Strauss Lunyangwe
As a new dawn is upon the horizon with the recent pandemic, artists all over the world are now relying on online services to get their music out there.
Speaking to Entertainment Now!, founder of DonluAfrica Llewelyn Adams said CDs are definitely phasing out; however, in Namibia, artists still heavily rely on physical CDs for most of their sales. ''In the recent pandemic, it is evident that we have to look into other means of selling albums, such as online stores like ours and itunes, etc,'' he said.
However, for a country such as Namibia, a lot more work has to go into educating the people on how to use these services. Other African countries like South Africa have gotten used to purchasing music online.
Adams told this publication that since inception, they are now at 2.49 million streams and based on the recent events relating to the corona epidemic, they have seen a spike in online listeners.
He suggested that artists in the country should focus on releasing more singles because out of a total of 14 tracks, only one or two are likely to be hit singles. ''It's very rare that you find an album that you can listen to non-stop. But also putting out a full album pushes them to do more; to put in more effort – so it's a 50/50, as a full album sometimes is an expensive exercise,'' he explained.
Adams further added that plans are already finalised to host DonluAfrica music fest in August but they are now waiting to see what the future holds in terms of the corona pandemic. ''So, it's very difficult at this point to comment on this – we have; however, seen other event organisers taking a huge knock with a ban for large gatherings put in place by the President as a means to try to curb the transmission of the coronavirus,'' he ended.
For now, the festival is one of the biggest things that supporters can look forward to, as well as an app that they will be launching soon.
Last year, the mega streaming service announced the #DONLUPays1Million challenge, where it intends to raise 1 million dollars to pay artists who are selling either singles and/or albums on the site.– slunyangwe@nepc.com.na
Caption: Founder of DonluAfrica Llewelyn Adams.
Photo Contributed