to be a total package.
Don’t chase DISPOSABLE HIT SONGs, rather dream of timeless records that will last the test of time but that will only come when you equip yourself with knowledge on how to brand yourself as A FULLY PACKAGED artiste not just a nine day wonder flash in the pan hitmaker.
A word to the wise?…
Author: Kobby Kyei
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