ZIMURA challenges musicians

Maria Chiguvari

THE Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) says more still needs to be done to convince established artists to cooperate with the organisation .

ZIMURA is a board which regulates and defends composers and musicians’ copyright.

With the organisation celebrating 40 years, they are still concerned with the lack of cooperation of some musicians.

Alexio “Goodchild” Gwenzi, Director of Information and Publicity on the ZIMURA board, said most of the musicians remained ignorant of their rights.

“Most of the musicians are ignorant since they don’t know the benefits associated with being a member of ZIMURA.

“The other challenge is with the popular artists. 

“They do not understand the importance of declaring their works with the organisation. 

“This affects the distribution of royalties,” he said.

Goodchild said the organisation introduced systems which allow artists to have easy access for registration process and submission of their works.

 “Artists can now submit their music online through email in mp3 format. 

“This is very convenient as there is no need for a physical visit to the office and saves them time and transport costs.

“Anyone who owns copyright can register with ZIMURA with a minimum requirement of one musical work. 

“ZIMURA also reduced the requirements and made it easy.

“In 2022, we celebrated 40 years of existence and ran a free registration promotion in a way to encourage artists to register and submit all their works and the response was overwhelming,” he said.

ZIMURA’s vision is to become a world class collective management organisation.

“ZIMURA is in the process of educating artists on its roles and vision. This is being done through workshops, social media as well as the press – both printing and television.

Goodchild said that the most difficult group of artists to convince is the Zimdancehall musicians.

“There is a bit of a lack of knowledge from the Zimdancehall genre,” he said.

He noted that there was a need to hold more workshops to enlighten the artists.

“Copyright awareness workshops have been held since 2022 and the response and turnout has been very positive in all provinces. 

“In 2023 two workshops in Bindura and Chinhoyi were overwhelming,” he said.