With black and white... There has to be some shades of grey

Hey there fellow bloggers ok so now I’m on my second post and I want us to have a very important and interesting conversation; in the first post I spoke about the lovely jobs PRPs are doing for our musicians, well there’s also the negative aspect of it: Are PRPs doing enough for our ever consistent artists? You get musicians like SAMA award winning Donald who was recently nominated for the BET awards (together with Toya Delazy) and who is known for the hit single ‘’I Deserve’’. Now this guy is a star and well known BUT only in South Africa and yes maybe in some parts of other African countries but overseas like the United Kingdom or the USA is he really that well known? Artists like twin duo from Nigeria P-Square and D-Banj have tapped into the American market and it has worked, D-Banj even got signed by international rap superstar Kanye West to his G.O.O.D Music label. Thanks to their PRPs who got their names out there. I mean these guys are from small towns from Nigeria but made it big internationally. Now to start the debate WHAT do you think our PRPs are doing wrong when it comes to our already struggling artists? I mean already SA artists are not selling as well as before in terms of physical sales; 10,000 copies sold is gold according to www.risa.org.za and already that has been dumbed down to accommodate the ratio. SA artists being nominated at big award ceremonies like the BETs is to merely balance out the ratio to the Nigerian artists who win every year clearly their PRPs and marketing departments are going all out for these musicians. Let us also give credit where it is due to SA PRPs but they are still not doing enough promoting, marketing and tapping into the international market this is why PR should be done by professionals not just people who were trained and who were just thrown in the deep end with people’s careers . So my fellow bloggers let’s start the conversation; what must be done for our SA artists to get their INTERNATIONAL recognition we know they deserve?

www.trufm.co.za

''One good thing about music... When it hits you feel no pain'' - Bob Marley

Music... According to http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/music is ''an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elememts are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and music.''

www.vinylstats.com

It is the gift of life and it brings sunshine to a rainy day which is why I chose to blog about it. South African music is one of the fastest growing activities not only in Africa but internationally too. Public Relations Practitioners (PRPs) of different musicians have been playing a very poignant role in these artists succeeding; when you think of perfectly strategic planning they put together for these artists one would be amazed, PR was  never taken seriously before but because of the excellent results of it the audience is now seeing; it is a force to be reckoned with. When you look at artists like the rap superstar AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) and the multi award winning afro pop singer Zahara who in her first week of sales sold a whopping 241,000 making the album go platinum (www.risa.org.za).  Highly recommended and experienced PRPs got their names out there and with their vast skills and knowledge they have succeeded. Successful artists like Zahara are reaping these very benefits and rewards of excellent Public Relations and marketing.

Join me in my second blog where we will be talking about the negative side of marketing South African musicians. Join in the debate and, let us start a conversation where we will share and spread the knowledge through this wonderful platform called the NeedleOnWax blog.

Till next time fellow bloggers...