The only way Namibian artist can get their music video on the MTV Base channel is by making themselves relevant to the mass audience and undertaking a simple strategy of collaborating with certain people (famous artists from other countries) to make them stand out. Selma Neshiko had a chat with MTV Base’s Director, Tim Horwood, on the side at Bel Ombre in Mauritius explaining to her that as much as they try to give coverage to music from other parts of Africa, Nigeria and South Africa dominate airplay because MTV Base (DStv/GOtv) has more subscribers in those countries, thus it’s good for their ratings.
Local music lovers and artists have been complaining about how ‘tough’ it is to get their music videos on MTV Base, as most of the content is ruled by Nigerian and South African music. But Horwood says South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Angola are the top four countries in terms of number of subscribers but not sure where Namibia is. “I’m sure its further down because of the population number not because of the lack of talent since we base our decision on subscribers. It’s not about we can’t play Namibian music; we play Namibian music that is relevant in Nigeria or South Africa. So if the artists themselves can also make themselves relevant in those territories through collaboration and social media, then panel African channel will open to them. To a certain degree, we also have the responsibility to do that, maybe we not doing enough but that’s something we looking at,” says Horwood. He says that when artists submit their videos to the Channel, they fail to submit a compiling case and the packaging is unappealing. “I have how many hits, I won this many awards in my country, on radio, this is how many times I play a week, here’s photos of me chilling with this famous people and so on). How it’s positioned and how is marketed play a big role. If it’s packaged nice, with a label and information accompanying it then it’s easy to digest it. It has a much bigger chance that it will get attention. Package you video nice to get our attention. I think artists do mess up on that,” says Horwood.
Singing in a local language has no impact on the requirements as long as all people around content can relate to it. “ You can sing in your local language if its catchy enough because for it to receive airplay there got to be something about your music either the beat, the video or the lyrics that should appeal to a broader audience.” He encourages artist to build their own stuff and not to think that MTV will build it for them. “We the last step in the game. Give it to us and make us want to watch it, get your own support going. when that Facebook page has many likes then that’s when we’ll jump on… be proactive, build your own stuff, don’t think mtv will build your stuff.”
“If you can get it on radio and it’s getting hits on radio then that’s when MTV comes into the picture. We will not get someone who is random; who doesn’t have followers and no one knows him. We want to grow things that have momentum already, help them grow even further and put them on a global stage but first you have to have your country behind you. If you got your country, region and territory behind you then we can work on getting Africa behind you,” says Horwood.
“I don’t know enough at all, I’m embarrassed by level of knowledge. I know Ees but I don’t know enough. I do music research all the time but I’m not exposed to Namibian music. I would like to hear what Namibian artist can do,” is his answer when asked whether he knows of any artist from Namibia. Horwood is also the Creative Director at Viacom International Media Networks Africa.