Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
6 January 2009
Holograms. Overseas they are used for attractive product packaging, as security applications, and for fancy gifts. Holograms are also used as registration of priceless artefacts. In some instances, they are also used on DVD players and other electronic goods.
In Botswana, the hologram technology has been introduced as an anti-piracy instrument. Infact, it was introduced with pomp as the answer to piracy. But only a few weeks since its enforcement, the hologram is being dismissed by musicians as a piracy-fighting tool. Many see the introduction of the hologram as a ploy by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to start taxing every musician because musicians are made to pay for it.
For a start, any musician, big or small, must buy the hologram for 30 thebe for a copy of a cassette, CD, or DVD that the particular musician wants to put on the market. An artist who wants to start distributing 1 000 tapes and 1 000 CDs, for instance, must part with P600.
To appreciate how tough life has become for local musicians, they must all travel wherever they may be based in the country to buy the holograms from a centralised office at Kgale Mews.
The hologram is a hard, shiny film-like material that is manually pressed onto the face of a CD, DVD, or cassette before the copy is packed and shrink-wrapped for sale. The Chairman of the Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU), Socca Moruakgomo, says his organisation is aware that the hologram is creating problems for musicians. "The problem is that it is not accessible,"Moruakgomo says.
"Ideally, it should be available everywhere - in Gantsi, Maun and even at borderposts." Although it has been a month now since the Registrar of Companies started enforcing the implementation of the holograms, the BOMU chairperson says they are holding talks with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to suspend the implementation of the hologram.
Moruakgomo says the country stands to lose a lot if foreign music is not sold in Botswana just because it does not have the hologram. "We are talking to them (Government) and they are listening, we are hopeful they will come back to us".
Moruakgomo, also a jazz musician, is however, optimistic that if well-implemented the hologram can be a source of accurate sales figures of local musicians. "It will help in capturing album sales. Musicians would also be able to trace the performance of their album sales. I think eventually it will also be used to tax the musicians, based on how much they are making" the BOMU chief said. One of the country's most successful musicians, Franco Lesokwane, who has 10 albums, and two DVDs under his belt, has told Mmegi that recently he spent over P4000 on the purchasing of holograms for all his albums in circulation. Franco, a popular Rumba star says he does not see the value the hologram is adding to his music. 'It serves the Ministry of Trade and Industry only, not us musicians.
"For them this is a new source of income. For the first time, they are able to tax each and every one of us; 30 thebe might look a negligible amount at first, but when you consider that a musician must buy a hologram for each and every one of the album copies, then you see it is a lot of money really". Franco says he incurs more than what the Registrar of Companies is charging them for the hologram. "Inserting those 30t holograms is costly. If you need to move with speed, you are forced to hire people to insert the holograms for you, and that is costly" adds Franco, who complains that the so-called anti-piracy item is now forcing local musicians to hike music sales.
"But it is not easy. Today our number one customers are the Chinese shops, who believe music must be affordable to everyone for it to be bought. They buy from us at P15, and add a small profit, and if we decide to add transport expenses, and other financial expenses we incur due to the holograms, distributors turn us away," Franco added. Franco's discomfort with the hologram is also shared by music mogul, Robert Dargie, of DDS studios.
"It is a head-ache. The paper work is tiring, and time wasting first of all. The musicians also do not benefit much from this item because after buying a certain number of holograms, and the album copies are not bought, the musician is not allowed to re-use the left-overs in his next album; they must apply for different holograms".
Dargie says what is even stressing is the fact that the Registrar of Companies now demand that musicians who buy holograms must have been cleared by their producers. Dargie finds this requirement odd. " It wastes a lot of precious time for our struggling musicians. Normally what happens here is that, an artist pays for studio time, and proceeds to cut album copies with no hassles.
When a musician cuts his cassettes and CD copies, he is not made to go through some of these hassles. At the holograms they demand that the producers, studio owners, must clear you before you can have the holograms," Dargie adds. He tells Mmegi that he met some frustrated musicians at the hologram office the other day.
" They were miserable. They had recorded their music with various studios, including in South Africa, and the hologram office required that the musicians must be cleared by all the producers they worked with, They (musicians) ended up going back home frustrated". Dargie, who also runs a distribution and marketing business, says he used to have a loose agreement with musicians in the past, which is no longer applicable due to the hologram requirements.
"As a distributor, traditionally I would enter into a loose agreement that favours musicians to move on if they feel I'm not delivering. But now with the hologram, the Registrar of Companies demands to see a firm contract giving me the rights to distribute the albums.
Musicians believe in flexibility, so that if they find opportunities elsewhere, they move on with no hassles, but now they are forced to sign long distribution deals with companies, which can encourage exploitation," Dargie commented. A former Botswana Musicians Union treasurer, Alfred Mosimanegape, and also a pioneer of rumba music in Botswana told Mmegi that he is concerned about the costs of the hologram. "One hopes that it will add to professionalism because it encourages the musicians and the producers to work together, to sign agreements, although that can also have its own adverse effects.
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