It is theft and it is disrespectful Although piracy is not a widely known aspect or spoken-about topic, it''s real and it''s happening in our communities. Yeah, it''s easy to pirate a series or movies off some website and be totally fine with it but when it hits close to home it''s very different. I took some time off to think about the whole situation and all I can say is if I knew then what I know now things would not have been the same.Let me tell you how it goes in the music industry. So you have artist A, who firstly sits down and carefully chooses what lyrics he has to put on a beat which he purchased at a cost of N$500, roughly. The writing process can take a while mind you, and thus can cost him social time and leaving other things just to focus on this because it has to be good, you know. He then goes into studio to record and I hear these guys charge per hour, another N$500 out of his pocket and I didn''t even include the mastering price. I also spoke to some producers who said a full package which includes mixing, mastering and beat can go for N$2 000. So now artist A pays this money for the song and still has to do the same for ten or so more just to make an album. Wow guys, where do they dig all this money from? Let''s not forget the transport incurred, photo shoots for the album cover and the CDs. At the end of the day artist A chooses to price his album at N$150 after printing 1000 copies for the first batch.
Then you get people who like things easy in life who get their hands on the album and decide to be a distributor to bar owners, taxi drivers and their friends. At the end of the day artist A only sells 250 copies yet their music is pumping across the country. Just how unfair is that?
These are the things happening in our very small country where the music industry is trying to grow itself out of infancy. If such practises continue happening we are really just drowning ourselves before we even get into the water. Copyright violation is a big crime that can cost one N$10 000 instead of buying the original at N$150. Let''s take care of each other guys, just think of someone''s art, time and effort being taken for granted and yet it''s the reason some places are full every weekend. Don''t be caught on the wrong side yeah.
june@namibiansun.com
June Shimuoshili