South African artists mobilise against piracy

Back in April last year there was a protest march in Johannesburg against music pirates – attended both by musicians and some figures from the music industry in South Africa.

In the report I read a number of artists speak out about how they feel when they see their product pirated, among them:

Afro Pop star, Ntando Bangani said, “Artists are like everyone else, we wake up everyday and have to go to work just like you, the only difference is that we rely on the royalties from the music we make to support ourselves. If someone pirates our music, they’re actually taking the money that should be coming to us instead of them!”

Apparently they marched past the area known for companies producing pirate material but they were all shut for the day. Obviously with physical piracy there is an identifiable target to point to.

It’s very rare and strangely refreshing to read anti-piracy messages coming from artists rather than industry bodies and there is also something more credible in these quotes than the oft-quoted Lars from Metallica talking about it back in 2000 when suing Napster.

Explore posts in the same categories: Africa, Music