Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
The honeymoon is over, watching free shows online is slowly becoming a thing of the past as prominent Zimbabwean artistes have embraced Pay Per View (PPV).
PPV is a type of pay television or webcast service by which a viewer can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it.
As Covid-19 rocked the world, shutting down live shows and the like, artistes went through the year with little or no revenue from shows. The restrictions on public gatherings however, saw the rise of online shows, especially on Facebook live where people would congregate to watch their favourite artistes perform online.
Shows like Gara Mumba Iwe sponsored by Prophet Passion Java, Nash Tv Live and FMG live sessions among many others sprouted.
Unfortunately, these shows which had performances from top artistes and commanded a huge following, were all for free for audiences. As long as someone had enough data, they would watch at no benefit to the artiste save for those who were lucky enough to be paid by organisers of these events.
Pre-Covid, in order to watch a live show, people were expected to pay entrance fees. During Covid, it was either the artiste would have secured sponsorship from corporates or they would have self-funded the whole project.
However, this is about to change as artistes are now able to charge audiences for their performances through PPV.
Last week, Winky D and Jah Prayzah announced that their Best of Both Worlds Concert that is being staged in Harare this month will be pay per view. Also, gospel music star Janet Manyowa who is preparing to host her Sounds of Victory EP tomorrow through PPV.
The cost of both shows is US$2 or equivalent in RTGS and that gets a person access for one device, be it your phone or laptop.
Regardless of the success of these two shows, it seems that this is the direction that artistes are now taking because for the better part of this year Winky D, Janet Manyowa and Jah Prayzah have been giving their fans free shows.
These free shows have garnered thousands of views from their fans, and imagine if these hordes of people had been paying at least US$ 1 to watch each concert. The recently held Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards were watched by over 40 000.
People should now get used to watching such content from the comfort of their homes and forget about physically going to venues. This is the new normal, this is what the world has turned out to be and this is how artistes are now going to get their money.
How does pay per view work one may ask? Each artiste posts a link on their social media handles. This link will lead them to a booking page, in this case, Gateway Stream. There, one will pay whether through mobile money or visa card for access to the show.
Once the ticket is purchased, a link to join the live stream will be sent via the provided email on the day of the event.
The advantage with this is that one can access the concert from anywhere in the world as they can pay from anywhere in the world.
Jah Prayzah’s manager, Keen Mushapaidze welcomed the development saying it looks promising.
“This is a good initiative as we’re not doing concerts the conventional way. We’ll see how people react to this on the day of the show. Obviously, it isn’t going to blow up one time, but I believe there’s room for growth,” said Mushapaidze.
He said the expense of online shows made it hard for them to hold their own shows this year.
“This year, Jah Prayzah hasn’t done an online show of his own. We tried to do one for his album launch, but we ended up shelving those plans due to the costs and just went ahead and released the album. As such, Jah Prayzah has only been appearing on paid online shows only this year.”
Credisi which promoted a lot of artistes from Bulawayo during the lockdown is another platform that staged free shows.
Its director, Nkululeko Dube said without live audiences, PPV is the only way through which artistes can make money.
“That’s the only direction that we should be taking as artistes and organisers of these events. Digital shows have come and they’ve been embraced, but the question still remains, how do we monetise the platform? Giving out free shows online is like we’re pirating our own music or art,” said Dube.
He said as Credisi, they were already thinking about using PPV in the next season.
“In the last season, everything was fully funded, but what happens after that. How do we pay the artistes or the equipment that’s needed to put together the platform without that funding?” said Dube. — @bonganinkunzi
Online Reporter