Malawian musicians in urban circles are in the present day dodging production of albums, a development considered detrimental to the industry’s growth.
Very few musicians are focused on producing albums followed by a proper launch. Instead, most artists opt for mixtapes which are judged to be less serious projects. This is owed to a number of factors.
Financial factors are mostly drawing back production of albums among urban artists in the country. Most artists do not have promoters who can facilitate production and distribution of copies in the country.
In an interview with Malawi24, award winning radio personality Joy Nathu of MBC Radio 2 also cited the financial factor while emphasizing on the importance of albums.
“It is quite true that most artists are concentrating on singles. I would say that it’s due to financial capabilities of the artists because if you observe you shall find that most of the artists we have are youthful and they manage and sponsor themselves,” he said.
The renowned radio personality noted that an album is very important as it helps musicians grow. He added that it also help musicians to get new listeners due to song variety.
“It’s important for every artist to understand that an album is valuable and it assists in growth as well as gaining new listeners due to the variety of concepts of songs in an album.”
Death of the buying culture is another factor that is affecting production of albums. With the emergence of music websites where music can be downloaded, the audience ignore compact disks. This is because it is cheaper to download than to buy a music collection.
Nathu believes that musicians who work on albums can help in enhancing the buying culture.
“Artists who work on albums can assist build a buying culture among Malawians. Right now the buying culture is dying because artists are not releasing enough albums. Another problem is the few albums released are not made available and accessible.”
On the contrary the grass is greener on the non-urban side where albums production are order of the day.
