How the Zimbabwean Government Let the Musicians Down With Regards to Piracy PART1 - By Clive "Mono" Mukundu

The reason why the quality of the majority of music recorded before the piracy era was good was because of the contract system that was used by record companies that time. Artists were recorded free of charge by record companies,the record company would cover all costs from audio recording, album sleeve design, duplication of cds, video production. All these costs means a lot of money. In developed countries the minimum cost of a good video can cost from $20 000. The record company will recover all these costs from the sales of the album and share percentages with the artist. Since the company covered all these costs, it meant that the company, through its music producers, made sure that the musicians performed to their standard,all substandard music was turned down.

These days artists pay for the studio time,so the producers don't have much of a say bcoz anemari ndiye mukuru (If I am paying you, I'm boss.) The contract system had advantages to both artist and record company. To the artist its an advantage in that you do not pay anything to have your album recorded, so any broke or poor musician was able to record his music as long as he had good material. To the record company the advantage is that its more profitable to record artists under contract, sell the music  and you get your percentage than use the cash system.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE CASH SYSTEM

Now when a country has such ruthless level of piracy like in Zimbabwe if the record company covers all costs for the recording there is no way they can get their money back because all revenue will be harvested by the music pirates. As a result all record companies and producers have adopted the cash system, this means everybody who wants to record music has to foot his own bill from music recording, paying session musicians, transport, food, photo shoots, album sleeve artwork, cd and sleeve duplication,video shoot and production. As a result all the talented musicians in the ghetto and rural areas can not afford to foot these bills,the recording studios have bills to pay,they also need to survive too so they can not give their services for free,end result its the music that suffers on a national level.

This means there is a lot of untapped talent lying idle because the artists can not afford to pay. Right now the next Oliver Mtukudzi,the next Bhundu boys,the next Mkanya is stuck somewhere in the rural areas or ghetto, with a song book full of hits that can put Zimbabwe on the map, but has no money to record their music.

DOES PIRACY HAS ADVANTAGES?

To say that piracy has advantages because pane ma artists akaita popular nayo (some artists get popular) is the same as telling a rape victim "Thank God, at least you now have a baby as a result of the rape!" You can't say crime has an advantage, after all before piracy artists used to get popular still, they would be rich and popular. Artists like Leonard Dembo, John Chibadura etc lived comfortably on music. These days where you get to be poor and famous. Zahara released an album last week that sold 20 000 copies on day one, this used to happen in Zimbabwe, but it can't happen when pirated discs are sold openly like tomatoes.

I hate to hear people ask us"what have you as musicians done about piracy?".What do you expect us to do besides raise alarm? Every crime victim's duty is simply to raise alarm, then the law makers do their part and get the law enforcement agents do their part...period...don't give us tips on how to beat "piracy competition"...sungai mbavha (arrest them)..period!

SO WHO DO I BLAME FOR PIRACY:

Of course the economy contributed but the number one institution that has let us down in this case is the government. Instead of seeing music pirates as criminals, they see them as competition and as a result we as artists are given tips on how to "beat the competition, lower your prices and match the pirates" ....come on, don't give us tips,sungai mbavha idzo! When rural farmers complained about cattle rustlers, the farmers were not given tips on how to "beat the competition", stiffer penalties were put in place and the situation was controlled, the same happened with car jackings and rape crimes. If the government has the willingness to have all the bootleggers removed from the streets we all know they have the efficiency, it's just a matter of if they are willing to help? Maybe they still see music as for marombe (low lifes.)

There is need for stiffer laws against piracy just like what they do in other countries. Try to sell a pirated disc in USA and see what will happen to you,the fbi will hunt you down. I just hope no politician will see this as something else that its not, this is simply a cry for help, matiregerera kumagitare ,stop giving us those "piracy is a cancer" speeches at album launches,sungai mbavha!

(Please note:Do not contribute any inflamatory political statements,this is simply about music)

Clive "Mono" Mukundu