What Nollywood must learn from global music giants

The latest financial results from Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group are more than just impressive corporate milestones, they are a strategic blueprint for creative industries worldwide. For Nigeria’s Nollywood and music industry, long celebrated for its storytelling ingenuity but often constrained by structural inefficiencies, these results offer a timely lesson, showing content alone is no longer enough. The future belongs to ecosystems.

Sony’s near-20 percent revenue growth and Warner’s expanding margins did not happen by accident. Both companies have mastered a simple but powerful idea, diversification of revenue streams. Streaming remains the backbone, but it is the explosive growth in areas like live performances, merchandising, licensing, and artist services that is increasingly defining profitability. In Sony’s case, ‘other’ revenue streams grew by over 50 percent, contributing significantly to its overall gains. Warner, on the other hand, leveraged efficiency and cost discipline while expanding artist-related services.

This is where Nollywood must pay attention.

For decades, Nigeria’s film industry has relied heavily on a narrow revenue model: box office sales, DVD distribution (now largely obsolete), and, more recently, streaming platform deals. While the rise of platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has opened new doors, it has also exposed a structural weakness – overdependence on a single pipeline. Unlike the global music industry, where revenue is layered and diversified, Nollywood still operates largely as a one-dimensional marketplace.

The implications of this style are deep. Nollywood must begin to think beyond films as standalone products and instead see them as intellectual properties (IP) with multiple monetisation pathways. A successful movie should not end with its theatrical or streaming run. It should spawn merchandise, spin-offs, live events, brand partnerships, and even gaming adaptations where possible. Hollywood has long mastered this model, but the music industry’s recent success shows that even content once considered ‘consumable and transient’ can evolve into enduring commercial ecosystems.

Also, there is an urgent need to professionalise rights management and licensing in Nollywood. One of the biggest drivers of growth for both Sony and Warner is their ability to monetise catalogues (old and new) across multiple platforms and geographies. Nigerian filmmakers, by contrast, often lose control of their content through opaque distribution deals or outright piracy. Without a robust system for tracking, licensing, and enforcing rights, Nollywood will continue to leak value at every stage of the chain.

Similarly, the rise in live and experiential revenue in the music industry offers a compelling model for Nollywood. Film premieres, fan conventions, behind-the-scenes tours, and interactive storytelling events can become viable revenue streams. In a nation with a vibrant youth population and a strong appetite for entertainment, these are not far-fetched ideas; they are underexplored opportunities.

Equally, data must become central to decision-making. Streaming has not only increased revenue for global music companies; it has also provided granular insights into audience behaviour. This data informs everything from content creation to marketing strategy. Nollywood, still largely driven by intuition and anecdotal evidence, must embrace analytics if it hopes to compete globally. Platforms already collect this data; the question is whether Nigerian creators and producers are leveraging it effectively.

Likewise, scale and collaboration matter. Sony’s advantage lies partly in its size, which allows it to absorb risks and invest heavily in new talent and markets. While Nollywood may not immediately replicate such a scale, it can foster stronger industry collaboration – co-productions, shared distribution networks, and collective bargaining with global platforms. Fragmentation has long been one of Nollywood’s greatest weaknesses; unity could become its competitive edge.

However, perhaps the most critical lesson lies in mindset. The global music industry has undergone a painful transformation over the past two decades, moving from physical sales dominance to digital disruption and now to a diversified digital-physical hybrid model. Companies that survived did so by embracing change, investing in innovation, and rethinking their business models. Nollywood now faces a similar inflection point.

The industry is no longer just competing locally; it is part of a global content marketplace where quality, accessibility, and monetisation strategies determine success. Nigerian stories have already proven their global appeal. What remains is building the infrastructure to fully capture their value.

To be clear, this is not a call for Nollywood to mimic the music industry wholesale. Film and music are different mediums with distinct consumption patterns. But the underlying principle (diversify, professionalise, and innovate) is universal.

If Nollywood can internalise these lessons, the rewards could be transformative – increased revenue, global competitiveness, job creation, and a more sustainable creative economy. If it does not, it risks remaining a prolific but under-monetised industry which is rich in content but poor in returns.

Sony and Warner have shown what is possible when creativity meets strategy. The question now is whether Nollywood is ready to take the next step.