adminFred Zindi Music column
Advancement in technology has defeated musicians, it looks like music piracy is here to stay. Musicians should sometimes wish the good old vinyl record was still being used, maybe they would still be earning a decent living through record sales.
The DJs love the idea of CDs or MP3s because they ease the pressure from carrying the heavy vinyl records because they can put all the music they want to play on a flash stick. But not everyone welcomes this change in technology. Most musicians in Zimbabwe are now surviving on live shows.
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death due to this advanced technology. Anyone who can operate a computer can burn a CD, and this is where the music pirates come in.
If they are not interested in burning CDs, they simply download the music and listen to it free of charge.
I was dumbfounded as I reflected on how technology had changed over the years.
In the past, one could not reproduce a vinyl record because of the complex nature of the processes involved in making records. Nowadays with the advent of computer technology, music can easily be accessed through CDs, MP3s and downloads such as YouTube.
When CDs were first introduced, I tried to resist their use because I had fallen in love with the good old twelve inch albums, which showed pictures of the recording artistes, the titles ( and sometimes the lyrics) of the songs, and all the credits in big writing. The vinyl album had a lot of space to write all these things. Up to now I even have my first album, a 12 incher, pinned on my wall to show off to those who visit me although I cannot play it now because the record player has no stylus.
The phonograph disc record was the primary medium used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century. By the late 1980s, digital media, in the form of the compact discs or CD, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991.
The record labels and the radio conglomerates are in a way also destroying the music industry. Because of piracy, the record companies are hesitant to sign on new artistes.
They would rather reproduce the old stocks they already have in order to avoid spending any more money on new acts. Over 40 percent of the music purchased today is “catalogue items,” meaning traditional music from older established (preferably dead) artistes that the public is familiar with which the record companies know they can sell easily without worrying too much about paying royalties to the dead musicians.
This is one of the reasons the new artistes such as the dancehall musicians have reverted to home studios because the established record companies are unwilling to invest in them.
It has been noted recently that less and less people are frequenting the few existing record bars to buy CDs, thus spelling the demise of the record shops and subsequently, the recording companies. A lot of record bars that used to exist in the city of Harare such as Spinalong, have closed down because there is no viable business in such ventures anymore.
Imagine selling a CD at $10 in a shop when the same product despite its poor quality at times, can be bought for 10 percent of that price on the streets. Some of the known musicians are now selling their CDs on streets at reduced prices just like the pirates.
This problem is not unique to Zimbabwe alone. In Britain many record shops have also closed down.
During the days of vinyl records big businesses came out of record sales.
One example is Virgin Records which started off as a tuck shop in Ladbroke Grove, London , then moved on to a record shop and finally a large record mega-market in Oxford Street, London. It was through this mega-market record shop that Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Virgin Railways, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Gymnastics and Virgin Banks. Today, he is rated as one of the world’s richest men.
Virgin Record Store closed a few years ago due to lack of business in the music industry as it realised that there was no point in fighting with computer technology and music pirates.
The demise of such big businesses is mainly due to technological advancement which has allowed piracy to prevail and has propelled some unscrupulous people reaping where they did not sow.
There is no doubt that music piracy affects record stores, record companies and their artistes.
It is reported that online music piracy alone has caused some record stores sales to drop by 20 percent every year. Over 2,6 billion downloads of copyrighted music files have been reported worldwide on a monthly basis.
Because music piracy continues to harm the industry, it means that both record stores and record companies have reduced income and the artistes have very little or no royalties at all.
Further implications are that record companies begin to reduce their budget expenditures and may even get to the point of retrenching their staff. It also stifles their need to invest in new musicians.
In Zimbabwe today, there are several underground operators specialising in producing fake recorded music in the form of CDs and selling these to unsuspecting consumers.
There are also those who make business using CD writers by simply buying blank CD-Rs and then copy any music they want or which they are asked to copy for a fee.
I attended Jah Prayzah’s “Kumbumura Mhute” album launch on the April 16.
The two ladies I was sitting next to were talking among themselves during the auctioning of the CD. One of them was saying, “That man who is offering $3,000 for the CD is crazy! Tomorrow, I will get it on the streets for $1.”
Indeed as I passed through Fife Avenue Shopping Centre the next day, a vendor was trying to sell me the pirated copy of the album for a dollar.
This practice undermines the earning capacity of the originators of music.
Nowadays, we even get people who think that they can make money by creating their own websites on the internet and begin to distribute music without licences or permission from the owners of such music.
The copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 2000 in Zimbabwe states that only the copyright owner has an exclusive right to reproduce or publish his work to the public.
Today, at almost every street corner or shopping centre, there are several vendors marketing illegally acquired CDs, MP3s, DVDs and so forth, thus violating both the copyright act as well as the rights of the owners of the material they reproduce.
Anti Piracy Organisation of Zimbabwe (APOZ) and Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) can only act within the law to ensure that such activities are stopped, but they will not stop until more stringent measures are put in place.
Pushing the price of blank CDs to one dollar each and asking customs to charge heavy duty on imported blank CDs might alleviate the problem but in my opinion, bringing back the vinyl record will definitely do the trick. Advancement in technology is not always a good thing.
If only the good old vinyl record (which is difficult to reproduce), is brought back, musicians might start to earn a decent living through record sales once again.
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]
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