Entertainment / Music
Cal_Vin sells new track via Whatsapp
18 Apr 2016 at 07:19hrs | Views
AWARD winning hip hop artiste Cal_Vin has come up with an ambitious plan of selling his upcoming track My Life through social network sites and mobile money for $1. This follows a similar step taken by his rival Junior Brown who reportedly sold his track Tongogara for $1 and got over $5,000 two months ago.
With the scourge of piracy rife in Zimbabwe, most musicians have found it difficult to make money off their music as they have recorded little or no record sales.
Cal_Vin posted a number where fans can send their $1 to on his Facebook fan page 'Cal Vin' and said the track would be heard on different local radio stations today.
That Luveve boy, as Cal_Vin is affectionately known, said the reason he did all this was because most people in the country cannot buy music online.
"If you look at Zimbabwe's demographics, 99 percent of people aren't on iTunes. So if I put my song on iTunes who's going to buy it. The time for us putting out music for free is over. I want to see if the whole thing works where if a person sends $1 via Ecocash to my number and I send the song to their email and WhatsApp," said Cal_Vin.
"People can send me a screenshot that they've paid the $1 to the WhatsApp number, thereafter they can tell me where I should send the song to. Those outside the country can buy it on iTunes and Google Tunes," said Cal_Vin.
The Bulawayo rapper said through the exercise he wanted to know how people in the country wanted to buy his music.
"This is something I'm trying out to understand how much people can pay for music. I also want to find out what platforms they want to buy and get their music from. This is because we can't as musicians sit down and cry about piracy and do nothing to curb it," said Cal_Vin.
He said although many may think he was taking a leaf out of Junior Brown's hat, he was simply implementing something that has been in place for a long time.
"I'm not copying anyone; it's a system that's out there. In South Africa people are doing it. It worked for Junior Brown, it should work for me. I just want to see how much I can get from the system. I'm not working on a target; I just want my fans to buy my music and I'm not going to post the figure of how many copies have been sold," said Cal_Vin.
He said the single is off his upcoming album Planet Vin that will be released and launched in August.
"I want to do the launch at the Large City Hall. When one buys a ticket for the show, they get a copy of the album at the door," said Cal_Vin.
"I worked with Duke Zulu, a United Kingdom-based beat producer. He's also helping me with the marketing there."
With the scourge of piracy rife in Zimbabwe, most musicians have found it difficult to make money off their music as they have recorded little or no record sales.
Cal_Vin posted a number where fans can send their $1 to on his Facebook fan page 'Cal Vin' and said the track would be heard on different local radio stations today.
That Luveve boy, as Cal_Vin is affectionately known, said the reason he did all this was because most people in the country cannot buy music online.
"If you look at Zimbabwe's demographics, 99 percent of people aren't on iTunes. So if I put my song on iTunes who's going to buy it. The time for us putting out music for free is over. I want to see if the whole thing works where if a person sends $1 via Ecocash to my number and I send the song to their email and WhatsApp," said Cal_Vin.
"People can send me a screenshot that they've paid the $1 to the WhatsApp number, thereafter they can tell me where I should send the song to. Those outside the country can buy it on iTunes and Google Tunes," said Cal_Vin.
"This is something I'm trying out to understand how much people can pay for music. I also want to find out what platforms they want to buy and get their music from. This is because we can't as musicians sit down and cry about piracy and do nothing to curb it," said Cal_Vin.
He said although many may think he was taking a leaf out of Junior Brown's hat, he was simply implementing something that has been in place for a long time.
"I'm not copying anyone; it's a system that's out there. In South Africa people are doing it. It worked for Junior Brown, it should work for me. I just want to see how much I can get from the system. I'm not working on a target; I just want my fans to buy my music and I'm not going to post the figure of how many copies have been sold," said Cal_Vin.
He said the single is off his upcoming album Planet Vin that will be released and launched in August.
"I want to do the launch at the Large City Hall. When one buys a ticket for the show, they get a copy of the album at the door," said Cal_Vin.
"I worked with Duke Zulu, a United Kingdom-based beat producer. He's also helping me with the marketing there."
Source - chronicle
