Welcome! - To September 3rd Entretainership Session (Music Business Workshop)

I welcome you to Talentz Bank's music business workshop tagged 'Entretainership Session'. The ‘Entretainership Sessions’ have been created to commemorate talentz bank’s mission which is to help the average Nigerian music artiste ‘turn from talent to cash'. 

At talents Bank, we believe that 'an entertainer is an entrepreneur'. Please click here to find out how and click on the 'Entretainership Session' label on the right hand side of the blog to view our past sessions. We believe they will be of good benefit to you.

Today, there are two sessions and they are titled:

Session 1 by Mr Idowu Okungbowa is titled:

Understanding Asset and Liability

Session 2 by Esther is titled:

The Uniqueness of Service marketing as it relates to music business

Entretainership Session (Music Business Workshop): Session)- Session 1

Understanding Asset and Liability

Introduction

It is often believed that a man who has a lot of assets is on the part towards financial freedom, while the man with much liability is digging his own grave. This statement is correct in its totality but the challenge has always been: what is the definition of these two terminologies ‘Asset’ and ‘Liability’.

According to the balance sheet definition (for Accountants and Accounting students), assets can be seen as what you spent money on (e.g. house, car, stock etc), while liability is what you are owing.  This is a lay man’s understanding of this subject.  In Frederick Money management School, we have come up with a different working definition that we believe if well understood, will become the life saver for whoever wants to make the most of his resources.

For us (Frederick Money Management School):

An Asset is anything that adds value to you and that will enable you to be more productive.  It is also any transaction that will in the long run save you money and time.  That’s why an asset must have an ability to earn an income in its usage that will enable it to appreciate in value.  Anything that does not meet this test is a liability and not an asset.

What is a liability?

A liability is an expenditure that does not have the ability to add value to you in a manner that will make you more productive; It also a transaction that struggles with other resources to maintain itself.  If it cannot appreciate in time, it is a liability.

Let’s break this down.

There are certain expenditures that are assets to some people while they are a liability to others.  

Imagine: A guy who buys a laptop and loads with an application package worth N350 and only needs the laptop to browse the web. 

Let us look out our expenditure pattern and let’s subject them to this definition and answer the following questions:

1.      Are these assets e.g. car, clothes, phone, house, laptop etc?

2.     If yes, what amount of value are they adding to me?

3.     Could I justify the expenditure?

4.     Could I get this same value with less spending?

5.     Or this I just buy because I liked it and my friends have it?

When goods are produced, there is an ability package inside of it that makes the prize to add value. These are the value added that you must first analyze and check if they are of value to you.  Imagine somebody who drives 150km to and fro work buying a V-8 engine car and he is a middle class worker with N130, 000 monthly salary (with the current pump price, he will spend as much as N60, 000 monthly on fuel).   Can this car add the value that much?

Imagine a marketing representative whose nature of work is to be mobile and chooses to spend much on a high earn cell phone. It’s just a matter of time, he is bound to destroy or misplace the phone (It is worse if he has jump buses or taxi)

 

Having carried out a survey, we have discovered that most of the expenses carried out by Nigerians are all that of liability and not asset.  In our next write up, we will be analyzing how to make economic choices.

 

Idowu Okungbowa is the Managing Consultant of ‘Fredericks International’, a Human Capital Development and Marketing Consulting Firm. He is a public speaker and he has a great interest in youth development and entertainment. Email: idowuokungbowa@yahoo.com.

Entretainership Sessions(Music Business Workshop): Session 2

The Uniqueness of Service marketing as it relates to music business

A service is any act or performance which a party can offer to another party which is essentially intangible. 

Music artistes are into the service business. When artistes do what they do; that is sing, act, or dance, they offer a service like the doctor, lawyer and surgeon. So I write this piece to help the artiste understand the nature of the business he is into. 

Characteristics

Intangibility:

Services are intangible; that is it can’t be held, touched, or seen before purchase decision.  This means that buyers cannot make judgments based on sensory evaluation i.e taste, touch, sight, smell, or hearing until they buy. 

As regards service offerings, buyers rely instead on whatever physical cues they can find to assess quality, including the appearance of the service provider and the physical environment in the service firm.   

