to Moshito, Johannesburg
22 August 2007
Programme Director,
Honoured Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
In recent weeks a prominent South African musician, speaking at the
Edinburgh Arts Festival, made some rather acid comments about our government
and its relationship to South African music. For his pains, that musician
earned the dubious honour of being awarded the Sunday Times 'Mampara of the
Week' title on Sunday, 12 August.
Though I obviously disagree with the remarks made by Hugh Masekela, I
nonetheless think they should help concentrate our collective minds on the
unexplored possibilities of South African music. Speaking at this event in
2005, I said amongst other things: "Globalisation is now a fact of
international economic life. Open markets, which invariably also impact on
cultural industries, including the music sector, will either be a threat or an
opportunity to grow our cultural industries exponentially because of the new
patterns of production and distribution. Even though cultural goods and
services are consumed all over the world, their production is still
concentrated in specific regions of the world. There is, consequently, a highly
skewed market with an asymmetric structure. But the global trends are
irreversible. South Africa has a simple choice. We either adapt to that reality
and learn how to create opportunities for ourselves within that environment, or
we go under, to the accompaniment of loud protestations and bitter
complaints."
South Africa's 'entertainment' industry is valued at approximately R7,4
billion. A report prepared by 'Create South Africa' says that it employs an
estimated 20 525 people. Film and television, alone, are worth R5,8 billion and
have a strong technical base of skills and infrastructure. More than 100 000
people are employed within the music, film and television sectors.
Worldwide, the turnover of the cultural industries makes them the fifth
largest economic sector, comprising design, the performing arts, dance, film,
television, multi-media, cultural heritage, cultural tourism, the visual arts,
the crafts, music and publishing.
Viewed from that perspective, the cultural industries, what we mistakenly
call 'entertainment,' have globally emerged as important economic engines. We
must therefore pay increasing attention to them so that they can assist
transform the social and economic landscape of the country.
The cultural industries are serious business
The South African music industry has the potential of becoming a major
foreign exchange earner and job creator provided we can maximise its potential
and market its products aggressively at home and in the international music
market.
The receptiveness of the world community to our music is testified to by the
success of Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and other
South African musicians on the international stage. But the South African
musicians who have made a mark internationally have been marketed and promoted
by non-South African promoters and record companies. With the return home of
many of these artists, it could be important to the future of the SA music
industry to use them as the advance guard of a SA musical offensive in Europe,
the Americas and the Far East to open up these markets to musical products from
this country.
For its success the initiative requires the synergies among the existing South
African record producers, the new producers and deliberately created new labels
that can reconnoitre the musical terrain and explore the viability of emergent
tastes and the durability of old ones.
The greatest single constraint on the launching of a musical career for the
new artist is access to recording facilities. Our initiative should seek to
lower this barrier by making recording facilities, the pressing of records,
their distribution and sale, and availability more accessible to young
musicians.
The cost of setting up well equipped, state-of-the-art recording facilities is
far too exorbitant for the average entrepreneur to undertake. The risk factor
weighed against the investment is a huge deterrent.
We are therefore proposing that:
* The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) should absorb the risk by itself
establishing a number of state of the art recording studios in South Africa's
musical hotspots.
* The DAC should encourage the newly established Creative Workers Union to set
up a recording studio and establish a record label. The company could be
established with a loan from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) or
similar institution, head-hunt music professionals to manage and run it in
return for performance-linked salaries.
* Acting with such a company the DAC should set up a number of mobile studios
to cover the rural areas of all the provinces.
* DAC should establish two websites, one for folk and popular music; the other
for modern music of all genres. The collaboration of the established record
companies will be essential for the success of such a project.
In the United States of America (USA) and in Western Europe there are two
major marketing companies, Virgin and Tower Records. We must build a
relationship with these two major marketing companies so as to gain access to
these markets that have already been exposed to South African music. At the
same time we should explore other potentially interesting partnerships in Asia,
especially Japan, India and China, and in Latin America and Australia so that
we begin establishing a following for South African music in those regions as
well.
The need to repatriate the music of South Africans exiled in Europe, much of it
of excellent quality is one other challenge that we must face. The modalities
of doing this could include investing in recording companies so as to make
certain that they re-issue and distribute old recordings, especially those of
South African exiles.
We can begin by making South Africa the centre of an African music and
entertainment industry by inviting artists to use our recording facilities and
offering our superior marketing and distribution capacity. There are
possibilities for a local and African distribution that could assist such a
company to expand into a vertically integrated operation that records,
promotes, distributes and exports South African musical product and related
media.
We are in the immediate future mounting the:
* costing the establishment of 'State of the Art' facilities in nine
provincial capitals
* exploring the talent base and potential in each of these areas
* investigating the establishment of a funding mechanism, searching for
co-operation partners for the setting up of facilities
* exploring the internet as an effective marketing tool which can be both cost
effective and ecumenical in its reach.
As recently as this past weekend, business journalists have commented on the
rising spending power of the emergent black middle strata. By all accounts the
musical tastes of these new markets are unformed. This offers an uncharted, yet
very promising market segment that the music industry can service as well as
help to shape.
Government long ago undertook to improve the legal regime that offers
protection to the intellectual property of our musicians. South Africa
subscribes to all the copyright conventions and the government has actively
backed the family of Solomon Linda, composer of 'Mbube,' to receive what was
due to them from the revenues earned by that international hit. We continue to
encourage performers and composers to deposit original copies of their work
with the National Film, Video and Audio Archives. This can be a deterrent
against rampant music piracy and other intellectual property right
infringements. While government believes that the creators of music should be
adequately rewarded for their efforts, develop their profession skills and be
involved in a legitimate music business, we have to confront that challenge
posed by the advances in Information and Communications Technology. The tough
question has to be posed: Haven't the developments in this area rendered the
copyright regime, devised in the 19th century, obsolete?
It is only by discussing this matter frankly together with the stakeholders
in the industry, that we can devise effective protection for our artists and
explore new ways of exploiting this technology to our advantage. Law and legal
regimes have a very direct impact on this industry. Labour relations
legislation, health and safety regulations, fire code restrictions, noise
ordinances, safety policies all affect the manner in which the public consumes
music. The old pattern of musicians working without employment contracts is
disappearing. I once again repeat my appeal to performers: better protection is
a direct function of unionisation. It cannot be proper that unlike others who
work for a living, musicians have no rights and those who employ them recognise
no obligations other than paying them a fee. The current situation in which
performers are excluded from pensions, social security, unemployment benefit,
health schemes and worker's compensation is untenable in the long term. But
only the organised strength of unionised creative people will bring it to an
end.
These are tough issues, and I do not suggest that there are easy answers.
But, how long is the music industry to live with the scandal of the most
talented artists dying in poverty or worse yet, in the gutter? We are
determined to demonstrate not merely the power of music as an agent of social
and political transformation, but to prove its capacity to market our country
internationally and to leave an indelible mark on the world musical market
place.
Moshito has my best wishes for its success.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
22 August 2007
Source: Department of Arts and Culture (http://www.dac.gov.za)
