Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Tatenda Chipungudzanye
21 June 2008
Harare — Sungura musician Alick Macheso might be losing a lot of revenue from his DVD album titled, "Live in Jo'burg", which has fallen prey to rampant piracy.
The album, which was recorded in South Africa's commercial capital in June last year, is yet to go on sale in the country. However, copies of the pirated version have been flooding the market from South Africa where it is being sold in shops.
city.com has since established that the album is being pirated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique where quite large volumes have already been sold over the last eight months.
The DVD album appears in a sleeve of poor quality which features Macheso's picture. It falls far short of the standards set by the Ndezvashe-eh DVD, which was recorded at the same time but went on sale in September last year. Macheso said there seemed to be a disagreement between Mobile Music Trust of South Africa who produced the album and Gramma Records who are supposed to market the product in Zimbabwe.
This has given pirates room to cash in.
"I don't know what is happening between Gramma and MMT . . . they seem to be disagreeing on certain things about the distribution of the DVD album.
"But it is disadvantaging me because it is now being pirated. The album was released almost a year ago but until now it has to reach Zimbabwe in large volumes," Macheso said at the sidelines of his show held at the Harare Gardens over the weekend.
Macheso, who turned 40 on June 10, said there were few individuals who were taking it upon themselves to bring original copies into the country for resale.
"There are some individuals who are bringing original copies from South Africa for resale here but there are so few that some end up dubbing and pirating the album
as there is higher demand for it," said Macheso.
He now wants to go to South Africa to try and have a new arrangement, which might mean having a Harare-based brother to MMT boss, Eric Frisher handle the distribution.
The award-winning sungura musician took the opportunity to thank his legion of fans for being supportive and now wants to pay back by building a community arts centre.
This is inspired by Oliver Mtukudzi's Pakare Paye Cultural Centre in Norton.
"By erecting Pakare Paye Cultural Centre in Norton Mudhara Tuku (Oliver Mtukudzi) was being thankful to the stakeholders in the arts industry and now it is my turn to recognise those that helped me and those that should benefit for the continuity of the music industry," Macheso said.
Meanwhile, Macheso will next month embark on a tour of the United States and Ireland.
William Tsandukwa, the Orchestra Mberikwazvo manager confirmed the forthcoming tours. "From July 10 until July 21 we are scheduled to tour some parts of the US where we would be staging shows.
"Our US-based promoter, Derek Shonhiwa is currently working on the modalities of our shows there.
"We also have another show scheduled for Dublin, Ireland on August 1.
"Since it's our first time to stage a show in Ireland our promoter, Mucha Matambanadzo, said it was wise to line up one show only so that we get to see how it goes.
"The only time we performed in Ireland was at a private party," Tsandukwa said.
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