Musicians need serious financial planning

of Musicians), APOZ (Anti-Piracy Organisation of Zimbabwe) and Zimura (Zimbabwe Music Rights Association) who are at the helm of the music industry and purporting to carry the interests of musicians at heart have a lot to do.
I don’t know how many millions they are worth, but put together, musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo, Alick Macheso, Tongai Moyo and Oliver Mtukudzi are the envy of any aspiring musician because in society’s eyes, these people have made it.
The society judges their wealth according to the demand for their records by millions of fans. No one is certain who is really making the money. Is it the record companies, the music promoters, the record shops, the pirates on the streets or the artistes?
This is one question I have been asked so many times but have been unable to answer convincingly.
The only musician that I know who has visibly shown his wisdom in investment is Mtukudzi as evidenced by his Pakare Paye Centre which has a recording studio, a conference centre, a restaurant, offices, a music hall and a night club.
What has happened to the rest of our musicians?
Is it lack of planning on their part or it is just recklessness?
If so, then they need the assistance of the above music organisations.
I remember seeing the late John Chibadura during his last days on earth. He was selling almost everything he had acquired during his lifetime in order to pay his medical bills as he was not covered by any medical insurance.
Yet I also know that John was making a lot of money from live shows and recordings during the peak of his career.
He travelled as far afield as the Netherlands and the UK where he performed in front of thousands of fee-paying fans.
In Mozambique, he played in stadiums and had a minimum of 40 000 people attending each time he gave a concert.
Yet he died in poverty and received a pauper’s burial.
Should this have happened to one of Zimbabwe’s top hit makers, I wonder?
What is really wrong with this industry?
Does it only attract people who have no capacity to invest into their future?
If so, then the NACZ, Zimura, APOZ and Zum have got a job of work to do.
The late Biggie Tembo was one of Zimbabwe’s finest musicians. So popular was Biggie and his outfit, Bhundu Boys, that they toured the breadth and width of the globe and were chauffeured to venues from luxury hotels.
Tembo’s phenomenal rise and fame even saw him share the stage with Madonna at Wembley Stadium before 250 000 plus audience in 1987.
Sadly enough it appears that his fame and fortune disappeared with his death.
His widow, Ratidzai, is now squatting in an unelectrified two-roomed cottage in Snake Park and survives on selling sadza.
Should she be suffering like this when her late husband lived a millionaire’s life?
What has happened to Biggie’s music catalogue? Where have the proceeds from after death sales gone to?
In the United States of America, Michael Jackson’s parents are now richer than when Jackson was alive due to the phenomenal amounts of money that have come pouring in through his after-death record sales.
Can’t our legal experts assist Ratidzai to get what belongs to the Tembo family since she has been bequeathed with Biggie’s legacy?
In my view, Biggie’s record company should assist Ratidzai as they are still selling Biggie Tembo’s music, yet the royalties remain with the record company.
I do not own any record company but because of my connection with the music world, I get loads of requests to this day from people asking for The Bhundu Boys’ “Simbimbino” or “Upenyu Hwangu”.
I take it that record companies and record shops or even street vendors are also under pressure from the same people.
They can easily manufacture the Bhundu Boys’ CDs to meet that demand. If so, where is the money from such sales going?
Rise Kagona and Kenny Chitsvatsva, the two surviving members of the Bhundu Boys are now based in the UK and they tell me they do not receive any royalties from their work. Who, then, is making the money?
Biggie, had established two homes in Zimbabwe and in England and towards the end of his life, he had nothing.
He sold his Braeside home in Harare and moved to England.
In England, after a misunderstanding with his band members, he could no longer pay his mortgage and Barclays Bank repossessed the bungalow that Tembo had bought.
Biggie Tembo’s contemporary, James Chimombe’s family is in more or less a similar grim predicament.
Chimombe, a reputable vocalist and a gifted musician, had a distinct and varied musical style.
The success of Chimombe in music quarters was predictable given the intensity of his creative lyrical talents, thus it was no fluke that his music transcended Zimbabwe borders, naturally earning him fame and fortune.
Sadly enough he passed on leaving a wife and several children.
More than two decades after his death, Chimombe’s music is still rocking the airwaves – and people find time to dance to his soulful tunes.
Record producers, street vendors, music pirates and retailers are also making money from sales of his music.
What is baffling is that Chimombe’s children are living from hand to mouth, and one of them, Freddy, is now blind and literally a destitute.
The question many would want to ask is: What really went wrong?
Music is a timeless investment that does not have a sunset zone in terms of sales and generating revenue through both conventional and unconventional channels.
This means that whoever is Chimombe or Tembo’s recording company could be basking in glory from sale proceeds. Both Chimombe and Tembo’s audio CDs and cassettes are on sale in the record bars and flea markets and many shops selling music, two decades after their deaths.
And to imagine that the offspring of these greats are living in poverty in the peripheral and most unpleasant places of the country is a major challenge for all music organisations and stakeholders in the country.
If we were to stretch our imaginations a little. What if the same predicament that befell the Chimombe and Tembo families finds new prey among the crop of our celebrated musicians today, such as Tongai Moyo or Alick Macheso?
Questions can build up and explode but the fact is Zimbabwe musicians and those at the helm of the many music organisations purporting to carry the interests of musicians at heart have a lot to do.
l Fred Zindi is a Professor at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a musician and an author of several books on music. He can be contacted via e-mail on [email protected]