LAHORE: A couple of panel discussions on the first day of the much-awaited and much-hyped Lahore Music Meet (LMM) on Saturday pertained to the promotion of a musician’s product, which is music, and if the corporate world should help in that, if at all.

The discussion titled ‘Marketing Yourself as a Musician’ was participated in by PR guru Selina Rashid Khan, marketing, advertising and copyrights professional Waqas Almas and musicians Jimmy Khan of the band Jimmy Khan and the Big Ears and Raavail Sattar of the Poor Rich Boy.

The discussion began with the marketers talking about what a musician needs to and should do to market him/herself. Almas shared that he followed the four Ps formula -- product, price, promotion and placement. Selina was of the idea that a musician needs to create an image and should know how to package him/herself as a brand.

The musicians said today an artist was expected to do all the promotion that actually a record label should do. Khan said a musician’s job was to handle the production side, make music, rest was a label’s job, but that isn’t the trend in Pakistan.

Sattar agreed, saying, “The only viable product you have to sell as a music business is live performances, and later appearances, advertisements and sponsorships.”

Selina chipped in that even if there were teams, support structures willing to musicians to help them brand, market, promote, there has been some “reticence from a singer to accept that because they feel there’s a level to which they’re selling out, and they feel uncomfortable in doing so”. Khan said a musician only feels offended because when corporations selling soft drinks, ice creams and coffee jump in, the artist then becomes attached to a tangible product.

A session, titled ‘Corporate Patronage of Music in Pakistan’ was helmed masterfully by Ahmer Naqvi, including RJ and brand manager Bassam Qureshi, veteran corporate professional Umer Sheikh, and musician/producer Omran Shafique as panelists.

The discussion revolved around how big corporate firms are relaying music by sponsoring various TV shows and if this corporate-music marriage works, the content has been stifled, and to what extent this deal works since radio, TV, or any mass medium is not playing local music. Another issue under discussion was records label bowing out, corporations taking over and pirated content becoming a preference.

Qureshi was of the idea that corporations help provide a platform and the much-needed patronage to people who’ve been part of the Pakistani history but not celebrated much and don’t have means to project themselves but are talented.

Sheikh said the ability of corporations to nurture and help music grow was good.

“Who will produce Dil Dil Pakistan and Kameez Teri Kaali every year? For every Ataullah Esa Khelvi, Vital Signs, Awaaz, there were 15 bands over the years who never passed the first stage because they were either not good, not projected well or had lost hope at the very critical moment because of no sponsorship,” he added.

He also said if local musicians don’t make music, “you won’t be able to give it to TV channels to play and they will choose products from across the borders”.

Coming in late, Shafique said people still talked about 30-year-old albums and songs from Vital Signs and Junoon because they had a “symbiotic relationship” with corporate sponsors that helped both. Naqvi chipped in that record labels bombed out because of piracy that was never dealt with by the state.

Another very interesting session discussed ‘Space for Women in Music’ with upcoming musicians Sarah Haider and Zoe Viccaji, veteran Fariha Pervaiz and producer Eva Shafique as speakers. The session revolved around how there was a dearth of women in the Pakistani music industry and what could be done to deal with it.

Zoe thought maybe a lot of families didn’t allow girls to enter music, while Fariha said the work of musicians needed to be accepted and recognised. Eva was of the idea that there were fewer women behind the scenes as “it is a man’s world; it’s taken over by men”.

Sarah joined in later and said since things had become commercialised she found it easier as a girl, and that it was difficult for a girl to fit in in a band. “I feel comfortable now as an individual. It makes me tougher to fight the boys and I feel there’s nothing I can’t do that they can,” she added.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2015

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