Argus Mepo
Local musicians should utilise digital platforms as their usual income generating live gigs, events, tours and shows are now prohibited owing to the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic fourth wave.
The harsh reality is that the terrain has completely changed.
Gone are the days when a hit song could be benchmarked and determined by the plays and the popularity of the song in the streets or kombis.
A number of the now popular artists such as Enzo Ishall, Blot, Bazooker, Soul Jah Love, Seh Calaz and Bounty Lisa, to mention just a few had their careers shaped by street shows.
Their music trended and their careers flourished resoundingly.
On that same note, piracy also played a big role in pushing and moulding the careers of various artists.
It has expanded the reach of the struggling musicians to a much bigger and broader audience.
The generation of Killer T, Seh Calaz, Kinnah, Freeman, Lady Squanda, Jah Love (late), Ricky Fire, among others can testify that the DJs and other individuals who dubbed their music and sold CDs of their music aided their rise to stardom.
However, in the past, piracy was a variable that could generate popularity and the by-product of popularity was more live shows hence artists castigated and embraced piracy at the same time because they could make money and a living out of it.
But, with the inception of Covid-19 tables turned.
Artists in Zimbabwe relied heavily on liveshows as their main source of revenue .
But, the pandemic has adversely affected them.
This is a devastating challenge that most artists face especially those who solely rely on music and has been further worsened by the lack of viable measures and initiatives to cushion the artists.
Against this background, artists must embrace the digital space and move on.
They must utilise music stores like iTunes, Deezer, Tunecore, Deezer Spotify and Youtube, to mention just a few.
This is mainly because the digital platforms know no borders because they are dotted around the globe in this tiny and highly accessible global village.
Hence it will play an instrumental role of widening the audience and fanbase of artists as well as tapping into other key and strategic markets beyond Zimbabwe.
In the midst of the pandemic, some local artists like Jah Prayzah, Winky D, Poptain, Holy Ten, Nutty O, among others have been touring the world because they upped their game on digital spaces thereby increasing their relevance.
Digital streaming platforms also pay varying amounts depending on the streams one gets.
This might also go a long way in cushioning artists who have suffered from the low music business climate as a result of the Covid-19 restrictive and mitigatory factors.
Furthermore, the digital spaces have also become the converging zones for music fanatics and evidenced by a quantitative increase in virtual shows, Facebook and Instagram shows.
As such, social media streets Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok among others, are the new streets to locate good music. They have also offered musical breakthroughs to new artists just like the physical streets in ths past.
Last year Kae Chaps got his breakthrough following the release of his viral song Juzi courtesy of the social media networks were it trended impressively.
