SA MUSIC GOES DIGITAL



ON THE MOVE: Dj Cleo is one of the
SA artist who adopted digital music
www.digitalmusic.com



The music industry has gone too far and there are significant changes over the years, while I was reading about the shifting of traditional music into being digital I was quite surprise to know how music has been up-graded/modernised in order to be in-line with today's generation or today's ever-changing technology society.

This has shown a marvellous results to most successful artists worldwide particularly in the United State, Also here in South Africa there are artists who has adapted/moved from being traditional into being digital, the likes of Dj Cleo-is one of the South African artist who showed a massive and significant growth and change, however this brings lot of benefits both to the artist,and its audience.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS

• 

  

  ABOVE: Music has gone from being
  traditional to being digital.
  www.digitalmusic.com

  

  By uploading your music on internet-helps your music to be more eassly accessable everywhere,as we we know, music stores and CDs are sometimes take time to be distributed in all corners of the country.
• The media will play your single even though you didn't release the full album, this helps you to be more familiar to your fans and to the media. When you release your album you will be already known, this includes the likes of Toya Delayz.
• More downloads results in more reputation, we know lot of artists through iTunes, downloads not by buying their music from traditional music shops.

In overall, the media has also changed, particurly radio and television as they also gone into being digital, so it is advisable to our artists to adopt digital music, so that the media will be able to get their tracks played immediately after they have released it, there are downloads options, online( youtube) and many options you can use to widen your music immediately.

KANYE WEST TO ROCK SOUTH AFRICA

Its official the multiple-award winning rapper Kanye West is set to jet to our shores next year to perform for one night only.



LIVE IN SA: kanye West to rock SA
next year. www.castlelite.co.za



The event, which will be sponsored by alcohol beverage maker Castle Lite, is said to be scheduled for 2 February 2013, when Kanye West will perform to his fans at an undisclosed venue in Johannesburg. Brand campaign manager of Castle Lite Khayakazi Dyantyi said: "Yes, it is true we are bringing Kanye West next year, for a one-night-only event".

 Lately, it seems there is some tight competition between beer providers as they bring international stars to perform in South Africa following Hansa Pilsener bringing Usher  earlier this year.

WHY CASTLE LITE SPONSORING THE EVENT?

• Sponsorship is one of the main communication practise that allows an organisation to gain publicity at large
•  according to Castle Lite, this is one of their communication methods that allows them to communicate with  their target market.
• This event will bring international recognition
•  Most of the Castle Lite target audiences are men, and most target audiences of Kanye West are men, so that is why they chose to bring him. 



BRING-IT-UP: Castle lite brings another
cool experience with Kanye West.
www.castlelite.co.za



This year the brand brought singer Drake to perform at Gallagher Estate and next year the brand hopes to host 6 000 guests to live the experience with Kanye West. Limited tickets are expected to go on sale at Computicket from 28 September 2012, priced from R650 for a standard ticket to R1 000 for limited golden circle tickets. 

  

e-TV: ROLLING WITH KELLY KHUMALO



ABOVE: Rolling Kelly is on screen live on e-tv
source: www.etv.co.za



Rolling with Kelly Khumalo...I know some of you know very well what I am talking about, e-TV brings another "Rolling"celebrity profile show for the second season. I was quiet surprise when I first seen "Rolling with Kelly Khumalo-uncovered" show on Sunday at 18:30, to me, it was like ohh!! this show is back!...whose the show is all about? in couple of minutes I found that its Kelly Khumalo, guess what came first into my mind-I asked myself "is Kelly still exist in this industry?

In a communication point point of view or in a public relations angle I can say e-TV deserve to be given a thumbs-up on what they are doing in keeping our public figures close to us. This is a rare opportunity that allows celebrity to share his/her private life with his/her fans, this benefits and boost the chosen celebrity's image.



