Proverb’s Manager (Jobie One) on SA, Malawi and African Music Industry… (Final Part)

In this instalment we conclude our interview with producer, entrepreneur and Deejay, Jobie One, who manages African hip-hop icon Proverb. In this finale, he lets us in on the One thousand fan theory, how it works and outlines the need for producers to stay sharp with help from content on the web.

TM: Ok, now specifically to my audience, what would you say to Malawian artists?

JBOne: Eish! I am sorry I don’t know anyone else from Malawi except Tay Grin… but look, I would say I think there is an obsession with trying to be big all over the world in general. And I think an artist can be big just in his hood and still make a killing. So do not be afraid to be focussed and committed to your own community –

Mokere:  – Oh, tell him about the One thousand fan theory!

TM: There is a One thousand fan theory?

JBOne: Oh yeah, there is a theory that says if you focus on only your core One thousand fans you could make R700,000 – R1million income in a year.

TM: Explain the theory.

JBOne: Well it’s not my theory I won’t take credit for it, it’s actually called the One thousand true fan theory if I recall. Essentially it goes like this; you need to have true fans, that is, the guys that will buy your album, your t-shirt and come to your concert. The guys who will come through if there is an after party. These are the people who talk back to you the most on Facebook, Twitter or email, you have to notice them and keep track of them and groom them. These are the people who get the word out, they know when your next project, video or single is coming out etc. These are the people who actually buy your products and are investing in you. So what you do to convert them into cash is; you focus pretty much all your marketing on that one thousand and no one else. Forget the rest, the one thousand will bring you the rest. In fact believe it or not, it is the model that Barak Obama used for his online campaign that put him into presidency.

TM: How would those few followers bring in the rest?

JBOne: Well there is a report on the Obama online campaign on the net, you could also google the One thousand true fan theory if you want the details. Basically though, the Obama team would check who was interacting with the campaign the most in each key geographic location and those people would receive the most calls from the campaign coordinators and would be invited to exclusive meetings etc. The campaign ignited those key followers in each location to create ripple effects for the whole movement. Just read the actual theory itself it will blow your mind!

TM: Have you ever used this theory yourself as Proverb’s manager?

JBOne: To an extent yeah. On our last project a week before the album released a couple of songs were emailed to a few subscribers of proverbmusic.net as a token of our appreciation for their ongoing support. All we asked was for them not to leak the tracks before the album was released. I think it makes people feel appreciated and it makes people feel special, when you can trust them with something like that, and they are sure to reciprocate as well as tell their friends about it.

TM: Ok. So in a nutshell though, what are we doing wrong?

Mokere: If you are not making money you are doing something wrong. There is money in everything. Quite literary you can make money from anything if you are serious about making it.

JBOne:  Just stop and think for a second, someone actually thought of ‘bottled water’. People have water in their tap at home, but will still go out to buy bottled water. Even if the guy took it from the same tap they took it from and just bottled it. If someone can do that and make millions, I am pretty sure that you can make money from anything.

Mokere: Convenience can do a lot for you. People are willing to pay so that things can be a lot more convenient for them.

TM: Very true I guess.

JBOne: Look, at the end of the day, your video or you mix might not be the reason you make money. It might not even be your music or your lyrics. As much as that is important, entrepreneurship is figuring out a way to get money out of some else’s wallet into yours period. It may sound a little contradictory to what I said earlier, but get to the money as straight forward as possible. Don’t spend too much time trying to make everything pretty if that won’t guarantee returns.

TM: Alright then, a final word on production in Africa.

JBOne: I think locally as well as artists up and down the African coasts need to work harder on their mixing. There are some guys who are mixing really well, but when I talk to them like, “yo who mixed your album?” It turns out that they sent it to France or to New York to get mixed. I have come across this a bit with some cats from West Africa whose stuff is being sent to a friend who is abroad where it is mixed, then sent back. This seems more prevalent in the hiphop scene too. I am not saying you should go for training, but when big time producers like Justin blaze are sitting in their studio giving free tutorials on YouTube, I feel like there is no excuse. In fact this is true of most things nowadays, go to an internet cafe if you must, but if you have internet access you really don’t have an excuse as to not having access to things any more.

A special thanks on behalf of the Timve team and our readers to Jobie One and Mokere for doing this very insightful interview. Bros it has been much appreciated, and like many people we look forward to another interview in the near future. keep doing your thing. God bless.