BW artists, promoters engage international music experts

Dumisani Ncube | Tuesday August 30, 2016 17:09

Stephen Mayall the co founder and managing director of Music Ally one of the leading business information companies in digital music - London UK PIC: KZN Music Imbizo

The three-day KZN Music Imbizo hosted experts from countries such as United Kingdom (UK), Norway, Denmark, Namibia and South Africa. The Imbizo tackled different topics from branding, marketing, publishing and digital distribution to mention just a few.

Speakers and facilitators shared different skills and knowledge on how to excel in the music industry in the 21st century.

Apart from learning from the experts, local promoters and artists also got an opportunity to interact, network and build new relationships. Speakers included veteran Sibongile Khumalo, Gillian Ezra from Deezer, Melanie Triegaardt from MTV, Peter Briggs from VIP Booking - Denmark, and entrepreneur, Lebo Gunguluza.

Local music entrepreneur, Modibe was one of the speakers, at the workshop. Modibe spoke about the administration side of music as a whole. He was the head of Botswana delegation.

“Attending the KZN Music Imbizo was such a great experience. I got to learn a lot from industry experts. I learnt about the importance of online distribution, building brands, intellectual property protection and the importance of having an identity,” jazz sensation, Gabasiane-Molale said.

Botswana artists and promoters all agreed that the workshop added impetus to their brands and they are looking forward to educating local artists who did not get an opportunity to travel to Durban.

Some of the local artists took advantage of this platform to market their brands.

German Dollar distributed his brand merchandise such as CDs, T-Shirts and business cards during the three-day workshop. He even got an opportunity to perform at one nightclub, which had the likes of Mandla Spikiri, Arthur Mafokate, Reason and DJ Warras.

Afro-pop artist Kabelo ‘Scavenja’ Tiro also staged a duet performance in a jam session with a band he had found performing there. Despite not rehearsing they staged an interesting duet performance.

The Botswana travelling team arrived in the country from Durban on Sunday.