The Sunday Mail
The recently launched Star FM online music store will go a long way in providing practical solutions for some of the challenges faced within Zim-dancehall, Godfatha Templeman has said.
Star FM, in partnership with South African firm Creative Mobile Group, created a platform on which contracted artistes will have their music sold online and get paid an agreed percentage on the net sales.
An online music store is defined as a service that provides downloadable content. This business model normally requires you to make a one-off payment in order to download a song or album.
The service allows one to physically own the songs and albums they purchase.
The concept is presently functional in countries like South Africa, Namibia and Kenya and has proved effective in helping improve the arts industry through countering piracy and improving legal distribution of music.
Templeman, real name Simbarashe Maphosa, said the less than two weeks old initiative was already proving to be the panacea that Zim-dancehall was looking for.
The energetic presenter notes that apart from helping address the issue of piracy, the online music store has also provided therapy to adjudication on Dancehall Remedy awards.
Popularity, he said, will be measured by the number of downloads each artiste has over a certain period of time.
Though artistes like Tocky Vibes, Kina, Seh Calaz, Winky D, Soul Jah Love, Shinsoman and Killer T have gone on to create sound fan bases, debate is that does not guarantee each one of them automatic qualification for artiste of the year title.
Local adjudication processes have always been a contentious issue and to date there has never been a clear platform to determine the public’s choice.
“This is probably the solution Zim-dancehall was looking for. When we hold the Dancehall Remedy awards, no one will be blamed for bias since outcome will be based on the number of downloads that an artiste has.
“Fans will directly decide who they want to be Artiste of the Year through downloads. And for the Top 10 charts, there is no limit on songs per artiste,” said Templeman.
The dancehall advocate added any artistes would have access to the download records for verification if need be.
Apart from the aforesaid, Templeman notes artistes can now also benefit from the release of a single track. One-hit-wonders’ have always found it difficult to sustain live shows or sell their music since in most instances it is sold under collection albums that do not directly benefit the artiste.
“The online music store directly rewards an artiste. Sometimes it is difficult to produce and sell a single track but that is possible on this platform,” says Templeman.
Dancehall artistes are upbeat about the development and hope it will go a long way in improving their day-to-day lives.
“We produce a lot of music on a regular but realise little or nothing from its sale due to piracy and other reasons beyond our control. Hopefully this platform will produce results for us,” they argue.
Information at hand by the time of going to print indicated that there was an average of 2 000 downloads per day since the platform was officially launched.
Artistes according to the Star FM official can claim their dues after a six-month period.
To download, listeners are given the key word to a particular song of an artiste and test to a provided platform. New dancehall tunes are introduced every week on the Dancehall Remedy platform held on Thursdays.
The online music platform will soon be open to every other artiste in the country regardless of their genre.
