The implementation of intellectual property rights to enhance music business in Zimbabwe: Challenges and prospects

Abstract

In the Zimbabwe music industry, the issue of copyright law implementation has been problematic with intellectual property rights  violations plaguing the society and resulting in musicians failing to fully benefit financially from their creations. This study is an attempt  to find out how musicians are benefiting from their intellectual property that is being used by various businesses including broadcasters.  We argue that the problem of piracy has become an Achilles tendon for many artists despite the presence of a copyright law enforcement  regime in the country. This article examines the nature and consequences of the copyright law in the country, as well as the  way in which ZIMURA is implementing it to advance the cause of popular musicians. The article illustrates how the challenges faced  by ZIMURA serve to impoverish Zimbabwean musicians in unheralded ways that leave a good number of artists poor and famous. This  qualitative study uses participant observation, document analysis and key informant interviews with purposively selected informants to  elucidate the implementation of intellectual property rights in Zimbabwe’s music industry. The analysis is informed by the Sustainable  Livelihoods Approach as well as Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. The findings show that in Zimbabwe music is taken as free  property by most users who either sell pirated copies or access them for personal use without paying anything. From the study, it is clear  that musicians are not getting a fair share of their intellectual property in the form of royalties. It is also notable that music which is  appreciated more gets paid more royalties than music that is not popular with broadcasters and audiences.