Musicians sing the blues in digital era

DIGITAL downloads and pirated tracks have put the squeeze on the music industry, which is scrapping over a rapidly shrinking pie.

Musicians who used to rely simply on selling records have had to expand their repertoire, and rely more on concerts and live performances to bring home the bacon.

Experts say more artists are signing “360-degree” deals, allowing them to reap revenue from all activities relating to their music — be it concerts or straight sales.

Not only music is affected — the proliferation of broadband, smartphones and tablets mean that everyone in the entertainment sector is feeling the squeeze from digital downloads.

When it comes to music, the amount spent on digital downloads is expected to reach R261-million in 2016, according to PwC research. Sales of traditional recorded music, by contrast, are expected to drop to R1-billion by 2016, from R1.4-billion in 2011.

This is partly why the neighbourhood record store, along with the large CD shops, is feeling the pain.

Further evidence of the squeeze on physical sales is the fact that before August 2006, a gold award was given for sales exceeding 25 000, and a platinum award for sales exceeding 50 000. These have been cut to 20 000 sales for gold and 40 000 for platinum.

One of the saving graces for South African musicians has been that, until recently, broadband was less widely available locally than elsewhere.

So what are you paying for when you buy a CD?

A report by the University of Pretoria’s William de Villiers sets this out in detail: the retailer mark-up is 33%; the record company gets 23%; the state imposes a tax of 13%; distribution costs are 5%; and actual manufacture of the CD accounts for 8%.

That leaves 14% for the artist, producer and studio, and 4% for the songwriter

Everyone in the sector is feeling the squeeze from downloads

and publisher.

This, says Gallo Music MD Neil Greenberg, is why it is so difficult to bring down the cost of a CD. He believes that the music industry still has some life left in it. Catalogue sales, for example, are still going strong.

Music royalties can be complex because there are two separate copyrights: the right to the song, and the right to the sound recording. When musicians complain of not receiving enough from their music, chances are that they failed to obtain all the rights.

Piracy is costing the industry more than R500million a year.