Talent manager George Britton has advised artistes to expand their audience and not do songs only for their community to consume.

Speaking at a forum organised by Graphic Showbiz at the Executive Theatre of TV3 on Tuesday, June 22, George Britton said doing that limits an artiste and makes his or her growth stagnant.

“I will say it is time artistes started producing for people outside our community. Sometimes we get so comfortable with what we do for just the people who consume what we do that we forget that there are people outside the circle we are used to or there is a market outside what we are used to.

“The truth is that if you are comfortable with what you do for the people you know, you will not grow and if you don’t grow, you will think people do not like your music because they do not consume it. But you forget that the people in your community will get tired of what you give them,” he said.

George Britton also asked artistes to conduct research into other markets so they can tap into them. “When I talk about tapping into other communities, it has to do with broadening your target audience. Let’s expand it and not get too comfortable.

“For example, the fact that you are a Highlife artiste doesn’t mean you should do songs for only people who consume Highlife, it doesn’t mean you should be singing Highlife tunes your entire life.

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“Now things have changed, people have a taste for different things and their preferences switch at any time so you need to have something for everyone so that if there is a Highlife event, you can be called to perform and if there is also an Afrobeats event, you can be called because you have a bit of everything and are good with it. In this case, you earn a lot all round,” he stated.

Using his signee Camidoh as an example, he said, “when I signed him in 2019, this strategy was something we talked about and concluded on doing and I must say it worked, to the extent that when COVID came with restrictions on public gatherings and there were no shows, we were able to get some private parties to play at and also help surprise people’s partners.”

George Britton said he also ensured Camidoh was very active online. “We made sure we got on the likes of TikTok, we took advantage of WhatsApp where fans were given the chance to have video calls with Camidoh, etc.

“And because of this, we were visible online which attracted some brands to work with us. The truth is, online has come to stay and that is the new thing now.”

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He revealed that while many creatives were negatively affected by the pandemic, for his team it was a blessing.

“We were all hit by it but from our camp, it was a blessing. The reason is that, for me, I started doing online activities a long time ago so I knew how things worked online and when everything was shut and moved online, it was easy for my team and I to go around staying relevant and cashing in,” he explained.

George Britton was a panel member for the forum which was on the theme, “Maximising the benefits of digitisation in the COVID-19 era.” Other panel members were rapper Okyeame Kwame; CEO of 3 Media Networks Sadiq Abdulai Abu; filmmaker Ivan Quashigah; creative entrepreneur Mabel Simpson and blogger Ameyaw Debrah.