Global Reggae Charts - Issue #8 / December 2017

global reggae charts
featured artist
building a network of fans and genre influencers,
centered around their music and other creative
doings.
In such a world, the idea of creating an artist-driven
indie label that understands itself as a platform and
leverages the internet to build an audience makes
a lot of sense. While it no longer takes a huge label
with a global team to effectively promote and distribute
music to a global audience, it is still beyond
a single artist’s capacity to do everything on their
own (mind you, there is still music to be created and
performed). It takes a team to do so. Ideally, one that
is well-versed in the modern, internet-driven music
game.
Mortimer
social media platforms - on an (almost) global scale,
at little cost, and without having to rely on any
editorial gatekeeper’s goodwill. Further, instead of
mass media that tried to reach as broad an audience
as possible, we have more and more niche media
that cater to specific interests. And, importantly, music
distribution is no longer bound to physical media.
As we are moving towards the streaming age, the
costs of distributing music to fans across the globe
have drastically decreased.
The net effect for artists in a niche is this:
1) They are less reliant on big media when it comes
to building and reaching a fan base.
2) They can get more done as independent artists
than ever before. Traditional record labels were built
upon their capability to get physical recordings in
physical stores. Artists used to be reliant on that.
Today, it’s less important than ever.
Under the supervision of Protoje and his mother
Lorna Bennett - herself of course a famous reggae
singer, who acts as the label’s managing director -,
In.Digg.Nation is building exactly that. It’s a collective
of artists, a small dedicated team of supporters, and,
essentially, a network that allows every individual
artist to achieve more - including reaching a broader
audience.
In sum, the model seems at once made possible by
and optimized for the modern music business. It has
worked well in other genres before and it wouldn’t
surprise me in the the least if we see an increasing
number of entrepreneurial-minded artists of the new
generation pursuing their career in a similar model.
Among them, I bet, we’ll find the first internet-made
global reggae superstar.
1
Thus, you might argue: the very fact that reggae even became a
global community speaks for the music’s power. Said community was
almost solely created by 1) Caribbean communities abroad (in particular
in some parts of the USA and in the UK) and 2) enthusiasts who
stumbled upon the music, became hooked and built local scenes.
3) The new key skill that allows an artist to grow is
Protoje feat. Mortimer
Truths & Rights
Lila Iké -
Gotti Gotti
global reggae charts | issue 8 / dec 2017
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