In the past couple of decades, the music industry has experienced incredible changes. Technology has played a tremendous role in shifting how music is produced, consumed, and distributed. For musicians, it has opened up a world of endless possibilities for making money with an influx of new revenue models in the digital space.
These platforms, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and closer to home Boomplay, Skiza, and Mdundo, are growing the industry’s income at a record rate.
“I can safely say all the major names can survive on that without necessarily going for live performances,” says Tom Mahondo, the CEO of Ngomma, a Kenyan digital service provider.
“The top guys, all of them from Willy Paul, Bahati, Sauti, Sol, Nadia, to Nyashinski, are actually living very comfortably off their digital revenue,”
Today, musicians are getting paid for their musical talents through streaming and digital sales, as well as social video monetisation when people create content using their music on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
They are supplementing their incomes from the sale of merchandise on websites or social media platforms, sponsored content, and advertisements.
It used to be that an artist would enlist the help of a record label to break through the music industry. The dream was to sign on to a major record label, get a manager, a promoter, the whole shebang, and the record label would spend tons of money to get the artist and their music known and mould him or her into a marketable image.
But times have changed, and musicians are doing it themselves through social media and streaming platforms, which have taken the strain out of being an artist.
Tom can attest to this, seeing as how the famous record label Calif Records, which churned out veteran musicians such as Juacali and Nonini, morphed into Ngomma, which is now in content production, helping creators distribute, manage, and monetise their content.
Still, to maximise their earning potential efficiently, artists need to leverage emerging tech trends to enhance their creativity, distribution, and, ultimately, revenue generation.
For Tom, the biggest one is data analytics.
“Analytics actually help. Platforms like YouTube or even Skiza can tell you how many people are engaged and how many people are really subscribed to what you’re doing. At what stage are they engaged? Because, like, YouTube would actually show you where your video is dropping off,” he explains.
Another trend is the increased use of AI to compose music, produce tracks, and generate lyrics. It even assists artists in their creative process by suggesting rhythms, melodies, and harmonies.
“AI is here, and it’s going to play a very big role. It hasn’t yet, but it’s starting in terms of playlisting. So, you’ll find AI actually generates some playlists, and that will affect how much your music is getting played or being surfaced to people.
“Also, in doing videos, because special effects are very expensive. So, AI is now taking all that heavy lifting that you would have done to go to the top of, let’s say, Mount Kenya to shoot. With AI, you can recreate very easily, and it’ll look very lifelike,” he says.
Currently, being a musician is far beyond a talent showcase. Musicians are being forced out of their comfort zones to be more creative than the next person, quicker and smarter, and to harness all the opportunities that technology presents them to excel financially in their craft.