ON SCREEN: Rolling with Kelly, episode 1
. source www.etv.co.za



To be more specific, we all know Kelly's image, starting from her positive media reputation around 2003 until it turned dramatically into being negative especially when she became drug edict...to her fiance's scandal "Jub Jub"in 2010. From that time we seen Kelly going up-and-down, the media reports also played its role in ruining her reputation, but now it seems that Kelly is back with more fire than before. What e-TV did to ensure that our public figures keep in-touch with us as public by introducing such show its marvellous. After this show I realised that the media have a role in building and destroying someone's image.

SABC1 BRINGS NEW SHOWS



OUT: Live going off air
source www.sabc.co.za



SABC1 has made a few changes to their programming,after a lot of complaints about their programmes, according to their statement there are programs that are going to replaced by the new up coming programs as from September 2012. Some of them are as follows:



1. LIVE AMP replaces LIVE

The current season of Live ended on Friday 31 August 2012 will be replaced by LIVE AMP which is a new show starting airing on Friday 14 September 2012 (today) at 21h00, as we know that Bonang is no longer a part of the team, private auditions for male anchor to join Luthando are already conducted.



DONE WITH YOU: Jika majika also
going off. www.sabc.co.za



2. TURN IT OUT STREET BATTLE replaces JIKA MAJIKA

 At last, season 10 of Jika Majika ends mid October 2012 and the second season of Turn-It-Out-Street- Battles will take over from Wednesday 24th at 19h00 with new presenter. This show deals with youth from streets of South Africa to showcase their dancing talent, presenter and judges are not yet confirmed.

3. FAN BASE replaces JAM ALLY



ABOVE: Jam Ally to be replaced by
Fan Base. source www.sabc.co.za



Can you believe it?... Jam Ally is out... after more than 15 year on SABC 1, the current season of Jam Ally (S26) will be off after the final episode airs on Friday 21 September 2012- a brand new show called Fan Base will take over from Friday 28 September 2012 at 18:30. Fan Base is a playful, light-hearted and fun-filled music variety show, the presenter is non other than Zulu Boy.

For more info you can visit www.mysabc1.blogspot.com.

CELEBRIBIES: THEY ARE NOTHING WITHOUT PUBLICISTS




ON TOP: Minnie Dlamini
picture: www.sabc.co.za

 

Some people may wonder why some celebrities are more popular or percieved than others, their appearence in the media/ media coverage is times-two than others...why? if you don't know why, let me tell you "its because of their publicists" who send news about their clients (celebrities) to the media. These publicists play a vital role in shaping individual's reputation, for an examples, public figure such as Minnie Dlamini has her own publicists.



ABOVE: the importance of publicity in
entertainment industry.
picture: www.publicity.co.za



You can (sometimes) find that artists especially those who are  still struggling have no one who is responsible for the public relations activities or they just hire their friends or relative to hold public relations activities, maybe because they believed that they has connections in the media industry but when the times' going you discover that there is no success, there are no connections, where do you think they up to? they end up not unknown.
 My point here is to emphasize the importance of publicists in celebrity lifestyles (industry), thus each public figure must have his/her publicist of which will benefit his/her popularity.

2012 SATMA AWARDS: ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE EASTERN CAPE



ABOVE: satma awards celebriting
7th anniversary this year
pic: www.satmaawards.co.za



My culture, your culture, one nation...if you know things and you're a music fan definitely you know what I am talking about. The South African Traditional Music Achievement (SATMA) awards incepted in 2005 to promote, preserve, uplift, develop, stage multicultural exchanges, honour and award traditional musicians across racial and ethnic background. From 2006 until last years' 6th anniversary SATMA awards were hosted in KwaZulu Natal, but this year, all roads lead to Eastern Cape as SATMA will be hosted in EC for the first time.



ON THE GO: Mr Goba, CEO and founder
of satma awards. www.satmaawards.co.za



According to satma website, on the 26 of  July public nominations were officially opened and this nomination process ended on the 9th of August 2012, this will be followed by the announcement of nominees 2012 which will take place on the 25th of August2012 at the Walter Sisulu University Zamukulunga campus in Mthatha starting at 18h00 to 19h00.



