Should Gospel artistes charge performance fees?
Gospel music has become a major part of Nigerian music. In the 1960s, the Evangelical Church of West Africa Choir was popular, and in the early 1970s, Bola Are, Sola Rotimi, Good Women Choir, Ebenezer Obey were the most influential musicians. Later, Panam Percy Paul, Onyeka Onwenu, Lanre Teriba (ATORISE), Tope Alabi, Asu Ekiye, Kefee, Sammie Okposo, among others rose to prominence and became notable.
According to history, in the early 1970s and 80s, Archbishop Benson Idahosa’s choir, The Christian Redeemed Voices were known for their gospel sound. The late Bishop was known to purchase instruments for the choir and each one of them would be mastered by skilful musicians. The Bishop would challenge his student pastors and young adult church members to pick up instruments and play them. It is widely said that Idahosa is one of the people who laid a strong foundation for the upliftment of gospel music in Africa.
A number of gospel artistes have released albums that are quite commendable such as Kunle Ajayi, Buchi, Sinach, Big Bolaji, Yetunde Are, TY Bello, AMAA (Abimbola Awolumate’s Everlasting Arms), Foluke Umosen, Soji Israel, Segun Obe, Samsong among others. Artistes like Rooftop MCs, The Bossman, BOUQUI, Babatunmise, Frank Edwards, and Segun Ogundeko (The Lord’s trumpeter) are also very well known for their gospel hip hop styles. They have released singles and albums that have won several awards.
There are also some notable church choirs that have distinguished themselves especially with contemporary music. Worthy of mentioning is Oyo Province 4 Mass choir of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Jesus Embassy, Christ Embassy, Oke Bola – Ibadan, Nigeria.
Also, there are many Nigerian gospel artistes based in other parts of the world whose music have a strong influence on Nigerians, home and abroad. Such artistes include Jide Arowolo (UK), Dayo Bello (UK), David Ojo (USA), Funmi Williams (UK), Oluwakemi (UK), Gbenga Wise (USA), Martin Adu (Netherland) Peter Onu De-Nice (Germany), Osene Odia-Ighodaro (USA) and el Mafrex (UK), among others.
Now, seeing the giant strides and achievements by these various artistes, one question has remained largely unanswered or has remained controversial till date. The Nigerian music scene is currently enjoying a boom as evidenced by the lavish lifestyles of A-list music artistes who have amassed wealth from various endorsements and hefty performance fees. However, since gospel music is said to be a calling/ministry where ministers call it God’s work or message, critics have asked if it was right for gospel artistes to charge performance fees as done by the ‘circular’ counterparts.
Gospel music as a career, especially in Nigeria, is not one that is lucrative especially when most Nigerians still believe that gospel artistes should be content with honorariums when offered. And so over the years, it has been a long argued topic to determine if gospel artistes had the right to charge a fee for doing ‘God’s work’.
Gospel singer and National President Gospel Musician Association of Nigeria (GOMAN), Evangelist Timi Osukoya, has disclosed that churches do not motivate gospel artistes whenever they perform for them.
Evangelist Osukoya explained churches believe that since it is a gospel affair, artistes who perform at churches should render such services for free. He said these churches forget that they (artistes) also have bills to pay.
“Some churches believe that you are not entitled to anything when you come to minister in their churches; they don’t put it into cognisance that you also have bills to pay. They think you should sing for free, but largely it depends on the understanding of the artiste and the church. Some churches really know how to take good care of gospel artistes. I can write a book on my experiences as a gospel artiste,” he explained.
The singer, who became popular with his ‘Telemi’ hit track, stated that, “There was a time I travelled from Lagos to Ilesa in Osun State and they organiser gave me N2,000. I don’t blame budding gospel artistes who charge before they go out to perform.
“I don’t charge, but I don’t crucify those who do it. For me, being a gospel singer is a calling which I cherish so much. When people ask how much they can offer me in terms of money, I laugh because I know they can’t pay for the gospel because Jesus Christ, with the blood he shed on the cross, has paid for it.
“So many people offer ridiculous money to gospel singers which is not too good. It is not that I don’t need money, but I consider so many things. God has sent me and I am sure he will always make way for me. I have gone to many places where they didn’t offer me a dime.”
According to a critic, Paul Akanu, who believes that gospel music is a ministry and therefore should not be monetized, said, “It depends on how the artiste sees himself or herself. If they see themselves as gospel artistes which means that they are ministering to lives and spreading the gospel via music, then according to what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9:18 “What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ WITHOUT CHARGE,…” The artiste should not “charge” as Apostle Paul said in the above verse. However, churches that invite such “gospel artistes” must understand the need to give something substantial to the person they are inviting. This is because scriptures did say in a few verses before the one above, in 1 Corinthians 9:14, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel SHOULD LIVE OF THE GOSPEL.” So churches must give SOMETHING THAT THE ARTISTE CAN “LIVE OF”. If churches would adhere to 1 Corinthians 9:14, gospel artistes would not be hungry. But most churches would give peanuts.
