Ugandans on the internet always have something to discuss. As I write this, many are wondering why some of the country’s biggest artistes had to travel economy class to London for performances over the weekend, and then went ahead to record themselves with a lot of excitement.Some people feel that, as celebrities in this country, these artistes should be flying business class whenever they have bookings abroad. Others argue that it would be a loss for promoters to book business-class tickets because they already have many other expenses.As someone who has followed our music industry closely for over two decades, a lot of things have happened that make me feel like this industry needs a reset button. You can look at this situation from many different angles, the promoters’ perspective or the artistes’ perspective.Still, I think the way artistes are treated whenever they travel abroad depends largely on how they brand themselves.Ugandan artistes, upon arrival in the U.K., where they performed over the weekendMany things happen whenever our artistes travel outside the country, and most of them don’t even have proper artist riders in place for either local or international performances. So whenever they get booked, it is usually the promoters dictating what they will offer, yet it should really be the other way around.On many occasions, we have seen artistes get booked and then start taking pictures on trains and trams as if it is some sort of flex. The same artistes agree to travel out of the country without anyone from their team; they fly solo, which is really strange. Sometimes the reason promoters give is that there isn’t enough money.Apart from mainly performing for Ugandan communities abroad, most of these artistes do not even stay in hotels when they get there. Instead, they are taken to sleep in promoters’ homes or with other Ugandans.We have heard many stories of artistes arriving at their destination only to be asked by immigration officers about the purpose of their travel, and they fail to properly explain themselves. Many have been deported because they lacked enough information about why they were travelling.Some travel on visit visas instead of work visas; some have been arrested before, while others have been deported.Grenade claims setup led to his arrest in ChinaAs performers from West Africa continue to fly into East Africa for media tours every year, some of them are doing this very early in their careers. Our artistes fly to Europe for performances and return home excited simply because they visited Amsterdam, London, or Munich, yet they come back with zero media appearances.As I said earlier, this issue can be viewed from different perspectives. Some people may argue that buying business class tickets does not provide a return on investment because these events are usually small, ticket prices are low, and the venues are not that big.That is understandable. However, I still believe all this happens because artistes and their management teams focus too much on the local market and fail to push their brands beyond the country.I have always felt that no one has truly done anything extraordinary in our music industry for upcoming artistes to look up to. Almost all the people we consider big here are not even big across East Africa. For the past 25 years, many of the people in our industry have been doing the same things over and over again.The local market is very small, yet everyone is fighting for the same space. Artistes need to start looking at the bigger picture. Be intentional about the music you make, what you post on social media, and stop getting overly excited by small things.Artistes and their teams don’t realise that they have the power to ask promoters to plan media tours for them as part of finalising performance deals. This helps artistes spread their wings to new communities and audiences.Looking at London alone, we’ve had notable media personalities who have openly supported Ugandan music and African music as a whole, including DJ Edu, DJ AG, Afro B, and Adesope, to mention a few.I believe these are people who can be used to our advantage as we try to push Ugandan music to the world, but our artistes and their management teams tend to focus on other things. As long as atistes and their management teams don’t start doing things differently, we will keep seeing or hearing about such things happening.The post Business class or not, the music industry needs a reset button appeared first on MBU.