NUMEROUS musicians turned up for the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura) annual general meeting (AGM) hosted on Tuesday at Zimbabwe College of Music with composers addressing some of the key issues that affect their careers.
KUDZAYI ZVINAVASHE OWN CORRESPONDENT
While Zimura members present at the AGM had a hard time reaching a consensus regarding various matters, they all expressed dismay regarding the royalties the association is owed by private and public broadcasters in the country.
Although the broadcasting sector owes huge amounts of money, there are small entities like night clubs, taxis, shops that play music are also said to owe some money that goes under the general royalties for the artistes.
Zimura said it is working on modalities of introducing an application that will provide a system that can show the number of times a track has been played.
Artistes have often cried foul saying they are being short-changed since the radio stations do record on the manual log sheet each time a track has been played.
Musician Edith WeUtonga did a presentation about Zimbabwe Musicians Union (Zimu) that is on the cards urging fellow artistes to be part of the union as it would address the everyday challenges artistes face such as fighting piracy, negotiating a sustainable medical aid and housing schemes for artistes.
Zimu is set to cater for the musicians and their band members whereas Zimura only caters for the composer as its mandate is limited to the intellectual property rights only.
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This development comes after the National Arts Council Zimbabwe (NACZ) deregistered the Zimbabwe Union of Musicians (Zum) after failing to fulfil its mandate. Speaking to NewsDay, NACZ spokesperson Catherine Mthombeni said, “Zum was deregistered by NACZ in 1999. Zimu is not yet registered with NACZ, but has submitted an application to the council.”
Zimura director, Polisile Ncube said: “The AGM has been a great success as we have managed to discuss everything on our agenda and reach a consensus.”
