Piracy: the bane of Africa’s music industry

Lazarus Sauti

Music is of paramount importance to the culture of people across the African continent.

It is a part of every aspect of daily life.

“Music resonates in African society in a manner unparalleled by anything you can encounter state-side,” agrees blogger and writer, Kelly Anderson.

Sadly, musicians in Africa who create the work that carry people through the day confront piracy problems that are among the worst globally.

Norman Mbabazi Akiiki, a lawyer as well as the President of Intellectual Property Centre in Uganda recently said music piracy is a growing concern affecting the country’s music industry.

In almost all corners of Zimbabwe, the sale of pirated music and even movies has become a booming industry and a source of income for most Zimbabweans. As a result, musicians are not benefiting from their work.

According to the Recording Industry of South Africa, artists and the recording companies which support them, lose an estimated R500 million each year to piracy. This amount grows from year to year.

This virus, which refers to the illegal copying, sharing, downloading or transmission of music, is destroying the lives of many in most, if not all, African countries.

“Piracy is a virus crippling the music industry in African countries. It is the reason why young and up-coming artists do not make it in the continent,” noted Richard Y. Homawoo, in a paper titled “Music piracy in Africa and its implications for economic development.”

One of South Africa’s well known gospel artists, Rebecca Malope, concurs.

“Piracy is a deadly disease, it is killing our industry and we all are suffering with this piracy thing,” she said.

South African music producer, Robbie Malinga added: “We work so hard to produce quality, but at the end of the day we do not get anything.

“When artists die as paupers, fans think they abused money while it is actually the pirates who are taking revenue from them.”

Eugene Goulouw of the South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) also believes that piracy not only stunts careers, but stifles talent and eats away at the ability of composers as well as recording artists to continue making music – the soundtrack to our lives.

“Piracy takes bread off the tables of the thousands of people who work in music-related fields. From authors and composers, to record company employees, studio producers, sound engineers and music retailers,” affirmed Goulouw.

To make matters worse, the threat to musicians is no longer just about monetary loss as pirates have now resorted to threatening the lives and freedom of musicians.

It is well documented that Thembinkosi Nciza of TS Records in South Africa has had to resort to hiring bodyguards, after receiving life threatening short message services from pirates.

Shockingly, Goulouw states that the piracy game is now part of a far bigger organised crime syndicate, and the problem is pervasive due to both poor intellectual property protections and the lack of enforcement of the protections currently in place.

“The lack of copyright enforcement is the disease, caused by failed civil and criminal legal systems,” Goulouw said.

Filmmaker and distributor, Gabriel Okoye, agrees.

“Piracy in Africa is becoming incorporated; incorporated, in the sense, that the people that are doing piracy now are the big men that you see around.

“Some of them are former stakeholders in the industry that have found a lucrative job in piracy. And they hide under all kinds of guises to say, ‘we are stakeholders.’ Some of them used to be marketers but right now, they do not have a single shop,” he said.

Nigerian singer and actor Segun Arinze urged all African countries to fight piracy. “The focus is on piracy. That is what everybody’s attention should be on. We should all be fighting piracy,” he said.

Malope concurs, saying all stakeholders must act to curb piracy.

She added that it takes one to say no to piracy; therefore, all African communities must say no to this scourge if the continent is to develop its music sector.

The Global Intellectual Property Centre, the principal institution of the United States Chamber of Commerce handling all issues relating to intellectual property shares same views. It encourages all African states to craft effective intellectual property plans, strategies or policies.

“The musical industry is a sector of economic expansion. Therefore, government sectors should unconditionally invest in the sector, promote as well as protect it from ills such as piracy. To effectively do this, government and key stakeholders must craft strong policies,” noted the GIPC.

Mbabazi Akiiki also encouraged African countries to establish intellectual property centres so as to propagate intellectual property awareness and training, lobbying for best practice legislation over and above liaising between users and the creators of works of intellectual innovation.

“Stakeholders in African countries have limited awareness of copyright and lack access to specialised legal training, resources and counsel; therefore, there is need to establish intellectual property centres.

“The centres must serve as avenues to create awareness on copyright issues among the masses. The targets of such campaigns must take in the users, rights holders, government officials and legislators,” he said.

Zimbabwean Sungura musician, Alick Macheso, also urged policy decision makers to gazette laws against piracy.

“There is a lot of money governments could get from taxing musicians if we are selling well. Besides, music is an industry which can add value to the economy if well regulated. Therefore, policy makers should gazette laws to regulate the music sector as well as to curb piracy,” he said.

However, Debbie Asila, media and music personality, believes that embracing digital platforms can transform the face of the music industry in Africa.

“Digital distribution of creative works offers an unequaled opportunity to expand avenues for legitimate consumption of creative products such as music. African countries must embrace digital media platforms not only to increase sales and build images, but to curb piracy too,” she said.

The former Kiss FM presenter in Kenya added, “To send sales figures skyward, music producers and publishers must focus on making great records, packaging them beautifully and finding avenues to get them to the people in a reasonable efficient and cost effective manner.”

Without doubt, piracy is a bane of Africa’s creative industries. Therefore, action must be taken so that musicians can be protected, and much work needs to be done to promote awareness of copyrights and royalty collection, to enforce stricter punishments against those found guilty of piracy as well as to strengthen and co-ordinate the bodies tasked with protecting copyrights and fighting piracy.