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.
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