POLEMIC: WHY THE MUSIC PERISHES BEFORE BEING HEARD IN ANGLOPHONE REGIONS.

The Urban music industry has experienced a massive boom from 2012 which has seen the likes of artists Jovi, Stanley Enow , Mr Leo, Salatiel, Magasco, Daphne, Tenor etc take the spotlight. Their hits made a tremendous impact in the English-speaking regions , enjoying massive rotation in nightclubs, snack bars and pubs.

This frenzy has unfortunately petered out due to the ongoing socio-political crisis rocking the Northwest and Southwest regions.
Why do songs released nowadays have an overly short lifespan or even go unheard ?
An eagle-eyed analysis of the present ecosystem has pertinent points we may have to consider.
It’s quite evident that songs released from the wake of the Anglophone crisis till now have an ephemeral life-span. I’ve been trying to decipher some factors that dwindle the life span of songs during these turbulent times.
The outbreak of the Anglophone crisis since 2016 has had a negative repercussion on the urban music ecosystem which explains why songs released by artists during this crisis that can be rated as potential hits or propitious end up in the recycle bin in a very short time. The reason is because the conventional circulation of music has been impaired.
How music circulated

The salient role of DJs:
Nightclub, pub and snack bar Djs played a pivotal role in the proliferation of newly released music. The phenomenon of DJs putting out playlists which are usually constantly on rotation during night time handouts has been thwarted. Administrative curfews imposed on nightclubs and snack bars have just helped to kill the enthusiasm of DJs to continue churning out these mixes. 

 Djs usually mash up mixes of songs on the mainstream which are relayed to road-side pirates who use their laptops or computers to transfer music to phones , ipads , usb keys, and other musical gadgets. And that’s the trick. The primary method of circulating music was bootleg. 

These roadside music bootleggers also make their collections based on what was trending. They are now suffering from collateral damage . 
Their role of circulating music has been rendered difficult due to the curfew imposed on nightclubs, snacks etc. These are hubs where people got music and circulated phone to phone, phone to laptop etc . 
Artists have been ensnared by this crisis. Most of these villages and towns that kept music alive have fled to bushes and they currently don’t even care about what is trending. Their old playlists in their phones are okay . Their plights are more bothersome.

Imagine how many DJs and roadside music distributors have abandoned their jobs and fled due to insecurity.
Some Anglophone artists had undermined the role , value and contribution of these people to the music subsistence process. Trust me, songs released now don’t reach their full potentials. I imagine how big songs like “Casanova” by Stanley Enow, Magasco’s “Sokoto”, Awu “Sidomina” would have been in these regions without the crisis. Ambe’s “Vitesse” was peaking considerably and trust me the song would have been bigger without the crisis. Ambe would have pocketed more money from that tune. 

Bloggers play a very important part in creating buzz about a song and influencing people to download digitally.  But there exists a plethora of people who are not online-friendly , don’t even know how to go about downloading music from blogs. 

These category of people solely rely on roadside music distributors. That’s a majority according to statistics. 
Another method of getting your music heard is through tours and concerts. With the current insurgency plaguing our regions , it is quite difficult to organise concerts and events especially during the night hours.
This has impaired artists from placing a love-mark on their songs through performances .

Very few music events have taken place from December 2017 to present. Artists who relied heavily on gigs in these regions are now sinking in the mire.