Story by Patience Nyagato, Arts Reporter
THE National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) has engaged stakeholders in the music space to find common ground over a cover band tariff fee which has been pegged at US$150 per show.
The engagement sought to address intellectual property rights issues as Cover Bands are known for performing music belonging to other artists.
NACZ spokesperson Mr Aggabu Nyabinde shared more light on the engagement.
“There has been an issue where musicians were complaining that there is a rise in the number of bands that are surviving on cover music. These are 100% cover music bands where they play most of the music which they do not own.
“Some of the composers belong to the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura). Through that body, they lobbied that there should be a US$150 tariff paid as a license for any band that wants to perform covers on each show that they do.
“A lot of artists did not receive it well, including some of the artists that are also composers. We received emails and letters from music associations and academics that prompted the addressing of this issue and at least to re-look at the figure.
“Last week, music stakeholders agreed that it is legal for all cover bands to pay something towards the composers because it is someone’s intellectual property but the issue was what needs to be paid. The tariff has already been there for the past years, but it was $50 per annum,” he said.
