By Reporter
Being a text of interview with A music Business Executive, A Nigerian trained Accountant and show promoter for over a decade. Mr Avay Ogbeifun Ehiagwinah is also the CEO Blacq Avay Records And Entertainment.
The pandemic has really hit every sector hard and Ugandan Music industry suffered the most as its an industry that relied mostly on Shows,concerts and gigs which never came the whole of last year. Against this backdrop, there’s a huge opportunity that remains unharnessed by the major actors in Uganda Music industry as regards revenue generation in streaming. All over the world, Billions of dollars was remitted to artists and content creators from various streaming platforms for their intellectual property. If this was properly utilized, most A-list artist won’t have dwelled in complains bothering on lack of funds. The traditional ways of getting money(shows/concerts) was cut short due to the pandemic.
Outside YouTube that generates A little more or less than $3,000 for a whopping one million streams, most Uganda Artists don’t partake in sharing from this commonwealth. As we say, Data is now the new oil hence there must be a paradigm shift in other to maximize the new normal.
In an attempt to compete with the global trend, The whole structure that makes up the industry should as a matter of necessity improve their craft in other to be able to get a win. What am I saying? In other to be put in our pride of place, we must create contents that are worthy of consumption not just within East Africa, but the rest of the World. There should be a blend of our uniqueness in line with global trend if we must sell out to the world. You don’t expect the world full of trends to consume a sound that wasn’t properly mastered or a video shot with crude equipments. Reliance in the Ugandan market limits the Art and its financial gains. It’s a small country with very many artist so it’s time to think outside the box and upgrade to the global stage in other to go shoulder to shoulder with the Tanzanians or better still the Nigerians. The only way our voices can be heard is through the internet.
Whenever the low turnout in steaming platforms are mentioned people tend to call out the government for the tax on social media platforms. Well it’s a factor that cannot be ruled out. Elections are over , it’s now time for Artist to come under a responsible auspice and make demands while educating the Government on the difference between Social
Media platforms and Streaming Platforms. If there’s an organized approached, I see no reason why results cannot be achieved. Facebook and other platforms designed for interactions are totally different from Apple Music, Tidal and Boomplay. Anytime any day, these streaming platforms doesn’t play a role in who gets what when and how in politics. So nothing stops the government from excluding streaming platforms from the OTTax.. The approach of engagement to a large extent matters a lot.
The gains of partaking in the content industry fully is not limited to its monetary benefits alone. Most Award academies now base their nominations and possible winners via numbers of streams and presence in the digital world. You don’t expect an organizer of an award to recognize one with 200k streams above 20million streams. Sharing in the content industry goes way beyond the financial gains to recognitions, records and legacy.