Thorny Penetration Into The Zimbabwe Music Market

Major Shelly's ambition is to have his music touch souls within Zimbabwe and beyond its borders. He says music is a calling that he tried to ignore for a long time because he has another career. But now and again he found himself singing until he ended up considering the gift. His effort right now is to saturate the Zimbabwean market so that international penetration becomes easy. Major Shelly is a strong believer that charity begins at home.

“Though the music market penetration in Zimbabwe is thorny owing to the lack of intermediaries, record labels that market music on behalf of musicians. You have to invest into your own music until it has been accepted. Social media has helped in a way to reach out to music fans throughout the country. Though there are a few financial results. The few radio stations take up a few new songs as compared to the population of musicians in the country. Radio airplay is still very important to make songs popular.”

To date Major Shelly has two albums to his name Ruvengo and Gogogoyi. Currently he is working on a single that he is dedicating to his widowed mother and all the children who grew up after their fathers had passed on. He narrated to me how difficult it is to be raised by one parent especially with our economic situation in Zimbabwe. So he would like to share his life experiences in the song so that he inspires others who are in that situation now.

Major Shelly’s fan base is growing satisfactorily, most of his loyal fans who demand new songs, also ask for videos even though he still is to make his first visual. Fans say Major Shelly's music sounds unique and it is suitable for family listening so they would love to watch his videos in the comfort of their homes.

In the last 4 months of lockdown Major Shelly has been busy as he works as a Chef at a Harare Restuarant, music is a part time career. But he said each time he had found spare time he created new music. Major Shelly also said he is looking forward to the lifting of lockdown restrictions which he took in two regards. First it was safe to save our people from the pandemic but on the other hand it made musicians who survive on live shows suffer as their source of income was compromised.

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