Embo's unconventional release

One of the most admirable live performing artists Zonke. Her rise to stardom came in 2011 following the release of her third album, Ina Ethe, which was certified double platinum and was nominated at the 18th South African Music Awards. 

The Tonight hitmaker  has been able to fund her newly released album through her in demand tours. The unconventional release of her album has raised eyebrows as her fans were not ready for such an outcome.

She then took to her Instagram to announce the release of her long overdue album Embo. The Album being the 15th she then added on the Instagram caption that she went " old school" when producing the album.

According to Zaleb she ditched the conventional avenue of releasing an album through digital streaming platforms (DSPs) first before making physical copies available. Moreover, she confirmed that the album was not going to be available via any DSPs. Instead, the album was set to be released only as a CD, vinyl and USB.

Fans are fascinated by this predicament. The release of this album took place on the 21st of April 2023 and song reviewers, lovers  writers and fans had various opinion regarding this unconventional release of her album. One fan stated that he likes that "zonke is taking charge of her art". One unhappy fan's concern is that a fee of R138 has to be paid before listening to the album via her recently launched, independently owned digital music streaming platform Orion. Her album will exclusively be streamed digitally via this platform.

Her main reason for choosing this route is the unlicensed copying and selling of her songs that resulted in a decline in revenue for her previous albums. We wish her nothing but the.

Mamelisa Ngcongo - Journalist