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Mono Mukundu mentors aspiring musicians

Life & Style
During a Young Entrepreneurs workshop hosted by the Zimbabwe Youth in Action Empowerment in the capital last week, Mukundu echoed the entrepreneurial side of the music business.

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST, musician, producer and composer Clive “Mono” Mukundu is hosting a series of  song writing seminars and workshops to mentor aspiring and rising musicians.

During a Young Entrepreneurs workshop hosted by the Zimbabwe Youth in Action Empowerment in the capital last week, Mukundu echoed the entrepreneurial side of the music business.

“Music business comprises the business side, music as a hobby and music as entertainment. It is crucial for artistes to take music as business instead of a hobby or for entertainment purposes,” he said.

“Artistes must align more with the business side of music to succeed. There are high chances of succeeding in foreign tours if Zimbabwean artistes embrace originality of their sound,” he said.

Mukundu said while the music business in the country is low because an unstable economy, artistes should capitalise on their fame as a currency to push their side hustles.

Meanwhile, Mukundu was a guest speaker at a song writing seminar hosted by the Youth Gradual Growth Trust social media platform where he was mentoring aspiring and rising musicians.

Mukundu gave the nod on the strategies by some young people who were using social media for development instead  of using the platforms for cyberbullying and negativity.

Speaking during the song writing seminar Mukundu urged aspiring and rising musicians to choose a specific genre to grow in the music industry.

“Artistes need an identity in the music industry by focusing on one genre. Versatility in music is a suicidal approach. Famous artistes such as Oliver Mtukudzi and Bob Marley were famous with specific genres katekwe and reggae respectively, the same goes for Nigerian singer Damini Ebunoluwa professionally known as Burna Boy popular for Afro Beats and Congolese singer and dancer Koffi Olomide popular for rhumba music,” said Mukundu.

He added that a good strategy to attain  international fame was through international music festivals.

These festivals are genre specific, and they work with music agents hand in hand with music promoters, Mukundu said.

“If artistes want to tour around the world like what Oliver Mtukudzi did and Mokoomba are doing, they should sound Zimbabwean. The international community considers authenticity and various countries are known for specific genres for example Democratic Republic of Congo is popular for rhumba, Jamaica with Dancehall and Zimbabwe famous for mbira, imbube and sungura,” he said.

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