Being one of the states that produces great artistes in northern part of Nigeria, Taraba State can also be tagged as the pride of the country when it comes to music and selling of talents to the outside world.
From the hub of pageantry to the den of music and comedy, the state is indeed a nature's gift to the nation, but what stayed in the tummy of a dog will one day be vomited and be eaten again.
Making music without gain is a bad business setbacks and thus affect the livelihood of entertainers. Even with the talents that Taraba State has produced for the country, there are lots of entertainers that still struggle to be on the lane.
Just sit back, sip some juice and let me take you to the land where I will show you.
There are lots of reasons why entertainers in Taraba State are left behind in the over one billion dollar business of entertainment in the country. Some of them include;
Poor contents/Understanding your audience.
Even though entertainment is versatile and has a lot of consumers yearning for a new taste, some Taraba entertainers have not yet noticed the scarcity amongst its environment and define what their listeners yearn for and this stands as a bridge between them and success.
Lack Of Quality Promotion
Even though the entertainers have realised the importance of promotion but some don't take it serious. A normal Taraba entertainer only shares his link for two days or so and forgets about it, which is uncalled for especially artistes' who need exposure both in the media and its environment and sometimes people forget the song so soon.
Less usage of other social media handles apart from Facebook
Few weeks ago, I once asked an artiste if he had a twitter or Instagram handle, the reply he gave me made me feel bad. At this stage he should be having all available social media handles that can add to his craft even if it means going for paid handles that will promote his craft.
Lack of features from outside the state
Most Taraba entertainers don't have two or three features from other state artistes. Sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone to determine if you are good or not. It doesn't literally mean leaving the state entirely, no! Record one or two tracks with different artistes, join cyphers and remixes of A - List artistes' songs, share it to your Audiomack, deezer, YouTube Music, do short clips and tag influential people, and pay bloggers or hypers to do their job of promoting your new song or videos, making it trend by creating headlines from the song. It will definitely reach someone out of love or curiosity.
Finally, free things are not worth the sweat, often times you have to toil harder to earn the sweat. As an entertainer you have to know that this is your passion except otherwise so you have to put all your energy into it and make it work.
As an artiste shock the devil sometimes, pay for your production and promotion, wait for the magic and compare it to the past ones you have been doing for free. You are responsible for the success of your new song, video or comedy skit. You are responsible for it going viral, it depends on what you can give to the public and the reaction the public reply to it.
My Advice
As an entertainer you are an entrepreneur also, there is a profit to whatever you put out to the public except otherwise. Stand true to your craft and focus on the monetary aspect of it and don't relent on toiling for free, for every work there is surely a gain attached to it, don't let it go for free.
There are lots of good entertainers in the state and some are making us proud but these are some of the lapses I noticed and penned down for your own consumption.
Jeremiah Genesis Ezra
Is a blogger, creative writer, inventor
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