For Emerging Artists: Good Albums And What You Need To Make Them

By Excel Joab

What defines an album? A very good album. Is it the lyrical content, the flow or the rhythm?

L Boogie asked the above question on M.I’s debut album Talk About It. Music is a very fluid business with ever-changing dynamics. These days, there’s a whole lot of songs out there for consumption and if you’re an artist, getting your music heard will forever remain a priority for you. But how can your own project stand out?

How do you make your project a classic?

It’s not enough that the songs on your album are good. n this day and age. Your project has to be known, has to come up in music conversations.

There are no sure or foolproof methods to achieving this but there are some tips and tricks of the trade that can turn the tide in your favour. It goes without saying that you need to be talented, disciplined and hardworking as an artist. The work never stops. It never really stops. If you’re not going to put in the work, don’t bother.

Let’s examine some of the things you’ll need to make not just a good album, but an album that can be profitable in the long run.

Money

Goes without saying right? Having money to make music is one thing, knowing how to use that money properly is another thing and the latter seems to be a problem for a lot of artists. Like I stated earlier, music is a fluid business so things change and you have to pay attention to the new trends and pick what you can work with. I’ve seen emerging artists spend large chunks of money on things that they don’t really need like ridiculously expensive videos or paying OAPs to promote their music.

In recent times, radio airplay rarely makes a song a hit. Radio stations would much rather play a song that is gaining traction on the internet or on the streets than play a good song just because it is good. If your song has started gaining buzz, then you can definitely go as far as paying for airplay but if you’re depending on radio to make your song a hit, you are wasting your time.

As at the time I’m writing this, Joeboy’s visualizer video for Baby has 6.8 million views while the actual music video has 936,000 views. Why? Promotion. The visualizer was promoted on YouTube.

Joeboy is under Mr Eazi’s empawa music program and YouTube has been a major marketing point for Mr Eazi. Baby is a sweet song but it didn’t get the recognition it has now just because it is sweet. Without the rigorous promotion from Mr Eazi’s team, that song would have gone under the radar like many other good songs.

Mr Eazi had this to say about how much he has invested in Joeboy “We invested $100,000 in @joeboyofficial 1 single in! No 1 song Across Charts in Nigeria, top ten in charts across Uganda, Kenya, Started Touring both in country & Continentally”. This is the kind of results you'll get when you spend your money right. YouTube took notice of how Mr Eazi has been using their platform and have now entered into a partnership with him.

Nigerian artists tend to ignore YouTube for reasons best known to them but it is a huge mistake. YouTube remains one of the best places for artist discovery. Put ALL your songs on YouTube and promote them. You don’t need to promote everything, pick the ones that are gaining buzz online or offline and promote them on YouTube. You don’t need to use the most expensive video directors to shoot your videos, get a director that can be creative on a budget and promote the video when it gets out.

Alaba still remains a home for Nigerian music. Many believe that with the rise of the internet, physical CDs are going out of style. This is a big lie. There are still a lot of Nigerians who would rather buy a music CD than stream/download it online. From time to time, conversations on music piracy in Nigeria pops up on social media and the most common lie told is that Nigerians don’t buy music. If Nigerians don’t buy music, there would be no Alaba at all. They may never publicly say it but a lot of the A-list music acts still make use of the marketers in Alaba to sell and promote their music. Alaba caters to the offline audience and just like the internet, the marketers there can take your music to places you can never reach on your own.

A&R (Artiste & Repertoire)

An album has to have cohesion. It has to have a direction, a purpose, a message. An album is more than just vibes. As an emerging artist, your album should be making a statement to your audience. This is where A&R comes in. Apart from scouting for music talents, A&Rs help artists improve their sound in a way that makes them commercially acceptable. They’re not there to take away creative control from you but rather show you how best your sound can fit in with audiences. A lot of music projects being released these days are full of songs that would make more sense as singles or independent releases than as a part of an album.

