Music piracy is the unauthorized copying, distribution, or sharing of copyrighted music without the owner's permission. It denies artistes and record labels their rightful compensation. This illegal activity includes downloading files from untrusted websites, burning physical CDs, or using peer-to-peer sharing networks.
The concept spans several common practices in the music industry, categorised by how the unauthorized material is handled:
I am not sure whether music piracy is still viable business for street vendors.. If you walk down Samora Machel Avenue you will notice that the number of vendors selling CDs for a dollar each has diminished. Either there is no longer any viable business in CD sales or people are no longer interested in buying Cds. It could also be due to the fact that the use of CDs to play music is no longer popular.
What we are most concerned about here when we talk about music piracy is the unauthorized duplication of one’s original recording for a commercial gain without the consent rights of the owner e.g. pirated copies of compact discs (CDs), audio-cassettes, DVDs and videos.
If the recording is sold without the permission of the composer or the recording is copied and packed to resemble the original as closely as possible in order to mislead the consumer into believing that they are buying the original product, that recording is often referred to as ‘counterfeit’.
Not long ago, there were several underground operators specialising in producing fake recorded music in the form of CDs and cassettes and selling these to unsuspecting consumers. There are also those who made business using CD writers by simply buying blank CD-Rs and then copy any music they wanted or which they were asked to copy for a fee. This practice undermines the earning capacity of the originators of this music.
There is also the advent of internet piracy which has become fashionable. Internet piracy involves the compressing of music, posting and transmitting it globally via the internet without the authorization or payments of any royalties to those who invested in the creation of the project.
Efforts put in place by groups such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) have failed to assist the artist since the DRM movement is more concerned about enriching the software and hardware companies rather that the artistes through the sale of technology which enables the consumer to download music. Sources have revealed that on-line music piracy is responsible for 2.6 billion downloads of copyrighted music files every month through the sale of software programmes such a Kaza A and Grokster. It is estimated that some 278 million people are now signed up to participate in on-line music piracy using Kaza A.
Artificial intelligence
More recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has slotted into everyday life, and music is no exception. When people mention AI music, broadly, they mean that it was created using generative AI models.
Like AI in other sectors and mediums, the backbone of AI music is built upon generative models. These models generate audio from a text prompt, which is provided by a user. You might be familiar with this process if you’ve used AI-generated images or videos before.
The models are trained from all kinds of audio, spanning across music, sound effects, and speech. They then learn how to create “new” audio, which is influenced by the material used in training.
AI music and copyright law is complicated, and the regulations may differ from country to country. In some territories, art created entirely by AI won’t be copyright-protected, as the work must be “created by a human being” to qualify.
Multiple ongoing lawsuits allege that the training of several of the more prominent models, as well as the output produced, infringes copyright.
There is no doubt that music piracy affects both record companies and their artistes. It is reported that online music piracy alone has caused some record stores to close down as sales drop by 25% every year.
Over 2,6 billion downloads of copyrighted music files have been reported worldwide on a monthly basis. Because music piracy continues to harm the industry, it means that record companies have reduced income and the artistes have very little or no royalties at all.
New Zim dancehall artistes in Zimbabwe such as Killer T, Kinnah, Seh Calaz, Soul Jah Love, Tocky Vybes, Ricky Fire, Shinsoman, Ras Pompey and Lady Squanda no longer make much money from record sales as most of their material is pirated.and there is a slump in CD sales.
Consumers who purchase pirated copies of music end up with inferior quality products and if the sound quality is poor, they cannot exchange or ask for refunds for copies bought on the streets. At the same time retail shops cannot compete with those selling the product at low prices. Owners of record stores, CD and cassette plants also lose out. Consequently the government also loses out as there is no revenue in the form of income tax coming from legitimate recording business – and this does not assist our fledgling economy in any way. This could be one of the reasons why Gramma Records and Zimbabwe Music Corporation closed down. Metro Studios have resorted to competing with the pirates by introducing a $1 cheaper version of original CDs. This comes without the hard plastic CD jacket and sometimes without the inlay.
Without the full support of the authorities, it has become difficult to fight music piracy. Otherwise with the increase in technological knowledge by the pirates who can download music from the likes of You Tube, iTunes, Tik-Tok and Facebook, not much can be done to stop the stealing of music. The law enforcers might come and arrest those involved, but the limited fines imposed are not much of a deterrent to many pirates. Besides, CD sales are not as lucrative as before as pirates are finding it hard to sell their products now.
A lot of people in our society do not know that intellectual property is as good as other forms of property such as gold, diamonds, furniture, cars and aeroplanes. When someone gets up at midnight to compose a song, he is as good as someone who gets up every morning to go and work in a gold mine. Therefore he must also be rewarded for his work. Music piracy is harmful to the work of everyone involved. If we love music and want to support its growth and development, then it is essential that we comply with laid down rules and regulations by buying original music copies. When one buys pirated music, he or she is creating a market for criminals and when one copies music on a CD, a USB, (Universal Serial Bus) or cassette, he or she is promoting piracy. The creativity of all the people involved in the process of creating a song should never be taken for granted as this could be someone’s only means of livelihood.
Counterfiet concert tickets
Apart from copying of CDs there is another challenge experienced by music promoters. Quite often when there are international concerts in Harare, there is the problem of fake tickets being sold. The promoter loses a substantial amount of money as a result of these ticket touts. If a promoter asks a dishonest printer to print 5 000 tickets, the latter could print 2 000 more which are sold on the black market. Alternatively, tickets are often photocopied by ticket touts who purchase one ticket and make several copies of the same through electronic devices. It is very common for someone to buy one genuine ticket then go to reproduce it by means of scanning, photocopying or even re-designing using the exact same design. Sometimes if a promoter uses unregistered or unprofessional printers or designers to make the tickets he can make a big loss..it can be these same people who will reproduce the tickets and sell them without the knowledge of the owner of the event. When this happens, a promoter risks running a financial disaster because they will attract ticket sales that are fewer than expected.
This happened during the Real Deal show, which featured Akon and Sean Paul on September 4, 2010. There were over 40 000 people in the National Sports Stadium, but only 1 800 tickets were accounted for in monetary terms. A lot of money was lost by Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa, the promoter. The people manning the gates could not distinguish between authentic and fake tickets and they let all 40 000 people into the concert.
That's the way the cookie crumbles and it is what it is.
*Feedback: frezindi@gmail.com