The global music landscape, particularly the Nigerian music scene, is grappling with a paradox of digital abundance that borders on crisis. We are living through an era where music access is boundless, yet genuine, deep engagement of the craft is fleeting. The industry is saturated, an endless pipeline of new content, and the most alarming consequence is the almost complete disregard for the state of the consumer—the listener who is now chronically overfed, tired, and unable to process the sheer volume of material.
What this glut ultimately causes is a profound erosion of proper music consumption. One is scarcely able to fully enjoy, appreciate, and absorb a new album or an EP before being aggressively swooned or, more accurately, dragged into the promotional cycle of the next major release. Albeit, the hustle is understandable; it’s an environment where it’s every artist for themselves, fighting tooth and nail to be heard above an unprecedented digital din. But the question, one that is crucial for the long-term health of the entire music ecosystem, is this: Have we ever truly considered the detrimental effect of this ceaseless output on the act of listening itself?
Can Over-Saturation Be a Thing?
The question of whether over-saturation is a tangible problem remains a thorny one. Perhaps yes, and perhaps no. Art, by its very nature, is a continuous act of creation; it will always be churned out. As end-users of this product, we simply cannot and should not attempt to dictate who gets to release music and who does not. That form of gatekeeping is archaic and antithetical to the digital age’s promise of democratized creativity. Our choice, our sole avenue of power in this instance, is to exercise severe selectivity, to be highly discerning about what we choose to open our ears to, and what we simply filter out.
Music will always be made, and not just because the industry presents itself as a great, albeit rare, hack to hitting it big and becoming an international star. Music thrives because some people genuinely love the craft. For these dedicated creators, the art precedes the fame; their primary driver is the pure, unadulterated passion for what they can achieve with sound and narrative.
Yet, despite this genuine impetus, the high rate of audience fatigue in today’s Nigerian music market is palpable, a growing concern that threatens to turn listeners jaded.
The Tyranny of the Release Schedule
Everyone is making music, which, as stated, is inherently a positive thing. But the corresponding issue is that everyone is dropping new music with dizzying frequency. Every new music Friday presents an overwhelming, often exhausting, tracklist that must be trimmed down, lest the consumer be submerged in an outpour of new releases. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that for true music lovers, the people who seek music for emotional sustenance and deep relief, this constant bombardment is counter-productive.
The process of appropriately relieving themselves with music has become a tiring chore. To fully linger on a project, to be immersed completely in the world of a single song, is now difficult. This is largely due to the collective short attention span fostered by this influx of material on a weekly, or even daily, basis. A deep-cut track, a project that requires multiple listens to fully unlock its brilliance, stands little chance against the immediate gratification offered by the next algorithm-boosted single.
The Casualty of the Creator Class
The crisis, however, extends far beyond the weary consumer. There is a deeply damaging effect on the artists themselves, particularly the various tiers of musicians fiercely competing for a scarce commodity: attention. Everyone wants to make music, and everyone deserves a chance to be heard. But believe it or not, even the most established forces—the proverbial “Big 3” of the Afrobeats ecosystem—require and actively seek a major ruckus when they drop a new track or project.
For the mid-tier or emerging artist, the calculus becomes brutal. Before you even finalize your project, you now have to engage in anxious strategic planning, hoping that your meticulously crafted beauty isn’t instantly swallowed by the overwhelming noise generated by another artist, perhaps one whose PR is better positioned than yours, irrespective of the quality differential.
Take recent instances in the industry where high-profile celebrity feuds or strategic digital beefs around a major release completely dominated the cultural conversation. The sheer volume and intensity of the noise surrounding a single project can easily deprive other releases, including those from established names, of the necessary oxygen needed for a successful launch.
What this creates is a perverse ecosystem where, based purely on the matter of numbers and aggressive PR strategies, a lesser-quality song often stands a better chance to thrive and gain traction than a higher-quality one. The saturation truly muddies the waters, making it incredibly difficult to sieve through the thousands of weekly releases. This makes the crucial work of discovering genuinely new talents a needle-in-a-haystack task, and it makes it even harder for the average listener to distinguish between songs that are genuinely good and songs that are merely famous. A good song can certainly be a famous song, but the current reality dictates that not all famous songs possess any discernible quality.
(If you haven’t read our article, click here to read on how Nigerians are enablers of mediocrity in the music industry, a factor that only exacerbates this crisis.)
The Urgent Need for Uniqueness
Perhaps a systemic ailment is the disconcerting uniformity in sound. New artists are discovered every single day, and so often, there is an immediate, often lazy, similarity drawn to an artist already well-established in the industry. This lack of differentiation contributes directly to the listener’s fatigue, as the “new” sound is merely a re-tread of the familiar.
A potential, vital solution for creators is to become aggressively selective and intentional about their rhythmic signature. Artists need to choose their sounds meticulously and strive to be not just creative, but as profoundly unique as possible. It might feel like a risk, a less conventional sound might appear to stand a lesser chance of immediate viral success, but history proves otherwise. A truly unique perspective endears the Nigerian audience, who, whether consciously or unconsciously, are often classists when it comes to artistry. Uniqueness is a defining feature that we adore, a clear signal of confidence and originality. Knowing an artist possesses that singularity in their craft is an endearment that secures long-term loyalty. This writer, for one, finds that quality to be the only lasting anchor in this turbulent sea of music.
The bitter truth is that over-saturation simply does not allow music to marinate. You might listen to a track, acknowledge it immediately as a good song over there, even recognize its replay value, but the overwhelming, almost compulsory, urge to sample through the rest of the new releases hardly ever allows you to circle back. Unless, that is, you consciously decide to be content with the good you’ve already found and commit to listening over and over again. But for the devoted music enthusiast, the curious mind, and the aspiring critic, how content could you honestly be with that form of self-imposed artistic isolation?
So, is the over-saturated reality of today’s music industry actively preventing the audience from consuming music properly? That remains a question without a single, definitive answer. The most practical response, however, must be one of critical self-governance: through the many, sieve through and pick what you choose to listen to. Artists will always make music; in a digitally borderless world, if anyone can sing, anyone stands a chance to hit it big. And if anyone can hit it big, they deserve a chance to be heard. It is not essentially anyone’s fault; it’s simply a reflection of a vastly talented society, and what a creative waste it would be to let that potential go unexpressed!
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