Picture By Life Moments Media. Rev T.T Chivaviro. |
Picture By Life Moments Media. Bethany Pasinawako Ngolomi. |
Picture By Life Moments Media. Zimbabwe Parliarment Deputy Speaker, Mabel Chinomona. |
Picture By Life Moments Media. Matthias Mhere. |
Picture By Life Moments Media. Allan Dzobo, Rev Chivaviro's manager. |
Piracy
The professor also said music piracy could only be countered by a watertight marketing strategy including launching albums and making them more available to the market.
“I told Jah Prayzah and his manager to continue launching albums because that’s the only way to market music and curb piracy,” he said.
Mari, the Nacz director, implored legislators, who attended the launch, to help the council fight the scourge of piracy, through which musicians were being ripped off.
He called on the government to facilitate the setting up of a copyright tribunal as provided for in the Copyright Act to specifically deal with issues of piracy, which has become the bane of many an artiste.
“The problem with the current system is that sometimes even the magistrates don’t even understand why they have to try someone for ‘burning’ because they are also probably listening to music copied illegally,” Mari said.
He said it was these same artistes to which legislators appealed for votes during elections and the least they could do in return was to ensure that their work was protected from pirates and they could earn something substantial from their labour.
“When you get these votes, may you please support these people. They don’t need your money, but they need facilities where they can work — not stadiums, but facilities where they can have their works recorded and produced,” Mari said.
He said it was time that music was viewed as an income generating project and called for the setting up of cultural centres in Harare and other cities that can be used by artistes.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI