Yes, your talent can earn you a decent income

In my childhood, my family listened to music from vinyl records. With the vinyl records all I had to do was identify the exact grooves where my favourite song started to listen to it. The turntables were a prominent feature during Christmas.

In my youth, we listened to compact cassettes or tapes as we called them. These were handier than the vinyl records but it was harder to pick out our favourite songs. This is where biro pens came in handy for winding up the tapes to get to the song we were looking for. For those that had a walkman, the portable cassette player with headphones, entertainment on the move became a new trend.

Then came the compact discs or CDs in the 90s and it became easier to pick up our favourite song. The different technologies had their peculiar flaws. The styli used to play the vinyl records were delicate and prone to breaking. The cassettes would often get entangled in the mechanism of the cassette player; what we referred to as the tape being “chewed”. The CDs on the other hand were vulnerable to scratches.

What has been common through the years is the fact that the music industry has not been promoted as an acceptable way of making a living. In the song “Asili ya muziki,” the late Remmy Ongala refers to a view that was held by many. A line in the song goes: “Muziki sio uhuni! Kama muziki ni uhuni kwanini unanunua kaseti?” – Music is not vagrancy. If music was vagrancy, why do you buy cassettes?

In his song, Remmy Ongala refers to the fallacy of people regarding musicians and the music industry as not being kosher yet we all listen to music. As a society however, our views are slowly changing and some artistes are making an honest living from their talent. Despite the growth of revenues in the recent past, it is an industry that still remains out of touch with the consumption trends in other parts of the world. Most musicians still rely on the sale of their music CDs and payment of royalties as the only form of revenue.

It may not be possible for a musician to have a distribution system for CDs that will effectively reach all corners of the world. Reliance on local radio stations is limiting to a musician’s fans as they have to be tuned in at the very moment the song is played. Getting airtime on radio stations for budding musicians can also be a challenge.

Consumption of entertainment is changing the world over. We are now moving to music “on-demand”. With services like Spotify and iTunes, subscribers have access to over 30 million different songs. At a fixed monthly fee of between Sh500 and Sh1,000, the subscribers have unlimited access. The musicians on the other hand are paid a fee depending on how many times their songs are listened to. Through such platforms, local musicians can reach audiences the world over.

I have enjoyed listening to different Kenyan musicians on online platforms and for me the most appealing feature of these platforms is the convenience. It is however disheartening to note that many Kenyan talents have not been discovered. Musicians should no longer think of their music as a commodity; the world is slowly moving away from purchase of CDs. Music is a service. They should now embrace online platforms for delivery of their service.

That is the thinking behind the inauguration of the Studio Mashinani by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). The studios will provide talented youth a facility to record their music. Those that cannot afford musical instruments will find these at the studios and there will also be technical staff to help them record their songs. KBC have also started Y254, a TV station dedicated to the youth. The station will be a platform for the music to be played.

Studio Mashinani will help the up-and-coming musicians to learn the craft and the business. As they learn the ropes, they will also be introduced to online platforms. There are currently five studios, two in Nairobi, one each in Machakos, Kisumu and Mombasa. The plan is to have more studios in various counties across the country. With these facilities and a change of mind-set, the youth in our country will no longer hide their talents under a bushel. Their talents should earn them a decent living.

- The writer is the Cabinet Secretary for Information and Communications.

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