ABOVE: Satma
awards 2012
pic: www.satmaawards.co.za



PARTNERS OF SATMA AWARDS:

• Eastern Cape provincial government
• Ilanga newspaper
• Premier Hotels Group
• Buffalo City Metro
• National Heritage Council of S.A
• SABC

And the ambassador will be South African artist Ntando Bangani and official date of the event and the venue will be announced at the 2012 nomination announcement.

SABC TO LAUNCH NEW 24-HOUR NEWS CHANNEL



TAKING THE LEAD: Sabc to launch new 24
hour news channel. picture www.sabc.co.za



The SABC, which is the public broadcaster, introduces new 24-hour news channel over their three television channels (This was revealed by a new GCEO Lulama Makhubo during the interview with channel24 on Monday. Well...it seems as SABC is taking a ladder to the top in satisfying their publics and sustaining this competitive industry. While reading this article I picked up some of the good practices which were taken; in terms of communication and partnership.

 

ABOVE: Sabc group chief executive Lulama
Makhubo. www.sabc.co.za



THEY DID IT RIGHT:

• This news channel would be multilingual.
• Will be available around african continent.
• They have partnership with Multichoice' DStv.

The news channel would first be available on DStv and later be offered on digital torrestrial television when the signal came on. To SABC these are the good news, but  I'm really concerned about two questions;  SABC is known by poor service-are they going to manage all these channels? secondly, as this channel will be available on DStv-what about those who don't have DStv?...Well...afterall I would like to congratulate the SABC for their work. For more www.channel24.co.za

TOPBILLING: SABC3'S PRESENTER SEARCH CONTINUES






ABOVE: SABC3's presenter search continues as we are
about to end.
(picture: www.sabc3.co.za)



SABC3s' Top Billing in partnership with Nedbank are doing it yet again this year. The "MyTop billing Dream" presenter search is on, and it is about to end as we having top 7 contestants on the list remaining as the auditions were held in almost all big cities.

TOP 7: [ WHO'S THE BOSS]

• Chamendran
• Greg
• Jonathan
• Kanya
• Lauren B
• Lynelle
• Zama N

They are all perfect for this position, but the question is, do all relevant stakeholders involved in deciding who's suitable for this position? I mean in terms of communication: do the public allowed to vote? or its just judges decision on who's leaving and who's safe?. While I was visiting their website, I didn't see any ordinary voting procedure (SMS line procedure) but I saw only online voting where Jonathan was leading with 24% followed by Zama Ngcobo with 20% of votes. In overall, I think would be wise if they can include the public as well to participate in deciding who's perfect because they're the one watch the programme.

SAMA'S DID IT RIGHT THIS TIME



above: 2012 samas were like this
pic:www.mtnsamaawards.co.za



After criticism from the public about last year's MTN South African music achievements awards the organisers got the message and its obvious that they took it into consideration, This year's SAMA awards (took place in Sun City this previous weekend on the 29-30 April 2012) was on its top-spot ranging from its performances,stage setting, lighting and crew presenters. The organisers has able to combine and to communicate with all concerned stakeholders, the other thing that I'm happy about,is the way of selecting and voting for the artists.



ABOVE: MTN is an official sponsor of sama's
pic source:www.mtn.co.za

 At the moment there are no serious complaints about selecting process and judging proccess although I still not satisfied the way this event was being advertised, there were few advertisements which were promoting this event even on our media channels there was less coverage ,of which, I think this was caused by last year's unsatisfactory about this events. But after all the SAMA's is back with its vibe and if they continue organising this event  like this year's awards that means there are lots to come. 

GAP BETWEEN OUR MUSICIANS



Live-sabc's music show

 Music in South Africa is percieved as one of the art that have the positive effect in our local art and culture's productivity. But what heppenss if our artists are bieng treated in a different standard? What's a use if this continues or does South Africa have such thing called "gap between artists"? according to the fearture on the website called ewt.co.za which is the entertainment website there is still an imbalance in our local music industry. My concerns lies on- when you look the way our artists are being treated in terms of the media coverage and the way we (as public) percieve our artists is totally different.


ABOVE: Afrotainment which is the record
lebel company based in Durban.



