"MASERU MONA” A GETTY SONG

Hip hop, especially local hip hop, is undoubtedly the most youth surrounded form of expression. Either one expresses his/her sad, excited or angry feelings, however, in the process , one tends to estrange his/herself from the rap mates which results in a train of beefs. Many a rapper in the L isolate themselves from other rappers and that slows down the growth and progress of our Industry. We’ve seen most rappers beef, and its no hidden fact that L tweety and Robocop also had their own share of the beef.

Having realised the effect that has made, Hlompho ‘MOZUZU’ Malefane, a sedulous rapper living at Qoaling decided to release a track titled ‘maseru mona’ produced by T2, alongside the above mentioned magnates and rivals. The track is explained to be the one that reunites these rivals and also a track that manifests Mozuzu and Tweety’s success thirst. In addition, the two rappers expresses that it is now their time to shine, and equally important, their turn to do something great for Lesotho’s hip hop industry.

When asked about his beef with Robo, L Tweety revealed that he had long ago buried the hatchet and even made a couple of calls to Robo to prove that he had forgiven him.  On the contrary, Robocop refused to say his views regarding this matter which leaves us and the fans in suspense. Did they really make up, or is this  just a publicity stunt?

Challenge IGI Materialises

Moddaw Presents "Kea Kena - Lemekoane ft T-Mech"

Earlier this year we announced that we were working on a music compilation called #ChallengeIGI. We called all local hiphop artists to be part of this great initiative, in which they would all be approaching one theme "I'm getting in/Kea Kena" each from an individual perspective and create songs each based on this individualistic understanding of the theme. Though many artists seemed anxious and eager to be part of this movement. A bigger percentage started making excuses as the submission deadlines neared. It went to as far as others asking to be excused. Realising that timing couldn't have been bad for them, a chance was given again and the deadlines postmoned. Others made submissions and others still didnt comform to this new arrangement. Yet another chance was given, the deadlines were postponed for the second time.
Until for some a minute it was all a stinging dream as many artists initially mentioned as participants of Lesotho's compilation #ChallengeIGI failed to make submission. Amongst those who did a timely submission was Maseru East based Lemekoane aka T-Mech of Lesotho music power house M.I.P. His submission was made way back before the winter just when the idea was fresh and life promising. After his submission, the former MIP manager and EconetLesotho brand Ambassador did not sit back and relax. Instead he kept on pushing to see that dream cones to life and it is only befitting that his submission was the released as the first from this wonderfully compilation.

Kea kena metadata contains the tag by Lemekoane ft T-Mech, which can be quite confusing since Lemekoane and T-Mech are different alter egos of one man. But really, thats just it, they are alter egos. Listening to the song will make you meet the same man twice and get to feel the difference.

Following the release of Kea Kena will come two more singles to be announced later, thereafter the full compilation will be released.

Listen to the song here now.

Basotho, Let's Sell Our Music

Recently I have seen a few Basotho artists having this tag "now available on iTunes, I say a few because truly it is a chosen few, not that local artists do not wish to or are not ready to sell music. In fact, if there is anything local artist wish they could do to sell their music I bet they would have long done it, so what is the problem? The problem is we don't know how. This article is about how we can best optimize music sales online, especially on apple stores.

Selling you music is not an easy. Every day, new albums and songs are released. This large competition can pose a challenge to upcoming musicians because they are not established in the music industry. However, with today's technology, more digital platforms to help indie musicians sell music have become readily available. iTunes, for example, has become an amazing platform to better your music sales and increase exposure. The best way to sell music globally would be digital distribution, sounds interesting? Well, follow these tips on how to sell your music on iTunes.

Using an Aggregator

There are two ways to sell your music on iTunes. You can sell them directly through the store or you can sell them through an aggregator. Locally we have very few aggregators but online aggregators such as SongCast, CDBaby, Afrobreakers can ease the work.

 An aggregator handles the business dealings with Apple–and other digital platforms–on your behalf for a commission (a cut of your earnings). Aggregators take all the distribution stress while you relax in the studio with nice shawties like King Solomoni, or Jiji F oa Ledimo a jang bana, however, keep in mind that your overall income will be lower than it would be if you dealt with everything on your own.

