Some African artists still face challenges monetizing their music. “To collect publishing revenue, you need the government to enforce the laws… but in a lot of African countries, people still look at the creative sector as a joke.” -Mr Eazi This clip is from the upcoming episode of the Trapital Podcast.
I totally agree with him. Those in African Governments are usually archaic, majority gender - men and well beyond the baby boomer generation. So to lobby the idea of facilitating equity opportunities for creators trying to build an income from the Arts… it’s a different world, too complex and laughable to them. It’s up to key players to educate and communicate in a way that’s palatable to these ministers. To be honest, it’s the same in the UK. Just a couple decades ahead 😆.
Totally agree there is need to set up robust systems that channel royalties to artists while not overlooking the fact that there is need for a cultural mindset on the creative industry. With the fast growing technology across Africa it's achievable💯
Also, some of the African CMOS are well known for not playing royalties through to creators. This is on top of the systemic problems that songwriters face worldwide from the legacy licensing system. It’s why ReRight is building a new digital licensing system for music creators.
Dan Runcie this is a timely podcast as World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO are meeting this week and on the agenda are some of these issues. I'll try and report back on this thread with (hopefully) some progress.
It’s so unfortunate. They’re better off signing in the US, Canada, or the UK.
There’s some great organisations out there trying to help this. I also manage an artist in Ghana 🇬🇭 and going through same issues re PRS / PPL. BMI in USA and Made Music Publishing in UK are solutions . This is a huge topic I look forward to hearing more and there seems to be a wave of community trying to create impact here . These artists are in some of the lowest resource settings in the world, and with Afrobeat being the biggest music trend for next 5 years they deserve so much more recognition, equality and access than they are getting
we're especially looking forward to this episode!! Thank you for holding space for African artists!! <3
Beautiful podcast. Listened to it. Sent you a message Chief. 🙏
Founder of Trapital: insights on music, media, and culture
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