MARLKENS – It was a rare atmosphere at the Arts Roundtable where all kinds of players in the country’s arts scene were gathered together to discuss and deliberate on the industry. The Arts Roundatble featured speakers from Eswatini, South Africa, Netherlands, and Germany to name a few.
The MTN Bush Fire Arts Roundtable is a platform for connecting the different professionals in the music business to share knowledge that will further build the industry. This year’s themes were; Women’s Voices: Amplifying them in the music business; Building Bridges: exchange between Africa & the world; and independent Africa: developing, understanding and creating new opportunities.
One of the big topics was about how artists can monetise their music. Mike Kelly, who is a German-based South African music producer and DJ noted that he “just had a talk with some of the creators here and discovered that there’s no music registering entity in the country. They have to go to SAMRO and it can get confusing. Nonetheless, it’s something that has to be done.”
Responding to one of the questions posed by the audience during the talks, New Life Entertainment CEO Zinto Pinto advised his fellow industry players to take initiative in building the industry as opposed to waiting on the government and politicians. “Do your own research, get the right information concerning registering your company, registering your music for royalties, and invest in your craft,” he added. “Fellow creatives, we are facing a big challenge here. Even we, as a recording label, are sometimes not able to collect from SAMRO. This is why we need to develop the local collection agency in the country to help with that”.
Some of the speakers at the panel included Mmeli Hlanze of Antidote Music, Melusi Zox Dlamini, Nomalungelo Dladla, Leone Junge, and Buyi Cele. Participants who were present for the event seemed very happy about what they learned, shared, and what is to come from it. These sentiments were clear in Sibonginkhosi Dr Shakes Dlamini’s statement on social media after the event.