 Its rare to see traditional artist performing on our national television channels especially in the music related programes and even to hear their music being played in radio stations is rare-why and what cause of this? Is traditional music boring and outdated? After reading this feature I then realised that the problem lies not only to the media by to us as communities- the way we percieve them, lack of communication between their management and their target audiences, some of them they don't even know how to market and publicize an artist through the media channels.

2012 MTN RADIO AWARDS: UKHOZI FM'S STILL THE BEST

MTN Radio Awards 2012
(http://www.mtnradioawrds.co.za/)

What make other radio stations seem bigger and better than other radio stations? Is there such thing? What other radio stations can learn from other successful radio stations? While I was searching the winners of the 2012 MTN radio awards I wasn't surprised to see uKhozi fm (SABC radio station) scoring nine awards in one nights out of eleven nominations (the MTN radio awards was held in Johannesburg last weekend on the 14th April). I continued looking other radio stations hoping that they did the same but I found that most of them got one, two or three awards each, of which led me asking myself what is wrong with other radio stations? What strategies and techniques uKhozi fm uses to gain such publicity and to be the public favourite.



SABC radio station UKhozi fm
 (http://www.ukhozifm.co.za/)

 Each radio station has its own loyal listeners who always backup their radio stations, but what happened when it comes to votes? radio stations like Umhlobo wenene fm, Lesidi fm, Thobela fm have also a huge listenership -what happened to them? Out of all awards, the most wanted award was "the station of the year" which also taken by uKhozi fm of which led this radio station call (what they did this year's awards) as "OPERATION MBOH", by saying this, they're trying to show that they're big, bosses, strong, capable and passionate of what they're doing.

OUR PUBLIC FIGURES: HOW DO THEY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?




Dj Fresh (http://www.fivefm.co.za/)

 

While I was reading the feature about social media and public figures on the website called tnw.com I asked myself what is the importance of using social media in the entertainment industry? What are the outcomes-good or bad? What effect does it have in the entertainment industry? but while the reading continues I realised that how do our public figures publicise and promote themselves to the public. Social media seem to be the new favourite medium for brands and public figures to directly announce information to their target audience, now celebrities are taking to well-populated social sites to reach out to their core markets.




Social Media  platforms (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/)

 

Celebrities like Dj Sbu, Dj Fresh, Bonang Matheba and Tbo Touch are the one of the example who use social media to promote their tours, upcoming events and important announcements. After reading this feature I saw the importance of social media in the entertainment industry and how can benefit them, if our celebrities can learn how to push their careers through social media, there's a lot to benefit not only about posting personal posts but to publish about their upcoming albums, their weekend gig guides, about their new projects and lot more.

RADIO: APRIL WITH ITS CHANGES

http://www.metrofm.co.za/

Its that time of the year again where most of the radio stations re-scheduling their programmes; as from 1st April changes and new financial year of some radio stations are taking place. Some of the biggest radio stations has already issued new line ups of their 2012/2013 presenters, Metro fm, Good Hope fm and UKhozi fm are among of them. Metro fm brought back its current line up with only two changes, the new line up kicks off on Saturday the 1st April. According to Justcurious website, new presenters who will be joining the team are; the well known TV personality Minnie Dlamini will co-host with Adil More  from 12h00 to 15h00, the second new presenter is Mariah Nyako-Lartey from Ofm will co-host with William Lehong from 01h00 to 5h00.



www.justcurious.co.za



On Yfm, rumours saying that the afternoon drive host Dineo Ranaka will be no longer on Yfm are going stronger, Tholi B is expected to take over the drive show, and Sizwe's show will be no longer existing. UKhozi fm added their team with some of the producers and by with well known Vukani "Chilli M" who was previously on Yfm and East Coast Radio, according to zandile Tembe the programmes manager Chilli M will be on air from 19h00 till 23h00 on Fridays and from 15h00 till 18h00 on Saturdays. although some of the radio stations didn't issue (at this time) their line ups but it seems there are no drastic changes this year. We are still waiting for Highveld stereo, Legwalagwala fm, 5fm, Umhlobo wenene fm, Lesedi fm)

DOES THE CELEBRITE'S PHYSICAL APPEARENCE IMPORTANT?

