PORT HARCOURT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY REVIEW 1 BY TARRMIE DE MAN

So last night I was listening to the Role Show with Elvis and Iso on cool FM Port Harcourt. Just before the end of the show, Elvis said something that got me to do this.

He talked about the Port Harcourt entertainment industry and the role the media houses can play to take the industry to another level.

In his admonition, he also said there is little or no  love amongst the entertainers in the state as they don’t work together to produce great songs and made reference to the western industry. That is, the Lagos entertainment industry.

HERE IS MY STORY

I have been a music promoter, basically an online promoter for some years now and if not, very big artists, I have worked with a lot of talented upcoming artists  and also worked for few of the port Harcourt seasoned entertainers.

 In a certain year, I was pushing an artist in my team. On the verge of promoting one of his songs, we met different people doing different things in the industry.

SURPRISINGLY

1. Every Dj I called, requested for an amount above 10k

•  Some of the OAPs I contacted demanded for nothing less than 50K

•  No Port Harcourt blogger had the song in any of their blogs despite writing to them. I also wrote to some of the top Nigerian blogs in the likes of Notjustok, Tooxclusive, Nailaloaded, 360nobs and waptrick. Few of the above mentioned blogs without requesting for a dime, uploaded the song on their blogs, WHY? Because the song was good. 

• 65 percent of the OAPs, VDJs and bloggers I contacted neither replied my mails nor retweeted the song.

·         Some OAPs and Djs took money from us and up until today we have not seen the result of their work.

BUT WAIT

I know, some OAPs doesn’t play certain songs on their shows ; maybe because of their personality or because the song does not go well with the kind show they host. But if an artist approaches you with the type of song you don’t play on your show, why not explain to them and turn down the offer than take large amount of money from them and do nothing? 

(Artists should also know the type of song an OAP plays before approaching them).

As a blogger, I cannot know all the entertainers and events coming up in the city, that is why periodically, I visit other Port Harcourt based blogs to see what I don’t already have on my blog and if I find anything that is worthy of publicity then I ask for permission from the author and if granted, I put it up on my blog and puts backlinks to the original editor of the material, Including songs from artist I’ve never heard of (Ukalas can attest to this).

DO NOT GET ME WRONG

Yes, you paid for the production of the song, why shouldn’t you pay for promotions? But if you must request for money, must it be this much for an industry like Port Harcourt?

Onoz one of the Port Harcourt finest act once said via his twitter page that, “if you don’t have a good visuals for your song, it won’t stay in the limelight for long”  (not exactly quoted)

If this is true, let us consider the cost of shooting a good music video in Nigeria. The least amount for shooting a zero concept quack music video in Nigeria is 350k, once advertised on Naijaloaded and in a country like Nigeria and a city like Port Harcourt, If I pay:

•   170k to an OAP to play my song on  radio

•   Pay 50k to bloggers to hype and upload my song on their blogs

•  Pay 40K to a VDJ to play my song twice a week in a club or radio station

•  Pay 50k to have my song on a mix tape

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• How much would be left to shoot a video?

  We have been talking about just an MP3 file

•  How much would be left to pay TV stations to show my Video?

If I was an upcoming artist, how much do I get paid to perform at gigs? That is if I see one and don’t perform for free.

I THINK AM DONE!!!

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