Top Kenyan Showbiz Publicist DJ Slahver Ten Tips On Topping East Africa Charts
By Patrick Kimanzi-Nation Correspondent
Russian-bred Dj Slahver is the most sought after publicist for over 30 A-list artistes in the region including household stars like Nameless, Kush and Wahu, a feat that is propelling the entertainer to the top of the East African entertainment industry.
With a solid 15 year career as a DJ and music guru, here are DJ Slahver's Ten Tips On Staying On Top the Music Showbiz In East Africa.
1. Avoid Doing Free Shows
Free shows are an amazing practice, but once you get to a point where you feel like you have confidence in creating and engaging a live show, I suggest not continuing to do it without some compensation. The sound systems at most shows asking you to perform for free could also be a poor representation of your voice and generally folks won’t know your music, so there will be little engagement. At the same time, If you have to do free shows, I suggest not performing for more than a month or two, to keep you limber and in touch.
2. Don’t Contact Music journalists nor bloggers; they will call you!
Forget the adage that the Mountain does not go to Mohammed. I never contact journalists nor bloggers asking them for an interview ... they see that I have some buzz and want an interview. I am honored and beyond excited to have appeared on all major covers in East Africa.
3. Get A Free Appraisal on PR from BlackWings Entertainment.
At my company, Blackwings Entertainment we deal in professional Showbiz and music marketing. My tasks include distributing new songs to all media stations and Djs here and abroad whilst ensuring continuous airplay. Manage the artistes social media pages, contacting journalists and bloggers for interviews, working with music promoters and negotiate deals is my forte as a publicist.
4. Don’t Worry About “Getting Signed”
95 percent of signed artists fail to sign up . With those odds, it makes more sense to learn the new music business on your own. You can stay Independent and keep control of your music by learning and applying the principles of marketing to your music. You’ll have a better shot at sustainability than if you sign somewhere and let a label with a 5 percent success rate manage your career. (Not to mention the control they will have over your creativity and image.)
If There is a ton of great music and lots of talented artists out there, but there seems to be very few talented marketers in the music industry.
5. Submit And Give Your Music Away For Free - Online
Send your music to free WAP sites including Mdundo, Kenyayote, Aipateget, Get Music, YouTube and others with bout 10,000 visits and 200 music submissions a day.
6. Sign Up to MCSK
But don’t just give away your music for free — assign a Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) License to your music.
It’s a copyright license you put on your music that allows you to let others download your music for free and use it for whatever they want. They just have to give you credit for it.
7. Charge For Your Music
There are the people that won’t even know your music is free - they’ll also buy it or stream it on Spotify. Even though Spotify only pays less than a penny a stream , don’t worry about money, just be happy that you actually get streamed and are growing a fan base for your art! You can use Tunecore (It’s expensive since they charge you around $30 yearly per album, but easy to use) or CD Baby (One time $49 fee for an album and no yearly fees) to get your music on pay sites such as iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Rdio. Those are the only ones that really matter IMO.
8. Let Others Make Money Off Of Your Music
This may seems strange and make some feel uncomfortable, but yes — let others make money off of your music, without paying you anything. Remember that MCSK license you signed up for? You already agreed to this. You’re letting others use your music for their own financial gain as long as they give you credit. Good news — this will get you even more fans!!! Here’s how you can let others make money off of your music:
Just upload all of your music to a Youtube channel with a picture of you/your album art and your MCSK License in the description.
Next, start messaging content creators on Youtube and let them know your music is licensed at MCSK and provide a brief explanation of it just in case they need it. There are tens of thousands of content creators with millions of videos, and these videos need music! Also, Sign up for Tubeassist.com and follow their really simple instructions.
9. My Social Media Creative Tips To Turn Your “Followers” Into Friends
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram - These all get lumped into 1 because I feel they’re not as important as you would think. They won’t actually get you new fans, but they will allow you to interact with them. Here’s what I suggest when starting out:
Answer every person’s tweet, comment & message to you
Follow them as well! (only follow people that mention you)
Build long lasting online relationships with them.
