(Log in to disable ads.)

I don't know. Saying the African and Afrikaans scene is from the gut and has 'soul', thus making it better than the english bands around is the biggest misconception about local music that I have heard in a long time. Mika and HC, you might think it's all that because you look at it from a foreign point of view, but it's not hey. Yes, there are good acts. Yes some are world class. But as a whole they are as full of, and maybe even more full of crappy 'artists' as any other music scene. The average Afrikaans artist is somewhere between the drunk uncle doing impromptu karaoke at braais and the fake as hell wannabe starlett who tours the Erect a stage, booze everybody up and sell them junk trinkets 'festival' circuit. And if you watch the late night music shows on Sabc, the African market is doing just as bad. There's no soul there gents. It's just another group of hacks with limited talent and big dreams, chasing fame and fortune. Like I said before, yes there ar world class artists in both genres, but to bestow their qualities on the entire scene is a bit far fetched imo.
    Times have changed and worldwide the whole mega record company offering huge deals is a thing of the past thanks to piracy and the ease and high quality of digital, copies so fewer cd's are sold and the music biz from record exec to producer to sound engineer to studio musician to artist are sharing a considerably smaller slice of the pie than before .

    Therefor they only invest in and sign sure money spinners they certain will have mass appeal

    Like justin bieber who according to forbes list of top earning musicians for last year . So just in 12 months he was 9th on the list of 10 making a cool 53 million dollar or there about and yes hold onto your hat south african born dave mathews was just behind him in 10th slot making 50 million dollars in last year . Oh and u2 made the top of list with about 230 million dollars for last year . Seems the 360 tour paid off just wonder how much of that was profit after the expenses of hosting such a mega spectacle .

    So yes back to topic of how to get into the music scene ,

    practise , lots of practise remember the music industry is like being an athlete only the top placed athletes get the glory and spoils so same in music biz

    make yourself competitive since every audition is cut throat be it for live work or studio work and if you can't blow the competition away with your skill or personatity. . . Since no one wants to work with an a hole or good looks if it's a live show . . . And yes being good looking gets more people gigs than you think . . Even the boys . . . So when you see someone onstage who is not good looking you know they have some unique talent .

    yes be prepared to fight for every gig and always work at impoving your skills even when you get the gig , cos the saying goes you only as good as your last gig .

    And if you can handle that being a pro muso is fabulous .

    And think carefully before you leap there's way easier ways to make money and more of it , without the constant auditions and risk and insecurity than the music biz

    but other than that playing music for a living is living your dream
      Keira WitherKay wrote: Therefor they only invest in and sign sure money spinners they certain will have mass appeal
      They were doing that long before they started taking a hit in sales. Also the causes of the hit are debatable.
      dave mathews was just behind him in 10th slot making 50 million dollars in last year .
      And the Dave Matthews Band is independent. They have always published/released their own music.


        Commercial profit and good art are seldom good partners.
          Wizard wrote: Commercial profit and good art are seldom good partners.
          To true, and when you have an alternative culture focused on just trying to make it, good art is a longshot
            here's some good reading:

            http://museonline.co.za/featured/holding-out-for-heroes-city-of-heroes/

            here's the important bit:
            Catching the eye

            Music publications receive millions (okay, I lie, maybe thousands) of submissions from bands. Unfortunately, quite often, we do receive the expected scribbled CD-R with a ghastly standard of music, which will make you want to die twice. However, Pretoria-based post-punk outfit, City of Heroes, have caught the industry’s attention, for the right reasons, with their ingenious press kit, which consists of a CD/DVD combo of their debut release The Great Unknown, postcards featuring the band members’ parallel universe characters, and an all-round clever concept, all neatly folded and packaged into a labelled tin box. Considering these guys don’t have a major label’s backing, this is a pretty mean DIY feat.

            “We’d all played together in another band before, and when we started City of Heroes about two years ago, we wanted to do everything bigger and better from the start,” says guitarist Jéan Lombard. “We understand that if you create a band now, it isn’t just about playing live shows; you need to run it as a business and market yourself properly from the start, because first impressions are a huge thing. We wanted to give out a professional product that people might not have necessarily expected.”

            Wait… did I just hear right? An independent, new band talking about marketing and a business plan? “Before we even started this band, we sat with my brother, who is a business consultant, and he ran us through some proper marketing strategies. Look, the music needs to be good anyway – no question about it – but the marketing just adds to it. Especially in the music scene here, you need that differentiating factor. All your different aspects need to give the same message and feel to whoever sees it. So, whichever part of your band – for example, your web presence or music – the person sees [or hears], must give the same message you want to portray. The better you do this, the more control you have over how people perceive your band,” the guitarist affirms.
              These are just the principles of business.

              Even though I work in a huge corporate, I don't have a boss that finds work for me & tells me what to do.