Search Engine Optimization

Once you have made your mind on the content (music) you want to sell, you need to make sure that the digital files are encoded with optimized metadata so they can easily be found on search engines. Many local arts don't understand the importance of this, but it is quiete crucial to ensure that your album is listed in the correct categories and that it can be easily found when searched for in a search engine. The following should be considered when encoding digital files:

Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation: This is as important in the music industry as it would be in any other industry, large or small. Making sure your digital files are written correctly is key to optimizing them for a search engine.

Spacing: Pay attention to spaces. If say for example one space is accidentally placed before your song or album title, eg. If "Basali Basali" is written as " Basali Basali", it could make it difficult for people to find the song through a Google or Yahoo..

Genre: By popular demand, iTunes focuses on main music genres rather than niche sub-genres. Encoding your digital music files with an overall genre is key to sell your music on iTunes. Instead of Stlofa listing his genre as Mokorotlo which no one outside would relate to, it would be best for him to select whether he lists his music as hiphop or kwaito, this are widely spread genres that can help him sell more music.

Album Cover: All digital tracks should be encoded with the album’s cover artwork. As a graphic designer, i have with a few artists that wanted to put music on iTunes, one of them being MoNitta, of many problems that Mo' faced when he was getting jis music on international digital platforms, the album cover was one of the simple looking yet trickiest things to do, the size of the album cover picture is very important, I don't know why but I recommend 3000pixels by 3000pixels, it seemed to work for us. Keep in mind that people are visual and by doing this you can improve your overall sales.

$Money Money Money

Coming up with a price for your work can be challenging. We understand that your music holds a lot of value to you because of all the hard work you have invested, but, believe me you, overcharging for your tracks and albums can have a negative impact on how your music sells. As an indie (unsigned) artist looking to get established in the music market, it is essential to follow the industry’s standard digital album and track pricing.

• Album: $9.99
• Tracks: $0.99 or $1.29

Please Understand that we recommend the pricing in USD because many digital platforms prefer monies written in American Currency. 

How many music stores are available in your home town, I'm from Leribe, I can tell you there is not more than five. And all of them sell Famo and Gospel Music, AfroJazz, but these are sadly not the only genres wdo in Lesotho, we have C-Jo, Zhaza Manga, MegaHertz, D2amajoe and many others who do urban genres. Fans or the possible market of these four mention artists hardly ever enter a music store today. I have seen some artists sell no copy in a month. Don't just take music to a music store  and relax, selling music in a physical store today is the hardest thing ever, but with these few tips it can be optimised. First you need to have advertising material at all major stores, for example, a framed A2 poster at Lesotho Music Centre reading, 24; Vector's New Album Available here, some stores even have plasma screens set up for such works, find a profession video maker to make you a clearly effective 30 seconds video that says, "hey, buy my album in here now" or anything really, as long as the message is clear, so clear that you would understand the message in the video just viewing it without hearing anything. Have a strong social media presence, a facebook fan page is the closest of examples, make posts station where exactly your music could be found in each districts, sponsor such posts, did you know you could reach 5000 people on facebook for just $6? Evidently not all the 5000 will buy the CD, but a single post could help you sell at least over 20 copies a day,  Now imagine daily attractive facebook posts, it's not bad, is it?

Are you getting bookings? Paying bookings? Always ask the promoter if he of she would allow you to sell your music at their events, if they do, this is great, they even hook you up with a stall, if they don't, you still carry 10-15 CDs for the "where do I find your music" potential fans, you just be like; here bro, right now, boom, a copy sold. 

Was this helpful? Please share with your friends, tell them also that my Album King Solomoni is dropping on September 29th 2017. The Launch event will be held at Szah "Se-Zah" Restaurant and Launge in Katlehong Maseru Lesotho just next to Maseru Mall shoprite exit circle, just attending the event gets you a free CD of this new Album. Africa's next Big Kid could be from Lesotho, come hear for yourself.