The Politics of Content Creation

Experts believe there are plenty of opportunities for artists to make money from their art, however, both airplay in the media and performance spaces remain a serious challenge.

This emerged at a recent consultation under the theme ‘Towards Social-Economic Transformation in Namibia’, which looked at the quality and development of local content for social development, at a time when revenue from public shows and creative arts has been largely fragmented.

The conversation comes at a time when experts are concerned that Namibians are increasingly being exposed to genres such as amapiano, popular in South Africa, and Afro-pop from Nigeria, while the local sound remains underdeveloped.

Business and Intellectual Property Authority (Bipa) executive for intellectual property service Ainna Kaundu pointed out that the new intellectual property bill calls for strengthened cooperation between stakeholders to make sure authorities enforce the levies of artists’ work.

“In our case, the Ministry of Finance would have to enforce the levy and you have to have a body. At the moment Bipa is still that body and this levy will then be distributed to the collective management organisation. We do know there are rights holders across the board that Nascam does not represent and this requires some form of organisation that would then receive the levy. It is not practical to give everything to Nascam, so in terms of implementation, it is really work in progress,” she said.

The consultation also touched on royalties for local artists, how they understand the value chain, how to address this and how to identify the gaps within this system.

Meanwhile, Shikongeni Ntinda of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) confirmed that the quota for local content is very low – currently at 15% – but added that Cran will review the Broadcasting Code in 2023 to address this.

The general manager of commercial services at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Menesia Muinjo, said it was important to understand the significance of local content, whether the existing quota was acceptable, as well as access to resources.

“At NBC the efforts are being made. On radio, local content is already more than 80% and on television, it’s slightly over 30%. We have worked out on our own how to grow that. We got a bit stuck with which resources can we get those 60%. We are also now at the same table with Multichoice to see how we can increase local content, but we need private businesses to come on board,” she said.

Muinjo said budget constraints have also affected the NBC’s ability to buy more local content over the last two years.

“Behind closed doors we are making some extra efforts to really contribute with the resources we have,” she said.

Maria Lisa Immanuel, popularly known as ML, believes that education is what will solve the royalty misunderstanding and ensure that artists understand their rights and how funds should be divided.

“If we look at the Nigerian industry, the top trending artists have at least a degree, it starts there for me. Education is important. It prepares you for the digital world and gives you basic skills to understand intellectual property rights,” Immanuel said.

“As a musician, to have a song, you have at least a composer, the singer, beat-maker, the producer, executive producer and publisher, and looking at that chain, everybody would have a right to a component of the royalties, so we need to be able to identify who gets what,” she said.

Immanuel also believes there are opportunities in the intercontinental free trade agreements and several bilateral agreements signed between Namibia and other countries.

“Creating and establishing yourself on the continent falls under services. We have Donlu – a streaming company that wants to expand into South Africa and Angola, and they may wonder how to participate in the inter-Africa trade, and even as we are opening ourselves up, how do we protect local content?”

Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music (Nascam) board member Robert Shipanga said several challenges remain in the digital age, as well as enabling Nascam to monitor where artists sell their music online, although systems are in place for them to collect royalties for artists from there.

Shipanga said there is growth in the music industry, but the publishing sites and platforms remain a challenge.

“We don’t have a recording industry in Namibia and we still have a challenge with the 15% which means we have to give the rest away. We don’t have enough platforms to showcase our work, NBC has ‘Whatagwan’ once a week. I can sign an artist, but I am a business person. I want to invest N$300 000 but I want my money back, and that is where the challenges are. We don’t have platforms and we are playing too much international content,” said Shipanga. – unWrap.online

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