By Olamide Ade
For someone born in the 90s, experiencing the different ways music has been distributed is fascinating. Era by era, phase by phase, there is a new way artistes and record labels get music to the fans. It has moved from cassette to CD and later online platforms.
In 2007, while I was rounding up my primary School education, I remembered playing the first album of Nigerian singer, Lord of Ajasa in my guardian’s car. I play this album whenever I want to wash the car. It was a fun and loving ride through. My guardian bought it at a record store close to our house.
In 2014, things changed for good. I bought a CD of albums from Wizkid, P-Square, 2baba and others. I played it in our sitting room, jamming to the songs on the album, repeating the track, and writing down some of the lyrics I found interesting. These CDs were gotten from wheelbarrow CD sellers.
There was also the blog era of 2010 where platforms like Naijalaoded, Not Just Ok, Too exclusive, 360 Nobs became the main thing in the music space. These platforms became the most veritable tool artistes. Singles and bodies of work were uploaded on this platform, sometimes, even the fans get to comment about the songs. During this phase, artiste paid blogs to upload their songs. Some of them give these blogs albums or singles.
By mid 2010, some artiste were already exploring digital stores in uploading their music; they no longer use CDs or disks. By the time Boomplay and Audiomack entered the industry, it became a status booster to put songs on streaming platforms. Take for instance, Audiomack was so big in Nigeria in 2019 that almost every Nigerian youth had an account with the music streaming platforms.
The mid of 2017 also birthed music distribution companies. These were companies that syndicated songs and albums for artistes, they served as the middle man between the artiste and digital distribution platforms. Some of these companies offer label support, playlist the songs on regular DJ mixes and more.
One of such companies is Not Just Ok Distro, the US Based company has greatly helped in amplifying the message of these artistes. Distro kid is arguably the most popular among the underground artiste. With little dollar charging, this platform publishes songs for the artiste.
Founded in 2017, M.A.D Solutions offers a series of services to artiste, this range from Music Distributor, Music Publishing & Technical Solutions Provider. They are based in the US, Canada, South Africa, and Nigeria. They have distributed music for artistes like Phyno,Flavour, Ric Hassani, Simi and others. The company also curated playlists for artistes.
As of 2020, it is glaring that music distribution companies are taking the stress off artistes. The days of running to Alaba Market or going through the traffic to sell your record are over, now with companies like M.A.D Solutions, Distrokid, Not Just Ok Distro and others, it has become fun and loving to distribute music, and also easier to track the metrics.