These people believe in you and most likely care about what you care about, which is so precious and beautiful. Everyone has a gift to share and you will likely learn and hear amazing art and ideas from them too.
On Facebook, post about your personal life. On Twitter, do the same. On Instagram, post really cool pics. Respond to everyone that comments or tweets and try to create ongoing discussion. Do this at least, daily.
Oh, and you will start to see repetitive questions, keep log of your answers for easy cutting and pasting, but also respond to the personal part so that fans know you did actually read what they wrote. This is also a great way to spread the word about whatever current campaign you are doing online. In the response, ask kindly to share, download, etc.
Be ready for them and reply to them — build a community!
10. Email is the Holy Grail
What? Email? What is this, 2001?
Email is still, by far, the highest converting online marketing tactic. From my experience, your number of fans is determined by the number of emails you have.
Not your Facebook fans.
Not your Twitter following.
Not your number of Instagram likes on your cute puppy.
And even crazier is that your number of fans = your email list opens, not your total email list. That number will probably be around 50 percent ... so for every 2 emails you get, consider that 1 true fan.
How do you get these emails?
If you ask, you shall receive.
Once you give away your music for free and post it on all of the Creative Commons websites (make sure you put your social media links in all of the descriptions), you will begin to see new fans on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc.
Engage with them, authentically and from your heart. Ask them for their email address so that you can continue to send them free music / concert updates / anything that isn’t spam!
CONCLUSION
This entire process will have a spiraling exponential effect. The more fans you get, the more fans you will get. Here it is, again:
1. Make music
2. Give it away for free
3. Free music = new fans
4. New fans will reach out via social media and engage, be grateful and love them!
5. Collect emails from your fans
6. Make more music and give it away for free
7. Email your current fans and ask them to share it
8. Free new music + Current fans sharing that music = more new fans
9. Repeat 1 through 8 over and over again.
10. Magical things will happen
Blogs will start posting your music
People will want to book you
Your mp3 sales will start to appear
You will get licensing opportunities
Brands that align with you and your music will want to work with you.
Russian-bred Dj Slahver is the most sought after publicist for over 30 A-list artistes in the region including household stars like Nameless, Kush and Wahu, a feat that is propelling the entertainer to the top of the East African entertainment industry.
With a solid 15 year career as a DJ and music guru, here are DJ Slahver's Ten Tips On Staying On Top the Music Showbiz In East Africa.
1. Avoid Doing Free Shows
Free shows are an amazing practice, but once you get to a point where you feel like you have confidence in creating and engaging a live show, I suggest not continuing to do it without some compensation. The sound systems at most shows asking you to perform for free could also be a poor representation of your voice and generally folks won’t know your music, so there will be little engagement. At the same time, If you have to do free shows, I suggest not performing for more than a month or two, to keep you limber and in touch.
2. Don’t Contact Music journalists nor bloggers; they will call you!
Forget the adage that the Mountain does not go to Mohammed. I never contact journalists nor bloggers asking them for an interview ... they see that I have some buzz and want an interview. I am honored and beyond excited to have appeared on all major covers in East Africa.
3. Get A Free Appraisal on PR from BlackWings Entertainment.
At my company, Blackwings Entertainment we deal in professional Showbiz and music marketing. My tasks include distributing new songs to all media stations and Djs here and abroad whilst ensuring continuous airplay. Manage the artistes social media pages, contacting journalists and bloggers for interviews, working with music promoters and negotiate deals is my forte as a publicist.
4. Don’t Worry About “Getting Signed”
95 percent of signed artists fail to sign up . With those odds, it makes more sense to learn the new music business on your own. You can stay Independent and keep control of your music by learning and applying the principles of marketing to your music. You’ll have a better shot at sustainability than if you sign somewhere and let a label with a 5 percent success rate manage your career. (Not to mention the control they will have over your creativity and image.)
If There is a ton of great music and lots of talented artists out there, but there seems to be very few talented marketers in the music industry.
