ZIMBABWEANS have been crippled, with power shortages and high data tariffs turning the entire country into darkness and artistes have not been spared.
BY LORRAINE MUROMO
In a highly digitalised era, social media platforms have provided a safe nest for artistes to interact with their fans and amass support as well as embrace positive criticism to do better and applauses for a good job. More Zimbabweans had adopted social media and the social media user base had also grown more representative of the broader population.
Young adults and teenagers were among the earliest social media adopters and continued to use these sites at high levels, but currently usage has reduced alarmingly.
The level of interaction between fans and celebrities has deteriorated due to limited participation. These days, fewer audiences tend to go on downloading sites such as Tubidy, Mp3Juice and Mp3Skull among others.
The continuous power outages and high data tariffs have seen lesser audiences and followers on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
The ones that actually manage to go on these platforms are heavily reliant on Wi-Fi which is not really accessible to many.
It has, however, turned into a sad story where artistes and their fans have found themselves estranged.
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Songstress Queen Vee said power shortages and high data tariffs had taken a toll on her career.
“Most people in the industry especially in Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa might not understand the power of online presence. The industry has shifted in all kinds of dynamics with the main drive being social media and with the prevailing power cuts as well as high data tariffs, it has taken my brand and music a few steps back,” she said.
She said interactions with her friends and fans had gone down because data had become a luxury for some.
“The tariffs have not only affected online interactions, but are a major setback when it comes to music downloading platforms, people shy away from effecting YouTube views thus numbers move at a low pace,” she said.
“YouTube is a numbers game, you have to achieve a good number before you get royalties based on the number of viewers. If people are not viewing or downloading the videos it means the returns will be low.”
She, however, said electricity outages did not really have a bearing as artistes always make a plan.
