*Exclusive Interview with C.E.O of Gospo- Groove Entertainment, Mr Victor Igbinigie*
Henotace Media had an exclusive interview with Mr Victor Igbinigie, the C.E.O of Gospo groove Entertainment, a renowned artiste and talent manager, event manager, public relation consultant, Gospel music promoter and Entrepreneur.
Mr Victor Igbinigie spoke on the need for gospel music promoters and artistes to be patient and build their brands.
Can you tell us about your Passion for Gospel Music Promotion
In 1995, I stepped into a shop in kaduna to get foreign gospel songs, Rap gospel songs, R&B gospel songs, but unfortunately what i had was Don moen , Ron kenoly and Panama Percy Paul, I had relatives abroad who had sent me a few gospel songs, so I knew there could be more but for some reasons they were not getting to that store. Even way back then when I get my supplies from my brother abroad, I use to do mix, compilations for people who wanted different genres of music. This was the passion that birthed Gospo groove.
Sir, most young music promoters want to know, what’s the secret to success in gospel music promotion ?
Carve a niche for yourself, some of the young guys i see around have gotten barred by us, they copy your content, copy your style, copy the template hook, line and sinker. You need to carve a niche for yourself, let there be something unique about your brand. Then you need creativity and originality, and then integrity, a lot of young artiste lack integrity , some have been reported to me that gave a particular platform money but they renegade, some even blocked the clients from their WhatsApp, in such cases the artiste won’t come back and it will definitely backfire on that platform, the artiste will go around town warning other artistes to beware of his platform.
Another very crucial point is the need for Patience, it won’t be overnight, its important to build your brand. Its the same thing for a young gospel artiste, Sammy okposo my good friend and brother, frank edwards my good friend and brother, midnight crew, pat uwaje king to be specific, they went through heats, they went through the fire, for many years before they became who they are today. Sammy okposo used to play sound tracks for nolly wood movies, he treks miles to go and play keyboard, but here he is today travelling globally, Frank edwards the same thing, he used to sleep in the studio, in buchi’s studio to be specific, Pat uwaje king use to hawk their CDs around churches, the first igwe album did not do well, what you hear today as igwe is a remix by wole oni, I managed wole oni for about 3years, pat uwaje king, mike Abdul, odunayo ojo were hawking their CDs from church to church, but see them today now. Similarly for a young gospel artiste, there is need for Patience. Patiently build the brand, once that is done, it is only natural that it will begin to attract people. Good brand will attract people but it takes time and effort to build such good brands.
Sir, we observed you don’t run any google ads or any ppc ads on your platform, is there a reason for this ? Is it intentional?
Yes! It is. When we started gospel music promotion , we wanted a clean page, there are people who get upset when they come to a page with annoying popups, you can’t even achieve what you went there for, some of them are not mobile friendly, you can’t close the window, you can’t close the page. The truth is that is an extra way of generating income, whosoever wants to do it, please go ahead by all means, but for us, we wanted a clean interface, a clean page devoid of every distraction.
