Traditional media- especially newspapers are fighting for their life, in the face of the internet.
But not just newspapers alone, even radio and television have heard to reinvent themselves to remain relevant to not only the consumers, but also the advertisers.
A June 2018 study by research firm, Ipsos, for example showed that there was nearly twice the number economically active Ugandans (ABC1C2 class) relying on the internet for information, that there was for newspapers.
But perhaps, the greatest weapon that the internet has brought about, is liberalizing the airwaves- so to speak. As such everybody now is a journalist; a media house of some sorts. You do not necessarily have to rely on third parties all the time to shape or tell your story.
In the communications business, especially in advertising you will occasionally hear of digital influencers- and these are not really some sort of some demi-gods but rather are individuals who have huge audiences on social media and most often do possess some sort of power over them- either celebrity or knowledge power.
PRAU Honors Uganda’s Top Innovators at 9th Excellence AwardsBy default, most of these influencers are politicians, churchmen and radio/TV personalities, journalists and yes, artists or call them celebrities if you like.
This week, we set out to find who are some of the leading influential music artists on social media in Uganda.
Since influence is largely a factor of reach, to complete this task we looked at the three most dominant social media platforms- Facebook, Twitter and Instagram- and simply aggregated the totals, to generate the list of Uganda’s 20 most influential music artists on social media.
DISCLAIMER: Because these numbers grow very fast- the figures presented here are as of close of business on Monday, 4th November, 2019.
| ARTIST | TOTAL | ||||
| 1. | Edyy Kenzo | 142,244 | 708,567 | 1,188,343 | 2,039,154 |
| 2. | Bobi Wine | 406,378 | 357,548 | 1,056,803 | 1,820,729 |
| 3. | Juliana Kanyomozi | 73,205 | 440,769 | 1,144,216 | 1,658,190 |
| 4. | Rema Namakula | 27,719 | 500,825 | 1,020,400 | 1,548,944 |
| 5. | Jose Chameleon | 182,894 | 709,644 | 585,218 | 1,477,756 |
| 6. | Sheebah Karungi | 133,982 | 584,046 | 445,946 | 1,163,974 |
| 7. | Bebe Cool | 131,834 | 249,154 | 649,665 | 1,030,653 |
| 8. | Spice Diana | 47,278 | 504,124 | 342,986 | 894,388 |
| 9. | A Pass | 86,449 | 365,927 | 441,330 | 893, 706 |
| 10. | Winnie Nwagi | 9,140 | 523,661 | 353,495 | 886,296 |
| 11. | Radio and Weasel | 155,276 | 379,304 | 323,110 | 857,690 |
| 12 | Lydia Jazmine | 49,008 | 449,849 | 208,745 | 707,602 |
| 13. | Irene Ntale | 110,027 | 502,423 | 88,826 | 701,276 |
| 14. | Ykee Benda | 43,628 | 361,720 | 252,154 | 657, 502 |
| 15 | Pallaso | 60,734 | 319,665 | 253,470 | 633,869 |
| 16. | Navio | 97,608 | 256,758 | 277,079 | 631,445 |
| 17. | Maurice Kirya | 149,037 | 183,028 | 266,517 | 598,582 |
| 18. | Cindy Sanyu | 26,105 | 483,134 | 67,493 | 576,732 |
| 19. | Vinka | 33,941 | 324,411 | 193,527 | 551,879 |
| 20 | Fic Fameica | 52,561 | 311,024 | 134,207 | 497,792 |
| TOTAL | 2,019,048 | 8,515,581 | 9,293,530 | 19,828,159 |
