John K. Abimanyi
28 March 2008
They have sprouted out into blossoming business. They have outlets all through town upto the nearest shopping centre in your neighbourhood of abode. They are the music dealers who bring you your favourite music, both local and from all around the world, at 'pocket friendly' prices. They make a living from duplicating original music records and distributing them for as low as a tenth the original price. They are the computer music pirates.
They are at times housed in wooden or metallic booths, while some are in the safety of permanent structures or containers. They usually have a loud speaker or more mounted near the entrance and exude high volumes of music all day long. "The music is meant to attract customers who hear the music and then come to buy," says Ken who runs one in Banda.
In Kampala, these businesses can be found in the several shopping malls and arcades that have littered the city. They usually share a room with bigger businesses. For instance, you may find one occupying just a small corner inside a clothesline or an electronics shop.
When this is the case, a speaker connected to the computer will be playing music outside and on the speaker will be a poster giving directions or informing passers by of the presence of the CD-writers.
Inside, collections and packets of empty CDs are stacked and piled up on the dusty shelves, ready for recording. Secretarial bureaus and Internet cafes are also notable places that offer these services. A visit to one of these music centres reveals that when a customer comes, he is allowed to make his selection of music.
He may be guided through the various music folders on the computer for a survey of the available music. After the selection is done, the in-charge then proceeds to write the CD with the selected music.
The prices charged vary from place to place but they do not go beyond Shs5,000 for an audio CD. Original audio music records by Ugandan artistes cost between Shs15,000 to Shs25,000 while those by foreign artistes may cost anything from Shs30,000 to Shs120,000.
Unfair competition
Pirated MP3 format CDs that can hold more than 100 songs may at times rise to Shs10,000 and beyond. The prices falter even further as you move towards the Kampala business district where the competition is stiff amongst the businesses.
In some commercial areas of Kampala, MP3 format CDs cost as low as Shs2,000. But as these dealers keep making quick money from music works, genuine music dealers with distribution rights for the music are also existent and engaged in unfair competition with them. While a music pirate charges Shs2,000 for a music CD, the genuine music dealer will have the CD case containing the same music bearing a price tag of Shs35,000.
The effects that the above difference in prices brings cannot be exaggerated. Officials at Music Land, a music store on Kampala Road, say that their customers started complaining about their high prices for music CDs, especially those from international artistes.
Their demand has consequently reduced and they plan to downsize to mainly selling electronic music appliances. The pirates provide music lovers with a cheaper alternative to the perceived costly and genuine music and this drives them away from the genuine dealers.
With inflation rates rising and poverty still raging, the pirates' grip on the consumers seems only, just started. At La Fontaine Bookstore that sells foreign gospel music, a sales person perceives the pirates as fake dealers who bribe the minds of the poor consumers with their duplicated and low quality CDs.
She further added that the pirates' harm to their business is two-fold. "Firstly, they sell the music at a much lower price than it's supposed to be, drawing customers away. They then sell phony CDs that skip or even stop playing completely and this makes customers think that all music dealers are fake".
Copyright law can help
With this widespread music piracy that does not look ready to dwindle, what comes to mind is enforcement of the Copyright Law. The Copyright Law restricts anyone from using somebody else's publications or works for commercial gain without their consent. When contacted and asked about the law, most of these computer music operators were highly evasive. They either denied knowledge of the law or its connection with their business.
Many of the consumers who buy the music as well, say they do not know the law and the few who confessed they had an idea did not seem bothered by it.
The music dealers however feel betrayed by the copyright law because it does not protect their business interests from the pirates. "It is ineffective," says a worker at X-Zone international, a distributor of local music.
"If it was effective, they (Police) would have thrown the culprits behind bars already," he adds. Though regarded as ineffective, dead or even non-existent by many, the Copyright Law has not been simply laid back doing nothing. It has thrown a few whacks here and there claiming some victims. A number of lawsuits concerning music piracy emerged and among the culprits were FM stations and Alex Kamya of Audio Visual Distributors Association.
Unauthorised distribution of music is widely spread and it even includes the consumers of the music. You could have often seen a friend share music with another either through a computer network, or using portable media players like ipods and phones through Bluetooth connections.
The Uganda Performing Right Society (UPRS) General Secretary, James Wasula, shifts the responsibility of enforcing the copyright law back in the hands of the owners of the copyright or distribution rights. It is up to the genuine music dealers to make sure that the pirates are brought to justice by either reporting their activities to police or taking legal action in commercial courts of law.
Contrary to what the distributors and other music dealers say, he recognises the competency and efficiency of the copyright law. "The law is very effective though there are some lapses in the enforcement." He believes that the law gives the musicians and their distributors the protection they need but what remains wanting is the extra step to put it into effect.
He rates it as 70 percent effective and cites the "lack of regulations to fully enforce it" as the only drawback. He however mentioned that the law is barely two years old and thus still needs time to stabilise.
As a way of improving its operations, the UPRS general secretary said that, "we need a lot of sensitisation through the media and by the government about the law." This can be done through seminars and workshops with music traders and the general population.
From CD burning, music piracy moved one notch further to cover the various websites offering free full-length music downloads from the Internet. The Internet is turning into a meeting place for music pirates as they gather to collect music freely and then sell it off cheaply.
They are aided by software, which enables one to hack into other hard disks online and retrieve songs from them. James Wasula responded by saying that international music distribution companies like CISAC, BIEM and WiPo, are involved in developing software that tracks websites that sell or distribute unauthorised music. The group that is most likely to suffer from the piracy is the musicians themselves. According to Mr Wasula, talent is not permanent.
A time comes when the musician is past his best and cannot make millions out of a single concert or album like he/she used to.
At that time, he or she needs to survive on past records that will certainly still be in distribution.
In America for instance, legends like Tina Turner can still afford the fancy lifestyles they had in their prime days because to this day, there are defined distribution channels for their music.
While the fight against piracy should wage on even harder, artistes should take steps to protect the distribution of their music so that years to come, it still sustains them.
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