Technology, piracy the bane of artists
MICHAEL Jackson's album Thriller broke all sales records upon its release back in 1982. And that was not because of his perm or his dark skin suddenly becoming lighter. The sales were also not because of his moon walk, high pitched voice or gloved hand.
MAGIC: Zahara, winner of the best musician during the Feather Awards at the Venue in Melrose Arch. PHOTO: VELI NHLAPOWhen his gel-soaked hair caught fire during the filming of a soft-drink commercial, it certainly set tongues wagging, but the reason his album sold as many units as it did was simply because, with the help of the legendary Quincy Jones, the duo managed to produce a masterpiece.
To date, the album is rumoured to have sold between 65 and 100 million copies.
However in today's market, it's safe to say that no album, regardless of who the artist is, will ever sell that many copies again. Even the King of Pop's last studio album, Invincible, failed to live up to his usual high standards
Over the years, music sales have drastically gone down. Many have blamed the situation on the illegal downloading of music. In South Arica, the situation is so bad that musicians at one point threatened to literally take the fight to both those illegally downloading their music and the street vendors who sell the CDs
Thankfully, after police minister Nathi Mthethwa assured them that he viewed the matter in a very serious light and that "to us, downloading is worse than murder", Mabutho "Kid" Sithole, president of the Creative Workers Union of South Africa, appealed for calm.
There were worrying signs that violence would spill into the streets. Head of TS Records, TK Nciza, had to enlist the use of bodyguards after he allegedly received death threats after speaking out against music piracy.
New music sensation, Zahara, who interestingly is signed to Nciza's label, has been burning the music scene with her album, Loliwe. The album has sold over 300000 copies and could have sold even more had it not been heavily downloaded.
"In 2007 we had a R1billion industry. Now it is worth only R350million."
Producer Robbie Malinga was even more blunt in a radio interview: "If it was not for downloading, she (Zahara) would have easily sold two million copies."
The problem is not only in South Africa, though. Even in the United States, some of the most successful artists have expressed anger at how their products are being sold cheaply by "bootleggers."
Rapper Marshall Mathers, popularly known as Eminem, who has reportedly sold over 70million records worldwide, was clearly angry when he said in an interview: "If you can afford a computer, then you can afford to pay $16 (about R129) for my f*cking CD ... and whoever put my sh*t on the Internet, I wanna meet that motherfuck*r and beat the sh*t out of him ... and I think anybody who tries to make excuses for that sh*t is a f*cking b*tch!"
Sithole said most record companies discourage their artists from joining the Creative Workers Union.
He also laid blame on the inappropriate relationship between radio presenters and artists.
Lance Stehr, chief executive of Ghetto Ruff records, however denied this.
"Anybody is allowed to join any union they want. I would actually encourage them to join unions," he said Stehr.
"Sales of CDs are down, but Vodacom and MTN have been offering people ring tones from different artists. That way, artists get some royalties but we will not how much they used to make from the sale of their CDs. Artists must learn about different income streams," he said.
Vodacom's executive head of corporate communications Nomsa Thusi said: "Vodacom does not pay artists directly as our contractual agreements are with their record labels or representatives. As such, we are not privy to how much the artists are paid by these organisations."
Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli also decried the "abuse" of artists by promoters.
Sipho Sithole of Native Rhythms said he does not believe that the slump in record sales is directly because of downloads.
"There are not as many people with Internet access in the country as they do in western countries," Sithole said.
Mpjayalenyora
Copying music, especially good music is childish. I think it should be embarassing for grown people, some of whom claim to be music connoisseurs to show off their pirated "collections" at get-togethers.My rule of thumb is: If its worth listening to, then its worth buying. You wont catch me listening to bloody hlokoloza...
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MALUMEOCEANBASKET
You So Right Mpjayalenyora, because for really, buying a pirated music is like throwing your money into the drain, because three days later that Cd is kicking and you go and by a second copy the time you get to the sixth copy you've already spent almost 6 rand, which is an amount of an original copy. and about hlokoloza, eish sometimes it makes me wonder what goes into the mind of some artist when they sit down writing music, because that's just craps song excuse my french....but again today youth don't care the lyric but dance to the beat, so title means nothing to them. and couldn't agree more when you say if its worth listening to then its worth buying.Report Abuse
Chillis
@Mpjayalenyora - you are spot on!"priated collections at get-togethers" lol
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CheeseBoy
The internet exists, and its not going any where any time soon, in fact its grown so big we will soon be forced to upgrade the way it operates soon (IPv6 but that's for another day)coupled with tools to make the burning and distribution of pirated music/movies freely available, i'd say artists are fighting a loosing battle.
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tpaz
CD for R80 , you can get it for R10.The Artists/retailers should sell for R15 or R20....we can not allow them to rip us off and they continue to die paupers.
All the talk about production, distributions cost is nonsense, they want to buy Audis........infact the Label executive rip off the Artists.
Give me breakdown of R80
Artist + R10
Label + R40
Production +10
marketing /Distribution + 10
Profit of Retailer +10
Bree Street Breakdown = R10
Artist + R0
Blank +R2
Profit + R8
I propose the Artist get R5 in the Bree Street deal and he will be assured of more sales.
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XHINOPHOBIA
LAMA KWEREKWERE ENIWAFUYE LA EMZANSI EHLANGENE NALA MAPHOYISA NISAZOZWA.HOW CAN A POLICE BUY A FAKE CD?GO TO JHB CBD ND KLIPTOWN U WILL C THEM.Report Abuse
uMnuz
Piracy will never be stopped as it's human nature to want everything even if it means not paying for it.Report Abuse
Keafixa
i used to buy cds but since my friends stole 30 of them, i now rely on downloading and copying it to my pc and external hard drives. problem solved and its cheapReport Abuse
XXXXXXXXXXXX
u beta wander the streets and assult peepzs who r in posession of pirating...wat cn u do cos ur presidnt mr j zuma he haven't came foward pstvly in addressing the plight as per his say.Report Abuse
Tabza325is
The problem with Piracy is it's all over, unlike legit record bars which mostly are found in fixed locations, street hawkers who sell piracy are all over town and residential areas meaning it's easy to access piracy than to catch a taxi or drive to town or a mall to buy one album, untill our industry understand this business sence, that make your product must be easely accessble to your consumers, restructure the distribution of your product in such that same like piracy your record bars also are all over town and residential areas. Also look at how many smart phones are in circulation if artist don't digitaly copyright thier products no one is going to do it for them, try burning an Xbox or PS3 game and try to play it, it wont play as games are digitaly copywritten to prevent piracy of any kind, artist just release a CD which can be easely burned and distributed digitaly.Report Abuse