A Message To The Artists; Organisers And You By Noma Dladla
Welcome
, You weren't directed to the wrong blog, now that you're here, do read the following thought provoking, heart piercing and none sugar coated thoughts by Swaziland's Songbird ,
Nomalungelo
Dladla
Here it is , keep in mind , ITS HER THOUGHTS AND VIEWS , Enjoy !!
I need to figure this out. How does a full band performance happen for 5grand. SIBEBE FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE PLEASE DO ASSIST. Now I might not be the best to calculate this and my prices here are in reference to what should BE standard for a FULL BAND IN SWAZILAND. 5 piece Band charges -E2000 per person 3 Backing vocalists E1500 per person 1 sound engineer -E2200 Transport and reversals 1000 (that's if you have a band mobile) Now that's just the band. Nooooo wait hold up!!! Listen I know you are probably telling me $#!* right now cause you think this is too much. Tshepo Tsotetsi (SA music student and music composer & conductor and great friend of mine thats a great musician) how much do you think a drummer for instance uses per month on instruments. instruments used for practice and actual gigging??? Please post a fair amount on the comments below. Sibusiso Phura Sibanyoni (S.A. music graduate at TUT) and Lally Tshabalala (SA renowed bass player) estimate roughly how much it costs to maintain your bass guitar (please include the effects and thinga mabobs you need to make it sound better to get that competitive sound) Better yet how much on tuition fees do you have to pay off, for studying music? Oh yeah SWAZILAND, we are just now getting to support music students. So that might not apply. Oh okay... So the people who really, really need the help (Swazi Musicians)... who haven't been to school to study music and do it with just passion, those people you ROB??? Cha BoNkhosi sithulile kuyonakala. If you really, really wanna help artist start with DUCKING PAYING THEM. You can not expect world standards when you don't treat us like international artists ... help us empower ourselves by not bullying us to settling for peanuts. Listen, you aren't empowering any Swazi Musican if you are booking them to rob them. I performed at SFNL and the truth is I made a loss but the excuse was HEY I really really want that BUSHFIRE STAGE. But in my 8years in this industry I've never been booked for Bushfire and I really, really havent a clue why to tell the truth I'm over it thanx to Tiyas King . But back to what this long text is about. Your assumption when booking a musician is that they are just PLAYING.. THE TRUTH IS they are working, I take pride in paying my band cause I know they are fathers, sons and daughters, providers, students who are paying off school loans and working hard to make a living out of passion. If we say we want to export SWAZILAND talent, WE REALLY NEED TO Start investing in artists. The money you pay them isn't just for fresh shoes, it's for piano lessons, instruments, rehearsal space, food and transport. And somehow that Money needs to pay for nappies and responsibilities. With that said, here's a vision for all musicians. We can be exported and contribute to the economy one of Australia's biggest exports at some point was a band, Canada also exported that boy band, England - Adele, we need to fight to fill up the STADIUM and prove that we are worth the investment. We can pull crowds from all corners to Swaziland, but we neeeeeeed to invest in ourselves. We need to invest in our knowledge of the arts and in our instruments. And that will mean standing up and standing together on some things.We can't be charging peanuts because we aren't doing this just to live we have to be STARS MAN!!!
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