Real Donseth Beat

Olamide is a genius with a touch of gold, even though I don’t have the back story, but from what is glaring to the eyes, I honestly feel slowing down Fireboy_Dml just to promote Asake was a huge music business blunder.

The Nigerian music market is so volatile that they can forget even Michael Jackson in the blink of an eye and quickly replace him with any available alternative.

Once that happens, struggling for a comeback becomes almost impossible, and from statistics, 99% of artistes who fade out never make it back.

The smarter move, in my opinion, would have been to push both brands simultaneously using market segmentation.

Fireboy already had his own sound, and defined audience, both at home and globally.

He was breaking into the international market, “Peru” with Ed Sheeran was gaining serious traction in the UK and across Europe, and he even landed a feature with Justin Timberlake on “Liar.”

The prospects were huge. I still remember Ed Sheeran bringing him out at Wembley Stadium in front of 90,000 people, Fireboy was already built for the European and US markets.

He could have been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Rema today, if not even bigger.

I think Olamide should take a cue from Don Jazzy’s playbook with Johnny Drille.

No matter who Don Jazzy signs, Johnny Drille remains in his own lane, with a unique fan base, a separate management structure, and a di3-hard community that will always stream, buy tickets, cop merch, and amplify his sound. Don Jazzy carefully segmented Johnny’s market, locked into his core strengths, and maximized it.

The sad truth is that Fireboy’s career was cut short before it even truly began. His full potential wasn’t scratched.

With the right investment, he could sell out stadia worldwide and even rival Justin Bieber musically.

His brand has far more shelf life than Asake, and if Olamide had played his cards strategically, Fireboy would still be blazing hot now that Asake’s initial buzz has started to fade.

And let’s not even get into how PHYNO FINO underutilized Superboycheque easily one of the best talents to come out of Nigeria and a strong export material.

This is exactly why I have an issue with active artistes signing other artistes.

There will always be a clash of interest unless a separate, independent, well-structured system manages the younger act.

Otherwise, history has shown, it rarely ends well.

While spending money on promotion and sponsored ads, you must understand how consumer behavior directly determines your earnings as a music artiste.

To a large extent, your fans’ listening habits decide how much you earn, whether big or small.

Once you understand this, it becomes easier to set clear objectives for your ads.

Before you spend a dime on promotion, ask yourself: What exactly do I want this ad to achieve?

That answer will guide the ad objective you choose and how you structure the campaign.

Sometimes, you might even need to run three different ads at once, each with a different goal, because not all ads serve the same purpose.

Many artistes wrongly assume that streaming income is simply about how big a song is.

The deeper truth is this: your fans’ behavior determines your payout on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Facebook, and every other platform.

If one fan streams your song once, you earn almost nothing.

But if that same fan plays it on repeat for weeks, your payout multiplies, especially if the fan is a premium subscriber in a tier 1 country.

This is why loyal fans are far more valuable than casual listeners.

When fans save your songs to personal or curated playlists, you secure long-term streams.

That’s steady income, even after the hype around your release fades.

The mistake many African artistes make is focusing only on hype.

But the real money lies in building a community of loyal fans who see your music as part of their daily life.

One true superfan who streams everything you release, saves your music, and follows you across platforms is worth more than twenty casual listeners.

At the end of the day, your earnings don’t just depend on your talent, they depend on how your fans interact with your music daily.

That’s why you must learn to market smart, engage consistently, and grow loyal communities both at home and abroad.

Nigerian music is already global. If you understand your fans and guide their streaming habits, your pocket will feel the difference.

With the kind of work Burna put into his new album, I think it’s safe to say it’s now disrespectful to still lump him into the so-called “Big 3.”

Burna has left that table. At this point, the technical Big 3 is Davido, Wizkid, and Rema… which means right now we’ve got African Giant + the Big 3.

It’s summer, music festival season, and in the last few weeks we’ve seen major concerts and festivals across Europe, Paris, the U.S., and London.
Burna, Davido, Rema, and even Shalipopi have been prominent in most of them… but Wizkid? Nowhere to be found.

While FC are busy doing their usual noise and shouting “Morayo” everywhere, baba is clearly struggling with relevance, and they’re hyping him straight into obscurity.

A few days ago at Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park, Drake personally brought Rema out on stage.

The ovation was crazy. The body language said everything.
In London and across Europe, Calm Down with Selena Gomez is still enjoying heavy radio play alongside indigenous sounds.

It’s even easier to hear Shalipopi’s “Laho” ft Burna in the streets of London than to hear “Morayo.”

Yes, Drake has hooked with Wizzy before, but that was 2015 and 2017 (“Ojuelegba” remix with Skepta and Drake, and “Come Closer”).

Bro, 2015 to 2025 is 10 years! In music, just like football, relevance is seasonal. Each season, your performance determines your brand equity and market value.

