Chronicle Editor
After a year of toil and turmoil, it’s high time the entertainment industry wakes up.
Even as we ring in 2021, cautiously optimistic that this year will be better than the last, the legacy of 2020 continues unabated, its foul stench lingering in the air like body tissue ravaged by gangrene.
We are in lockdown, again, and we can all readily recall last March’s purported 21-day lockdown that spiralled into several months. Nevertheless, even if the lockdown seems short, the effects of this ugly disease are likely to torment us for some time yet.
That’s especially true for the entertainment industry where work has once again come to a grinding halt.
With a number of Covid-19 vaccines approved globally, we may soon be seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic. But with the threat of a global outbreak, more obvious than ever in this interconnected world, it’s high time we show some foresight and prepare ourselves for similarly dark days ahead.
The teachings from this period have been clear: we need to continually find new streams of income. While that may seem like pretty basic stuff, I’m not the only one who’s taken for granted the immediate importance of exploring and exploiting the various effective ways from which to make money from the business of music. Most artistes have been relying on live performances as a primary source of income.
With that avenue completely cut off for most of the past year, I’ve heard some disheartening stories of artistes and DJs having to downgrade their houses or cars, others even turning to teaching English online to make ends meet.
That can’t be it. So what do we do? To better understand this, I took a look at how other artistes have been thinking out of the box over the past nine months.
Take Rick Ross for example. The veteran rapper has made a point of harnessing the spirit of entrepreneurship by creating new products and embracing brands’ appetite for creating celebrity-adjacent products.
His most popular and well-known enterprise is Rich by Rick Ross, a hair care and grooming line which encompasses several products, including luxury beard oil, shaving cream, aftershave balm, shampoo, conditioner, body & hair wash, styling gel and wax products.
Feeding off the aspirational brand Rick Ross has built and, of course, his luxurious beard, the marketing largely centres around providing users with “The Boss Experience”, going so far as to incorporate champagne and caviar extract in its products.
Another such example is Tyga Bites, a delivery-only restaurant that specialises in chicken bites, co-owned by rapper Tyga. Tyga Bites is one of the more prominent in a series of celebrity-fuelled virtual restaurant brands. More recently, Tyga established a brief yet lucrative Only Fans career after an image of his genitals leaked on social media.
That experience quickly mushroomed into his latest endeavour, TooRaww, a “lifestyle and management company” that’s purported to specialise in helping Only Fans models find their voice on the platform and to assist managers navigate the world of Only Fans.
Talk about being opportunistic.
Closer to home, apart from the typical alcohol sponsorship or famous celebs, DJ Zinhle has successfully been pushing her Era by Zinhle jewellery and accessories brand for several years now. Evidently, the model is to find avenues to extract as much value from your brand as possible.
DJ Zinhle is fashion savvy. She’s often bedazzled in rings, necklaces and earrings. Her jewellery and accessories venture makes sense.
Essentially, that’s what it’s about. Thinking outside the box and figuring out how to create campaigns, collaborations and new businesses that are authentic and real. – Sowetan.
Online Reporter