Bulawayo: Artists divided over piracy

No Prescription for Piracy Now The number of vendors on the pavements of Bulawayo selling unlicensed copyrights materials is increasing every week despite the efforts by the Zimbabwe republic police to clamp down on their illegal stands. The fearless vendors' prices range from a dollar for two to two dollars for an MP3 disk which can contain up to twenty albums. The gazetted prices of the disks from the legal outlets ranges from $15 to $30. A resident pointed out that there are no legal outlets that he knows of that sell these disks and his point was validated by many other residents who said they would rather resort to the illegal vendors for entertainment. Unemployment and technology advancement has proved to be a self wound that's cutting the music industry bone deep as there is easy access of the disks and writers to make copies of disks in bulk many artists like Coxy Dee said they have accepted the fact of piracy and now they would rather do music and message then do other things for the money part. Gabs Fire a producer from Bulawayo said the vendors are exploiting the artists that have families and are derailing the careers of many artists as they need money to buy equipment and to fund for their tours. Many organizations and companies like Anti-Piracy Organization of Zimbabwe(APOZ); Zimbabwe Union of Musicians(ZUM) and Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA)have been funding many workshops and campaigns to teach residents on the crime of piracy but they can only go as far as apprehending a few perpetrators. The bigger issue is in notifying the residents not to buy these disks. Residents have turned deaf to this plea they need entertainment in bulk for what they can afford. The war against piracy in Bulawayo is far from over and for now there is no viable prescription. As long as it's waging more musicians and artists will produce low quality songs causing the slow death of the music industry. By Nigel Mabiza

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