When a song is a hit, many other musicians will perform it at their live concerts.
Some will even do renditions of the song and post on their social media pages.
This is common practice so much so that we even have the term "copyright musician".
Copyright musicians are live performance musicians who do not or seldom write their own original songs, but instead, perform other musicians' songs.
Performing 'copyrights' or 'covers' is one of the most effective and perhaps most efficient ways of attracting and even retaining an audience.
Many musicians use this as part of their marketing strategies because it can economically bring traffic to a musician's platforms, it can build a musician's discoverability, hype and momentum, and also audience retention.
Most young musicians who are just starting out may have a repertoire predominantly consisting of covers and then a few of their own songs as they gradually learn how to compose.
Some may have many original songs, but if these songs are not yet known, it will be easier to play recognisable songs often in order to keep the audience's attention.
Still, even well-established musicians can also do a few covers; because they will be songs they personally love, or a friends' songs perhaps and even for the same purposes of gaining more mileage.
Examples of this include Gemma Griffith's 2016 rendition of Winky D's 'Musarova Bigman'. On YouTube, this video reached (to date) over 300 000 views and probably propelled discoverability for the then young Gemma. Another example is from years back when Cindy Munyavi revisited Simon Chopper Chimbetu's yesteryear hit song 'One Way'.
There are also bands whose brands are precisely based on performing 'covers'. And oftentimes such bands even get more bookings than the bands that focus on their own music and obviously pay more to market this less-known or new music.
Indeed, we all know a musician will get people on their feet at a wedding when they play hit love songs such as 'Pamuchato waTobias' by Admire Kasenga and Ngosimbi Crew or Busi Ncube's 'True Love', Oliver Mtukudzi's or Jah Prayzah's 'Svovi Yangu', or Mechanic Manyeruke's 'Makorokoto'.
When a band only plays these already tried and tested hit songs, the bookings are usually guaranteed because these are all time, nostalgic favourites that nearly everyone will easily sing along and dance to. This is also how most DJs thrive. They play songs by other artists, that we already know and love.
Songs we will obviously happily react to. But is this fair?
According to copyright law, this is fair!
But only when certain procedures are taken.
In copyright law, there is a legal way of performing covers so that one does not get de-monitised on their YouTube channel, or complains from the song owner or worse still, receive a copyright strike from the music copyright owner. This seldom happens as most copyright owners also view this as free marketing for their music (when their name is acknowledged of course) or as affirmation that their music is good since it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Also, where this copyright enforcement is not as active, performing covers without following the correct procedures often then goes unchecked. Be that as it may, it is prudent, respectful and safe to observe the law pertaining to performing other musician's songs.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Copyright by definition is the music owner's rights to where the song is played and by who. Or the right to make money from that.
So essentially, the owner of this music must make money every time their song is played or performed by someone. Just as much as a new band may make actual money (through views or performance fees) or simply gain mileage (which is still a currency) from playing someone else's music, the owner of this music must be benefiting too.
On platforms such as YouTube and Tik Tok, the monitoring of this has become quite strict and efficient.
If one posts a video of themselves performing a 'Hope Masike' song without observing the relevant copyright procedures they risk the video begin removed or their channel being de-monetised.
