Harmony in the key of ka-ching
MELODIOUS: Michelle Constant MICHELLE Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa, says most corporates and government departments opt to hire local music acts as entertainment for marquee events — and the rand’s slide against major currencies may help to keep it that way.
“Particularly around the festive season, the corporate gig circuit is always valuable and provides a different source of income for artists.”
Constant said the sport sponsorship market was growing increasingly “cluttered and expensive”, so more companies were turning to alternative sponsorship opportunities in the arts, and particularly music, because they offered value for money.
“Although comparatively lower than sports sponsorship spend, arts sponsorship and
We’d like to see a strengthened infrastructure, greater job creation
specifically music has grown consistently over the past decade and it is one of the best alternatives to sports for business,” Constant said.
“While more companies are getting involved, however, the challenge for decisions made by government regarding liquor sponsorships will have a huge impact on the sponsorship of the music market.”
In measuring the likely impact of the SABC’s 90% local music quota policy and its potential knock-on effects, Constant said the questions the music industry and broader economy would be asking were whether music sales would lift, whether more live music venues would pop up, whether advertising spend would follow the trends and whether artists would reap more royalties.
“Without being able to measure and evaluate that impact properly, the change will be for the sake of change and not transformative. Ideally, we’d like to see a massively strengthened infrastructure, greater job creation and a creative economy through this policy,” said Constant. — Brendan Peacock