“It is because of this that there is this tendency to “charge” enough money that would cover logistics, travel and other living expenses of the artiste. On the other hand if the artiste is what I call a Christian musician that does not see their work as a calling, but as gospel music business (yes, people have learnt to make business out of the gospel); they simply play clean music in praise of God like Kefee did, or like several artistes who have done praise songs, they can feel free to charge as they like because what they are doing is just the BUSINESS of singing Christian/gospel music to Christian people.”
Tope Alabi, in a monitored interview, when asked if gospel musicians charge for their performance had said, “Why not? There is nothing bad if gospel singers charge churches because that is where they make their living from. Music is their talent and they have to be compensated for it. For someone like me, you don’t expect me to come and perform in your church with a full band and we will fuel our band truck, yet you won’t appreciate us for all that efforts. There are occasions I don’t charge though, because I know that the church knows what to do. They know how to compensate us.
“If someone like Pastor Adeboye invites me for performance, I can’t charge him because he knows what to do as a father in the Lord. I know that I cannot leave his presence without him appreciating me. It’s all about discretion. There is nothing bad in billing churches, but most churches don’t know how to give honorariums to encourage gospel artistes. The music is our business and we have to get paid for it. We may be considerate with our charges but we have to be appreciated”, she said.
Bolaji Olanrewaju, popularly called Big B also corroborated Tope Alabi’s submission. He said, “It depends on the artiste. If he/she feels that it is not necessary to charge and the ministration can be done for free, it is his/her decision. However, it is important to know that the dynamics have changed and the way gospel music is done nowadays is different from the olden days. We record, mix and master songs just like the circular artistes and we pay as they do to get airplay for such songs. We also spend money to promote them. A lot is involved in the process and no consensus is given to gospel artistes in form of discount or for free. So, why should we be expected to minister for free? Even the bible says that a man’s talent will make a way for him”, he said.
Even abroad, Christian music is facing an uphill struggle. “In the business sense, Christian music is economically disadvantaged even in the best of times, something that Christian music fans might not realize,” says John Styll, President and CEO of the Gospel Music Association. “Since most [Christian] radio airplay is on non-commercial stations, which pay a fraction of what commercial stations pay in royalties, our songwriters receive far less income than those in other genres.
“Every time a song is played on the radio, the artiste gets paid a royalty. Since non-commercial radio pays smaller royalties than commercial, artists are always making less money than their mainstream counterparts, even if they have the same airtime. And non-commercial radio has less money to work with. If you listen to Christian radio long enough, you’ll hear the phrase “listener-supported radio.” That means your donations are what keeps the station on the air. Where commercial radio stations rely on advertising revenue to keep them on the air, most Christian stations generate their income from you, the listener. Let’s just say that non-commercial radio stations work with much smaller budgets than commercial radio, and when people cut back in their personal giving, Christian radio feels the effects.”
“Also, these days,” he added, “Christian music needs to look like mainstream music, but do it without the same budgets. Artistes on tour are expected to deliver a high level of production to an audience that is not willing to pay ticket prices that approximate those for shows in other genres with similar levels of production.”
“The problem,” Styll explains, “is transportation, sound, lights, and so on, cost the same. Thus their margins are pinched. Now, with the extremely high cost of fuel, it is even more economically challenging for gospel artistes.
“We need to understand the trend in Music Business and we therefore need some level of education in that line. For instance, today, we don’t have many well structured record labels for gospel music today. We are not taking good advantage of the music business opportunities in our environment. We have various gospel artists out there with individual efforts and who have good skills but talents is not enough. We need good record labels to manage these talents and these are areas where the church and Christians who are buoyant enough can think of investing in these talents so that they will not stray away. It is very clear that we are not taking advantage of the music business opportunities in our environment.”
Back home in Nigeria, some also believe that if a proper structure is put in place in the gospel music sector, arguments about whether artistes should charge or not will become irrelevant. Kayode Olusoji, a music business consultant at Woodclef, in his submission about the gospel music business said, “Truly, we have great talents and we are just growing in numbers on daily basis but we don’t know how to turn our passion into profit. For instance, do we readily get good sponsors for our gospel events? Do we have adequate concert promoters in the system? How many gospel artistes are brand ambassadors of blue chip companies?
“We can collectively look for a way out and take over the air waves. I am sure a quite number of us are tired of this unwholesome music that has flooded our air waves today. Can Christians try and key in into every aspect of music business and make it work well? We also have the challenge of distribution channels for our music. Even if the price of musical CDs in Nigeria is not commensurate to the level of investment that goes into the music like we have in some advanced countries, what can we do to at least proffer some solutions to the distribution challenges? Actually, globally now, online sales is leading the trend with ITunes in the fore front. We thank God that recently; PayPal lifted the ban on their operations in Nigeria. I believe that will bring a great succour to artistes in Nigeria, because the challenge of online distribution of our music will be solved to an appreciable extent. However, more awareness still needs to be created in Nigeria about online purchase of music.
“Have we realized that putting our music on online stores is not enough? We need to draw the attention of our fans to the stores via good promotion both online and offline. Social, print and electronic media will be very useful in this regards. If the future of Nigerian gospel music will be brighter than the past or the present, then Christians and churches need to invest more in music and business of music.”
CULLED FROM TRIBUNE NG.