#PayDiaries with Temple Egemasi

Hi Temple. For those who do not know you, please tell us about yourself.

My name is Temple, I work in the music industry. I work with a lot of emerging artists and I recently just moved into actual talent management for artists but before this I handled rollouts, A&R services to the label my brother and I started and generally oversaw basic operations. I also used to work as a product manager but for music projects.  

Oh great! I see that you just signed a new artist.

Oh yes but it’s not a record label-artist contract it’s more of a manager-artist agreement. 

Well, congratulations on that. 

Thank you very much. 

So, how long have you been in the entertainment industry?

Officially since 2019 so that’s 4 years. 

Is this something you always knew you’d be doing?

I grew up in a household where you could not even see yourself doing this but as a kid I already had a larger than life view where I knew I could be whatever I wanted to be irrespective of the profession I found myself in. But one thing was sure, I had professions I knew I would not do, ex. I was never going to be an accountant. I mean, shout out to accountants but I had an uncle who was one and I saw his job in real-time so nahh, that was not going to be me. 

What did you end up studying?

I studied business management and administration. 

What will you say is the most interesting thing about working in the entertainment industry?

It’s watching a project go from literally nothing or a simple phone call to a masterpiece. The entire process from negotiating, collaborations to attending the sessions or going from a concept document that was sent to you, to an actual album on the charts. It’s a very interesting process to look back on and go through. I also listen to music a lot to help block out my thoughts from wandering.

So, with your job and off your job you love to listen to music, how do you keep up with your streaming platform subscriptions? Is that one of the reasons you downloaded Payday?

Ah yes, it actually is. Apple Music stopped taking Nigerian cards and when I can’t play music, I can’t function, I will lose my mind because my head voice is very active so I use music to block those voices out. So this was very frustrating so I tweeted about it and people recommended Payday and Chippercash so I went ahead to download the two apps. I did not go ahead with Chipper because they needed me to hold up my valid ID and I did not have it with me so Payday was the faster option for me and now I don’t just use it for Apple music payments but other things.

What’s your favorite thing about the payday app so far?

The currency swap definitely. I just need to convince the person who wants to send me money to download the Payday app, fund it, send money to my USD or GBP account via my payday tag and I’ll swap it, very fast and easy and the rates are very friendly, all within the same system. It just makes doing global transactions very easy and convenient.

I love the currency swap as well.

Temple, one might say the entertainment industry is an easy field. Tell me, what are some of the challenges you face in your line of work?  

It’s never always rosy. Actually, for me, one of my major challenges is getting someone to translate my exact ideas and thoughts. It’s a big challenge finding someone to work with who will understand my core concepts because my thoughts are very vivid and I love to have my exact thoughts, my entire concept understood just the way it is in my head. 

Understanding that people think a lot differently. I met someone who told me that she actually doesn’t have a voice in her head that she thinks in abstract concepts and that’s foreign to me because I think in colors, pictures and images so my ideas are very visual in my head and sometimes I end up micromanaging people which can be tough.

What is the one thing you’re most excited about in this industry?

One very important thing that I think is very exciting to see is that people are now looking for and embracing a lot of alternative methods of financing the music business. A lot of people are no longer going the traditional route, trying to get an agency to sign them. They are okay with releasing their own music for a while and then attracting people who are willing to be investors then giving them a huge form of ownership. Because, when you sign to a record label, they own your masters for a while. So for some people, the label owns your masters for tens of years before it’s finally all yours. 

What advice would you give to emerging talent managers?

First, learn what exactly talent management/ A&R entails because to be frank, a lot of people do not understand what it entails, the stress that comes with having to network, the patience you need to micromanage talents and do it well, the entire scope of work. So most times when they then enter the talent management market without these skills, it’s very easy for them to mess up even when it’s unintentional and it then appears like they do not have the artists’ best interest at heart and that’s one of the worst situations to find yourself in.