Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

3Analysing the creative economy■■Major record companies now active only in South Africa.Circulation limited by lack of reciprocal licensing anddistribution deals between record companies in differentterritories.New trend of independents entering into contracts withmajor labels to produce music products under licence.Exhibition/delivery■■■■Deregulation of broadcasting in Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, Malawi, United Republic of Tanzania hasboosted demand for local music.Specialist music retail outlets exist in francophone Africa;other countries have music in supermarkets (e.g., BurkinaFaso, Namibia), clothing stores (e.g., Zimbabwe), petrolstations (e.g., Senegal, Zambia).Informal retail networks exist where distributors sell toinformal vendors (hawkers, small retail outlets); piratedmaterial delivered via informal networks.Internet distribution is embryonic.Audience reception/feedback■■■Some music awards (e.g., Kora Awards, South AfricanMusic Awards, Zambian Ngoma Awards) to recognizelocal artists and music production.Awards are controversial, with criticism by musicians thatrecord companies influence outcomes.Music journalism mostly about artists and performances,little on industry or development issues.The financial aspects of this production chain inAfrican music exemplify some of the problems andprospects of creative industries in a regional context. Thebeginning of the production chain in African creativeindustries represents a rich and vital heritage, but this isnot where the money is made. The realization of valuefrom the creative content of Africa is often in the handsof foreign distributors such that income leaves the countrieswhere the content is created and produced. Theartist makes money from sound-carrier sales by receivinga royalty on each sale; composers and authors (who canalso be artists) receive royalties from the various usesmade of their compositions such as mechanical royaltiesfrom recordings or performance royalties from live performanceor broadcasting. In Africa, however, becausethe artists expect to receive little or no royalty fromrecord sales partly owing to piracy and partly to theinadequate collection of copyrights, they negotiate a biggershare of an up-front payment that essentially signsaway their rights to the music. Combined with thiscareer-limiting decision is the poor understanding of themusic business, which results in there being few professionalproducers or managers.To overcome these constraints, it is important forall stakeholders in the value chain to work together if themusic industry in Africa is going to be successful. AsSeligman argues, “The challenge is working with localproducers, local labels and local artists in Africa to try toestablish a structure in which everyone, from recordcompanies to artists, composers and authors receive duepayment without stifling this enormously dynamic andvery creative scene.”94 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010