‘Internet vital for young musicians’ marketing'

Speakers urge musicians to organise themselves into a proper industry.

LAHORE:

New technology, especially the Internet, is important to promote young musicians, speakers at a panel discussion said on Saturday.

They were speaking at a session titled Marketing Yourself as a Musician at the Lahore Music Meet at Alhamra, The Mall.

“Pakistani music cannot yet be described as an industry. It is a community,” Raavail Sattar, a percussionist, said. Sattar has worked with several bands, including Poor Little Rich Boy and Jimmy Khan & The Big Ears. He said that musicians needed to organise themselves into a proper industry. “Take for example, the fashion business in Pakistan, which has successfully transformed itself into a proper industry,” he said.

Selina Rashid, owner of Lotus Client Management and Public Relations, said that musicians in Pakistan had developed a negative mindset when it came to developing and selling music.

“All major industries in the world unionise. This is needed in the Pakistani music industry as well. There needs to be a proper network of people, who are not only passionate about music but also have a business sense and can look at the commercial side,” she said.

Jimmy Khan, singer and song-writer, said Justin Bibis and Taher Shah had gained popularity after their videos went viral on the Internet.

“These people have been able to use the Internet and they have been lucky. Ultimately, it is about networking and making sure that the right people hear your music,” he said.

Waqas Almas, a music producer, said that one way of marketing music was getting in touch with telecom companies to provide your music as caller tunes.

The next panel discussion was on Corporate Patronage of Music in Pakistan.

The speakers helped answer some of the questions raised by the audience. A major concern was the impact of the corporate sector on creativity.

Ahmer Naqvi, a blogger, pointed out that Coca Cola and Pepsi had played important roles in establishing bands like Junoon and Vital Signs in Pakistan. “Eventually, pressure from these corporations for the bands to produce specific types of songs caused their music to lose quality and hindered their creativity,” he said. Bassam Qureshi, a radio jockey, said that the corporate sector did not try to control the content. “In the West, record labels usually promote new and experienced artists alike. They function on the basis of revenue, which does not necessarily stifle creativity. A model that works for both the musician and the corporation can always be developed,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2015.