P Jordan: Downtown Music Hub project

17 April 2009

Good morning all

This morning's occasion is a celebration of one hurdle cleared in our
national striving to mine the rich vein of creativity embedded in South
Africa's diverse musical traditions. One hurdle cleared because this is the
beginning of what will become a voyage of hope and discovery.

At Moshito, one year into my term of office, among other things I posed the
following challenge:

"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 or learn how to create opportunities for ourselves
within that environment; or we go under, to the accompaniment of loud
protestations and bitter complaints."

Minister's speech at Moshito, 2005, Johannesburg.

Let us all agree that 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 it aggressively at home and in the
international music market.

One of the spin-offs of the political revolution of 1994 is the emergence of
a fairly affluent African, Coloured and Indian middle class, who have seized
the opportunities that opened up in 1994. The most significant segment amongst
this range in age from thirty to mid-fifties, correlating closely with
political events of the year in question. The rising spending power of these
and other black middle strata is the stuff of first year economics classes.

After fifteen years, this is no longer a new market segment. Perhaps what
has not been sufficiently appreciated are the opportunities its existence
offers as well as the challenges those very opportunities pose.

Now that might sound like I am talking in riddles, so let me explain.

A dialogue that frequently transpired between African and African-American
musicians during our years of exile usually involved an element of
point-scoring. Among the issues that were regularly tossed about was the extent
to which the music of the African diaspora had come to dominate the popular
genre of the twentieth century. By the 1960s this was a self-evident fact with
respect to both the Americas. This owed much to what has been referred to as
the cross-over, White musicians from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones,
imitating the acts of African-American musicians, which in turn opened the door
for the authentic sound to acquire a wider audience. That invariably raised the
question, has the dominant position of music produced by the Africans of the
Americas, created an equivalent effect with regard to music from the mother
continent?

What strikes one as ironic is that very few of the participants in that
oft-repeated discussion ever reflected on the reality that control of this
lucrative African-American music industry was located outside that community.
Before the irresistible rise of Berry Gordy, African-Americans were the
foot-soldiers of this industry, but none were commanders and generals.

The first challenge we have to face is how to develop and grow what is
potentially a significant portion of our cultural industry while ensuring that
the community of musicians, in the first instance, and the community they
derive from at large, benefit directly from its success.

What we are planting this morning is the seed of a public private
partnership in which we shall involve both corporate and community investors,
working jointly with government through the Department of Arts and Culture
(DAC). We shall create an inclusive structure that can stimulate broad-based
participation by organisations and bodies in the music sector as well as
corporate and institutional investors.

The receptiveness of the world community to South African music is testified
to by the success of Miriam Makeba and a host of other South African musicians
on the international stage. Because they were far from home, the South African
musicians who have made a mark internationally have been marketed and promoted
by non-South African promoters and record companies. The return home of many of
these artists is an important cultural and economic reality we are neglecting
to our peril.

The second challenge we face is to create a better future for South African
musicians and the South African music industry by using the success of Makeba
and others as the platform for a South African musical offensive in Europe, the
Americas, South Asia and the Far East. I am convinced we can open up these
markets to musical products from this country. The range of these has also
increased exponentially with the convergence of a number of information and
communication technologies.

But our initiative must also nurture hope amongst that indispensable element
in our music industry - the artists themselves.

The greatest single constraint on the launching of a musical career is
access to recording facilities. This initiative seeks to lower the barrier by
making recording facilities, the pressing of records, their distribution and
sale, and availability more accessible to the most talented of our musicians.
The Downtown studios will be transformed into South Africa's first music hub
that will provide opportunities across the entire value chain of the music
sector.

We envisage a digitally-driven multi-media production house that will meet
the quality standards required on the music market place.

The partnership will be structured to provide a bridge for second-economy
independent music creators and producers. What we want to see is a state of the
art South African local content production hub.

As a partnership amongst state, corporate and community based entities, this
will not be a state-owned enterprise. The government, through the DAC, will be
one amongst many investors. A board of directors, reflective of the relative
weight of the partners, will oversee the company which shall in turn be under
the management of professionals.

The possibility of establishing a number of such state of the art recording
studios in South Africa's musical hotspots should not be ignored. The example
of this hub, we hope, will be emulated in other parts of the country. Acting
with such a company rural communities could explore setting up a number of
mobile studios that can operate in the rural areas of all the provinces.

In addition to exploiting the new avenues for marketing that 21st century
telecommunications offer, we should investigate the possibilities of building a
relationship with major international marketing companies. Nor should we
neglect the possibilities of investing in such companies and smaller niche
labels as a means of gaining access to European and American markets. In a
number of instances this could have the added advantage of repatriating the
music of South Africans exiled in Europe, North America and other parts of the
world.

The coming Soccer World Cup and related events offer the South African music
industry a marketing opportunity second to none. Thousands of soccer fans from
around the world will descend on our country, most of them young people, with
disposable cash and eager for good entertainment. Interesting partnerships
between our hub and the old established companies to re-issue and distribute
old and out of print recordings; the creation of musical documentaries on the
various genres of South African popular music; as well as the recording of new
compendia are all potential that must not be overlooked.

We want to create a unique and innovative music production entity that will
empower all the stakeholders in the music industry, with special emphasis on
the musicians and the communities from which they are drawn. It should become a
significant player in local content development across all genres of South
African music. Building on the research the DAC has supported at Fort Hare, the
University of the North and the University of Zululand, there would also be a
special focus on traditional and folk music.

South Africa could become the centre of a continental African music and
entertainment industry. By inviting other leading and emergent African artists
to use our recording facilities and offering a globally competitive marketing
and distribution capacity, this Downtown Hub could perform a vital role in
projecting African music internationally. In other words we would like to see a
vertically integrated operation that talent hunts, records, promotes,
distributes and exports South African musical product and related media,
employing the most up to date communications and information technologies
available.

Skeptics have warned us of the power of radio stations and especially their
disc jockeys. We are aware of that power. But others have overcome it in the
past. It will not thwart us today. Piracy is another threat that we shall not
shirk facing.

To realise this project we purchased this studio from Gallo/Avusa in
November 2008. Since the beginning of this year the Cultural Development
Directorate in the DAC has been involved in the development of a business
plan.

The minister shall be appointing proposed board members who shall oversee
the establishment of a Section 21 Company to run the Downtown Hub.

The success of this venture is going to depend on synergies amongst all the
players in the music industry in the first instance. But beyond that, other
sectors and players in the South African economy should find ways of
co-operating with us. Amongst our first marketing challenges is persuading the
tourism sector to come on board. The national carrier, South African Airways
(SAA), should have more South African music on its entertainment menus. We
should persuade SAA to have an entire programme devoted to South African music!
Equally, hotels, Break and Breakfasts, resorts and game parks should include
South African, especially local music, on their entertainment menus.

Synergies will also be required among the existing South African record
producers, especially those of long standing, new producers and those that
shall hopefully emerge as a result of this initiative.

I commend this Downtown Music Hub to the artists and musicians of South
Africa. We have used your taxes to create a new institution that will serve
you. We invite you all, to use it.

Thank you

Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
17 April 2009