Mshoza (timelive.co.za)

It's always a bit strange when young celebrities get plastic surgery so soon after becoming famous; it make us wonder why they didn't just do it a little earlier and avoid having speculate about their changes in appearance. This makes me wonder and questioning myself: does the physical appearance mean something in an entertainment industry? or it's just a way of getting publicity and attention? or its because they are not satisfied with their natural bodies? or it's because they like to be beautiful?



Shona Ferguson (curious pic)



Referring to some of our local entertainment personalities; Mshoza (artist) "faked" herself lately by lightening her skin, this made her flying allover the media-according to Saturday Star newspaper some of South African ended up gave her the  name of "Mrs Micheal Jackson". Another famous personality who performed this "body construction" is Khanyi Mbau (socialite,actress and artist), she enlarged her breasts.This culture of shaping physical appearance is seen mostly in females, but lately some male celebrities acknowledged the importance of physical appearance (in a positive way), some of them are: dj Cleo, Hawza (artists) who lately become fit-by using gym regularly and also actor Shaun Ferguson... All these celebrities changed their looks in different ways- DOES THIS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR PERCEPTION???

OUR CELEBRITIES: DO THEY TAKE THEIR CAREERS SERIOUSLY?

Picture: Kanyi & Kenny  http://www.celebsite.co.za/

Drugs, lack of respect, alcohol and carelessness are some of the challenges faced by our local celebrities, last week's Sunday Sun newspaper published a story "Our entertainment industry needs guidance", this topic kept me asking myself a question of " how do these challenges face our local entertainment? why are being taken as challenges? how do they affect our local entertainment industry? and who are those individuals?. While I still on thoughts about these questions, In my mind quickly came the biggest question "Do our celebrities take this industry seriously?...

Our celebrities need to look other country's entertainment industries and take notes on how they handle this industry. According to entertainment television programme Flash (SABC3), United State is one of the good example on how to handle and control this industry: to them, music and acting are not just talents but they take it as part of their businesses that's why they're all over the world, the likes of Usher Raymond IV who was here in South Africa last week performing at the Hansa festival in Orlando stadium.

Picture: Brickz (artist)   http://www.celebsite.co.za/

Sunday Sun mentioned some of the local celebrities whose their careers are on the risk of dropping down because of different challenges. Khanyi Mbau (artist,actress and socialite) is one them for being careless with her career, Brickz (kwaito artist) for being alcoholic, Zola (artist,actor, TV personality) for being disrespectful... these celebrities, if they don't change believe me they are going to fall down.

SAMA AWARDS COME WITH "MORE" FIRE THIS YEAR

I strongly believe that South African music is going far and is developing each and year, the South African music's biggest night is right here. On  the 8th of March 2012, the annual MTN South African music achievement awards nominees were announced to the media and to the music industry. This event was held at Tribune hall in Johannesburg's New town district. The purpose of this event was/is to recognise accomplishment in the South African recording industry, it honours and testament to the hard work and dedication that they have invested in crafting their art(music), of which, I still questing myself whether are they going to be same like last year's SAMA's? Firstly, the complaints about selection panel/committee was on every artist's mouth, according to entertainment website sabby.com, some artists complained about what they called discrimination, by not being included although they worked hard and sold may album copies.

According to Serame Toukong, the chief marketing officer at MTN SA who is the main sponsor of the SAMAs, on SABC2's morning live yesterday said, this year's awards are totally different to SAMA 17. This year event will take place at Sun City resort on April 29 and on 30, if you remember this SAMA 17 was held at Carnival City which raised complaints with venue and organisers. According to MTN  there are new categories including 'best street urban album'. Some of the nominees are: zahara with seven nominations including record of the year followed by Mi Casa music with five nominations including record of the year, KwaZulu Natal's Zakwe nominated for best street album,remix of the year,album of the year, male artist of the year and newcomer of the year, Ladysmith black Mambazo is nominated for  best traditional album and as a group of the year. In order to view other nominees visit http://www.mtnsamaawards.co.za/. Although many of previously ignored artists are included but I still asking myself where are others?