Musicians hold back good albums

The economic decline and lawlessness that promoted music piracy are some reasons cited by musicians who thought it was wiser to hold onto their best productions.
For record companies and even record retailers it wasn’t easy selling music products as they had to adjust prices three to four times in a week.
This also complicated the issue of musicians’ royalties. Musicians are supposed to be paid a certain agreed percentage of each sale and with such pricing patterns it became so complicated.
Other musicians like Oliver Mtukudzi who had resorted to launching and releasing their products in South Africa were surprised to find those products instantly pirated and flooding the local market.
Emmanuel Vori, managing director of Gramma Records and Zimbabwe Music Cooporation says the recent past had been a very challenging year in terms of pricing and ultimately paying musicians their royalties. He says: “It became apparent that paying the musicians after the traditional three months was unreasonable considering the pace of inflation. We then revised it to monthly payments, but still it did not make sense. There were no sales to talk about.”
Vori says they had to cut their workers working days as a result. “We cut production because there was no business at all. Our workers were rotating — week in and week out. This has helped in keeping essential staff.”
Vori says buyers were trickling back now, but in small numbers as they have introduced new pricing in US$.
But most musicians are watching developments within the industry while they keep their products. Macheso in several interviews with the media has promised to release new material soon. “The new album is coming soon, very soon, we are still working on it.”
Zhakata says the market was not condusive for new releases. He says: “One had to consider the climate we were living in with such an alarming inflation rate. And more frightening was piracy.”
But there were disadvantages also in not releasing new products in that one registers low live show audiences.
“Without new songs making the airwaves, people are hesitant to come to your shows. We were recently contemplating the idea of releasing a single record just for promotional purposes.” said Zhakata.
Tongai Moyo released his 2008 album and it seems things are working well for him at live shows although he is always partnering other groups so as to draw crowds. 
While most musicians were charging bewteen 2US$ and 5US$ as entry fees, Zhakata says in smaller towns music fans were resisting instead opting for two people on a dollar.
“Its still very difficult for most people to raise, let alone part with 2US$. Life is still difficult for most people and live shows have suffered as a result.
In these difficult economic times it is the entertainent industry that suffers most as people priotise things like food, rents and school fees.”
Like Macheso, Zhakata says he will be releasing a new album soon. “Its ready and we will release it soon,” says the soft spoken musician.
The popularity of musicians and their songs depends heavily on how much they are played on radio. In the past few years, especially during the time of Jonathan Moyo, some musicians have had some of their songs banned by the state broadcaster as they were deemed politically incorrect.
A number of musicians like Thomas Mapfumo, Chirikure Chirikure and Leonard Zhakata among others had particular songs banned.
With the new inclusive government in place now, it is everyone’s hope that radio presenters will ease and play music by these musicians. 
More still, we need independent radio stations that can give us an alternative.