A lot of musicians enter that field for fun until they see themselves making some money. It is at this juncture that they begin to take the music business seriously. However, many of them go into this business without understanding its intricasies.
I have been bombarded with a lot of questions from young musicians who would like to know how Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura) makes money out of music.
Below I give them and everyone else some free literature on how Zimura functions.
Zimura is an organisation for music composers. It was formed in 1982 to protect copyright, collect and distribute royalties to music composers. It was also mandated to give music education to musicians through workshops and other means. Since 1982, a board has been put in place to guide and monitor these activities.
For the past 30 years or so, the board has changed manpower, but the secretariat office staff including the recently departed Polisile Ncube had remained in office.
This is where the problems of Zimura began. The distribution of moneys received was not transparent. Board chairpersons working in cahoots with management began to take composers’ royalties for personal use. Zimura became their little business. Instead of distributing royalties received, most of the money received (sometimes over a million dollars) went to powerful individuals within the association without consulting the members who are the rightful owners of copyright.
Zimura is an organisation that practically facilitates that composers and authors get paid for their work. When a composer’s music is played publicly, they are entitled to receive money for it. This money is called a royalty. Zimura is supposed to collect these royalties from the people who play the music and then distributes them to its members, the composers .
So, being a Zimura member means one can receive money for their music when it’s used in public. The justification for this is that if a radio station plays one’s music, it can be easily copied by thousands of people on a cassette recorder or by other means. These are the people who are supposed to buy this music. These people, therefore, find no reason to go and buy the music they have already copied. The musician loses out. It is for this reason that broadcasters like ZBC must pay something for the use of music through airplay.
The question to ask is “How does this money get to the ordinary musician? The secretariat, in connivance with the board chairman who manage these finances, have to look after themselves first and will defend Zimura with their hearts and souls. This is also one reason members are jostling for positions within Zimura at the moment.
We know that the Zimbabwe government have tried to make it easier to start businesses in this country. What if it spent the next decade making it easier to monetise creativity? This would instantly alleviate the job crises- faced by many unemployed youths in Zimbabwe
The reason why Jah Prayzah, Alick Macheso and Winky D are not involved in the Zimura crises is because they see this fight as petty since a lot of artistes are receiving peanuts from Zimura although the organisation receives over US$3 million per annum
Roughly 1 million people enter the labour market every year yet only a few thousand new formal wage jobs are created, leaving hundreds of thousands without a clear path into decent work.
Closing this gap requires roughly tripling the current pace of formal job creation of The National Arts Council musseriously think of ways to create such opportunities in the the coming decades. That can be done if there is serious promotion in the arts.We don’t need 5 O’ levels to enter this market but musical skills as demonstrated by some of the top artistes mentioned above. But Africa’s development and job strategies often overlook one of its most powerful engines of work and income,: the creative economy.
At Zimura, there is serious need for a reshuffle.We do not require twelve people in the offices. The secretary can do all the work coming in on a daily basis. That way, the money which goes to these dozen people in the office, can be distributed to its rightful owners . This how Southern Africa Music Rights Organisation in South Africa works. That is also how Performance Rights Society in Britain works. Why can’t Zimura also operate this way instead of fighting for positions within the association? Zimura should not be a way of removing oneself from poverty, but a way of music composers receiving what rightfully belongs to them. In simple terms Zimura should be managed like any other business instead of being a business of looters. nFeedback: frezindi@gmail.com