Thembisa S. Mshaka is a 17-year veteran of the entertainment business. She is also the author of the comprehensive career guide Put Your Dreams First: Handle Your [entertainment] Business, available at www.putyourdreamsfirst.com.
There are few things I love more than a great question. Questions that are new to my ears and give me pause; taking my brain beyond thoughts provoked to truth spoken to power. Questions like these are right up there with Haagen Dazs on a perfect summer day.
Jake, the editor of this newsletter graciously invited me to contribute to this week’s issue. He posed a very thought-provoking question to me.
‘Have women been able to use these tools [including MySpace and YouTube] to their advantage or have they simply increased the pressure to fit a particular mold?
I had to read this repeatedly and turn it over in my head for over a week. Initially, it led to more questions: had self-doubt and second-guessing many women experience borne of institutional sexism found its way to the internet too? Or can women be who they want to be in cyberspace instead of embodying a patriarchal stereotype?
The more I thought about it, the more I arrived at certain answers. Two challenges that all sites face are those of being personal and connected: to establish a bond that sticks, and lasts, with whoever logs on. Be grateful for the progressive men in your virtual world and social networks; they are making the Internet a better place one guy at a time (hats off, gents!). The bad news is, until sexism is wiped from the planet, it will continue to be practiced on the Internet. Cyberspace contact remains the ultimate cold call. At times, virtual and impersonal nature of the medium even lends itself to furthering the objectification of women.
The more I thought about it, the more I arrived at certain answers. Two challenges that all sites face are those of being personal and connected: to establish a bond that sticks, and lasts, with whoever logs on. Be grateful for the progressive men in your virtual world and social networks; they are making the Internet a better place one guy at a time (hats off, gents!). The bad news is, until sexism is wiped from the planet, it will continue to be practiced on the Internet. Cyberspace contact At times, virtual and impersonal nature of the medium even lends itself to furthering the objectification of women.
The good news is women artists and entrepreneurs now have Web 2.0 on their side: With social networking and user generated content, the Berlin Wall that stood between artists and consumers has in many ways fallen. Distribution, sales, professional development, instant marketing, instant feedback - All available to you. All digital.
So even though there are misogynist morons are still logging on, you can be whoever you want so long as you’re not infringing on the identity of another of course…and yes, you can be yourself. You can tailor and target your message (most likely your music or your business proposition) with laser-like efficiency. Don’t wear makeup? No problem. Is your monster budget more like the size of a mighty (albeit diminutive) action figure? In the land of homemade tracks and videos, your campaign can stand out because of the substance of your product—and how you roll it out instead of how much you spend. The constraints of connecting directly with your audience have been removed, but the work is now up to you build and sustain the fans that labels used to bring to you. Pop sensation Colbie Caillat is a bona fide MySpace discovery. She didn’t have to glam up or strip down to appeal to her audience. Colbie had this to say in her bio about the leverage the Internet afforded her in her negotiations with labels:
"Nothing much happened for a few months," she remembers. "Then I wrote this song called ‘Bubbly’ and put it up there and it got this huge reaction. I mean thousands and thousands of hits every day." In the end, she became the number one unsigned artist on MySpace for four successive months, garnering an almost unbelievable 10 million plays. Record labels started courting her and she signed with Universal Republic because, she says, they offered her total creative freedom. "The great thing about MySpace is that you can build up an army of fans and then when you go to a record company, there's no point in them trying to change what you do because it's already been tried and tested," she points out.
Not that a major label deal has to be the objective; R&B vocalist Mykah Montgomery is also building her story from the virtual ground up, with her single “I Just Wanna Go Outside” from her debut album Me & U on iTunes and a self-produced music video streaming online all as an independent (ME Records) without traditional, terrestrial distribution. Les Nubians have a comprehensive site for their creative endeavors, Nubiatik.com, and sell their catalog and merchandise there while they keep their global fanbase up to date on new music and performances.
But know this: direct access is no substitute for a solid product. In fact, it’s easier to spot a fraud online. Don’t let limited resources handcuff your presentation. Bad music or shoddy production is painfully obvious in the virtual space. MySpace and YouTube are the tip of the iceberg. As an artist, a presence on MySpace is vital until your following grows large and loyal enough to migrate them to your own social network, for example. As for YouTube, I even have a channel there, and I’m an author.
YouTube.com/ThembisaMshakaTV houses my original content, from press clips to my self-produced commercial—plus content from other sources related to my book.
On this new web, niche is queen, and it’s all in how you spin your silk. Oh yeah, Jake also asked me to offer up advice for new artists, managers and producers. Next issue, I’ll share some direct insight from women in my book that will give you the affirmation you need to make like a Black Widow and kill ‘em out there.
