As a follow up on last week’s article, here is the concluding part of the Sixteen…
Music Week Africa: Founded by Chocolate City Group’s Audu Maikori seeks to bring some form of formality and seriousness to the music sector especially in Africa. It is a 360-music platform that explores creative, digital, business and other trends in the African and global music industry that can be harnessed for business benefit and sector growth. It emphasises the business of music and aims to accelerate the growth of this sector in Africa by providing opportunities for sector players, investors and collaborators to close deals, network, connect and increase their capacity to develop and strengthen profitable and sustainable business models for the music and entertainment industry on the continent. The music industry has found a new tune, let the music play!
13. Ojoma Ochai: In this industry, those who actually make things happen are the ones you hardly see, they are there but away from the spotlight. Ojoma is the Director (Arts) of the British Council, and also a consultant to the World Bank and UNESCO around creative industries development initiatives. From her early days at the British Council, she has been very instrumental in promoting the creative industries in Nigeria in every sense of the word. She is an advocate of “let us build Nigeria” and is a firm believer that the creative industries can help with this. Inarguably one of Nigeria’s young leaders, Ojoma brings a wealth of experience and has been involved in the mapping of the creative industries in Nigeria to ensure that locally and internationally, the viability of the Nigerian creative industries is seen from the rooftops to the low lands. In 2016, the British council will release and produce projects on various platforms (theatre, fashion, music and film) incorporating practitioners from the UK and Nigeria, be rest assured that Ojoma leaned in heavily to make this happen.
14. Sports: Asides it being an Olympic year, we have seen impressive contributions of Nigerian athletes and sports stars in the past year that will spill in to 2016. The Nigerian Premier Football League discovered more skilled footballers this season, not forgetting the wonderful U-23 football team with a lot of talent ripe for international football teams to scoop. 2016 calls for a more purposeful approach for Nigerian sports. Super Sports and some celebrities have done well in revamping the game of basketball in Nigeria. A lot of opportunities abound in sports marketing and development. We look forward to more sports academies springing up and a little bird is seriously singing about Floyd Mayweather looking to visit Nigeria for a project.
15. The Masses: Make no mistake they have the power! They will also dictate how and by whom they want to be served. They will be more aware of their power of choice in 2016, and even more careful of what they spend their hard earned naira on. They are willing to pay more for value than flash or “flavour of the month”, they do not mind being entertained but your entertainment has to be cutting edge and “worth it”. They have a lot of options so anyone wishing to reach and keep them has to be exceptionally creative in their offering and know how to sustain their attention. Power to the people!
16. Vzhun Interactive: Vzhun interactive is a purpose based marketing and consulting company for the creative industry and brands who intend to use creative platforms to reach a market or push a product. One of the few companies who have conducted proper research on the Nigerian creative industry. They provide creative support systems for individuals and businesses. Vzhun Interactive is positioned to be a behind some of the great creative products in Africa in 2016. A word from some of our shapers on what 2016 holds.
Music: Charles Novia: I would hazard a guess that somehow, a new rhythm will find its way to upstage the present “ikworkrikwor” and “¾” gyration-styled beats. With bandwagon beat makers not doing much to go against the grain, all it would take is someone who will infuse something novel and different with a new dance step and we would have others following suit. The “Shoki” dance evolved from the ingenuity of Orezi & Lil Kesh who pushed the envelope in 2014 to generate a new genre of beats and a new dance which has spread all over the world so much that Missy Elliot did the Shoki in her WTF video.
Ojoma Ochai: I think that music will gain ground in terms of solidifying the systems and platforms through which the sector will access investment in production and distribution infrastructure.
I think that this growth will be in part due to work that Music Week Africa founded by Audu Maikori is planning to do in this area; in part just by increasing consciousness and awareness by the sector of what needs to be done to move ahead but also by stimulating investment in infrastructure that the sector needs to move ahead.
Chike Maduegbuna: In 2016, the movie and music sectors of the creative industry will continue to gain grounds as a result of efforts been made by practitioners in those sectors to improve on the quality of their works and also because of the harsh economic realities that would cause a craving for this form of entertainment so as to ease tension.
