By Ian Ortega
It’s clear that if a Ugandan music artiste for some reason of sorts became incapacitated for a year or two, many of them would run super broke. Simply because they are the business themselves. When they don’t sing, they don’t bring in money. And this is a very dangerous precedent for any industry.
We have come to a point where Ugandan musicians should begin looking beyond earning money from their active participation in music and think of passive income sources. This may be a hard transformation, but it’s one that the music industry dearly needs.
For example, what would happen if a music artiste fell off the charts? We have seen it happen again and again, where the once popular ones are now the forgotten ones. And because they were living a life of luxury, they get so depressed since they can’t manage to support their previous lifestyle.
Of course, a few music artistes have thought of investments like Real Estate. For the majority, this is the number one business venture they have invested in greatly. But can’t we also think beyond real-estate?
Is it a crime for a Ugandan Music artiste to write a book documenting his life and giving tips for upcoming artistes on how to thrive in the industry?
And how about doing high class video recordings targeting a specific niche and marketing these video tutorials to upcoming artistes? Why can’t our music artistes think of ventures that involve training the upcoming artistes and charging a fee for this?
And why not ride on their brands to venture into the hospitality business? Who wouldn’t desire to sleep in a “Chameleone hotel?” Maurice Kirya has done his best with the Sound Cup, but we need more following suit.
Can’t our musicians start clothing lines or labels? Can’t they partner with great fashion designers to rock off such concepts? Why should they perform from Sunday to Sunday till they get burned out, fully exhausted and running on empty? The music industry could actually thrive better if our music artistes took off some great time off active music and used such time to enter the zone of magical music composition and writing?
And who says our musicians can’t act? Surely, we would like to stare at Desire Luzinda’s hips in a movie or two.
It’s high time Uganda’s music artistes thought out of the box and saw their brands as a grand opening to greater possibilities. Why should the Davidos of Nigeria earn in billions while our stars earn pennies?
For now, the only way music artistes are going to grow to greatness is through diversification. The time for dabbling on just concert in-flows and doing a few kwanjula shows and other private performances is done. Anything can happen, and the worst that can happen is a musician losing their voice. If every music artiste thought of this, then they would plan better. Too bad, many of them sing like they will never grow old, like nothing can happen to their voices.
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“Vote for your favourite artistes to win in the #ZZINAwards this April. Visit; www.galaxyfm.co.ug or Vote on your phone by dialling *289*4# and follow prompts. Voting closes on April 26th 2014.”
