Fame or Business

Lady Du is a South African platinum-selling musician, five-time award winner, and entrepreneur. She is well-known for her music, businesses, and awards, as well as her latest Spotify triumph as the Top South African Female Artist on Amapiano Grooves

We have heard many debates about digitization and its positive impact on the music industry and to some extent, majority of these debates were accurate. There is no doubt that digitization has shattered gatekeeping barriers from entertainment corporations that hindered many talented musicians’ rise to fame. However, on the other hand, these debates focused mainly on the market entry revolution that came with this new industrial outlook and not the valuable aspect in music creation, i.e., the business of making music as an independent artist.

Today we often hear artists bemoaning the unfair returns from their musical talents, with some blaming record labels for not paying them their fair dues. This raises the question of whether this is due to the proliferation of new musical platforms that have emerged in the digital era or if record labels are in fact, exploiting their artists.

In this book, the author analyses both the traditional and digital music industries. This research intends to educate emerging and aspirant artists about the pros and cons of the music industry in the digital era and provides insights on how artists can position themselves as creators and proprietors of their work in this digital era