              I need to:
              - Hunt for opportunties for the business.
              - Develop the idea
              - Identify key stakeholders or sponsors who may support the idea
              - Figure out why it would make sense to them to buy it; with their finite budgets
              - Look for clever ways to package it so that senior executives can "get it" with the small amount of time they will have to assess it
              - Package it & sell it to them ... and usually have a very limited time to make the sale. May be a few minutes in a lift.
              - ...

              So I think it's exactly the same whether your "product" is music, a scientific idea, a new type of shampoo, a property you want to rent out or a holiday cruise you're trying to sell.
              Products don't sell themselves.
                I would say: Just ignore all the obvious downsides of the SA music scene (by the way, I'm writing this from my hotel in Dublin. Went out last night..not much going on). The thing is, a lot of people, not just in the music biz, are thinking of themselves as sort of "global microbrands". That term, by the way, I stole from a cartoonist named Hugh Macloed (check out his left of center cartoons). The whole industry is in a shambles, not just in South Africa. This is because it's always worked as a scarcity based model: record stores(retail) decided who they think will sell, that in turn influences the record companies, who have influence over traditional radio (who are really in the advertising biz).

                Good news. We don't need them anymore. Yes, if you do this pro, you need to make money. And there are ways to do this. I sell out constantly playing cover gigs
                to pay the bills. Every now and then I get to do these tours like I'm doing now. and I continue to write and promote my own stuff. Cool thing is, we don't need anyone's approval to reach people these days. If festivals don't want to book you because they full of crap, just ignore them and promote your videos on Facebook, Youtube, keep fans up to date with Twitter...there are endless ways to bypass the mainstream media. Granted, it's tough to make an impact, but it is possible. Its just takes people a lot work.

                In my opinion, mass media, festivals, DSTV etc is only really useful if you are a mainstream act. If what you do is niche-market, your audience isn't there anyway. And if you have mass appeal, you will likely have been snapped up and exploited by now anyhow (helping to sell washing powder ads) ?

                  @ Grant Tregallis... fantastic post... thanked.
                    PeteM wrote: @ Grant Tregallis... fantastic post... thanked.
                    Likewise. Never seen so many thanks in so few posts before ? You should post here more often.
                      The problem is the majority of people are quite stupid, and can't appreciate good and music by someone who is technically proficient, thats why people listen to, what is in my opinion shit, Kurt derren and such.
                        I agree with you on Kurt Darren, but being technically proiciant has nothing to do with good music in my opinion. Kurt Darren probably has a better voice than Billy Corgan, but billy Corgan knows how to use what he has a BILLION times better.
                          Demigod wrote: The problem is the majority of people are quite stupid, and can't appreciate good and music by someone who is technically proficient, thats why people listen to, what is in my opinion shit, Kurt derren and such.
                          That's not it at all. Music is about fashion for a lot of people, until they reach a certain age and then nostalgia becomes a factor too. Proficiency is neither here nor there. Queen were massive, and Brian May was clearly proficient and then some. Prince was a big commercial proposition at one time, and he most certainly can play and always had very good bands.

                          This point has been made on GFSA before - some people just want music as a background for their lives, others (I think a smaller number) want music for music's sake.

                          I think there are very few people who engage purely with music as music with no consideration to fashion. Heavy rockers might run screaming from the room or just reach over and turn the set off if I gained control of the hi-fi and put (sneaking a quick look at my CD shelves) Waterson:Carthy on.

                          The big labels are going to go after the mass market. That's where they will make their money. They used to have a practice of signing critic's favourite type artists (who they'd break even on given some luck and good marketing) so that they could say "look! We're not just about money. We sign the likes of the Hellfire Blues Club too." Little niche acts with a greater claim to being "art" that the company can prominently display on their mantelpiece.

                          The salavation right now is the number of smaller labels, independent or semi-independent, who go after niche markets and niche artists, and typically give the artists more artistic license. There's actually a very fine choice of music available these days, but you may have to look around to find it.
                            a month later
                            deebee wrote: Mika, there is PLENTY of good music in SA. Just switch the radio on if you want to hear utter garbage a great deal of the time. We can compete with anyone. It just takes the belief. If the SABC is forced to play LOCAL it can only benefit the entire industry. With a vibrant industry the standards will automatically be uplifted and everyone benefits. The old record companies did set the stage for the present malaise, BUT, why can it not be changed with a multitude of voices. We have had excellent original bands since the late 60's. Hawk, Freedoms Children and later on Rabbit. They should have ''made it'' here, not have to travel overseas to get anywhere.
                            Deeet!!! Wrong!!! All Crap!!!! Name one recent truly original SA rock band that can stand against international standards. Its all copy cat monkey see monkey do sounds like bands!!!! Event the metal bands I do like are not remotely original, you can even tell where they lifted the riffs from. As for proficiency, you average pop fan would not now a good muso from a bad one, and you dont even need to know how to sing any more, just auto tune like EVERYONE else.
                              I remember not so long ago, some newly appointed spokes person for south african artists was saying in an interview, that ALL overseas music should be banned from our tv's and radios. because if we have nothing to compare south african music standards too, then we will start to think how great our music is...