Emerging artists keep releasing projects that are full of scattered vibes and have no commercial appeal. When folks hear the word “commercial” in conversations about music, they quiclkly assume that it’s referring to the most popular sound and adapting to it. Artists who are seeking more patronage always try to switch up to the popular genres but it doesn’t always work for them. Every music genre is marketable. The Alte scene is proof of this. Alternative acts like Bez, Asa, Johnny Drille and Falana are proof of this. Rocktober fest is proof of this (Yes, there’s a rock music festival that takes place in Lagos every year since 2015).

An A&R person can help you get attention from people who wouldn't check out your music on a good day. It might just involve working with a different producer or featuring an artist whose music is worlds apart from yours (Chinko Ekun ft Johnny Drille - Calling) but it’s the A&R’s job to pick the best person that fits your sound. No matter the genre of the music you do, proper A&Rs can figure out how best to make your sounds commercially appealing with either strategic collaborations or other ways. I’ll recommend the following A&Rs for you TMXO, Bizzle Osikoya, Dowe, Ifeanyi Oka and Melody Hassan.

Know Your Data

Data has become a huge part of the music-making process and it is shaping how music is being churned out and also consumed by audiences. For example, the VP of A&R at Def Jam Alexander Edward ‘AE” told Rolling Stone that data from YouTube has shown that videos with intros longer than 20 seconds have less playback value and this has influenced how they make videos at Def Jam.

Have you noticed how short songs have become a thing? Not just songs, projects are also getting shorter. The traditional style of having a 15 to 20 track album is going out of style. In 2018, Kanye West executive produced 5 albums that were all part of what is now referred to as his Wyoming Sessions. None of those albums had up to 10 tracks. The albums are Daytona by Pusha T (7 tracks), NASIR by Nas (7 tracks), Keep That Same Energy by Teyana Taylor (8 tracks), Ye by Kanye West (7 tracks) and Kids See Ghosts by Kanye West & Kid Cudi (7 tracks). Daytona would later go on to get a Grammy nomination in the best rap album category.

M.I Abaga also repeated Kanye West’s move (although he claims Kanye copied him) with the L.A.M.B August movement that gave us Crown by Loose Kaynon & AQ, Yung Denzl by M.I and Bad Boy Blaq by Blaqbonez. Each album had 10 songs.

Rema, one of the biggest discoveries of 2019 has put out 2 projects(Rema, Rema freestyle EP) this year. Both projects have only 4 songs on them with no song reaching up to 4 minutes.

Why are short songs/projects becoming a thing?

1.Money.

Streaming platforms have become a huge point of revenue for artists and they are hugely responsible for this new trend of short songs. An 8 minute song and a 2 minute song will both earn the same amount of money per play from a streaming platform. Also, short songs tend to have more replay value than longer tracks.

2. Consumer Attention Span

It’s no secret that the attention span of music consumers has dwindled over the years and since the customer is always right, artists have now made the conscious effort to reduce the length of their tracks. Tierra Whack’s debut album Whack World had 15 songs with a total running time of 15 minutes. That’s 1 minute per song. It worked for her.

The issue of consumer attention span also explains the need for albums to begin with the best songs and end with the average tracks. Frontload your albums as much as possible, the data shows that it’ll work for you. Another reason why you should frontload your album is skip rate.

A song’s skip rate refers to the likelihood of a song getting skipped when it’s being played. You need to captivate your listeners within the first 30 seconds of the first song on your album. Sounds ridiculous? I know. But that’s the game for you. Attention span is at an all-time low and artists just have to adapt to the game.

Theme/Concept

I love concept albums. They take you on a journey and if executed properly, will have you sonically fulfilled at the end of them. Ajebutter 22’s What Happens In Lagos, Chillz’s Good Vibes Vol. 1 and M.I’s Yung Denzl are fine examples of well-executed concept albums. Thematic albums are also easier for audiences to relate with and relatability is key. People will never forget a thematic album that they could relate with. But you have to be careful with your thematic album, try to not make every song sound like the last one. The last thing you want is for your project to have a monotonous feel to it.

While these tricks are important, we must never forget that the most important aspect of the project is the music. If the music is sweet and the promotion is right, the people will listen.