Harare — A new arts regulatory body, the Zimbabwe Association for Recording Industries, aimed at advocating for transparency and fair treatment of artistes in the film and music industry, has been formed.

The association, comprising members drawn from some leading music recording companies and film organisations, as well as artistes, came into effect on February 18 this year following a meeting held in Harare by its members.

Emion Sibindi of Metro Studios becomes the association's first president with Charles Nyakabau of Diamond Studios as his vice. "At last the hassles between artistes and the recording industry will certainly be reduced due to the formation of this regulatory association known as Zimbabwe Association of Recording Industries (ZARI).

"Its mandate is to regulate and harmonise the operations of the music and film industries," said Sibindi. Sibindi said some of the main issues that the association would deal with include piracy, transparency, quality and availability of products and artiste contracts among other areas.

"Previously it (the association) operated as a steering committee headed by Mr Vori of Gramma Records. "But we decided to put it across to the whole music industry as an association made up of various stakeholders," he said.

Sibindi said the association would also strengthen relations between artistes and recording companies. "The artiste is the owner of the intellectual property, while the recording company is only there to assist the artiste who may not be able to finance the publication of his or her works.

"But when we (studios) assist, musicians should also bear in mind that we are into business, we come up with a total cost of recording and then deduct expenses. "Each one of us agrees to certain terms of payment in our contracts and either party receives their share from the sales of the album.

"However, all this should be done in a transparent manner," said Sibindi. To ensure transparency, he added, the firms should supply the artistes with printouts detailing the sales figures, the date, invoice number, quantity sold, prices at which items were sold as well as a breakdown of how the royalties were calculated out of the sales.