Radio City’s Mister Deejay questions Apass’ approach to Ugandan Music in blog post, we reproduce it below.
You can read original post here.
Apass releases a lot of music. So much so that you never quite know what single he is pushing today and which he was pushing yesterday. I was recently in a sit-down with some fellow DJs who told me that Apass and his producer Nassim write and record songs every day. Every single day!
This approach is contrary to the conventional wisdom in UG, which follows a blueprint popularised by our biggest artist: Jose Chameleone.
Artists usually release a song, then push and push and push it. If it “catches”, they cash in by performing in clubs and at events, then they hold an “album” launch (which is more accurately a song launch), and then they repeat the process all over again.
The problem with this approach is twofold: first, it doesn’t take into account the fact that the way we consume music has changed dramatically in the past decade. We no longer dwell on songs for as long as we used to, especially songs by new artists. This is the age of social media, where attention spans are short and fickle.
Second, if you are a new artist, the process of “pushing” a song is not as easy as it is for a bigger artist. If Chameleone releases a song, he knows it will play on every station whether he does the rounds or not. That’s not the case for most artists. For unknown or lesser known artists, pushing a song costs money. It is an open secret that a certain DJ on a certain urban youth station charges artists up to 100k (unbeknownst to his employers I think) just to play one song. Repeat that process for even 10 stations and you are suddenly paying a lot of money for very little reward.
Apass has decided to just release music often and that has made three things happen for him:
1. It has made him improve leaps and bounds as an artist. If you produce a new song every day for a year, your 365th song will be miles better than your first. That’s a fact.
2. It has made him reach a wider audience because there is ALWAYS new Apass music to chew on. He is even penning songs for Bebe Cool now. Not many young artists can say that.
3. It has allowed him to find his audience and develop a style they can relate to. Apass’ songs haven’t all been hits. In fact most have faded into obscurity- but it’s much easier to put out a “maybe” song today when you know that if it doesn’t hit, you can release another one next week.
There was an internal debate at my station (Radiocity 97FM, where the fun is, get with the program!) a little while back over whether we were playing too much Apass. I think he had 4 or 5 singles in rotation at one point. That is the one big danger of this approach. It can backfire and make people think you are everywhere.
I personally think that seeming to be everywhere is good for a new artist, especially with all the competition nowadays. Being “too much everywhere” is something that a lot of artists fear, but in my opinion that fear is unfounded. People don’t get tired of you if you are consistently producing quality. When a genuinely talented person works on his craft every single day, they only get better. Just ask Micheal Jordan.
As a music consumer, Apass is a breath of fresh air for me. I grow weary of waiting for artists to release music. Every artist understandably thinks that their next song/album/mixtape is the best thing since MJ, and so they sit on it and try to release it at exactly the right time and with as big a bang as possible. That’s just a way of setting yourself up for failure. I cannot tell you how many promising artists I’ve seen lose the momentum of a good single because their followup has taken way too long to materialize.
I’m not sure whether this rapid production approach is a deliberate career decision by Apass and his producer Nassim or if it is just something they stumbled onto. Whether or not it works long term remains to be seen, but it’s working at the moment, isn’t it?
Let me know if you agree or disagree on twitter @misterdeejayug
