Frustrations of making music in Nigeria- Pheelz ‘Mr. Producer’

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BY ROTIMI AGBANA
Philip Kayode Moses, popularly known as ‘Pheelz Mr. Producer’, is a young and multi-talented Nigerian audio engineer and music producer, who has since his debut with YBNL, been etching his name on the marble stones of the Nigerian entertainment industry. Credited to his name are a number of hit songs churned out from Olamide’s YBN record label. Showtime celebrity recently caught up with the bundle of talents who has twice been nominated for the prestigious Headies awards. In this exclusive interview, he takes on his career, the Nigerian music industry, love life and relationship.
How lucrative has music production been for you?
It has been really lucrative, more than I actually expected. When you are doing something for the passion, the money doesn’t come to mind. So, when the money started coming in it was really a surprise for me that such amount of money could be made out of something I do out of sheer passion. Music production is something I’m passionate about and love doing, so it has really been lucrative for me, because I’ve smiled to the bank a couple of times (laughs).
Considering the number of young and talented music producers in the music industry, how have you managed to stay relevant?

I think consistency plays a major role when you talk about staying relevant in a music industry that has a lot of good producers, because nobody is too talented, you are just more consistent than the other person. So, consistency is the major key, you just have to keep giving it to them back to back, because if you rest on your oars, one guy from nowhere will just come and blow everything away.

You have to keep your game tight, which is how I have managed to stay relevant in the industry.
What are the major challenges of being a music producer?

One of the major challenges is the lack of structure in the industry; there is no parameter to monitor the progress of your songs and there is no structure on how to monetize the music industry. So, it is a major challenge which I know will be solved very soon.

A lot of people don’t understand how music producers make their money, so, do you mind telling us how you make your money as a music producer?

It varies from producer to producer, but personally the way I operate is this, if you come to me for a production job, you have to pay a production fee, then we’ll agree on a sharing formula from digital revenues, which varies from Itunes, MTN music plus, etc. We’ll have an agreement on how we’ll split the proceeds.