Nollywood Charles Novia: In the movie sector, the demarcation between the ‘Asaba-esque’ kind of movies (movies with a particular hue and bandwagon content produced in the Asaba Hub) and the so-called “New Nollywood” (movies with improved production values and cinema distribution) would be much visible. With the New Nollywood movies being mostly more of hype than type (gross earnings being negligible compared to the production budget) because of inadequate distribution structures and the exasperating impatience of the cinema houses towards Nollywood movies with regards to scheduling and listings, the indices might not change much. We will have more interesting movies at the cinemas and more competitive movies in the awards circuit but how the Producers grin in public whilst getting all the adulations compared to their balance sheet is left for conjecture. Hopefully, new cinema outlets by the present players in the cinema distribution chain would help us out.
Curiously though, a lot of Producers will switch to producing television series and programmes in 2016. With the success of Africa Magic in giving the viewers original Productions such as Hotel Majestic, many top movie producers are presently challenged to invest more on television Productions. It’s more profitable and returns are sure and steady and there is a demand for such by the viewers. Nigeria has gradually accepted the American-styled Season programming and with viewing habits changing, this new slant would be prominent in 2016 on the Nigerian airwaves.
Ojoma Ochai: I think that film will gain ground in terms also of strengthening underpinning infrastructure for distribution. Companies like Afrinolly that are looking for ways to monetise content I think will champion this change. I think also that film makers and distributors spurred by the amount of marketing and promotion that Mo Abudu did for the film FIFTY; will look again at the promotion models for content and make revenue enhancing changes there.
Live Events Charles Novia: One could hazard a guess that there will be fewer concerts and live events in 2016 sponsored by corporate organisations because of the economies of scale. This scenario might augur well for the quality of such events, as perhaps only the few innovative artistes would get top billing. There’s going to be more of the present struggle for singing space on the airwaves and perhaps, no more taking the audience for granted by some of these upstarts.
Ojoma Ochai: I think we will discover the power of the live event as a way to consume content. Well I hope we do. I hope we can also as an industry accept that “small” is valid – not every time one waits till they can do a 5,000 people concert. For example, a weekly 100 people concert may be a better more sustainable approach.
Technology – The meld between art/media and technology Charles Novia: With the Digitization Policy finding its mojo in the broadcast sector, a few new television channels will hit the airwaves and present company should be amongst that new breed of broadcasters with a niche channel for the youths.
Chike Maduegbuna: Nigeria is ready for the combination of media and technology and I am of the opinion that this combination has brought about the massive growth in the media industry we have seen over the last decade. Do not forget that it was the early adoption of technological shift in how films are made gave birth to our now popular Nollywood film industry in the late 80’s.
The combination of media and technology has enhanced the creation and distribution of music/music videos in Nigeria. Artistes used to release albums but now they release singles first because technology has made it possible for our artists to distribute a single track before going on to release an entire album. This combination of media and technology has also improved the way movies are made and distributed. Nollywood is now an export commodity as our movies can be accessed across the globe.
In Afrinolly we believe, that technology should be used to solve certain problems in any industry and that is one of the reason’s we set up the Afrinolly Space – Where Technology Meets Art; a creative hub where we can contribute technological solutions to industry challenges.
Ojoma Ochai: Good and bad – good because technology is creating new channels that we can reach audiences through, while making money of course. Bad because the rest of the world has access to those exact same channels – even our local ones and if we don’t step up to the plate – other people will. Are we ready, I think yes individually we are – but we need to work collectively to achieve scale and critical mass- and whether we can, remains to be seen.
Theatre Ojoma Ochai: Theatre for example in the last few years have really grown in terms of quality of the output, audience development and increasing collaboration with other sectors like film and music.
I think theatre will also get a big boost from the Lagos Theatre Festival planned for February 2016. With over 100 shows in a range of venues, I think it might be a moment to get regional and international attention for the burgeoning theatre scene in Nigeria.
-Ema writes from Lagos
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