“I really believe,” said Dean in a telephone interview, “that there was a genuine attempt to create a lucrative local music industry around 1998, especially for black music and black musicians. A new amendment before Parliament would restore these rights and release significant investment into the local market. The report recommended the establishment of a self-funding Cultural Industry Development Agency (Cida) that would specifically build up the industry with an eye on music exports.Īt about the same time, copyright expert and music industry attorney Dr Owen Dean published a paper that explained how changes to copyright laws would create a source of funding and investment for the creation of local music content.Īccording to Dean, the apartheid government had changed copyright laws in the 1960s so that the SABC would no longer have to pay musicians and record companies to broadcast their music. Equally important, but less well-understood, is the potential for a vibrant and dynamic arts and culture sector to contribute significantly to the economy of the country.” The preamble to the report reads: “South Africa’s diverse and dynamic arts and culture heritage is one of its richest and most important resources, with the capacity to generate significant economic and social benefits for the nation. A 100-odd-page report in 1998, titled the Cultural Industries Growth Strategy (Cigs), which consulted widely with music industry experts, outlined in detail how a few tweaks to archaic copyright law, a small-seed investment in independent record labels, and an enabling environment for the music industry would unleash this country’s massive creative potential. South African music is now largely owned by companies such as Sony, Warner and Universal.īack in 1995, the newly-minted Department of Arts and Culture identified South African music as a growth industry with potential for significant revenues and cultural export.
These struggling independents were bought up by big international record companies. Small, independent record labels struggled to keep afloat largely due to a lack of transparency about who pays royalties and who is paid royalties.
While “indie music” is growing in the rest of the world, here the number of independent music producers has dropped from 80 to less than 20 in the past ten years. The decline in the number of independent record lables, the crucibles of talent, has hollowed out the industry. Without a hit record, a musician will not have fans, and without fans there is no concert. Although live concerts brought in money for musicians, the heart of the industry was the record label.
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