It’s a new season. The hard-working artists are dropping fresh report cards, and FC still want us to measure these new works with “Morayo.”

Rema has completely redefined his sound in a market where everyone is starting to sound alike.

Songs like Azaman, Match Am, and now Kelebu are not just bangers, they’re shifting the global Afrobeats narrative and repositioning the young lad for dominance.

Instead of FC putting pressure on their idolo to drop a fresh body of work with today’s market realities in mind, they’re hailing the man out of relevance.

Did you see Burna a few days ago at King’s Cross, performing in the streets of London for his fans? Flavour was there a few days ago too. That’s next-level marketing.

The other day, it was Craig David performing for his fans on a beach.

I’ve also seen Usher performing in a small London pub before, because the real business-minded artists understand that no stage is too small if the strategy is right.

This is a new season, and your relevance depends on how far you’re willing to carry your craft on your head. In this game, your biggest enemy is your last success.

Wizzy needs to face reality, craft a new vision, rebuild his team, and execute ruthlessly, because Rema is not slowing down.

In the music business, diminishing returns is a real thing. And most times, creatives who hit this stage confuse it for a creative block, meanwhile, what they’re really dealing with is diminishing returns.

More often than not, especially in gospel music, artistes at this point start thinking God is “doing a work” in them, maybe taking them through a season, or preserving them for something deeper.

So they keep waiting for the season to pass, not realizing they’ve entered a phase that might not have a comeback.

That’s how some of them end up switching fully into ministry, because they finally realise their music career has quietly ended.

Diminishing returns is real.

Dropping more songs won’t fix it. In fact, at that point, your audience don turn tone-deaf. Only a few people ever recover from it.

I can write a full paper on this, but time and space no go allow me.

To be continued.

Wizkid is no doubt one of Afrobeats’ greatest exports.

But let’s be honest, he’s become the most laid-back brand in the game.

Weak pen game, zero marketing effort, and still stuck on outdated strategies.

The music industry evolves fast, and fan demographics shift even faster.

Gen Z doesn’t do idol worship.

They want connection, visibility, and vibes.

While Wizkid was playing untouchable, heisrema became the face of a new generation.

Wizkid FC’s idolization may have done more harm than good, feeding a delusion of grandeur that made him think tweets could fill stadiums Abroad.

Meanwhile, Burna Boy, Asake, and Rema are out here carrying their Kaya for head, and grinding like it’s survival of the fittest.

Even A list artists in Europe are performing in malls, streets, and Pubs to push tickets.

Wizkid has been so extremely laid back, Silent, distant, and now cancelling shows.

The signs are clear. It’s time for him to wake up and get back to the drawing board.

Let’s not even talk about how he over priced himself out of the endorsement market because of the delusions his FC created in his mind.

Today’s market doesn’t reward docility, no matter how talented you are.

MAN 2 MAN

58% of OnlyFans creators are young wómen between 18 and 24 years old, and there are 1.2 million women on OnlyFans.

That means that roughly 1 in 10 women in that age range are creators of OnlyFans and the last time I checked, they no dey sing praise and worship for OnlyFans.

There are thousands of Nigerian women actively onboarded in coded runs, and the platform records over 1.9 million monthly visitors from Nigeria.

As of 2025, Bigo Live has over 400 million registered users globally, with approximately 40.3 million monthly active users.

The platform’s global user base and its popularity among young adults suggest a significant presence of Nigerian female users.

In Nigeria, Bigo Live has gained popularity among young adults, including married women, who use the platform for various purposes such as entertainment, social interaction, and income generation through virtual gifts, Osho activities, and fan engagement.

Funny enough, most of these young women are in choirs, actively serving in different churches, and also show up at Altar of Fire and other religious gatherings every other morning.

Meanwhile, hardworking young men are advised to marry young women in their prime between the ages of 21–25. Unfortunately, a lot of those young women haven’t left the exploration and hoeing stage.

That’s why many of them, who run into marriage because of societal pressure and trends, tend to continue their exploration even after getting hooked.

The truth is that a lot of present-day Nigerian young women seldom come to Christ until they’re damàged and sóiled.

Then they run into Pentecostal churches and start setting godly standards and templates in their new relationships when they finally get hooked to vulnerable young Christian men and simps, through the enablement of our pastors who pitch them as daughters to these young men under the guise of “old things have passed away” and the “new creation realities” mantra.

Dear young kings, in your quest to find a wife, “muru anya ka azu,” the dating pool in Nig3ria is so messed up now!

just like the apostle Paul said: “Know no man by the flesh.”

The church is like a hospital, and a lot of people no longer respond to treatment. Unfortunately, most of our modern-day churches are speedily becoming a retirement house for veteran OS.

If you must learn from experience, let it be other people's experience, experience is only the best teacher when it's other people's experience, because experience is the only teacher that can d3stroy you in the cause of teaching you.

Nti odikwa?