That is your fans/ listeners rely on the materials you make available that will aid their perception of you.  Hence your brand image and business associations you –the service provider- project to them via mediums like your music videos, packaging and promotional materials matter a lot.

A major marketing need for services is to make them tangible or show the benefits of using the service.

Do all the physical activity you can to make yourself visible.  Make yourself a household name by projecting a unique and essential brand.  While you are at it make them know:

Why you should be heard and watched. 

Why your CDs should be bought,

Why companies should associate their brands with you and ask you to endorse, Why music lovers should pay an amount to watch you perform live 

Men would continue to judge by outward appearance - by their senses (even God said so…).  So, back up your musical works with more physical evidences- especially of good quality- and get your music out there -to be heard.  Do not be slack on proving your existence, as long as you are still in the market.  Communicate what you stand for, that is being a brand.

Heterogeneity

Heterogeneity is the variation in service quality caused by inconsistencies of performance.  Developing, pricing, promoting and delivering services are challenging because the quality of a service is often inconsistent.  Since services depend on the people who provide them, their quality varies with each person’s capabilities and day to day performance.

 That is your performance at the 2009 ABC award show may not be the same or as good as your performance at the XYZ 2010 end of year party- I hope not-.

Organizations attempt to reduce inconsistency through standardization and training.

So artistes can reduce inconsistency in their performances by setting a performing standard for themselves and going through more preparation. Though a lot of artistes claim that the quality of their performance at events is largely tied to the organization of the show, which is true.  But there are artistes who have set a standard for their performances. Take Dare art Alade for example.

Nevertheless, services are most often performed by people, and people don’t always offer consistent performance. 

But don’t worry if you don’t perform at exactly 100% excellence sometimes, it is well understood that you are not a robot.  

What matters is that you just get better at it.

Inseparability

Another unique aspect of service is inseparability.  In most cases, the consumer cannot (and does not) separate the deliverer of the service from the service itself.

Let’s say fans can’t separate a music artiste from his music. Can you separate Terry G from his ‘free madness’? 

Because you can’t store services, you can’t separate production from consumption. 

Terry G goes hand in hand with his energy and craze.

You can’t mail someone a haircut or drop off a TV repair job on a customer’s front porch.

You can’t mail or shelve a live performance.  

Services, therefore, don’t follow the normal model of production - sale – consumption; they are sold first; usually produced and consumed simultaneously.

Inseparability has a special meaning in many service industries. In some cases, a particular provider is so closely identified with a service that substitute providers will simply not suffice. If you pay to be entertained by Femi Kuti or Charly boy, a performance by Mr X just won’t do. 

In other words, this feature of service is saying:

Isolate is not Nice and Nice is not Isolate. Following this rule, they should not be replaced with each other or compared.  Tiwa Savage is very not like other female artistes (that has popped up ever since her arrival) nor is Reminisce Seriki.  You can only say you enjoy Nice’s music more than you enjoy Isolate’s or you enjoy Tiwa and do not enjoy some other.  You do not say Nice is better than Isolate or Reminisce is better than Seriki.

In many service fields, in fact, it is a major objective of the service provider to establish this kind of exclusivity.  Medical specialists, lawyers, writers, entertainments, consultants, chefs, and designers frequently work to make customers believe they can’t get the same from anybody else.

 And that is what you should be doing as an entertainer. That is, you should strive to communicate to the public that if it’s not you on stage, it’s not the same as you. No matter how closely the music artiste’s music and style is to you and your music.

Perish-ability

Another result of intangibility is that services cannot exist before or after the actual performance. This is the perish-ability aspect of service.

You have offered your service as an artiste when you performed on stage.  The people can’t have your service (the performance) before or after. They can only have it while it is served- while you serve it.  That’s why you have to make every performance worthwhile for the entertained. You need to put more efforts into your performances. Give your fans extra.

Esther Fabunmi is the head of  Entertainment Ideaz ( an entertainment social enterprise),  and  bank manager of  Talentz Bank (www.talentzbank.blogspot.com), a music business resource and networking platform dedicated to help entertainers 'turn from talent to cash'. Mail: talentzbank@yahoo.com, Facebook/Talentz Bank, Twitter: @talentzbank.