So this semester I’m currently doing a course on Copyright Law, Reproduction Rights Organisation and Publishing and it has popped up in my mind a couple of times that in Zimbabwe, do music producers or artists themselves know about this? If you have read the Zimbabwean Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act then you know what I am talking about.
It is either I don’t know if these rights are being implemented or I was young when they were effective enough for music producers to gain something from their works. However if Copyright Law is effective in Zimbabwe then it is something which is receding into oblivion, yet it has the potential to make music producers rich and notable in the society.
So without wasting a lot of time, especially for those who are lazy to read, I feel pity for some of the Zim Dancehall producers who I meet in the streets and in some studios that I have been to. Someone will create a riddim and have at least 15 artists on it, each paying maybe $20 (some will not even pay) and out of those 15 artists maybe 5 of them are established and they will be performing almost every week.
So one produces a song, it becomes a hit and the artist will be cashing in because of that song which he would have payed $20 for. He or she will be making more money from the song whilst the producer will be enjoying moral rights, like seriously, do these producers even think of how much they should be making out of their works if they are not ignorant or if they know of copyright and related rights?
What Producers Should Do
So instead of someone coming to your studio, record, pay $20 and go, why don’t you try to make them sign a contract? I have heard and read others saying they have signed new artists but in your contracts is there any clause where you as the producer will be gaining commercially (excluding the recording money) from the song you produced?
What I think is that when you happen to sign someone to your stable, include a clause where you as the producer of the song will benefit from the song whenever it is played or whenever it is performed. For example, if your artist performs a song which you produced at a certain show, you as the producer should gain a certain percentage from the money the artist gets.
You might agree that you will get 5% of his money after he performs the song, so at the end of the month just think of how much you will make if you do business like this with all your artists. Let’s say you get $5 every time he or she performs the song, if he performs 4timesin a month then you have $20, now if you have 5 artists you will be having $100 a month. If the artist decides to trick you, just sue him for more than he expects!
Producers should be making money just as how their artists are making money. We are tired of meeting people who you know produced a hit song which went for a year as the national anthem in combis just because they can’t afford to buy an ex-Japanese car whilst Souljah Love is parking a couple of cars at his home, NO!
About Related Rights
While copyright protects the rights of authors, another set of similar rights, known as “related rights” or “neighbouring rights”, protects the rights of other owners of rights, namely, performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations. The Copyright Act defines neighbouring or related rights as the property rights subsisting in performances, sound recordings and broadcasts. Related rights have been described as belonging to the intermediaries in the production, recording or diffusion of the works of copyright owners. These intermediaries (performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations) facilitate the intellectual creation process by assisting authors to communicate their works to the public.
Thank you for reading this, you may please share with your fellows. By the way this is not only for Zim Dancehall artists for your own information.
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