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Building
up the hype
Since his comeback, Haroon is all over the place with his
videos, music and live gigs. He has obviously come a long way
to become one of the savviest musicians going. Instep traces him
to the latest press conference he held...
By Shahzeb
Shaikh
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Musicians
are brands, not just singers in today's world. If there is one singer
who understands this concept very well, it is Haroon. With over a
decade in the music business, Haroon is a seasoned player, one who
knows and understands just how to market himself. As soon as he got
done with his third studio album, Haroon Ka Nasha, he released two
funky videos back-to-back, 'Jeeya Jaaye' and 'Jua Khela. He then released
his album. With the videos still fresh in minds of fans, Haroon Ka
Nasha found its calling.
There are billboards of Haroon all over the the place. He is holding
gigs, left, right and center and marketing himself all over the place,
which is exactly how one builds hype around any album.
Even though, Haroon is a big name in music with years of experience
and various albums (with his former band Awaz as well as solo stints),
he has been accommodating the press with everything and has |
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made
sure that he remains accessible. |
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As
his album just got released, Haroon held a "meet the press"
session at Royale Rodale club in Karachi. Everyone from the press
was present at this conference. After a brief summary of Haroon by
his manager, Haroon came and thanked all attendees and said, "I
want to thank everyone for coming today including my good friend super
star Ali Azmat, who is also a fellow AMPP member." |
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This understanding
of press and how to tackle the media only comes with experience. Releasing
the album while the cricket world cup is taking place could've been
a disaster for Haroon but because he is so on the ball, even the CWC
couldn't take away his thunder.
"Everybody warned me not to launch my album right in the middle
of the world cup because no one would be interested in music. But
the album has done incredibly well and sales in the last one week
have been fantastic. The record label told me that there distribution
sold out and they had to manufacture more CD's to ship to all the
stores," said Haroon.
Elaborating on the album, he said, "Haroon Ka Nasha touches on
a variety of interesting themes apart from the usual love songs. The
song 'Big Corporation Man' is a satire on greedy large companies that
only care about profit without regard to the effects on the environment
or their customers. |
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The song 'Jiya Jaaye' has a strong message extolling brotherhood
and peace no matter what your religion or background. I think as
artists it is important that we send out messages in our music because
the youth really listens and we can make a huge difference."
Speaking on live shows, Haroon said, "I will be doing a nationwide
Haroon Ka Nasha tour and I will perform in the big cities but I
also want to perform and entertain the masses of Pakistan in the
more remote areas."
At the conference, Haroon also brought forward his views on piracy
and commented, "One big problem that artists in Pakistan are
facing is piracy. I have been getting phone calls from people all
over Pakistan and through out the world and they are telling me
that they have downloaded the songs from the internet from illegal
websites rather than buying the album. This is highly unfair. Not
only does it rob the artist and record label of income but often,
the quality of those downloads are poor grade Mp3's and they don't
do justice to the music This is a serious problem and neither I
nor my record label will take this easy. We will take legal action
against any site that puts the songs on the internet for free downloads."
Understanding the power of forums and blogs, Haroon mentioned, "We
have videos online, songs, forums. It is brilliant and since we
launched our website, we have been getting 20,000 hits a day."
Speaking on AMPP (Association of Music Professionals of Pakistan),
Haroon stated, "AMPP has some big plans. The great thing is
this organization is for all the artists. We stand together on this.
Recently we held a meeting and to reaffirm our commitment. The time
is ripe to for us to make our presence be felt. We will hold a press
conference soon to announce some of our plans."
Here's hoping that the musicians of Pakistan at large run with AMPP,
as well as Haroon has been with his latest Nasha.
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