5. Submit And Give Your Music Away For Free - Online
Send your music to free WAP sites including Mdundo, Kenyayote, Aipateget, Get Music, YouTube and others with bout 10,000 visits and 200 music submissions a day.
6. Sign Up to MCSK
But don’t just give away your music for free — assign a Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) License to your music.
It’s a copyright license you put on your music that allows you to let others download your music for free and use it for whatever they want. They just have to give you credit for it.
7. Charge For Your Music
There are the people that won’t even know your music is free - they’ll also buy it or stream it on Spotify. Even though Spotify only pays less than a penny a stream , don’t worry about money, just be happy that you actually get streamed and are growing a fan base for your art! You can use Tunecore (It’s expensive since they charge you around $30 yearly per album, but easy to use) or CD Baby (One time $49 fee for an album and no yearly fees) to get your music on pay sites such as iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Rdio. Those are the only ones that really matter IMO.
8. Let Others Make Money Off Of Your Music
This may seems strange and make some feel uncomfortable, but yes — let others make money off of your music, without paying you anything. Remember that MCSK license you signed up for? You already agreed to this. You’re letting others use your music for their own financial gain as long as they give you credit. Good news — this will get you even more fans!!! Here’s how you can let others make money off of your music:
Just upload all of your music to a Youtube channel with a picture of you/your album art and your MCSK License in the description.
Next, start messaging content creators on Youtube and let them know your music is licensed at MCSK and provide a brief explanation of it just in case they need it. There are tens of thousands of content creators with millions of videos, and these videos need music! Also, Sign up for Tubeassist.com and follow their really simple instructions.
9. My Social Media Creative Tips To Turn Your “Followers” Into Friends
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram - These all get lumped into 1 because I feel they’re not as important as you would think. They won’t actually get you new fans, but they will allow you to interact with them. Here’s what I suggest when starting out:
Answer every person’s tweet, comment & message to you
Follow them as well! (only follow people that mention you)
Build long lasting online relationships with them.
These people believe in you and most likely care about what you care about, which is so precious and beautiful. Everyone has a gift to share and you will likely learn and hear amazing art and ideas from them too.
On Facebook, post about your personal life. On Twitter, do the same. On Instagram, post really cool pics. Respond to everyone that comments or tweets and try to create ongoing discussion. Do this at least, daily.
Oh, and you will start to see repetitive questions, keep log of your answers for easy cutting and pasting, but also respond to the personal part so that fans know you did actually read what they wrote. This is also a great way to spread the word about whatever current campaign you are doing online. In the response, ask kindly to share, download, etc.
Be ready for them and reply to them — build a community!
10. Email is the Holy Grail
What? Email? What is this, 2001?
Email is still, by far, the highest converting online marketing tactic. From my experience, your number of fans is determined by the number of emails you have.
Not your Facebook fans.
Not your Twitter following.
Not your number of Instagram likes on your cute puppy.
And even crazier is that your number of fans = your email list opens, not your total email list. That number will probably be around 50 percent ... so for every 2 emails you get, consider that 1 true fan.
How do you get these emails?
If you ask, you shall receive.
Once you give away your music for free and post it on all of the Creative Commons websites (make sure you put your social media links in all of the descriptions), you will begin to see new fans on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc.
Engage with them, authentically and from your heart. Ask them for their email address so that you can continue to send them free music / concert updates / anything that isn’t spam!
CONCLUSION
This entire process will have a spiraling exponential effect. The more fans you get, the more fans you will get. Here it is, again:
1. Make music
2. Give it away for free
3. Free music = new fans
4. New fans will reach out via social media and engage, be grateful and love them!
5. Collect emails from your fans
6. Make more music and give it away for free
7. Email your current fans and ask them to share it
8. Free new music + Current fans sharing that music = more new fans
9. Repeat 1 through 8 over and over again.
10. Magical things will happen
Blogs will start posting your music
People will want to book you
Your mp3 sales will start to appear
You will get licensing opportunities
Brands that align with you and your music will want to work with you.
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