                              you know?? like what was done to the school and education system? the absolutel lowest bar now becomes the standard for all to strive for.

                                StephenG wrote: I remember not so long ago, some newly appointed spokes person for south african artists was saying in an interview, that ALL overseas music should be banned from our tv's and radios. because if we have nothing to compare south african music standards too, then we will start to think how great our music is...
                                I don't think so. I hardly ever listen to music on the radio now. Also there's no way to stop VH-1, MTV, all those radio channels on DSTV, re-runs of Jools Holland's show etc etc. So it can't be done and even if it were done it would have no effect on me and, I'm sure, many other people who listen to music.

                                What might pay dividends is a system whereby stations licensed in SA have to play a certain percentage of music by local artists. This was done in Australia, and the eventual result was a raising of standards for their local music. You'd just need to be careful with definitions, as I'm sure Australia were. Filling the airwaves with tracks by Manfred Mann, Trevor Rabin, Johanthon Butler and so on isn't going to do much for the local music industry.

                                Possibly the aforementioned spokes person was taking an extreme position initially to allow for bargaining down to the position that would actually be acceptable.
                                  X-rated Bob wrote: Possibly the aforementioned spokes person was taking an extreme position initially to allow for bargaining down to the position that would actually be acceptable.


                                  uuhmm.. i highly doubt it.

                                  good money says he was being absolutely serious.
                                    deebee wrote: Mika, there is PLENTY of good music in SA. Just switch the radio on if you want to hear utter garbage a great deal of the time. We can compete with anyone. It just takes the belief. If the SABC is forced to play LOCAL it can only benefit the entire industry. With a vibrant industry the standards will automatically be uplifted and everyone benefits. The old record companies did set the stage for the present malaise, BUT, why can it not be changed with a multitude of voices. We have had excellent original bands since the late 60's. Hawk, Freedoms Children and later on Rabbit. They should have ''made it'' here, not have to travel overseas to get anywhere.
                                    You need to reach an audience. For the bands that you mention the audience in SA in the 60s and 70s was pretty small. Also there was no TV until too late for some of those bands. And why not have ambition? Trevor Rabin maybe could have made a living playing for teenagers who were screaming and throwing underwear, but surely he's entitled to a crack at something bigger?

                                    There's nothing wrong with going overseas. Crowded House moved first from NZ to Australia and then from Australia they targeted an international audience. Why not?

                                    What is necessary is a local industry that nutures a Crowded House or a Split Enz or a Midnight Oil and allows them to polish themselves and get experience and gives them enough support so that they can take a crack at the big time if they want to.
                                      4 days later
                                      IceCreamMan wrote: i am gonna disagree with the sentiment that ZA music scene is weak or was weak or is now weaker or whatever.

                                      if u look at the number of ZA muso's who have made it an received critical acclaim over the years then you will be surprised ,not only as artists but as producers etc etc etc ...go on do some research. The local scene is vibrant these days far more so than when i was a kid ...looking at the numerous music festis held these days and the number of places with live music..then look at the tiny demographic the afrikaner represents then look at record sales ...mujst be the most passionate cd buyers in the world.

                                      there are some damn fine acts in ZA ... go look for them and cherish them....yip mika even the parlotones...not my genre at all but i try not to diss them cos they are following their dream.

                                      this constant negativity about the za music scene is draining ... yes the organisation may not be as good as the overseas promotors (although i been to some shoddy run stuff in euro too) but at least we can drink em good here (tongue in cheek eh) ..the music scene here aint shabby musically but there is a small white market for metal . hard rock etc ...(demographically speaking statistically the market is predomionantly white - no racsm to be found here move along)

                                      btw, my earlier post was a reference to the great David Leer Roth an a line from a VH song ...33 years ago and its still relevant today...mba's have infiltrated the music industry and its a business as its always been ..it needs to make money in order to survive ..dirty word money but unfotuantely it is essential otherwise there is no music business. No charities

                                      Edit: Bob put it better n i did

                                      Just as a mater of interest the biggest touring bands in the US ofA are bands older than 30 years at least .... so much for vibrancy and innovation imho ..come to ZA we innovate here ...Kiss tours gross gabillions an they been flogging the same gimmick for 37 years now and top tickets cost 1000 dollars .... teehee 'mericans must be mal ek se

                                      And lest we forget , the OP wanted to know how to get into the music business NOT the opinion of some okes on how kak the ZA music scene is ...
                                      Local music is only really taken seriously once its had success over seas, like Seether or De Antwoord or Dave Mathews, unless you're doing Afrikaanse rok musiek. (I've tried writing afrikaans songs, always sounds lame).