African musicians take piracy head on

LOCAL online music store, OyOsMusic in partnership with the University of Zimbabwe’s Theatre Arts Department will from today host a two-day festival workshop on how to deal with music piracy under the theme Let the music SPEAK at the University’s Beit Hall and Longcheng Plaza in Harare.

The festival director, Courage Chinokwetu yesterday told NewsDay that the workshops that are meant to educate artists on making money and sustaining themselves using their art, will focus on themes such as marketing, branding and collective bargaining among others issues.

“The two-day OyOsMusic festival offers an advocacy platform around artists’ rights, recognition and appreciation through the use of different arts modes such as music, dance and spoken word, as we strive to make artistes’ sweat turns into well-deserved profits,” she said.

“The workshops will tackle a number of issues chief among them artist’s rights and entrepreneurial skills for artists to educate them on going digital, earning revenue via music downloads, endorsements and gigs, promoting music sales, ways of curbing piracy, marketing and branding.”

As an online digital platform for selling local music, OyOsMusic has been instrumental in the fight against music piracy by providing an accessible, fast and convenient way for people to legally access local music anywhere in the world.

Chinokwetu said they have also partnered with the Wits Drama for Life Africa project and the Drama for Life Theatre Company, for the applied drama and theatre workshops focusing on themes of sex, sexuality and sexual health.

“OyOsMusic has given Zimbabweans an alternative medium to access music apart from the traditional market of CDs and DVDs strewn out across the streets. To date we have signed over 500 local artistes racking up a playlist of over 7 000 songs available to all of its users on our website and the android app which is available on the Google Play Store,” she said.

The workshop’s curtains will come down with an after party set for Longcheng Plaza, where guests will be entertained by several artistes across genres, some of whom are signed to OyOsMusic.

The line-up of performers will feature the likes of Mc Chita, Cindy Munyavi, Terry Africa, Jesa, Jazz singer Dereck Mpofu, Edith WeUtonga, urban groover Taurai Mandebvu, Huby Blakes, Diamond Boys and 8L.